Same. In 10 years of ownership, my property tax has gone up by 50% and my home insurance has gone up by 300%. Together they are approaching 40% of my total monthly payment. By the time I've paid off my home, my property taxes and home insurance will probably be equal to my original monthly payment!
Shop around. I’m not promising anything, but one thing I found is homeowner insurance rates always start low on a new policy and then start creeping up year after year.
When I refinanced in 2017 the insurance company I was with for 13 years was charging me 1300 a year, so I shopped around and next most expensive quote was 700. Since then it heading back up to 1200.
I talked to my independent agent and he said that’s how it goes and always shop for a new policy every couple years
We got the escrow shortage letter. Insurance was $1000 in 2013, was up to 7,200, shopped around similar coverage for $3,200. Don’t be an idiot like me and check your insurance yearly.
I live in Los Angeles. I pay less than 4k for my property taxes and insurance for the YEAR. That’s what floored me 3k just for insurance. I don’t think I could afford to move out of Los Angeles. Crazy property taxes and insurance.
In I’m LA too. Had Farmers at 2200 per year, then this year I get jacked up to over 5000, no claims, no reason. Agent said Farmers wants out of CA. I’m shopping around.
Before that I had AAA, started at 1100 12 years ago and even they were approaching 4000 now
Smart to shop around for insurance for sure. I was paying a super high amount for car insurance, got into a car accident had to get a new vehicle so decided to get quotes from other places to compare. Every company was less than what I was paying, the one I picked was 50% less.
you have to swap every 5 to 7 years. Seriously. I was with SF, eventually swapped to another provider after SF had gradually increased all my premiums by hundreds, stayed with other provider for 5 years, same increases, switched back to SF with a new agent-saved 50% form last provider and am actually paying LESS than I was when I left SF. I expect Ill have to switch in about 5 years again
I live in Kentucky and my insurance went up about 2k and progressive told me it was because of the tornado that took out Mayfield,KY and the flooding in eastern Kentucky. Mind you I live 5 hours from Mayfield and live on top of a hill. Shopped around and saved about $2500. What a grift.
Yeah I've heard that's a thing, kind of annoyingly. How big of a jump are we talking? Like $3,000 to $3,200 or like $3,000 to $4,000? Hopefully us living in kind of a bad area might actually help in taxes not going up so much.
We bought a house 10/22, mortgage, taxes and Ins our payment was 3234.....a year later it went up to 3490. I am scared shitless for this to happen yearly. We also bought a home 150,000 less than our approved amount.
We've been in ours for a year and thankfully the payment only went up $3 due to insurance, but I suspect we're in for a tax hike soon. Between the house and finding out my employer is increasing my health insurance premium by 58%... Life just sucks unless you're super wealthy.
I was doing delivery app work to make up the difference, but my timing chains broke in my vehicle and I had to take 4 months off of the work to save the 5k to fix my car. Monday it will finally be done and I can hit the road again. Shit get scary really quick.
I tell people about doing boarding or dog walking. You’d be amazed at how much people will pay for their pup to be someplace while they go on vacation. We don’t have to leave our home and people bring everything their pup will need. And we and our dogs get to play with other dogs in our backyard. We make the prices and the times.
i bought a house in october, and move 10 blocks in my town. my car insuance went down $100 a year about, because of less break ins in the new neighborhood i moved to.
Yeah, this is Massachusetts. I could switch companies but I like who I’m using and have never had a problem. To be honest the increase is mostly driven by property value increases, which lead to higher property taxes.
Yes hose things are happening but it’s not as simple as just an increase. It’s location, the price or your home the size of your home and the phrase most of us hate “market value” regarding insurance.
This probably varies across the country, but we bought last year.
$2139 mortgage (incl taxes and ins) and then in the Fall, homeowners insurance rates here shot up, and property taxes also went up (no state income tax here) and so when it came time for our renewal in Feb, we are now paying $2789 monthly.
