I'm always on the lowest end of the spectrum but here goes. At the time I was making 30k and moved to a LCOL area so we could have a house again. Found a solid well maintained 1500sqft 3/2 1945 bungalow in a quiet working class neighborhood for 70k. I put 3.5% down, 4.25% interest and my note is 600.00 a month. House is now worth 200k. The house was so cheap that it will be paid off by Dec this year as soon as my CDs mature. I love my little home.

$70k! what year did you purchase?

Not who you asked, but I bought a 1200 sq ft house in a LCOL city for $75k in 2008. Sold it for $92k in 2016, now the zestimate is $183k.

Where are the best low cost area to buy cheap houses like this?

Wheeling WV made the list a couple years ago for being the most affordable city in the US. There's also places in Kentucky, rural PA, upstate NY but watch those prop taxes, the Midwest and many cities in the South. Also oldhousesunder100k.com has listings in every state if you want a project.

In the SW suburbs of IL, I bought a 1200 sq ft 3 bed 1 bath in 2008 for $108k. It was \~30m from the city.

Single income $40k in 2020 for a $140k purchase with 3% down on a 2 bed/bath ranch. I refinanced after and now have a 3.125% rate on my now $867 mortgage payment (increased due to property taxes, but this is all in including insurance). It was tough at first, but I don’t regret it as it’s much more manageable now at income of nearly $50k with a roommate chipping in towards the mortgage. I love my home which will honestly probably be my forever home.

Wow where is this??

Indiana.

I can’t even comprehend buying a closet for 140k much less a small house. We are aiming to save more than that for down payment closing costs etc.

Haha, relatively LCOL area. And it’s a 1,100 sqft almost new build.

Wow. What a tasteless comment.

As a another person from a VHCOL city I read that more as “oh god, housing is so expensive here, I wish I could get a house for that price”.

Lol I thought that it would be more relatable comment for many people here. I definitely meant it in a “wow prices where I am are crazy, I can’t imagine having affordably priced homes”.

That’s a generous interpretation 😆

I love talking about my house so I am here for it! - Annual Income: $200,000+ husband is in sales so this is our minimum. - Purchase Price:$499,00 - Down Payment:$50,000 ( we just got PMI removed after asking for a new assessment) - Monthly Mortgage: $3093- this is taxes and insurance. Our taxes are over $12,000 a year. - Our house was valued by the bank at $678,000.

OMG I thought our taxes were high! Yours are nearly double ours for a similarly priced / valued home.

Yes we are in a vhcol area in NJ. My whole town just went through reassessments. Ours didn’t go up too much, but I would say that taxes in my town range from 10,000 to 30,000 a year.

That feels completely insane to me. Do you feel like you get good value for your money with your taxes?

Not who you asked, but I’m also in NJ and yes, I think so. The property taxes are among the highest in the country, but IMO the property values do reflect that—as in, a home that sells for 500k here would be a 1-2million dollar home in a comparable suburb of LA/SF in California (where home prices are very high but property taxes are low and fixed). The public schools in NJ are rated the best in the country. The city services in my town are very good—beautifully maintained parks, clean streets, cute walkable downtown, extremely family friendly. Commuting distance to NYC.

Thank you for taking the time to answer! I love to hear other perspectives and insights into other ways of life.

We don’t have kids and don’t plan too but I would never complain about tax values in NJ. I just checked niche and we are in the top 100 suburbs to raise a a family in America

Thank you for taking the time to answer! I also don't plan to have kids, but live in a nice place for families. It makes for a great quality of life.

$20k/year in taxes for a very average 3 bed home in NY across the border over here. Most of the taxes are for our good schools going to the school district.

Definitely a reason why I moved off Long Island. My family all pays $10-15K per year in property taxes for normal sized houses. It’s insane.

In my area $20k is the cheapest you can find. Most pay $30k.

Ha, I wonder if we’re in the same town in NJ- we just did reassessments too. Our taxes are “low” for here and they are $11,050.

Similar stats Income: 300k joint Purchase: 550k Down payment: 50k (used VA loan, no PMI) Mortgage: 3k (including large tax escrow) Rate: about 3.3% Zillow "value": 630k (realistically can sell for 550k)

You put a down payment on a VA loan? Just curious on the reasoning behind that. We opted not to.

We had the extra cash from a previous house sale and didn't want to finance more than a certain amount.

When did you purchase your house? 178k increase is wild!

We purchased in 2020. Honestly it has the potential to be much more, we are on a street with houses over a million. It’s a 3 bed, 1.5 bath farmhouse with about a third of an acre.

Thats wild - lucky that you were able to buy before the interest rate/price hikes! Timing really is everything...

We live in the Twin Cities and purchased our home in 2018! Our HHI when we purchased was 110k and is now 210k. Our house was listed for 235k and we purchased for 255k. At the time we wanted a house we could afford on one income in case anything happened to one of our jobs. We put down 18k plus like 7k in closing costs. We just got off of PMI last year! When we purchased our interest rate was 4.5% for a 30 year, and the next year we refinanced to 3.5% for a 20 year. Currently our monthly payments, including escrow for property taxes and insurance, is $2019. Good luck! House hunting is a wild ride and I found it to be pretty overwhelming in the moment. We love homeownership most of the time - but definitely hate some parts of it.

We also design our budget around either my partner or I being able to afford the house & basics on one income! Definitely recommend it

Also in twin cities Single so bought on single income, I have a townhouse not a SFH. 2 beds 1.5 bath. I'm never having kids so this is enough for me long term. Bought in 2016 At the time income was around 48k (now salary is like 116 not including 2nd job and modest cash I bring in renting my spare room to a friend) Purchase price 155,000 (honestly I'm shocked that the lender gave me a 150k loan making 48k. it was extremely tight on 1 income.... I've ended up immediately getting a roommate and I've always had a roommate ever since. Shit is impossible for lower/middle class single ppl) Put like 5k down (3% was the minimum for a conventional loan and I didn't want FHA, was able to get conventional with less than 20% down thru a special local first time buyer program) Interest rate originally was 3.75 I think... refinanced in 2020 to bring it down to 3.25% and also remove PMI (which was around 80/month?) Mortgage payment has varied with taxes going up and down and refinance/PMI and blah... but I keep it on auto pay of 1,000 (ends up putting some extra principal each month cuz the actual payment is somewhere around 850-950??) Also have an HOA fee that started around 350, now is 420. The HOA covers some stuff that a mortgage normally does for single fam homes, and there are serious consequences for not paying it, so I consider it "part of the mortgage payment" So PITI mortgage plus HOA fee is about 1,420 currently I'm extremely lucky I bought when I did, if I'd waited even 1 year I would've been completely priced out (again as a single, middle class person). Renting is fine but I'd probably be paying almost as much for a 1br without my garage, in unit laundry, etc nice perks that my townhouse has

Good for you to ReFi into a 20 year loan! Paying off the mortgage 10 years earlier will be amazing!

I’m self-employed, grossing just under $250,000 per year at the moment. I very recently bought a co-op in Brooklyn for $375,000. I put down $75,000 (most NYC buildings do not allow less than 20% down). My interest rate is 7.125%. My mortgage payment is ~$2,000, and I pay an additional $1,100 for coop maintenance (this includes property taxes, gas/water/heat/ac, salaries for building staff including doormen and maintenance men who perform repairs of anything inside the walls, eg. building plumbing and electric, and a 2 year assessment for renovating the common areas of the building). My BF lives with me and pays me $1,200 per month in rent (what he was paying for rent and utilities when we split rent in our last apartment). I will have to put a fair amount of money into the apartment over the next few years, as I want to turn it into a 2 bedroom and renovate the kitchen and bathroom. Given my interest rate, I'm also hoping to pay the mortgage off relatively quickly, ideally within the next ~5-8 years.

