Posted on 03/07/2024 9:26:22 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
It’s not part of the mortgage, per se, but monthly escrow payments are a required part of the payment, and they are variable.
Your first home shouldn’t be a median home. It’d be on the lower end. Then, 4-5 yrs later, you sell it and roll the cash into your next house.
Want to buy bigger but can’t afford the monthly?
Get roommates.
Stop expecting to live at the same standard your parents had obtained after decades of saving.
I read an article recently that Gen Xers and millennials are in line to inherit 50 TRILLION DOLLARS from us Baby Boomers.
Great, right? In a word... Bidenomics.
“U.S. homes sold in Dec. 2023 went for a median price of $402,045, according to Redfin. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say you buy a $400,000 home”
When you start with a bad premise, the rest of your argument is flawed. For your first house, you don’t buy one for the median price; you buy a cheap house that might not have a three-car garage, bathrooms for each bedroom, and 3,000 square feet.
I don’t know Dave Ramsey but the advice given here is solid. If you can’t make the numbers work, just don’t buy a house. (Buying a house and then going broke is not fun.)
Back in the day, you could buy a cheap house without having to worry about crime. That ship has sailed.
Then not a mortgage problem since you pay these with or without a mortgage.
A first home is not a forever home unless you make it your a forever home.
You cant convince the stupid how dumb they are because they know so much more than you.
Raise your kids right, make them suffer if they want a new phone or a car, mak them part of the household by making them do chores, wash dishes, do laundry, help clean the garage. and Hom chores come before fun times.
better a crying 3 y.o. whos mad because he has to pick up his Legos before he gets a fresh cookie than a 14 y.o. who destroys the house because you wont buy them a new iphone 15
Well good luck just making the mortgage part of your payment every month.
Sure, the solution is double your mortgage payments. I think I hear people laughing all over the country.
its the mortgage shouldnt be more than 1/4 of you take home. House price should be 2-3x your annual gross pay. you have a 50k a year job, you look for a 100-150k home. you wife makes 35k, you guys look for a 200k house. you beg borrow or save the 20% down.
Good luck finding a cheap house around my area… my son and wife live in a small fixer upper we purchased in not the greatest neighborhood for nearly $250k. Now fixer uppers around us are going for $400k and up. We can look further out but then you’re looking at an hour commute each way.
My younger son and his friends are struggling to find an affordable apartment too
This advice was a lot easier to follow 50 or 60 years ago when homes were a significantly smaller multiple of the average annual salary.
Admittedly the first part of the refinance money paid off other debts. But my wife and I also used our freed up budget money to invest more into Roth IRAs and Roth 401Ks.
Exactly what part of everything do you deserve?
People who save 10% of their income give up buying cokes at gas marts, fast food, energy drinks and budget for georcies. They drive old cars and keep phones til they don’t work.
Stupid people feel like a burger, then a candy bar and soda 2 hours later. Entertaining yourself with a credit card is what college grads do.
And the average home was bought by someone who sold their other lower value home and can use the equity from that as a down payment which will drastically reduce their payment on that 15 year mortgage.
If you are going into the market looking for a $400,000 as a first time home buyer you are going to have to indeed make a major amount of moola.
You start small and build up.
If you can’t afford to buy a house then dont buy a house. I don’t know where this mentality of “OMG, I graduated from high school/college last week and I still don’t own a house” came from. I remember seeing a post (not here) from a woman whose son just joined the service and was stationed in San Diego and she was bemoaning the fact that wouldn’t be able to buy a house. One, if you’re an E-3, you shouldn’t be buying houses. Two, you’re in the military, you’re going to be moving around a lot.
We did the same thing.
Don’t forget maintenance. Here in upstate NY they subsidize “low income home owners” by giving away free furnaces, water heaters, stoves, air conditioners, you name it.
We see a few common themes:
1. people who have moved (back) up here from the south where there aren’t that many welfare programs as we have here hoping to cash in (and they do.)
2. people who shouldn’t be homeowners to begin with. They don’t have the money to support being a homeowner, have no contracting skills and don’t have the ability to DIY nor pay someone else to do the work. They end up going into foreclosure and their house falls into disrepair.
3. these same people have all the latest electronic stuff, new iphones, new huge flat screen tvs, latest video game boxes, fancy new cars, fancy new clothes, sneakers, jewelry etc.
They need convince their peers to stop voting for Demonrats.
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