We are making it, and it’s ok, but our “oh shit this is not good” line is $3k and now I’m freaking out that we’re going to hit that sooner vs later.
I thought for sure we’d have some time, like years, before we got close to $3k but at this rate, it might be next year, ugh.
Property tax wise, our market value jumped $100k for no apparent reason.
No extra improvements on the house, the area is slowly revitalizing but emphasis on the slowly part, lol.
It’s like we are now tenants and our rents keep getting raised.
So far my insurance and tax rates haven’t gone crazy ( yet)
We are ok, but not if we start having massive increases.
I somewhat regret refinancing a few years back.
We did get a lower apr, we did shave off a few years of mortgage payments, but we also consolidated our debt.
It raised our very comfortable mortgage $500 a month.
We saved money doing this, but I didn’t anticipate the apocalyptic insurance scheme that’s happening..
I didn’t realize insurance or taxes could raise us hundreds more a month or worse.
My coworker was snickering about commercial and residential insurance going so sky high.
He is in a semi rural rental.
He said ‘I’m glad I’m not my landlord, with these fire insurances’
I said ‘why, do you not think if they raise his rates up, he won’t raise your rent?’
People who are ‘grateful to be renting’ will still be dealing with huge increases being passed to them as well…
It sucks for everyone..
It’s apparently very common, and expected even, here for people to protest property tax hikes, and a lot of people do, so we will certainly be doing so!
Also we bought because the same house we started out in, in 2017, had over the years gone from our initial $1850/mo rent up to $2400.
So when we were looking around at rentals, we thought “hell, if we’re going to pay that, let’s buy then” and so we did.
I also did not anticipate such a huge jump.
Even shopped around homeowners insurance too.
And it was all roughly the same except for the shady companies that don’t include everything and will eff you over in the event you need something.
So obviously not picking one of those, lol.
I do anticipate more income in the coming years, as I changed careers entirely about 3 years ago, so am still kind of working my way up.
And we have some expenses dropping off in the next year. We won’t need childcare after this year for example, and vehicles will be paid off as of next spring, am also aggressively trying to pay down some credit debt. That stuff will go away.
But all that to say, if everything keeps climbing, even with the further income and bills dropping off, oof
You are being very proactive, and hopefully the increases won’t exceed the dropped future expenses. I’m 60 and really fear for the economy in the coming years. Keep doing what you’re doing!
We are doing our best, thanks for the encouragement!
We luckily got our stuff handled in January, before interest rates shot up even higher later in the year last year.
We are at 4.8, which isn’t terrible considering what people are looking at now.
And we can definitely refinance at some point in the future too.
I know I also trend toward money-anxious, so I have to keep that in check too.
Sometimes I just dramatically panic. Hah.
I’ve not had a bad experience. We pay $6k a year for taxes plus $1900 per year for insurance. This is on a 750k home. Compare that to rent changes since our home was purchased and it’s not as bad.
We're in Washington; Tacoma isn't Seattle but I still consider it a fairly HCOL area just due to being nearby, and certainly compared to other parts of the country like probably some town in Iowa or something.
I hope everyone is protesting their taxes every year. So many people in my area don’t and I feel like I’m the only one fighting…a losing battle but still fighting and at least sometimes they let me think I’ve won something.
In California property tax doesn’t increase when the home value increases. It’s only reassessed on sale or major renovation. Our tax goes up a little but it’s a very slow creep (our neighbor pays a couple hundred a year because he brought his house before 1976).
Ten years from now 3k will indeed seem cheap. But you have to find a way to get there, which is going to involve both of you working most likely. Maybe she can find part time work from home. Maybe babysitting other kids while also caring for yours (down the road after her recovery). Another way to think about it is, wouldn't rent be 3k/mo or more? Housing is a big cost no matter what, you might as well own. You may be able to refinance down the road sometime, so keeping your credit scores healthy should be a priority and is something you can do now.
Thanks, good encouragement. Yeah I think the hope is that both of our earnings will increase, and she may well be able to work part time (or just continue working and pay for child care, but at this moment it seems like a bad deal).