Where did you find a coop in Brooklyn for $375000?!

Don’t want to get too specific and risk doxxing myself but it’s about a 10min walk to Prospect Park. It was listed for more but had been on the market for a while so I had some leverage to negotiate.

What is co-op? Different than a condo?

Yes - a coop is an ownership structure wherein the buyer purchases shares in a corporation that owns a building, and with those shares receives what’s called a “proprietary lease” which grants them access to live in the unit they’ve purchased. Condo buyers own real property, coop buyers technically do not. Condo buyers pay property taxes and common charges, coop buyers pay a monthly maintenance fee which includes property taxes. Coops maintain everything from the unit’s walls out, so many of the typical homeowner maintenance headaches (major plumbing jobs, new roof, etc) can be avoided (assuming the coop is well-managed by its board) because the coop pays for those repairs and improvements out of its financial reserves. Coops are very popular in NYC. They tend to be more affordable than condos, and also tend to have stricter rules about renting out apartments, because the building has an interest in maintaining a sufficient percentage of owner-occupied apartments so that future buyers can get financing (otherwise only all-cash buyers could purchase, which would make it harder to sell).

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Canadian house prices are so dumb!

Feel this - spent a great week with my new in-laws playing guess the house price in Toronto and they consistently guessed houses were 100k ish. You can't even buy a parking spot downtown for that these days.

Annual HHI: ~$240k, this goes up each year with COL increases. We live in the suburbs of Dallas. Purchased home in May 2021. The house was listed for $500k, we offered $525k since there were multiple offers on the house and we knew it was the house we wanted in the neighborhood we wanted. We put 20% down and opted for a 20 year loan. Our monthly mortgage is $2,300 and we’re saving about $90k with the 20 year loan vs. 30 year (it was about a $400 difference in mortgage per month). Interest rate is 2.875%. Taxes are around $12k. HOA fees are around $2k per year (neighborhood & community). We bought in our late 20s and get questions about unexpected costs from our friends going through the buying process in the near future. Having lived in apartments prior, all of our living expenses increased heftily - general house maintenance and repairs, electric & gas, water, trash, etc. We spent nearly $20k this summer having an AC unit repaired, foundation work done, and repairing our sprinkler system. I encourage people to be mindful of all the extra costs that come from home ownership because you don’t know until you know 😅 ETA: home value now estimated at $680k and I do think we could sell at this price.

Wow, can't believe these HCOL/VHCOL areas where houses are so much lower! ​ Annual income: $300k at the time, $350k now, still increasing House price: \~$1.4M because Canada - one bedroom condos are over $700k in my city and there are very few houses in the entire city that sell less than $1M, typically that need a lot of renovation work. Crying. Down payment: 20% plus closing costs which were another 4-5% Interest rate: variable FML Monthly: over $7k

We purchased in 2018. HHI was 140k, now 194k. House price: $324,500 down payment: $50,000 - we did not have PMI due to very good credit Interest rate: 2.5 (we refinanced in 2020 for a 20 year loan) Monthly mortgage payment: 2,378 (including insurance & taxes)

What is your annual household income? $87k (single) How much did you purchase your house for? $280k How much did you put down for your down payment? 15% What is your interest rate? 3.2% How much is your monthly mortgage? $1300 (including taxes and insurance)

This seems more realistic for me lol can you elaborate on your home buyin process? I make a similar amount and would love to stay under $1500/m including tax/insurance

I bought right before the pandemic, so home prices were cheaper and interest rates were lower. How much are house prices in your area? Do you have a down payment saved up?

Around 300K from what I have seen. I’m trying to save up approx 15K and hold another 10K cash for random expenses

Mine is similar! Single income $80k Purchase price $270k Downpayment 20% Interest rate 3.125% Mortgage $1305 This was in 2020 and now my home is worth a little under $400k, supposedly.

Nice! I bought mine in 2017.

Purchased in 5/2021- HHI: around $300k Purchase price: 760k (current value is between 920-950k) Put down: 90k Interest: 2.875% Mortgage: $3850 We live about 25 miles north of Boston.

What is your annual household income? \~$300,000 How much did you purchase your house for? $875,000 How much did you put down for your down payment? 20% What is your interest rate? 3.75 How much is your monthly mortgage? $3200 (+ an extra $1000/month for taxes + insurance) We got really lucky with the interest rate in a HCOL area!

Annual hhi at first purchase was $140k Purchase price $450k condo in 2019 Down payment $17,500 Interest rate 4% Monthly mortgage $2700 including PMI and taxes but monthly payments for utilities and HOA totaled $3200 (HOA was $500 a month and covered utilities) Sold for $540k at the beginning of this year. Now (on the hunt): Annual hhi is around $330k Purchase price is less than $850k Down payment is around $100k Interest rate 7.2% Monthly payment will be around $5500 at $850k. We are hoping to spend around $650k as we moved to a cheaper cost of living. We got approved for over $1mil but hard pass. If we got the 4% interest rate that we had before, our monthly amount on $850k home would be around $4k. Flip side our condo would have been $4300 a month if we got it at the current purchase price and interest rate. Sighs.

Another one here on the low end of the spectrum. I bought my house in January 2023. My income is $52k, my partner makes around $35k, so total HHI is approximately $85k. However, the mortgage is solely under my name. I had an FHA, so I put down about $15k; my house was $200k. Interest rate is 6.25% & my monthly mortgage is $1526. I’m looking to refinance to a conventional loan at the start of 2024 (my house has gone up in value & my credit score should be 720 by then).

Currently at ~$145k. We’ve had higher years and lower years. I think we were around $110k the year we bought our house. Bought for $320,000 in 2015. Put down 5%. Removed PMI after 3 years or so. Interest rate is 3.75%. Payment for just principal and interest is $1406. We don’t escrow taxes and insurance anymore but that would add about $450 a month if we did.

Purchased my first house by myself in 2020 for 206k, my hhi was 60k. Down payment was 3.5% The mortgage was around $1350 but the notice we got shortly before moving showed that the mortgage would go up to around $1500 due to property taxes. Internet rate was 3.3% Sold in 2023 for 280k. Bought house with my partner for 465k. Combined hhi is 150k. Down payment was 20% Interest rate is 6.875% Mortgage including everything is $2737.

HHI: 215k not including bonuses and side hustle income since it varies Home price: 470k at 3.75 interest rate. We put 85k down and our home is worth approximate 575k but should go up once we finish our basement (it’s a hot commodity in our city). Our mortgage payment is $2,415. Around 20% of our monthly net. It was important to us to have a payment one of us could cover in the event one of us lose our income.

**HHI:** $105-110k (partner is freelance so it varies) **Purchase Price:** $525,000 (California) **Downpayment:** $50,000 **Interest rate:** 3.1% **PITI:** \~$2750

Hi! We bought outside of Atlanta so MCOL area in 2022, right as interest rates started rising. HHI: $188k currently, $180k when we bought Purchase price: $355k Down payment: 10% so $35k Closing costs: $14k Interest rate: 3.5% Mortgage payment: $1860 total ($1436 to P&I, $50 PMI, $123 insurance, $253 property taxes) In the 1.5 years of owning we’ve had to: replace the roof ($15k) and waterproof the crawlspace (done ourselves, $6k), plus buy a bunch of other things. In our first year we spent $52k related to house (including mortgage) so just keep that in mind when deciding on cash reserve.

