How much money did you have after buying a house

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Forum -> Household Management -> Finances

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amother

Cherry

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 10:40 am

amother OP wrote:

We have about 20k left which makes me very nervous because we do have a high mortgage and I was t sure if this was normal or not

More than we have, 3 years later
We now have 50k in debt, slowly paying off, but zero regrets

Our home value fully doubled in the past 3 years so we’re very lucky

amother

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 3:18 pm

Okay so is having 20k in savings left considered normal?

amother

Papayawhip

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 3:24 pm

Would any of you been able to buy a house now knowing you’d have to put down a much higher down payment because the homes now are so expensive? If not, what is the hope for the average person who would like to buy a home now? Will they be renting forever? Will future home buying be something only the rich can afford?
While interest rates will probably go down at some point, many are saying that home prices won’t, they’re here for good, especially in the frum areas.

amother

Goldenrod

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 3:40 pm

We had some small savings left over, however we kind of stopped adding to savings after buying a house.
Between the mortgage, utilities, and other costs we are all around tighter each month and our savings have stopped growing.

amother

Forestgreen

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 4:11 pm

amother OP wrote:

Okay so is having 20k in savings left considered normal?

I had that left. Of course I was nervous. Was nervous if ch"v husband or I wouldn't be able to work or a big expense would come up... Bh bh no major expenses came up so it didn't get wiped out so were ok.

amother

Vermilion

Wed, Sep 13 2023, 4:21 pm

amother Papayawhip wrote:

Yes because I pulled from my retirement and I could've taken more. Just would've sucked.

amother

Sunflower

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 6:04 am

Saved up until we were able to pay cash for our house (150,000) We did have to cash out about 30k in investments too. It was really jarring to see empty accounts but I tried to focus on the fact that we still had our money, just in a different form. Our home has probably doubled in value at this point if not more. We have no mortgage which was amazing when we had some difficult financial challenges. We just have our association fees and property tax bill which is about half of what our rent had been before we bought it. ( rent for similar places is much higher now)

amother

Papayawhip

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:26 am

Your house was $150,000?

amother

Yellow

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:34 am

amother Papayawhip wrote:

Your house was $150,000?

Was actually going to ask is it worth having that? If moving to an out of town community not too far away but still far enough from family?
We may have an opportunity like that and curious

amother

Mintgreen

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:37 am

We were left with zero. Make that a negative because we borrowed some $$ towards our down payment. BH couple of years later we paid back 90% of what we borrowed & we're doing ok.

amother

Yellow

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:39 am

amother Sunflower wrote:

Meant to post here
Do you feel it's worth it enough to do this if you have an opportunity to buy and have no mortgage not too far from tristate but far enough from family ?

amother

Mocha

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:41 am

Not really anything left. A year later and we basically live paycheck to paycheck, and our monthly mortgage has gone up $500 a month. I think our situation is pretty common and there’s no way we could afford a house now though.

amother

Poinsettia

Thu, Sep 14 2023, 7:50 am

I don't remember the exact amount but remember that the money is an investment. We had to take tzedakah to put my kid in day camp.

amother

Sage

Sat, Sep 23 2023, 10:34 pm

amother Azure wrote:

How much were you able to put down and still keep a large emergency fund?

We put down between 20-25% and kept about 25K in reserve.

amother

Nemesia

Tue, Sep 26 2023, 2:06 pm

amother Honeydew wrote:

Put down $150k as down payment.
Plus about $20k closing costs.
Plus about $50k renovations (which gets you nothing these days, it was for the bare minimum).
Still need to buy lots of furniture which will be another few dozen grand, but gonna do that slowly.

Still have about $300k in the bank BH.

Honest question with no judgement just awe and admiration (and perhaps a little envy)…HOW?? High paying jobs? Help from family? Being very financially savvy and saving a lot?

amother

Forsythia

Tue, Sep 26 2023, 3:26 pm

First house bought in 2010 for 529k-left with negative zero $ after, took us ( or dh I should say) at least 3 years to recover. Was brutal

Second house in 2023 for about 1million plus 50k renovations-not sure but from dh mood it seems we’re left with zero in the bank….
Our down payment came from the sale from our first house which we sold for $850k bh.

amother

Honeydew

Tue, Sep 26 2023, 3:36 pm

amother Nemesia wrote:

Honest question with no judgement just awe and admiration (and perhaps a little envy)…HOW?? High paying jobs? Help from family? Being very financially savvy and saving a lot?

A combination of all 3!
Income of around $300k a year due to hard work, schooling, and BH brains, despite being a relatively young family.
Lived very frugally well under our income for many years.
Got around $50k from family forward down payment but basically put it in savings.

Edit: I think the key point here is that we lived very frugally and were able to save a huge percentage of our income (upwards of 50%) even when our income wasn’t so high. Our kids were very young so it was easier to keep expenses low. We weren’t crazy, always looked normal/took vacations/had what we needed etc but didn’t waste on stupidities and we’re happy with what we had.

We still have a a frugal mindset but now that we are paying a large mortgage and all the other expenses that come with a house, plus paying serious tuition money, plus the cost of food, still not sure how much we will be able to save. IyH our income is going up annually so that will help.

PBY

Tue, Sep 26 2023, 5:51 pm

Put down 20% around 120k and had 100k in savings. We spent 40k when we moved in and bh were able save up to over 130k in in a year. Dh works very hard and we well beneath our means. We didn't buy a larger house than we needed so that we can recoup some savings. We'll extend when we need more space iyh.

amother

Wine

Wed, Oct 25 2023, 5:41 pm

We put down 20% (we had to due to below average credit), and had 10k left in the bank. We’ve lived paycheck to paycheck ever since, but our house went up in value at least 150k since we bought it, and we’d never be able to afford this house or any house in our neighborhood right now.
No regrets.
We set roots, love our neighbors, my husband found his place in shul (which was a huge problem when we lived in rentals in areas that weren’t really his crowd), and kids are very happy with their neighborhood friends. Can’t put a price on any of this.
The fact that we don’t have a penny to our name, and even have some debt, and owe a few thousands to our parents, and sometimes struggle to pay for basics…. - the financial struggles are worth the above mentioned positives.

amother

Ultramarine

Wed, Oct 25 2023, 7:10 pm

Wow I’m so impressed with all of you!!
We’re currently in contract BH in a house that most likely will appreciate very nicely. After the down payment, closing costs, paint and flooring were going to be left with our retirement accounts and an investment that can go either way (it’s looking up though bH so not too nervous).
My salary will cover all monthly payments and will leave over about $500 per week.
Is that safe?
Husband currently does not work but will likely start in a year.
I so badly want to buy because things are just getting more expensive and this is a chance for us to get our foot in the door.

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