How in the world did you afford it. And if you dont mind me asking, what do you guys do for a living? I just feel like me and my FI will never be able to afford one and I dont understand it because most of the people i know that own homes arent rich either. We have enough to put down, but not a substantial amount. Any advice will help!!!!
BMD'sPeanut
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I'd be interested in hearing about approximate incomes and how much they put on DP's and how much the mortgage is too.
Blu-ize
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We saved for a long time..even though we bought two years ago, we were in total $$ shock. We saved for about 3 years before we actually bought. We had 10% down and the payments are still blowing my mind but you make it work. It looks a lot scarier on paper. We are in the middle of a refi now. We are reducing our payments and getting rid of some old credit card debt.
There is no doubt about it, it's a tremendous amount of money. I work in IT in a financial firm and my DH is in sales in wireless. We earn decent money but we are by no means well off.
SuzBride
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We are buying next month. We are only putting 5% down - which stinks but we want to have some money left over as a safety net after closing! It is a new construction and the house appraised for much higher than what we are paying, so we plan to sell after the wedding (and before taxes kick in) and use the profit to put 20% on another house.
Not ideal, but hopefully it will work out in the end
Oh and we are buying in southern Manorville - which is out there - so that makes it ALOT easier than if we were trying to buy in Nassau or western Suffolk! We just couldn't afford to live further west - at least we have the outlets nearby
Blu-ize
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Posted by SuzBride
We are buying next month. We are only putting 5% down - which stinks but we want to have some money left over as a safety net after closing! It is a new construction and the house appraised for much higher than what we are paying, so we plan to sell after the wedding (and before taxes kick in) and use the profit to put 20% on another house.
Not ideal, but hopefully it will work out in the end
Careful, because if you sell before you own it for 2 years, you will pay a capital gains tax on the proceeds unless you buy another primary residence right away.
SuzBride
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Posted by Blu-ize
Careful, because if you sell before you own it for 2 years, you will pay a capital gains tax on the proceeds unless you buy another primary residence right away.
Thanks for the tip
nov04LIbride
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We saved before the wedding...Put 20% down and bought a point and a half. Eventually we want to move. Honestly, we would have had no problem affording a nice house in a nice area, but most of the taxes would've killed us in addition to the mortgage. Some houses we looked at were $12-18,000/year taxes. I'd like to move to a nicer area of NJ where the houses cost as much but taxes are less. DH is an accoutant, I am in college admin. and finishing my doctorate.
ambersmom
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My husband is self employed in the auto industry and I work for a payroll processing service by day, an employment verification firm by night. We don't make huuuuge money by any means. We were lucky (if you can call it that) to buy our house for $160,000 back in 00'. But it needed about $150,000 worth of work (still isn't finished, although we've come a long way from the gut job we had). There is hardly anything left over at the end of the month and our mortgage isn't even that big (approx $1500.00).
Blu-ize
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Oh yeah and the taxes. Our taxes went from $4300/yr to $6300/yr in two years. After Nassau county did the re-assessment.
SuzBride
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Posted by Blu-ize
Oh yeah and the taxes. Our taxes went from $4300/yr to $6300/yr in two years. After Nassau county did the re-assessment.
Ugh that is horrible! They really are the killer - if the taxes on our new house are low we would totally keep it cause the payments are reasonable - but judging from the area the taxes will be $10K+/year (it is new construction so hasn't been determined yet). ARGH
cjb88
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we are both teachers... about to close on our first house!!!
THe only way we were able to do it was we have both been living rent free since we graduated from college... because of that we were able to save for a 10% down payment for a $345,000 house...
eta: I also qualified for a $12,000 first time homebuyer grant, which went toward our down payment...
BMD'sPeanut
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Posted by cjb88
eta: I also qualified for a $12,000 first time homebuyer grant, which went toward our down payment...
How did you qualify? Is that because you are a teacher?
luvsun27
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Posted by SuzBride
Posted by Blu-ize
Careful, because if you sell before you own it for 2 years, you will pay a capital gains tax on the proceeds unless you buy another primary residence right away.
Thanks for the tip
That law is no longer in existance....even if you buy another primary residence, you have to pay capital gains if you sell before 2 years. I learned the hard way
ETA: I saved money myself...enough for a 5% DP on a condo. I also saved enough for the closing costs...total money was about 25K. I worked very hard and was single...didn't go out much and fortunately was making good money. I bought the condo myself before I met DH. A few months after we were married we bought a house...and I sold the condo for a 50K profit after @18 months. We used some of the profit to put a DP on a house.
SuzBride
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Posted by BMD'sPeanut
Posted by cjb88
eta: I also qualified for a $12,000 first time homebuyer grant, which went toward our down payment...
How did you qualify? Is that because you are a teacher?
Here is an article on it (unfortunately I don't qualify ):
That law is no longer in existance....even if you buy another primary residence, you have to pay capital gains if you sell before 2 years. I learned the hard way
ugh - why must they torture us!?! we could probably hold off till the 2 year mark....
cjb88
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Posted by BMD'sPeanut
Posted by cjb88
eta: I also qualified for a $12,000 first time homebuyer grant, which went toward our down payment...
How did you qualify? Is that because you are a teacher?
Being a teacher had nothing to do with it... they give the grants based on your salary... i was only part time this year so my salary was on the lower end... i applied for it in just my name so we would qualify... the morgage has to be in my name only... if you live in the house for 5 yrs the loan/grant is forgiven and you dont have to pay it back...