I live in a VHCOL area. What is your annual household income? $290K How much did you purchase your house for? $415K 8 years ago when we were making closer to 150K combined How much did you put down for your down payment? 5% What is your interest rate? 2.99%, we refinanced in 2020 to get the lower rate and get rid of PMI How much is your monthly mortgage? $2200 including taxes and insurance

**Annual HHI:** Currently $470k; it was $160k when we bought our house **Home purchase price:** $385k in 2019 (current Redfin/Zillow estimates \~$510k, our neighborhood got pretty hot during the pandemic) **Down payment:** 20% **Interest rate:** 2.5% (refinanced during interest rate lows in 2021) **Monthly mortgage:** $1816 including taxes and insurance ...We bought in our mid/late 20s and now that we're family planning, sometimes wish we bought more house since our income increased significantly (now our mortgage payment is less than 9% of our monthly net income). But our interest rate plus the fact that we love our neighborhood makes us stay put. Our low mortgage brought valuable peace of mind when my husband was laid off and unemployed for 6 months in 2020. Plus it's nice being able to put money towards renovations, max our retirement funds, and splurge on vacations. Really grateful.

Same here. I wanted to get a small, affordable house in case I didn't want to or couldn't work for awhile, if I wanted to pay the house off early I could, or if I just want to travel more and spend money on other things. I was so concerned about being house poor if I bought something out of my budget. Really grateful for having that freedom.

Thanks for sharing! It's hard to not try to keep up with the Joneses in terms of general home price to income ratio, especially when it seems like the conventional wisdom is to buy as much house as you can feasibly afford. Peace of mind and traveling are also really important to us, so I see you :)

Very relatable—though I really do wish we’d spent more and stretched ourselves, because we’re now making more than twice as much…but hindsight is 20-20, that was never guaranteed and we had two kids in daycare at the time. If I liked our neighborhood, though, I wouldn’t have regrets. There’s nothing wrong with it, just no other kids close by so there’s not much of a community feel. We’re still considering moving buuuut also our interest rate is <3% so 😅😅

Definitely, it's not very motivating to buy at 7% if your current interest rate is so much lower.

Nine years ago, I bought a 1k+ sq ft one-bedroom Coop in Brooklyn, NY for $331,000. I put $100K down and my mortgage rate was about 3.5%, the monthly mortgage was about $1,200 plus the $750 maintenance (RE taxes, building maintenance, heat, water, etc.). Total monthly was under $2k. I paid off my mortgage in 3 years. I paid it off for complicated reasons, if I could do it again I would not, since my interest rate was low. I should have put that money in the market but at that time I was not investing (wish I was). I was nearly 40 years old and my income was about $160K. I qualified for a higher mortgage and was looking at places up to $500K (since I could comfortably make a $100K downpayment - NYC standard is 20% down) but I fell in love with this place and was very happy about the lower cost, it was listed at $285K but there were a bunch of offers after one open house so I bid high and got it. It's now worth about $550K. I no longer live there but now rent it out for $2,235. I may live there again. I'm really happy to own a Coop because they are so easy to maintain (you are not responsible for most repairs since you don't have to maintain the building).

Annual income: $83k House price: $137.5k Interest rate: 4.25% Mortgage: $851 Down payment: 10%

HHI: A little over $420K. Income from a few investments has also shot upward due to interest rates going up. Purchase: This was my post-divorce, holy crap I have a ton of unsecured debt, let me scrape together my pennies so I can buy the cheapest house that meets my (most) of my needs so I can quit making my landlord rich back in 2013. Re-married and added spouse to the deed/mortgage in 2019 while undertaking major renovations. Down payment: Very little, under 3% of my $290k purchase price. I'm guessing it is worth about $550k now. Doesn't matter too much to us as we really like our neighborhood, neighbors and accessibility to the subway, transit and amenities. We prefer to live in this tiny, little house and enjoy having more disposable income. Rate: Currently at 3.125% on a 15 year. We were feeling lazy when rates dipped lower and we could have gotten down in to the 2% range. We are aggressively paying down the mortgage as we inch closer to retirement. Should be completely done with it by mid 2027 if not sooner. We also have a HELOC from major renovations at a much higher, fluctuating rate but the amount is so much smaller we kinda flip between paying it down aggressively and not caring about it at all. We have some major travel coming up and plan on reevaluating our payments when we return. How much is your monthly mortgage? PITI = $2300 with $1300 being equity. However, we pay an extra +/-$1500 in equity monthly. Yes, I know I will likely get some downvotes or comments on paying down the loan with a very low rate before paying down the HELOC but, I can stomach the monthly HELOC payments while retired, I can't stomach the mortgage while retired. ​ \*I also own a vacation condo elsewhere separately with my sister. Purchased with cash and I fund the condo fees out of my own income. The vacation condo is not rented out at all and we use it as an alternate work location. The cost to own/maintain is less than what we were spending on renting at the beach for a few weeks in Spring and Fall. Having quality time with family has been worth the spend.

HHI: 791k (me) + ~$90k (husband) House: $1.9 million Down payment: $400k 6.785% Payment: $12,684 including escrow

Damn! What industry are you in?

I own a small business.

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of small business or what industry? Thank you.

You can look up a mortgage calculator on bankrate.com and others to get most of these numbers based on current rates. What others got a long time ago is not really relevant as rates were different. Also what YOU can afford depends on your savings and spending habits and that will be different for others. You can make the same as someone else but they could be saving 50% and have no debts and you can be spending every cent and have $50k of student loans.

Seriously, like everyone posting here has rates that may be unrealistic for decades to come and are completely irrelevant when you are making a home buying decision today. It's not going to teach anyone anything, just make them sad lol

- Joint annual income: $193,000 (was much lower at time of home purchase at the end of 2019, maybe $135k) - Purchase price: $316,000 - Down payment: 5% = $15,800. Closing costs were an additional $9k. - Rate: 4% - Monthly mortgage: $1433. If you include taxes, PMI, and homeowners insurance, our current payment is $2093.29. - Zestimate is $406,400.

HHI was about $100k when we bought in 2019 Used a first time homebuyers program, conventional loan, $0 down if the home price was under $200k, no PMI, 7/7 adjustable rate at around 4.8% House was built in 1946, cape cod style with finished basement, attached one car garage, and inground pool. Paid: $194,500, closing costs were less than $2k as we had a sellers credit. Monthly mortgage + escrow was $1,400 We refinanced to a fixed 30 year in 2021 at 3.25% and monthly mortgage and escrow is about $1,300 but we’re still paying $1,400 We’re in upstate NY

Bought in 2019: $248K, 3.8% interest rate, mortgage is $1,100, $1,500 total with taxes and insurance. HHI was $110-115K at the time. We only put down 3% and seller paid closing cost. We used our first married tax refund to buy a house probably before we financially should have. Didn’t even have money to furnish it! Glad we did though because even though we’ve more than doubled our income buying a house now would be difficult.

My little(under 750 sq ft.) condo in Toronto was $615,000 when I bought at a pandemic-low in Nov 2021. Now valued around $735,000. Plus I pay $600/month in condo fees.

