how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

kdelace Posted: Feb 23, 2004 07:30 PM

how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

I am now a newlywed and have transferred to the other side of the board.. Our next project now that the wedding is over is to save for a house. We have a nice start thanks to the wedding but we still have a long way to go considering prices on long island. how long did it take you to save?

we wont have any help from parents b/c they gave us money, a gift towards the wedding. did anyone save a certain % of their checks.

Were so crowded in our apt but want to suck it up for another year or so until we could afford a decent down payment.

any house info would help...

thanks!

MrsTC Posted: Feb 23, 2004 07:46 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

What my DH and I did (and we payed for about 85% of our wedding ourselves) is first of all, paid off most of our debt. We got it down to only one credit card with a not that scary balance. Then we saved and then we applied for pre-approval on a mortgage. We got pre-approved for more than we thought we would (try lendingtree.com) and fingers crossed, we will be in a house or townhouse by the end of the year!

kpny622 Posted: Feb 23, 2004 10:47 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

It is truly impossible to buy even a small broken down house on LI, but that's where we want to live. Our apartment is so crowded that my shower gifts and our engagement gifts have found a permanent home in my parents' basement! So, we're making a budget and saving as much as we can (which isn't a lot) each month for the next year, and then hopefully with our wedding money added to that, we could afford to start looking next year. Everyone says that you can afford more than you think you can - sometimes you have to just go for it. Especially since right now we're just throwing away money on rent! The good news is that even if it takes a while, we can believe that we can always buy a house someday - no biological clock on that!

missmmpr Posted: Feb 23, 2004 11:06 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

we waited to get married for 2 1/2 so we can get the house first and then get married...we didn't want to waste money on an apartment

We rent out an apartment in our house...that helps A LOT..Is there any way that you can do that...it pays for almost half the mortgage...

MarcellaBella Posted: Feb 24, 2004 02:01 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

DH and I were saving for both the wedding and a house at the same time.. we truly budgeted ourselves and we found our house within 2 weeks after we got home from our honeymoon!!!

Just set a budget (realistic one) and set yourself to it.. You can do it!!

Good luck!

yabbobay Posted: Feb 24, 2004 02:47 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

we had some unusual circumstances...

I was going to move into DH's apartment when my lease expired...(before we were married) but then DH's roommate decided he wanted to break the lease...

so we didn't have time to look...and ended up renting for a year...

good thing too...b/c DH was laid off...and we ended up moving cross country...

so now its been 21 months after the wedding and we are townhouse owners

jennbaby Posted: Feb 24, 2004 02:56 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

Save! It will happen. Some people lived home with their parents up untill or after the wedding, if you can do this, it's great!

Kim0822 Posted: Feb 24, 2004 03:18 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We had a long engagement (2 and 1/2 years) so we could find a house first. We ended finding one relatively quickly and closed on our house 1 year and 4 months prior to our wedding.

dgtlsunshine Posted: Feb 24, 2004 07:41 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We went into contract 6 months after we were married. However my husband is a marine and we were able to get a VA Loan which means we didn't have to put down an enormous sum of money.

curly2003 Posted: Feb 24, 2004 09:41 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We closed on our home 3 mnths b4 the wedidng

JennRenee Posted: Feb 24, 2004 09:52 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We went to contact 2 months before our wedding and closed 6 weeks after.

Sassyz75 Posted: Feb 24, 2004 10:48 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

we have been married for 1 year.. we still do not own. My dad has offered to give us $ for the down payment, but I'm nervous that our mortgage will still be too high- so we'll continue to save... I have been under-employed for 2 years (making 45k LESS than I was) and it has been REAL tough going trying to find a new job- so until that happens and I can make some REAL money- who knows how long it will take.
don't fret- it will happen.

kdelace Posted: Feb 25, 2004 07:19 AM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

thanks girls for the advice. We are definately on a budget and have a nice start with the generous gifts people gave for our wedding. I just cant believe how much houses have gone up inthe past few years. I really didnt pay much attention sinc ei was focusedon other things but now being married and trying to start the next chapter in ou rlives its so hard.

but were determined. we were determined to pay for the wedding ourselves and we did...

thanks!!!

anna Posted: Feb 25, 2004 07:20 AM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We went into contract 4 months before the wedding, closed on the house a month before the wedding. and we paid for the wedding ourselves. honeymoon, I needed a car (from city girl to suburbia), and I quit my job because I didnt want to commute so far. so it was a bit of a transition period!

Although the market was crazy back then also (in 2000), bidding wars and getting way over asking was going on all over, it wasnt nearly as bad as it is now...

Affording it had a lot to do with our saving habits. I was always a saver, since way before I was engaged, way before I even met DH. So I saved and budgeted myself alot just as a personal goal growing up (maybe from late teen years?)...and I got hubby to change his ways when we met, my habits grew on him . Little did I know, years down the road, Id be so thankful that I was that way...

I never thought my moms words would affect me from everything to grocery shopping to shopping sales, to just those words 'put it in the bank'. I was never one to spend a whole paycheck, I dont think I ever did, even when I was making peanuts..

kmcwed Posted: Feb 25, 2004 03:24 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

Diane Posted: Feb 25, 2004 03:26 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

Luckily hubby had the house before we evn got engaged, so hedidnt pay much for the house. Now if we bought one, I think it would be difficult.

Shamee Posted: Feb 25, 2004 03:40 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

We bought our home five months after we were married. We lived with my parents before that. But we were also engaged for 3+ years so we had some time to save beforehand. Luckily for us, we did. Husband has always been a saver and that paid off when we discovered the house needed $150,000 worth of repairs.

ddunne23 Posted: Feb 25, 2004 04:56 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

If we still lived in NY i can guarentee it would have been years after our wedding when we could afford a starter home. But here in Texas we were in a house 5 months after the wedding and our mortgage is the same as our rent was!

Dee7772 Posted: Feb 25, 2004 07:25 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

My husband and I currently rent and are going to renew our lease in June so we can save more $$ for a house. We were looking for about 4 months and could not find anything that we liked, where we would not be totally strapped down to.

danigirl0 Posted: Feb 25, 2004 09:16 PM

Re: how long after you were married could you afford a house- feeling blue!

we are renting for now...at least for a year. unfortunately we couldnt save enough to get what we want, so its going to take some time. i know how you feel! but everyone has their time. have high hopes!!