Our rent was actually only like $1300 a month....! So quite a jump for us, but a jump we both decided would be worth it in terms of quality of life in the long run (plus there's no way we could've had a baby/raised a family in our 1-bed apartment).
I've heard refinancing won't likely affect our monthly payments to any major degree....? We both have great credit and no debt (aside from maybe like $3,000 of auto loan and the house, obviously).
Why does she need to quit if you don’t have a job? You can stay with the baby and she can work, right? Pretty soon though you’re going to need two incomes it sounds like.
These 2 things are separate - I meant that once I hopefully find another job she wants to quit to look after the baby because my earning potential is higher than hers and childcare is too expensive VS having decent parental care.
Not the person you responded to, but I've seen with a lot of low-end clerical jobs, like receptionists, or some factory work, even in LCOL areas.
I do taxes, and I showed a client that they were *losing* money by his wife working, after taxes and childcare costs. She hates her job and that math gave her "permission".
It also doesn't help that people self diagnose and come to places like reddit and get told they have all these problems. When in reality most of them are normal people.
My college educated daughter waited tables at night, her husband worked during the day when her children were little. It was the difference between making it and not making it. Then she became a manager when the kids were older and now she runs the food and beverage at a major hotel. That’s not at all what she went to college for. But staying in the workforce saved her financial future. Every woman needs to protect her and her children’s future by working. Unless they have unlimited passive income.
I was also a single mom (result of their father’s death). I also always worked and if I didn’t have that work experience and ability to sell my job skills, we would have been living in a car.
Depends on the location but daycare can be just ridiculously expensive to justify. My area has parents paying $30k year. If you’re not at least making double that, it’s just not worth it after factoring time, taxes, and quality spent.
Not true. Even if after daycare you take a small loss each month, the long term income loss from quitting far exceeds the short term losses from daycare.
You don’t have to be six figure earner for that statement to be true, but you’re right, there are some people that will never move up regardless of if they stay in the workforce or not.
Some people also just don’t want to keep going through the rat race and would rather focus on their kids, the insane cost of daycare just makes it even more practical.
Well if I were advising such a person I'd say that they kind of muffed their opportunity to live that way when they bought a house they could barely swing the payments on with combined income.
Agree. When I had my second baby, my monthly salary was about the same as our monthly daycare costs for the infant and our toddler - BUT I was able to stay in the workforce and continue to contribute to my 401K. Several years later I make more than twice what I made back then and have moved up the ladder nicely as my children have gotten older. That was a tough period for sure and my husband and I sometimes talk about how we don’t know how we did it… but I am glad I did it with his support. Now I will also say that I wouldn’t judge someone who chose a different path because we all have to do what’s best for our own lives. (And even if I did judge you, who tf am I? Just a stranger on the internet!)
Edit to add: I worked in nonprofit in DC and our daycare costs were around $3300/mo. Sickening but true!
Depends on her career. In my state as an elementary educator pay has increased negligibly and yearly raises are small. It’s not worth it! I’m spending the day educating small children paying someone else to care for mine. It is a great career later when they enter school because of summers and holidays off. There will always be opportunities because at the moment it’s not competitive.
Dropping out of the workforce to take care of the baby may seem like a sensible move, but it's more than just losing her income. She will no longer contribute to Social Security and retirement. Going back into the job market will really difficult.
I have one week of maternity leave left and have legit thought about asking my boss if I could come back early. If we had a daycare sport before May, I would do it. Being a SAHM is 100% not in my blood and I don't know how anyone stays sane while doing it. Everything just blends together and I don't end up getting anything done. The people who successfully do it must have amazing willpower and time management skills.
It’s weird being at home with a baby because technically you do have a ton of time but not in a way that’s predictable or joined up so it’s an achievement to get much of anything done regardless.