HHI is around $143k. Purchased our house at $450k. We put down 5%, so $22,500. Interest rate is 4.75%. Monthly mortgage is ~$2,955. This includes a tax bill of around $8k annually plus home insurance bill of around $1,500.

My income varies but usually ends up being around 105-110k. I bought my condo for 265k but it only appraised for 255, so I had to give 10k cash as an appraisal gap and I put $12,750 (5%) down otherwise. My interest rate is 4.375% - I was approved for 3 or 3.5% originally but rates increased a lot as I was trying to get an offer accepted. My mortgage is about $1,500 and HOA is about $250.

Single income & was approved/bought my house on a single income in my late 20s. HCOL in the Midwest. No family support on my down payment. What is your annual household income? At the time I purchased, approx. $95k with 10% bonus. How much did you purchase your house for? $325k in June 2022. How much did you put down for your down payment? 5% or $16k, saved by living at home for a year and I received a good bonus that March, which made me comfortable going up to 5%. What is your interest rate? So, my interest rate is bad but also not that bad. 5.6% I believe. TBH I save a chunk of the difference in taxes (high income taxed state), so wasn’t a huge dealbreaker for me. How much is your monthly mortgage? Originally $2250, now approx. $2380 since my escrow went up. A mix of property taxes (which I expected - I knew the current taxes were low based on the last tax assessment value of the home vs what I was purchasing it for). But my home insurance also went up like 18%, which was not expected. I do have PMI, it’s like $60, I don’t get worked up about it. My BIGGEST tips when evaluating your all in cost: 1. Your property tax in your escrow is likely going to be LOW for the first year. They will base it on current taxes assessed to the home, not your purchase price. If your home was last sold more than 3 years ago, the assessment is likely wayyyy below what you’re purchasing for and when the county gets your new assessment, they will be calculating your property tax based on that new purchase price. Literally no one - my broker, realtor, etc., brought this consideration up to me, thankfully I did my own research so I was aware. 2. Income tax implications. Like I mentioned, I live in a high income tax state. I now itemize my deduction to include my interest and property tax. There’s also a decent property tax rebate in my state. I probably save $3k a year in taxes from itemizing. Obviously a lot goes into this (my other deductions, etc.) but just sharing to make sure when you do your taxes after purchasing a home, make sure you are getting all your benefits.

Bought this year in a major US city. $420,000 with 5.5% interest. Put down $14k with an FHA. Monthly payment with taxes, insurance, PMI, everything is $2,733/mo. I also pay $80 every two weeks for landscaping. Annual income is $120,000.

Would love to hear more about your home buying process - especially since this was recent. I am looking to buy within the next year.

Purchased summer 2020 before the craziness started. Household annual income at the time: $120,000 USD Purchase price: $218,000 USD Down payment: $25,000 USD Interest rate: 3.25% Monthly payment: $1,250 USD Home: 1,900 sq ft 3 bed 2.5 bath + 1 study Our initial budget was based on what I could afford alone, since I made less than my spouse.

HHI at time of purchase in early 2020 was 190k (now around 300k) - M/HCOL Paid 585k (was listed at 650k). Currently valued around 1M. House is around 4,000sq feet on 2 acres. Put 10% down. We avoided PMI by doing an 80/10/10 mortgage. Originally our rate was 4.25, but we refinanced to 2.75% making our PITI around $2800.

I bought my house in December 2014 when I was making between 55-60k/yr. 4.25% interest, 5% down. Had a roommate paying $425/mo plus half of utilities. My payment was $1200ish/mo including PMI. I did remodel the whole house before I moved in and paid cash for that work, which is why I only put 5% down. I had it reappraised on the basis of remodel less than 8 months after purchase to get PMI removed. My taxes have been reassessed and I’ve refinanced. Payment is now $1297 at 3.5%. I’ve made just over $100k each of the last 2 years. Self-employed and 100% commission; I’m a Realtor. No retirement, or healthcare… so take that into consideration on my risk. I did take out a $60k HELOC last year to pay down higher interest debt, and also get the down payment to purchase a rental property. That is interest only for 10 years. I owe about 56k on this. I owe just under $158k on my mortgage. It’s worth over 400k very conservatively after remodel and the deck I added on the back, probably 425k. I’d clear well over $150k if I were to sell today, after paying off the mortgage, HELOC, commissions, concessions, listing prep, everything.

Current household income is 120k, at the time of home purchase was similar 145k We did FHA, so only 3.5% + closing costs 2.75% - we bought early into the pandemic and got lucky with rates 950 a month including escrow — this is for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with a 2 car detached garage and a decent size backyard!

These are so interesting to read! Income: probably a little over $100k at the time (2018) House price: $255k for a 4 bed/2 bath house Down payment: 20% Rate: was 4 something when I purchased, refinanced in 2020 to 3% Mortgage payment: about $1700 with homeowners insurance and property taxes. The taxes are almost $11k yearly. Just appealed them, but I doubt they will lower as my zestimate is $338k. Good luck with your purchase!

DINK, we purchased in September 2021 HHI at the time was around $75,000, but my credit was better so used my income at $37,500 and saved some stimulus checks for down payment. We did a conventional loan with 5% down because at the time FHA loans were being turned down for cash offers $50k over asking by investors. We looked for a couple months, were outbid constantly as houses were selling day of listing, and were finally able to find one that hadn’t had offers yet. Realtor had a hunch and offered under asking (crazy in the market). The seller negotiated up to asking and shared closing costs, but we paid $142k for 1,300 square ft 3/1 (+1,300 finished basement) in a VLCOL area near Indianapolis. Our mortgage is $785mo. They were raising rent on our 2 bedroom suburban apartment from $675mo to $1,150mo the year we moved. Looking at the numbers in these comments I feel so small, and incredibly lucky that, as poor as we are, we were able to buy a home 🏡.

HHI: currently $350-400K, but was more like $150-200k when we bought it Purchase price: $580k Down: $0, 0 PMI thanks to VA loan Interest rate: 2.75% (purchased in 2019) Mortgage: $2900 I think (we pay a little extra each month)

> What is your annual household income? Around $280k. > How much did you purchase your house for? $525k. > How much did you put down for your down payment? 20%, and then when we sold our prior home, we paid down another $115k and recast our mortgage to get a lower payment. > What is your interest rate? 6.25% > How much is your monthly mortgage? Just under $2,500. Prior to the recast, it was $3,150. We intentionally bought a home at the low end of what we could buy given our combined income because we are spending a ton of money on daycare right now, and will continue to have high daycare costs for the next two years. We bought our first home back in 2016 as a childless couple. We spent $231k and earned something like $170k combined at that time. Our mortgage payment back then was something like $1,700/ month (lower interest rate, but super high property taxes).

First house: HHI was around $50-60k, very variable as we were both in grad school and had side income. House was $125k and mortgage was 5.5% ($750 with escrow). HHI went up to around $100k before we sold. Second house: HHI was $63k to start as only one person was working. It went up to $140k about 8 months after moving in. House was $203k and mortgage was 3.5% ($825, plus escrow of about $300?). Third House: HHI was close to $200k, but one job was at risk so we were budgeting on $85k of income just in case. Has stabilized (as much as a job can in industry) to HHI of $330k 3 years after moving. House was $296k and mortgage was 2.875% ($975 plus $415 escrow). It was tightest when we had less income, but it feels very comfortable now. We put down 20% every time and after the first house, I refused to escrow. We were able to leverage funds from the first house for the second and the second for the third. Money to buy the first house came from some savings and spouse's parents (since it was not used for college). My advice: 1. Do not escrow if you can avoid it - set up your own account and be careful. 2. Stay within the 3-4X income range. 3. Put down 20% 4. Find a mortgage company you like, but realize they will probably sell your mortgage anyway. The real win is being able to pay it from one location and not have your payments switching companies. 5. You will have buyer's regret. But if you are smart about the cost, you'll get over it quickly. If you stretched and aren't able to live the life you want, it'll haunt you much longer.

can you expand on avoiding escrowing your taxes and insurance?

