Would you buy a house you can barely afford?

Emuna360

Wed, Aug 30 2023, 1:06 am

Too much itemization will not leave Hashem away to unbalance your books through holiday expenses into that so you don't believe you'll get back when you buy that brisket. Is that what I'm understanding? And frankly your numbers were way off. I don't know. Are you buying a 2 million house? And do you have an accountant? You're using a room for a business. Why don't you deduct it and you're interest rate will go down when Trump wins? While you are itemizing for God, you left out lawn care I believe. You're young. You could get a mower. You know tuition is going to go up and up. Play groups are nothing compared to school. You make a nice amount of money for the four kids while they're young and therefore you will be expected to play a lot. That's true but you're doing better than a lot of people. So go ahead and buy your $900,000 house because you have no choice. That's what houses are now unless you're in Detroit or Cleveland. Even in Detroit they used to be 150. Houses are now 300. Basically only somebody with a lot of strong belief can get through financial issues and every other issue that will come about. Do not estimate for medical expenses ever

amother

Orchid

Wed, Aug 30 2023, 3:07 am

Buy a more affordable house. A house is a necessity and rents leave you with nothing but cancelled checks. Looking at your budget there are probably areas where you can save some money.

amother

Brunette

Wed, Aug 30 2023, 10:16 am

I'm going anon for this because I've told it to many people IRL.
When we were looking to buy a house a few years ago, DH asked his Rebbe regarding buying bichlal and then about buying specifically in the area we were contemplating. He said, we should not make a cheshbon of our expenses down to the last penny. If it makes sense 80%, then we should go for it. We need to leave space for Hashem too. So that's what we did, and yes, we were super tight for the first 2-3 years, but then we both got raises and we slowly paid off our debt and the value of our house has doubled, and we are so glad we went for it.

amother

Ultramarine

Thu, Aug 31 2023, 10:19 am

amother OP wrote:

We were approved for 1.2 a few months ago. Rates have gone up but we probably would be still.

Yes we have the down payment.

There's nothing we can trim. I'm super careful with groceries, we don't do day camp, my kids and I wear hand me downs, etc. I can't fire cleaning lady without quitting my job.

What is a 1.2? Is this a special program?

amother

Brunette

Thu, Aug 31 2023, 10:29 am

amother Garnet wrote:

A 1.2 million dollar loan I’d assume.

More likely a 1.2 million dollar house, with the mortgage being whatever it would be with the down payment they currently possess.

amother

Pewter

Sun, Sep 03 2023, 5:41 pm

amother Ivory wrote:

Yes. A house is an asset. You can always sell it for more than you paid for, or take out another mortgage after a short while.

Renting is money down the drain.

Right, because no one ever in history lost their house (and everything they put towards it) because they couldn't afford it? Or went into debt trying to keep a house they couldn't afford?

If you can't afford the first mortgage, a second one (if you can even get approved for that) would just be burying you deeper in debt. You can't always sell your house for the amount you want when you need to. And if housing prices have gone up and you're selling, where will you be able to move to once everything costs more?