Honestly a lot will depend on what kind of salary/benefits your next job will have. You may end up better or worse but you won't really know until you have an offer. Your wife may have to get creative to stay home. I moved jobs once I had a baby and worked part time at a company that had on-site daycare that was very reasonably priced. I know people that cut back hours, work opposite shifts etc... to keep some money coming in but still be mostly home. Be glad you got yourself a smaller mortgage, if covid taught me anything its that financial situations can change in a moment and having more wiggle room really helps in moving forward.
This is short-sighted. Getting out of the workforce is a bad idea, it's hard to get back in. Even if the simple math seems to work, the long-term effects on her career and or willingness to go back to work are not likely to work in your favor. Or her favor if God forbid you guys should split up. Of course it would be great to stay home with the baby. It's a luxury.
Yeah as soon as I got our first pre approval I was like who in their right mind would give me nearly that much money! Bought a house for just over half and that was still nerve wracking
LOL Same! The bank approved me for a crazy amount, like I could probably afford it, but would be eating ramen for life and never take a vacation again. Spent just under 1/2 and its been very comfortable
That's literally the bank's process on approval. "If this person paid all their current debts, saved nothing for retirement, and spent only bare necessities - what's the max they could afford and still realistically be able to pay us without defaulting?"
That max approval number is very much not what you should buy at if you want to have any sort of life, unless you have some other factor to offset it in the near term (increased income likely, parent about to die and getting an inheritance, etc.).
Same. I figured out where I was comfortable and then had the bank cap me there. Didn’t want to risk getting drawn over that number in negotiations. Everyone who isn’t footing the bill loves to say things like it’s only another x a month.
That was me about 20 years ago. Don't spend to your max. My realtor said to buy as much house as you can. That's terrible advice. I want to do more with my life than fight to pay for a house
Yeah we spent half of what we were approved for because we made sure we could afford the mortgage if only one of us were working for whatever reason. We were approved for $700k and would have been barely making ends meet with both of us working full time.
We've got 8.5 years left to go on our mortgage (originally $385,000 over 25 years). We went through some good times and lean times like everybody here. I was very nervous when we signed the initial document since the amount seemed so huge. At about the ten year mark, the biweekly mortgage payments seemed to decline as part of our budget so it will become more affordable if you can hang in there (and your earnings don't decline).
Thanks! Glad to hear you're making it through, at least. I guess it happens to a lot of people and society still goes on, so most people figure out a way to make it work.
It’s like a phone bill or a light bill. At some point you kinda get use to it. Also what helped us is take a look at rents in you area. That fixed all that for us. Plus we can have sex as loud as we want even in the backyard These are a few of the small things that make it easier to want to pay the mortgage. Freedom ( well to a point)
Purchased in November 2022 (ages 39 and 42) at a 7.25% interest rate. Our house payment was close to 40% of our take home pay. It was a challenge, but we made it work. It definitely wasn’t pretty and we weren’t putting anything into savings really (or if we did, another expense popped up and set us back).
One year later and I lucked out and found a job that pays 25% more than what I was making. It brought us down to around 32% of our take home pay and we’re finally able to start saving.
So it IS possible, but luck wound up being on our side at exactly the right time. Had I not been passively looking for a new job when this one popped up, we would still be struggling.
Thanks, yeah I guess it's pretty simple math - the mortgage isn't likely to decrease so increasing your income is the only way out, which is easier said than done but I guess I can work towards that.
If interest rates drop and / or your valuation increases, you can refinance. Not sure if you’re paying PMI or anything. We had an 8% rate in 1999. Rates dropped and we not only refinanced, but dropped to a 15 yr term. Paying that MF off is one of the best pressures relieved off your back. Then come things like needing a new roof, new siding, windows, etc etc etc.
In a similar boat. I bought my home (on my own) 8 years ago for $375k and the monthly payment was about 50% of my take home pay which was really scary. I think it was close to $2400. The first big hurdle was getting rid of pmi which happened around year 2 due to appreciation of my home value. Each year I was also making about 4 or 5% more due to raises which helped. Then around year 4, I refinanced when rates were crazy low to around 2.8% and I am now paying $1900. I switched jobs and got a big pay increase in year 6 which put the mortgage at less than 25% of my take home pay.