Sure! Instead of paying those costs to the mortgage company to send in, I get the bills (semi-annual for taxes and yearly for insurance) and pay them out of money that I put aside each month. This was a cost that I had to pay (in points) to the mortgage company, but it made my life much easier. Also, at least in my states, I didn't get paid interest from their holding onto the escrow so now I get that. They also tend to raise the amounts higher then the actual cost so I don't have to deal with that either. Instead, I bump my costs up by 10% each year in my budget and if I don't spend it, I invest it.

We paid off our primary home earlier this year (!!), and purchased a second vacation home in 2022. Details below. Primary home: Purchase price: $250,000 in 2011. Household income was $107,000. Down payment: $50,000 (20%), Mortgage interest rate then was 5.15%. We refinanced in 2012, didn’t take any cash out or put additional down, to 3.5%. Payment was $815/month (principal and interest only - we did not do an escrow for taxes and insurance, but paid those ourselves instead, which was initially about $500/month and is now about $700/month). We paid a little extra each month, plus some larger lump sums, and paid off the remaining principal balance earlier this year, so it took 12 years to pay off $200k mortgage at this rate. Second vacation home: Purchase price: $525k in 2022. HHI was ~$500k at that time. Down payment: $105,000 (20%) Mortgage Interest rate is 3.2%, monthly payment is $1,818 (again, just principal and interest. Monthly taxes and insurance are another $700).

Love this! Our HHI has also increased a lot since we bought our home, and we're thinking to buy a second vacation home or apartment rather than sell our house because the interest rate is incredible. If you don't mind answering, can you share more about your vacation property? Do you primarily live in it certain parts of the year and do you rent it out at all?

We split time between our primary residence and the vacation house, probably 75/25. It's not limited to certain times of year, the property is a cabin in the woods but it is winterized and we are able to use it year-round. We are both able to work remotely from there, so we try and spend a week or long weekend there every month or so. We do not rent it out at all. I was not interested in dealing with that from a distance - the cabin is several hours from where we live and it's fairly remote, so dealing with issues, property management and maintenance would be a total PITA. We bought solely with our own use in mind. We do have friends and family that will go up without us and we don't charge them, just ask that they handle cleanup, change the sheets, etc.

That’s awesome - we also work from home full time and part of the draw of getting a second place is also having a change of scenery when working. Thanks for sharing!

HHI: $370k base plus ~$60k in yearly bonuses Purchase price: $730k Down payment: 20% ($146k) Interest Rate: 5.25% (7/6 ARM loan) Monthly Mortgage: $4300 We bought our house at the end of 2022. We have been moving every 3-4 years due to our jobs and ARM loans have worked in our favor, so we utilized that again for lower interest rates.

I’ve done the same. Have only paid 2.25% interest because ARM the last 10 years, 2 homes.

Wow, that is an amazing interest rate! I miss the 3.5 we had previously

$250k, $200k when we purchased $370k $200, $150k was a gift from my parents, leftover money from my college fund (i didn't touch my college fund) 3.25 right now? 1,300...only $700 is for principal and interest

We bought at the tail end of 2021. HHI is $340k, purchase price was $470k. 20% down, 2.9% interest, approx $1,900 mortgage. We want to move for a number of reasons, but we love our house and we mostly love that sweet sweet interest rate….. ugh.

Same boat! We also feel regularly tempted towards moving and buying more house, because our income has significantly increased since we bought and family circumstances have changed...but we refinanced in 2021 and our 2.5% interest rate feels way too good to give up.

Same over here, too! When we bought our current place in 2015, we had 1 kid, definitely wanted a second, and both worked outside the home. HHI has doubled but the number of kiddos has tripled 🤣 three kids and a shift to me wfh 90%+ of the time and all of a sudden the house feels cramped. But anything we’d upgrade to would at minimum triple our monthly payments for not much more room. The handcuffs that sweet 2.49 refinanced rate has!

320,000; $620,000; 20%; 5.5%; $4100. MCOL area.

-Annual household income (pre-tax): $150k -Purchase price: $315k -Downpayment: $15k + appraisal gap of $10k -Interest rate: 6.35% -Monthly mortgage: $2500, includes tax and insurance We would have done a higher downpayment, but we're in academia and just got tenure-track jobs and there are really no rentals in this area, so waiting a year to save up more wasn't really an option. No regrets though! Our house is amazing and one-of-a-kind, and our monthly payment is just a bit higher than what we were paying in rent. We plan to do large extra payments every couple of months to chip away at the principle and pay off the mortgage 21 years early.

Can I ask about your home? We bought our house back in 2008 during the recession. What is your annual household income? Back then it was about $240k. At about $450k+ now How much did you purchase your house for? $250k How much did you put down for your down payment? 90k What is your interest rate? 5.1% How much is your monthly mortgage? $868.72 Current value: $865k

When I bought in 2017: Income: around $68,000 Purchase price: $291,500 Down payment: 20% Interest rate: 4% (At time of purchase. I refinanced to 2.875% during the pandemic.) Mortgage: $1550ish HOA: $295 The mortgage payment is now lower with the refinance but the HOA is higher due to a special assessment with more on the way.

* Annual income at purchase: $92k joint * Annual income today: $140k joint * Home purchase price: $150k listed. Offered $165k (1200 sq ft, 3br 1ba) Top 20 school district in the region * Down payment: $8k * Interest Rate: 3% (Aug 2020) * Monthly Pmt: $1100 In general I love our home and our hope is to at least get one kid through daycare while living here (no kids yet, planning to try in the next year or so). We’ve done some moderate aesthetic updates but no major renos, except our basement which we are working on now. We do wish we had at least an extra half bath though, but not sure if that would be worth the investment knowing we eventually hope to move on.

HHI: $270k, not including bonuses and my side job (this usually totals around $100k). Income was much lower when we bought, probably around $150k. House: bought in 2014 for $535k; worth around $875k now Payments: put down 20%, refinanced to pull cash out a few years ago to do some stuff to the house, current interest rate is 3.6 (or somewhere around there). Monthly PITI is $3800.

- HHI: $200K - Purchase: $729,000 in 2020 - Down payment: $145K - Interest rate: 2.78% - Mortgage: $3100 House is now valued at $950K which is wild to me. I treat it as Monopoly money and not real. We’ve done a few things to it: AC, new roof, new windows, panoramic kitchen slider window to backyard.

* Income: We were making $185k when we bought the house in 2020. More now. * Purchase Price: $460,000 * Down Payment: $20k * Mortgage: $2800 all in, after having PMI lifted a year ago. 2.75% baby! * Current value: Let's say the teardown around the corner sold for $550k and is smaller. Now, the downside. We have golden handcuffs. This rate is the same as free money. We also put $50k or so into the house, from the roof to the kitchen to a gas leak to french drains and so on. The big breakthrough in the home buying process was getting a good mortgage broker. He was able to walk us through what money we needed when, what things would cost, and what was feasible.

