Guess I will wade in here with my recent home buying experience. Wife and I live in the DFW area. We were renting a mid-rise apartment (1/1, 850sq ft) for around $1150 a month, utilities not included. We had paid off all our credit cards, had no car payments, and were putting about $3k a month into savings. So our debt to income ratio was fairly low, mid 700's credit scores, and joint annual income a little north of $100k. Pre-approval was for $350k, biggest hurdle was down payment.
FHA loans vary by county, but most around here allow up to $280k, with 9k of that being a down payment (3.5%). We originally started with that price range in mind, but quickly found everything in the nicer areas (Las Colinas, Coppell, Colleyville, Allen, etc) were very 80's/90's and needed to be gutted, or simply too far from family (Southlake, Frisco, Prosper). Started the house hunt in January, but found out she was pregnant so started narrowing our location to near her parents. Saw about 15 houses in area we finally decided on (Forney, east of Dallas) and decided we really loved one of the first ones we saw. New build completed November of last year, originally asking $400k. Had been reduced to $380k, but it was the last house from this particular builder in the subdivision and they were looking to get it off their books. Ended up getting it for $340k with seller chipping in $5k to close. House is a 4 bed, 3 bath with media room and 2nd living room (game room) upstairs. 3850 sq. feet on a little over half an acre. Never, ever thought I would be able to get something like this for our first home.
Closing costs for us came in right at $12,000, with the aforementioned $5,000 from seller. Our Mortgage breakdown looks something like this @ 4.125%:
P&I - $1,598.37
Homeowner's Insurance - $136.27
PMI - $316.06
County Taxes - $871.82
Total - $2,922.52
We get raped in taxes due to being in a Municipal Utility District (MUD) because we're outside city limits, but our electric/water bill is considerably lower.
We closed on April 16th, moved in April 19th. That first weekend, we had a plumbing/sewage issue where waste was coming back into the house. Was covered under home warranty and builder had sub contractor come back out to the house same day. Turns out painters poured excess paint down drains, hardened, clogged lines. Month later had a swarm of bees build a colony under our upstairs balcony. Was not covered by warranty, and cost around $500 for a bee-keeper to come out and remove. I don't really want to mow half an acre with a push mower, and eventually I might buy a riding mower, but for now we hire a service for $45 bi-weekly. Haven't had any other issues (fingers crossed) and by far the biggest money drain has been furnishing a 3800 square foot house.
Since we closed, wife got a new job making $5k more, and I got a new job making $42k more. A lot more excess money for things, but we've had random stuff come up like new tires for her car, new brakes for mine, baby shit, house furnishings. It adds up, and you really have to look at your budget and plan for things like this before making such a huge commitment. With that said, searching for a house and going through the whole thing is a unique experience that we're really fortunate to have the freedom to do. It has definitely changed me and my habits. You pay attention to things that you didn't use to. What used to be background noise on the news about the housing market and interest rates and economy recovery takes on a whole different meaning when you have so much invested. And sitting on the back porch listening to music while grilling and drinking a beer and realizing, "Hey, all this shit is mine" is pretty fucking cool.