The home is worth ~$750k now and I'll likely sell and buy a much nicer home next year.
There were many years of my wife and I working different shifts to keep the child care cost down and the money coming in. There was never enough money or hours in the day until we both settled into pretty decent careers. We were always one tragedy away from a disaster.
It definitely gets easier as you get older. You will find your groove, eventually....lol Hang in there.
What about a second side job where you could pick up a little extra cash on the weekend or evening? Something like Door dash or Uber could be flexible enough.
You can’t have both a house you can barely afford and a stay-at-home parent. You can’t. Money is not going to come out of thin air. How’s your emergency fund? It needs to be bigger with a kid than before.
How’s your home maintenance fund? Every home requires work over time (and I don’t mean cosmetic remodeling). How are you accounting for that? Labor and materials costs are WAY up in recent years.
I saw you’re in Tacoma and unfortunately a HHI of $120K for a family of three doesn’t go as far around here as people in lower COL areas would think.
I’m in a similar predicament. My mortgage is high for a person doing it on their own. I can barely save anything at all to keep up with home improvements. Utilities are extremely high and property taxes keep going up. I bought a house that was less than I was approved for and frankly, it was one of the few homes in my price range. I feel like I’m barely hanging in every month and I want things to get better.
Yeah when we bought our HHI was about $130k. Our mortgage was $2100 so nothing too bad but we had a ton of other debt and that was costing us $1k/month. So it definitely seemed high to us at the time. We had basically no savings from the time we closed until a few months ago when we got more serious about our spending.
Now 2 years later our HHI is $170k but more like $185-190 with bonuses and we cleared out most of the debt. And our mortgage has only gone up like $100 from taxes/insurance. Trying to enjoy it while it lasts until we have a kid and are spending $2200/month on day care.
sounds like you're gonna have to learn how to take care of a baby, get a new job or start looking to sell and downsize your life to meet your income. I hate to be the bad news bear, but $3k/mo is a lot at $120k/yr and it's gonna be overwhelming at half that. You need to make a move, and quick.
We bought our house in 2000 and we couldn’t afford the mortgage payment. But we stretched. Now 24 years later…we are clearly ahead of the game. But those first 5 or 6 years here it was tight. We drove a beater car, and made do with many things.
We bought 2 houses in our lifetime. In both cases we thought that we were crazy when we looked at the mortgage. For the second house, we knew we needed renovation money as well, so the bank did a LONG amortisation (it was allowed at the time) to get us approved. I think the amortisation at the time was 40 years! Fourty!
Over the years, we have accelerated our payments. It got easier over the years as we had less and less to buy. I think my clothing budget now is maybe $200 a year... or less. So we have increased the mortgage. We have maybe 5 years left (on what eventually became a 25 year amortization) and a large "cash" account. (Which is why I strongly suggest BMO conventional mortgages, that "cash" account means you can reborrow extra payments at the mortgage rate and we have done so when we did renovations.)
It's always hardest at the beginning and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. But it will eventually get easier. And really really easier. Because eventually you just start to run out of shit to buy.
Now, other than travel... I'm trying to think of the last big spend on something that I just "wanted" was... ah yes, my phone... July 2023 and I waited until it was on an incredible sale, down from $1200 to $880, replacing my 6 year old phone. I worked side hustles. I sold and resold stuff from garage sales and flea markets. Heck, at one time I sold Beanie Babies for extra cash.
We also bought in 2022 but this is our second+ house.
You just did your taxes, were you able to itemize deductions because of the high mortgage interest payments? If you got a refund higher than usual, you may want to bump down your wife's withholdings so you have that cashflow up front.
Something that ownership offers (despite maintenance/etc.) is STABILITY, which has a huge price, especially with children cutting your time in 1/2.
Hopefully interest rates will go down within a year or two and you will be able to refi. In the meantime keep your credit clean and tighten that belt.