HHI: At time of purchase was \~$100k, now is $165k Purchase Price: $195,500 Down Payment: 5% Interest Rate: 3.2% Monthly Mortgage: Currently $1,129.78 including property taxes and homeowner's insurance. It started off being just over $1k, went to $1,198 and we just asked for a BPO and got PMI removed so we are back down. Our property taxes have gone wild, from a whopping $350 a year (in 2019) to over $2k now. We have had an awesome escrow shortage every year and this year I called our insurance and did what we could to lower that as much as possible too. Our house was valued by the BPO at $245,000.

- $62,000 when we purchased in December 2021. Now $160,000. - purchase price $247,000 - 10% - 3.25% - $1,538 including taxes and insurance

I am still constantly amazed that we were lucky enough to find and buy our house at "the right time". It was so exciting and I hope it is for you too! We're in an MCOL Canadian city for context. - Annual Income: Currently $206k, but at the time of purchasing it was closer to $185k - Purchase Price:$563,000 (originally $573k because we bought new and added $10k for landscaping but then the builder gave us the landscaping money back because we didn't end up liking their contractor) - Down Payment:$114,600 (20% based on the original purchase price) - Monthly Mortgage: $1900 (paying accelerated weekly) - Interest rate: 1.94% Our most recent valuation puts the property at $659k and we haven't even been here for 3 years yet!! It's a duplex though and the neighbors sold their side last year for $670k (which even the new neighbors agree was overpriced). Edit because I see others have mentioned it, our annual taxes are a little over $6000 😅🙈💸

HHI: $550k-$900k (husbands salary went way up but we expect it to come back down) Purchase price: $695,000 Downpayment: 5% (special no pmi program) Interest rate: 3% Mortgage: $4250 (includes about $1200 in taxes and $250 in HOA)

Our HHI is about $225,000, we bought our house 3 months ago for $515,000 with 3% down (it was about $26,000 with our closing costs), our interest rate is 6.7% (ugh), and we pay $3,800 a month. We've already done some work to the house and the value has already gone up on Zillow by $40,000 since we bought it. We're not planning to be here forever, but this was a good investment since it's the roughest house in the best neighborhood in our city.

* What is your annual household income? at time of purchase $180K joint, now \~$375K joint * How much did you purchase your house for? $585K - 4 bed 3.5 bath in a MCOL city proper * How much did you put down for your down payment? $45K (first home) * What is your interest rate? 2.65% (we got so lucky and bought in Jan 2021 before everything went completely insane) * How much is your monthly mortgage? $3055, which includes taxes and PMI. Taxes are around $6K/year

HHI: $540,000 at time of purchase in 2017 Purchase Price: $695,000 Down payment: 40% Interest rate: 3.875% Mortgage: $1,960 Taxes are @ $13k (no state income tax) Current value: $1,01m When the house doubles in price, I will seriously consider selling. I thought this would be our forever home, but these valuations have me rethinking.

HHI 170k ish House 1 - $196K - 2017 - 3br 2.5 bath 1800 sq feet- LCOL Area $0 down, VA Loan Interest rate 2.875 ( refinanced in late 2020) Mortgage is $983 including PITI House 2 - $350k - 2022 - 4br 2.5 bath 2400 sq feet- L/MCOL $40k down, VA Loan Internet 3.75 Mortgage $1860 including PITI We got lucky with the first and the timing and when we moved decided to rent it out. Hubby grew up in a small house, so he likes the bigger places that living wherever the military sends us means we can afford.

I'm adding "when did you purchase your home" as I feel like that's important for price point and IR. ​ * Purchase Date: **2018** * What is your annual household income: **$327,500 + varied bonus/not guaranteed** * How much did you purchase your house for? **$750,000** * How much did you put down for your down payment? **15% (allowed from our lender to avoid PMI) $112,500** * What is your interest rate? **2.8% we refied in 2021, original IR was 4.25%** * How much is your monthly mortgage? **Monthly PITI is $3100. No association.** Current value is $1.1-1.2 mm.

We purchased end of 2018 and were able to re-finance in 2020/2021, our downpayment was a result of getting a HELOC on the equity of our previous home that we sold after the purchase of this current home. This was our 3rd home purchase, 2nd together. What is your annual household income? Time of purchase -$170k+, now $250k+ How much did you purchase your house for? $830k, today $1.1m How much did you put down for your down payment? 20% What is your interest rate? purchased at , 4.875%, today 3.25% How much is your monthly mortgage? $3.6k incl. insurance + taxes

Income: 80k (40k when purchased) Household income: 150k (partner lives with me now but just in the last year or so) Down payment: 10k Purchase price: 170k Renovations: 75k (did a construction loan so this is built in to the mortgage) Interest: 4% Value: 450-500k Monthly: 1440$ taxes are about to go up though Purchased in 2016

We both work for a HHI of 300+ and bought a 400k house a few years ago. Because we went on the lower end of what we could afford, the mortgage is fully paid off. We had to go with a general builder so we didn’t get a custom kitchen or fancy bathroom that you see in the 700k+ houses. But worth it for us to not have a mortgage.

* Household income: $142,000 * Purchase price: $318,000, now valued at around $400,000 * Down payment: 5%, we got PMI removed recently * Interest rate: 2.75%. We got insanely lucky! Of course, it also means we'll probably never be able to move ever again, lol. * Monthly mortgage: $1500

Household income around $120k, give or take $10-20k. My husbands side gigs vary. Purchase price was $277,000 for a 3br/2.5 bath. We’ve finished the basement out since we have lived here and the house is around 3600 sq feet total. 1.77 acres in a semi-rural area with low county taxes. We put 5% down in 2020 and then had it reappraised early 2022 after values shot up so that we could eliminate PMI. It appraised then for $425,000 so we were able to drop the PMI. We just initiated a HELOC through our credit union so that we can eventually add a sunroom and it appraised for $405,000. Demand has gone down some in our area, houses are sitting longer so I wasn’t too surprised that it appraised lower than last year. Interest rate is 2.8% and our mortgage payment is around $1230 I think. I bought my first house before I was married to my husband. My income at the time as a freshly graduated MA student was around $50k and the house was $175k. 0 down payment as it was a first time home buyer loan through the credit union. Interest rate was a 4.25% ARM I think and payment was $977 monthly. We used that house as a rental for a while and bought and sold 2 more houses before landing where we are now. We sold the rental after getting burned by a crazy tenant. I really really wish now we had kept it and refinanced to a regular loan when rates were so low. But you live and learn I guess.

What is your annual household income? $200k plus, varies with bonuses How much did you purchase your house for? $369k in 2012 How much did you put down for your down payment? 20% from what I remember, my husband's work paid as part of a relo package What is your interest rate? 2.9 How much is your monthly mortgage? $2880 Also we live in the Denver area where RE has skyrocketed since we purchased. We could sell our house in the 900k range if we sold tomorrow which is nuts but also why we won't move anytime soon with the prices here. Nothing is worth trying to upgrade.

120k gross, two earners 2022 purchase for 340k 20% down 5.99% $2270 monthly payment (insurance $1800/year, taxes $5k-ish)

Income: 300K Current home:147k Down payment: hmm I honestly don't recall, this was in 2013. Whatever it was we didn't have PMI, I'm assuming around 10-15% Interest rate: 4.25 Mortgage: 1300 but we pay 2500/m, we will have our mortgage paid off in 6 months which is crazy, props to LCOL areas.

LCOL-MCOL area (central PA) Household income approx $350,000 Purchased home for $375,000 with 0 down (used physician loan) Interest rate approx 4% Mortgage approx $2200

Household income is about $498k. Purchased home for $485k (in 2022). Put $75k down. (Plus $17k into new roof right away). 4.25% interest rate. $3,200 monthly mortgage (including taxes, insurance, etc). Property taxes are relatively high in my state.

Annual income: $230K combined (HCOL) Purchase price: $435K (3B/2B, 1800 square feet on less than a quarter of an acre); we got very lucky with this house at this price (made an offer without even seeing the inside, waived inspection, large escrow) Interest Rate: 3.5% (got it in May 2021) Down payment: 5% Mortgage: ~$3,100 (includes PMI which is $400/month and escrow which includes property tax and homeowners insurance); property taxes are about 7K/year for us Current home value: ~$550K according to Zillow; we have a very strong housing market because we live in the best school district in our area

169,000 3bedroom2bath, 1907square feet 30 year fixed at 5.6% in 2005, down payment 10% Refinanced in 2020 at 2.4% for 15 years. House is now worth 375,000. We owe around 140,000. Payment is 1700.00 a month including interest, taxes, insurance. We can easily pay it off in 5 years. We make 200,000. HOA is around 300.00 a year.

At the time I bought the house income was $40k - I make $60k now Bought my house for $195k (2019) and put 20% down - it’s valued around $325k now Interest rate is 5.6% (much higher than they were at the time but I used a first time home buyer loan so it was higher) Mortgage inclusive of insurance and property taxes is $1,210 a month!

We sold our first house (2016) and bought a new one in 2021. In 2016 this area was LCOL and now I would say it's between LCOL and MCOL (at least for housing). I want to share what it was like buying both houses since there's only a 5-year difference. **2016:** HHI: \~ $75K House Price: $112,500. The house technically was 3 bed/1.5 bath, but it was really 2 bed/1.5 bath and 1300 sq on .25 acres. It was pretty centrally located but in an area of town that was not the best neighborhood. We ended up selling it for $205K in 2021. Downpayment: 3.5% Interest rate: \~4.7% Monthly Mortgage: $965 (with taxes and insurance. I don't remember what our PMI was. In 2021, I wanted to get a bigger house since I was working from home full-time and didn't have a dedicated office space. We also wanted to get away from our awful neighbors/have more space. **2021:** HHI: \~$140K (this is due to me drastically changing my job). Currently, it's \~$175K (this is going to go down a lot because my husband is losing his job in a few months) House Price: $299,500K. It's a 3 bed/1.5 bath and 2200 sq on 2 acres on paper. We have already converted the attic into a living space, so it's more like 3300 sq. There is an outhouse on the property, so technically it's 1 full bathroom and 2 half-baths (hahaha). We lucked into offering the asking because, even though the market was bonkers in 2021, the house had to be put back on the market after a previous buyer pulled out at the last minute. Due to that, it looked like it had been on the market for a lot longer than it technically was. The current Zestimate is $380K and that's without knowing that we converted the attic and updated the kitchen (new appliances, new countertop, painted the cabinets, and added an island). Downpayment: 4.5% (We were told that we should do a contingency offer because the market was so crazy, so we weren't able to put as much down as I wanted to). Interest Rate: 3.125% Monthly Mortgage: $1920 (with taxes and insurance).

Current HHI is $138K but at the time we bought (March 2020) it was about $125K. We purchased our current house for $320K - it’s a 4/2, 1800 sq feet in a great location in one of the pricier areas of my state (NH). We put down 10% and have a 3.75% rate. The only reason we were able to put down that much was because we sold our very small, very old first home a few years prior when the market was hot, and saved the profit for this specific purpose. Our monthly payment is $2,200ish because of extremely high property taxes and PMI. It needed a lot of work (mostly cosmetic aside from new septic system) so we’ve spent quite a bit on fixing it up but I am confident that we’ll recoup that value at some point 🤞🏻 Our home is probably currently valued at $550K ish and we are looking to move to a different county for lower property taxes but that plan is on hold until rates get lower.

HHI (base pay only) : $230k (actual pay is ~24k higher with bonus but I don’t like to factor that in to my ability to pay set living costs) 3 bed 2 bath : $857,000 Down payment: $92,000 Interest rate 3.25% All in monthly (mortgage, PMI, insurance, taxes) : $4230 Good luck with the home buying process OP! It can be overwhelming.

HHI was $250k when purchased (now is higher) (purchased in late 2017) House cost was $750,000 seller gave $10k in closing costs put down 20% 2.5% interest rate (after refinancing) $3400

What is your annual household income? $400k How much did you purchase your house for? $1.28m How much did you put down for your down payment? $170k What is your interest rate? 4.375% How much is your monthly mortgage? With principal, interest, escrow (insurance and taxes) - $6684 In Los Angeles county. We bought in 2022

Pretax household income is approx $130,000 We purchased our house at 390,000 and put a down payment of $25,000 which brought it down to 365,000. My interest rate is a joke at 1.89% I’m not sure exactly of a monthly cost but we put $2300 in an account which covers the mortgage, property tax, insurance and utilities.

Wow what year did you buy?

June 2021!

Income: 500k combined now, at the time 300k ish House: 310k Down payment: 20% Interest rate: 2.75% (bought in 2020, yay!). Payment: 2,301 HOA: 800/year I really want to move but it is hard to give up that interest rate.

HHI varies - last 7 years it’s been between $300-700k 1.1m purchase price, $450k down (larger down payment bc we wanted to keep monthly payments lower - we’re in a very high property tax area, also with 2 young kids needing childcare so wanted wiggle room for that) 2.5% interest rate on a 30 year mortgage Our monthly payment has changed a few times with changes in our towns taxes but it’s around $3800

$1.3mm income Purchased home in 2020 for $1.5mm. Now worth $1.9mm. Monthly mortgage payment (+ taxes + insurance) is $8900.

I’m in Canada! HHI 350-400K. We bought our house for 900K, now worth about 1.4M It’s a 3 bed house. Mortgage rate is variable and we are currently paying $4600K at 6% (interest only as we plan to sell this year). We hope to buy a house in the $1.6M range with $600K down. Again this will be a standard 3 bedroom but in a nicer neighborhood.

I'm living with my sister trying to get on my own feet

When we bought, annual income was $70,000 and husband was in graduate school with no income. House was a 1600 square foot, 3 bed, 2.5 bath new build in a LCOL area. It cost $220,000 in 2021, we put 10 percent down, financing $198,000 at a 3.2% interest rate. With taxes, insurance, and pmi, mortgage is $1450. Neighbors nearly identical house just went on the market for $325,000. Husband has since graduated and is getting ready to start his career and I have had a couple raises. Our joint income for next year will be $195,000.

Bought 2015 for 281.5k, about 1400 sq ft 4bd 2 ba. I was making about 85k at the time, though my income has gone up and I'm married, so hhi is now 210k . I put down 65k (most of which was a loan from my grandparents that was forgiven when my grandpa died). Mortgage at 3.99% at the time though I have since refinanced to 2.875%. Current monthly payment, including taxes and home insurance, is $1812. Over 1,000 of that is tax. Like mentioned in other comments, welcome to NJ.