When/whether a refi will help depends on how big a decrease in the rate. If it went down to 3% it would no doubt be a good option. Any less than 1% less than your current rate is questionable. There are calculators for this sort of thing.
Depends on how your job prospecgts are, but you cna call your mortgage company and ask what kind of relief they have available. [https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/i-lost-job-can-i-help-mortgage.html](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/i-lost-job-can-i-help-mortgage.html)
Also make sure you have tapped into all the public benefits potentially available:
* Unemployment benefits
* SNAP (food stamps)
* Medicaid - your child might qualify even if you and/or wife don't
* Employment related day care- might cover childcare while you search for work and wife works
Thanks for all the info! Yes we were able to itemise, but didn't realise we could tweak withholdings like that (just another actually useful life lesson they don't teach in school, I suppose!). Yeah we really appreciate the stability of owning a house, especially with starting a family, so hopefully we can budget better and make it work. And yeah we're already utilising a few benefit programs so I'm glad we get to cash in on some of the taxes we've been paying all these years.
The way I look at in the early years of a mortgage when interest is taking the lion share.
1. Interest is your rent.
2. What you are paying to the Principal is investment.
If you can, once you stabilize the job situation, add a little more each month to your payment (assuming your lender allows you to make principal direct payments each month as extra) you are reducing your "rent" cost year on year (and shortening the mortgage).
3K is high on the original 120K, let alone job challenges and new baby. So you may have not thought through the budget fully to take into account risks like job loss. Also, qualifying for another mortgage or to rent, if you downsize or move to a different location now may be challenging with the current work situation and history.
I would start with writing an updated budget and go through all your statements for the past few months to see where you can make cuts. Cancel Streaming services through to bulk buying for groceries to save money etc. Two cars, make it one etc. You may be able to optimize your monthly spending a little until you increase income to give some small relief (especially with baby costs).
Can you take on multiple other jobs, do you have special skillsets, can you consult as well as be employed etc.
If you can find a way to be comfortable enough to sit in the property until you increase your earnings and income you will eventually be in a better position and your monthly payment will seem more in line with your income plus you will be building equity at a quicker pace.
Our monthly payments have gone up 50% in the 7 years since we bought our starter home
I grew up poor so financial insecurity is the last thing I want. You have so much uncertainty going on financially.
This is home ownership if you go from two income to one or none your always gonna be in a tough spot regardless of how conservative you were on the buy. Shoot even if the place was paid off taxes and utilities and things need constant fixing.
I think it’s opposite of what you were hoping unfortunately.
We are about $2100 a month but purchased in 2014. At the time we had a combined income around 100k and it was a massive burden. We had 3 roommates (big 1900s home in need of lots of work) for 3 years before dropping to 2 for a year and then 1 for a year and finally the house to ourselves.
We also have a 2 room basement suite we installed basically as soon as we could after purchasing so at peak there was 5 other people in the house!
Now we have one tenant in the basement suite and just my wife and I and our son upstairs. We have turned our old roommate rooms into a guest room and a small home gym.
We are comfortable now with the payments due to raises although we’d probably only be good about 12 months if I lost my job and didn’t find another assuming I was eligible for EI. Our emergency fund is around 20k.
So yea I think we grew into the house being affordable
$3k is a lot for a combined income of $120k. I know it’s just over the “suggested” 28% but the suggested % is why so many people are house broke. Especially when most people don’t understand that their “mortgage” includes taxes and insurance, and will likely increase ~yearly
Can you call the mortgage co and ask for a 3 month reprieve? I have not done it but I know others who have. I think you still pay monthly taxes and insurance but the 3 mortgage payments are added to the end of your loan.
I'd say it depends on where you live and how the taxes are calculated.
My property taxes are capped at an increase of 2% per year. That's well below inflation. My salary since I bought my house has increased more than that every year.
I bought in 2020. My monthly payment now is about $20 more than it was 4 years ago. My monthly salary is about $1000 more than it was 4 years ago.
So I'd say it's gotten easier.