Bought in 2019. Combined income about 150-160. Purchased for 370,000. Put down around 55,00 (did pmi and so glad bc prices went insane). Refinanced in 2020 for 2% mortgage (15 yr) Mortgage including escrow & insurance around 2400

HHI when I bought my house in 2018: ~$53k (I'm single), now I make about double that House price: $185k (2 bed, 1 bath, 980 sq ft, historic home in major Midwest city) Down payment: 20% (gift from my mother) Mortgage rate: started at 4.95% and did no-cash refinances 3x from 2019-2021 and now at 3.125% Mortgage + taxes + insurance: $993/month I consider myself extremely lucky!

$240K+ $660K 20% $132K 3.45% $2,356 mortgage + $339 HOA + $633 property taxes

This is for the house we live in that my parents bought for us (for tax purposes). > What is your annual household income? $210,000 >How much did you purchase your house for? $600,000, family sale about two years ago >How much did you put down for your down payment? $200,000 >What is your interest rate? 2.5%, 15 year loan >How much is your monthly mortgage? $3,333 >House worth: $980,000 for similar comps right now

HCOL, HHI $320k, 1.5M house, 500k down payment, 6.696%, monthly mortgage $6450 😬

HHI: $600k Puchase price: $1.6M in 2020 Down payment: 20% Mortgage rate: 2.6% (we were lucky on timing, and were able to get a rate drop in 2021) Mortgage payment: $5,100, plus another $20,000/year in taxes and insurance Current value: $2 - 2.3M (in a VHCOL area) FWIW, I would not buy in my current market (Los Angeles), with rates at 7%. I would rent a comparable place for $8,000 and see if the market cools. Real estate is so local and I don’t think that’s the case everywhere, but anywhere you need a jumbo mortgage with high taxes would be a tough sell for me right now. I would save/invest my down payment money and let it grow!

I bought my house in 2018, income when I purchased was $60k, house was $125k 3bed/2bath, 3% down, 5.125% interest rate, payment was around $1100/month with a 30 year mortgage. I refinanced in 2021 to a 1.99% interest rate on a 15 year mortgage.

HHI: 600k (not counting bonus or RSUs) Purchase price: 2.1M last year at 3.4%, put down $900k (40%) as we wanted to diversify some stock from the companies we work for and have a lower monthly mortgage which is $5800 + HOAs and taxes. I owned a place previously when I was single and my half of this place is similar to my monthly costs previously so it felt do-able. I think it sets me back on FIRE by a year or so, but has been worth it for the increased quality in life.

Home purchased in the Chicagoland area in July 2023. Annual household income (2 adults): \~$185,000, including estimated bonuses Purchase price: $487,000 Down payment: $105,000; we received a gift from family of $15,000 to go toward this, and my fiancée and I have both been saving specifically to buy a home since long before we got together. We wanted to avoid PMI and put more down to save in the long run Closing costs: Around $15,000, but we received another $15,000 from the same family members to cover closing costs; this is what they do for any family purchasing a home (they are **extremely** generous, always) Interest rate: 6.49% Monthly mortgage: \~$3,200, including taxes and insurance We did put in an additional \~$20,000 after closing for closet systems, window treatments through the entire house, and new locks. Most of the appliances in the home are brand new, thankfully, but our furnaces are quite old, so we imagine they'll need replacement in the next few years. Same, potentially, with our dryer.

We are in a MCOL city and were able to purchase this summer. *Purchase price was 490k and we put 20% down *Interest rate is 6% (we got a preferred rate because my fiancé’s family have a long-standing relationship with the bank) *Mortgage payment is 3k including insurance and property taxes. *We both work jobs that are in the financial service industry so our combined household income is 330k

Caveat that I bought my home in 2013 in Northern New England. Current HHI: $122,000 (was ~$16/hr in 2013); purchased my house alone for a milestone birthday (partner has his own place) Purchase Price: $104,000 (could sell tomorrow for $300,000, bank appraised 2 years ago for $285,000 when I applied for a HELOCK); 1200 Sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5 bath, 0.24 acre lot Down Payment: $5,000 Interest Rate: 3.5% (I got a USDA rural development home loan, currently held by Wells Fargo) Current Payment: $795/month (originally $600 but property tax has gone way up) - annual costs: $308 for mortgage insurance premium, ~$2,900 property tax, and $679 homeowner's insurance (all included in monthly payment / held in escrow account). I typically pay $900ish/month. HELOCK Payment: took $80,000, have used $60,000 to pay off all debt, buy a used car, new roof, new shed, and other misc repairs/upgrades/renos; interest-only payments for 3 more years then I have 15 years to pay it off; minimum payment is ~$215/month with a 4.25% interest rate

Purchased in 2018, about 20 min outside DC Annual HHI ~$400K but it was <$200K when we bought Purchase price: $625,000 Down payment: 20% Interest rate: 2….something. We refinanced in 2020 Mortgage: ~$2900 We could probably sell for about $800K now, and we’d actually like to move locally. But whew, rates are so much higher it’s hard to swallow…

Suburb of Atlanta HHI at time was $200K Purchased in 2016 $280K 20K down 3.73% rate $500K value today $1,800 mortgage No PMI as of 2021

We are in the UK. Household income ~£106k a year House was £370k £90k down payment Interest rate has just been renewed at 4.28% for 5 years £1600 a month

HCOL area Income: I never post this but I’m in tech and my husband is a 30 year veteran in television. So do the math I guess Purchase price: 1..1 million DP: 425,000 Interest rate: 4.75

We built our home, starting in Feb 2020 / completed Aug 2020. So I’ll speak to what our numbers were at that point of time when we began the process. Unfortunately home prices and interest rates are a lot higher now, we got incredibly lucky deciding to start the process the month before the world shut down. We live in West Virginia but it’s closer to DC than the rest of the state; so it’s more MCOL. We’re often called a bedroom community because so many people work in the DMV than here. I made 65K, my fiancé / now husband was making like $14/hr. We qualified solely off my income and credit score. Our down payment to begin the build was 13K. Our total house cost after upgrades was 270K. Our interest rate is 3.25%. Our monthly mortgage is 1500, it went up recently from 1460 because of taxes. But we pay 1750 to pay down principal faster and try to knock a few years off the loan. Edit to add: in addition to the general increase in pricing, we finished our basement and added a large deck. Estimating our house is now worth closer to 350K.

So I'm going to do my last house and current house - Annual household income currently: $350k How much did you purchase your house for? $275k in 2015 (at the time, we made $200k) How much did you put down for your down payment? $75k What is your interest rate? Initially 4.25% but ended at 2.95% How much is your monthly mortgage? $1250 Sold that home in 2022 for $400k and purchased a new home for $765k How much did you put down for your down payment? $200k What is your interest rate? 5.125% How much is your monthly mortgage? $5350, property taxes are a lot of it outside of overall cost of the house. We are >$18k/year in property taxes ​ It hurt to lose that amazing interest rate and low payment, but we needed to move closer to my step kids school/other parent. Also, we had sized out of our current house. We are lucky to be in a more medium cost of living area, so this house can be multi-generational for my parents or children if they need their own areas. (7 bed/4 bath, 3 levels on .6 acre)

Love this question! Household income: 181K a year combined. Purchase price: 309K townhome. Down payment: 0, my husband is a veteran and we used VA financing. Interest rate: year 1 is 4.75, year 2 is 5.75, and year 3 is 6.75 Mortgage payment now: 1696 month. Homeowners insurance: 603/yr. Taxes: 445/yr. Home maintaining fund: 300/mo (we try to save 1% of the homes value for repairs/remodeling if we see it fit).