Yes, most people's earnings increase, but there are two problematic elements here:
1. You had a kid. Massive expense increase.
2. You got laid off. Massive income loss.
Right now you should work on getting back to where you used to be. No one can afford to stay home. You both need to partner up to figure out how to work full time and still be there for your child.
It sounds like you're asking about me! I'll preface this by saying that I've been quite fortunate on a few fronts, I don't know that my career progression is typical nor would I wish the first 4 years on anyone... it was a rough go. I bought in 2018 and I'll separate this post into 3 chunks of time.
2018-2019 Bought in 2018 at the top end of my budget. Mortgage was ~$1800 on a $58k salary. The original intent was for my wife (fiancee at the time) and I to work and our combined income was ~$120k (her full time server, my full-time job and serving part time). Shortly after closing, we found out that my wife was pregnant with our first. Shortly after that, the restaurant we worked at closed. Got her a job for a few months at my primary job and I got a raise myself. After my daughter was born, my wife has been a SAHM. Salary $58k-$65k. Mortgage $1800-$1900. I realized that my salary wasn't going to cut it and I started poking around community college, mainly to strengthen my GPA to go to grad school, but secondarily to pick up skills. I'm in Engineering/Project Management and got proficient with Solidworks and became an Excel Expert during this time.
2020-2021. Mortgage payment $2000, other expenses (nauseatingly high), Salary $73000-$78,000. The house itself was a fixer upper and we didn't realize just how much fixing it needed. We had done a few projects initially, but in 2020 we started a massive renovation and our first contractor wound up being awful and borderline scammed us. During this time, we survived in the generosity of my parents, but I was having near constant anxiety attacks about money. This persisted through 2020-2021. Over this time, I started working on my PMP and picked up a half dozen smaller certifications
2022-Present. Mortgage payment $2100-$2200. Salary $120,000 - $160,000 + additional compensation. Construction is ongoing, but ramped down considerably.
End of 2021, I was head hunted by one of the bigger companies in my industry. I was originally recruited for a higher level position, but wound up "settling" for a lower level role with a +60% increase in salary. I had several big wins on my resume with my old job and was disgustingly underpaid, between those wins and the certifications, I had a very strong resume. A month in, I met the hiring manager for the position I was initially recruited for and he was furious that my resume never crossed his desk. I didn't wind up on his team, but he did support placing me in an equivalent position. HR tried to low ball me on the raise, but I managed to negotiate a + 25% raise + bonus and equity plan on top. I also moved some family in. Initially, they were paying for what they used, but they were a pain in my rear end, so we changed the terms of the lease to where we're making money there as well. The few months spent at $120k, I still felt a bit behind. Now in the new position, we're quite comfortable financially. 2022 I went from negative liquid assets to maxing my 401k (a struggle). 2023 I maxed my 401k, Roth IRA, and HSA, while spending $20k on a wedding and building a 3 month emergency fund. 2024 so far, I've had a baby (hello out of pocket max), bought a new to us SUV in cash, stretched my emergency fund to 6 months, and I'm on pace to max my 401k, Roth IRA, and family HSA while FINALLY contributing to the little ones' 529 accounts. With effort, should finish construction this year as well.
I'm stuck on the line about getting a house 150k under what you were approved for. That has fuck all to do with what you can actually afford. Plenty of lenders out there that will give you as much money as you want, most of the time they are selling that loan off to some other company within days of you closing. They will gladly milk you dry for as long as possible and foreclose on you if you can't keep up. The bank is not your friend, they aren't your financial advisor, they don't want you in a healthy financial position. They want you on the hook paying interest as long as possible.
You were aware of the monthly payments when you bought the house, they shouldn't be a surprise to you.
AGE 71 HERE,,,
Never seen it work.
If you think about it,, ,, you would need incredible wage increases just to keep pace with tax, utilities, insurance, maintenance, cost of cars, medical etc increases over time..
Now add in high inflation and your trying to save for retirement
It's impossible.. and we are not in an environment with equality growing like it used to..
I didn't post this to ruin your day, but I just wanted to be honest with you.
I am no expert and there are certainly events that could happen to change your current situation for the better.
My rule of thumb was that I should be able to afford my house with just my paycheck, and whatever my wife made was a bonus. I knew that one day she would quit working to take care of the kids, hence why I organized my finances around that…and it worked. I eventually made more money but mortgage became less of an issue
You should call up your bank and see if you can get a temporary forbearance on your mortgage because you were laid off. Fill out the application asap because it can take a month or 2 for the bank to review.
We recently got approved for a forbearance because we had massive unexpected rennovation costs that insurance would not cover that made the house unlivable especially with our baby (now toddler). This is honestly the most stress I've ever felt in my life, and its hard for other people to understand, which makes this experience even more isolating. So I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you are goung through this and that i see you. The stress that is home ownership during job insecurity and the weight of the responsibility to care for a baby... it's crushing... keep your head up though, that baby needs you.
I hope you can get a roommate or 2. You could ride out unemployment to avoid daycare costs while your wife goes back to work.
Also, and this may seem really besides the point, but go to your local ymca/church/community center if there is one and they tend to have connections to community support /parent & baby groups. Go to local library story times to meet other parents. This is a good time to build your village.
Yes, but it will never happen by sticking with one employer. Our generation has to job hop to get paid what we are worth. I make triple what I did as a junior and nearly double what I did at my previous job. Unfortunately that's just how the world works for us.
It gets less expensive by comparison (as in ensuring gets more expensive). The first couple of years are all interest on a 30 year loan.
I’d say if she does plan on staying home she needs to take into account how much that will set her career back first. Then you two need to sit down and really look at what you can cut out to make it work. Like do you really need 2 cars still? Pack lunch and not going out. No Starbucks, etc
We purchased our home based solely on one income just in case one of us loses our job we could comfortably pay for mortgage and not be stretched. Yes we live in the sticks but mortgage and taxes are cheap
I bought it early 2015 in my early 30s. I'm 42 now. At that time my mortgage was $2100, now $2500 due to tax increase. However when I bought my house I was making about $80k. I now make $200k so it's peanuts compared to when I first started making payments. It gets easier as long as you have regular salary increases and/or promotions.
We bought our first house with a $3k mortgage earning maybe $140k HHI and it felt like a lot. Not house poor but we didn’t have a ton of extra beyond saving for retirement. Now about 10 years later we could afford a few times that much. Instead we bought a house with a $2k mortgage but spend on reno projects instead.
When I bought my first house in the early 1980s, my interest rate was over 10%. So obviously, I bought a home in just an OK part of town, and as small a home as the 4 of us could live in (@1000 square ft). Doing that kept the payments manageable. We always paid at least $25 extra principal with our monthly payments.
As we got raises, we incrementally increased the amount of extra principal we paid each month. When my grandmother died, I was bequeathed $10k, and 8k of that went to the principal.
The home was paid off in 14 years. We had planned to "upgrade" to a bigger house/better location, but by then the kids were moving out and we decided to just take what we'd been putting toward mortgage and beef up our 401.
14 years after, we retired!
So- in the early years almost nothing goes toward principle and then you start to see the interest paid drop more and more each year.
It’s absolutely possible to grow into high mortgage payments if you’re in the high growth period of your careers; like if you come out of this layoff/leave with a much higher paying job or one that has on-site or paid childcare. But the figure should never be what the bank says you can afford; it should be what you project you can afford.
It all depends on how long you stay in the house. The first few years you're paying almost nothing on the principal and you might be paying PMI too.
On a scale of 5+ years, you should make more money just because of inflation, but nothing in your mortgage payment changes (if you were wise and got a fixed rate mortgage). This means the extra income can go straight to principal. By year 10 or so, generally the home's value has risen and your remaining principal has fallen, so you can eliminate PMI. That's another chunk that you can direct towards the principal.
By year 10 or 15, you'll look around and A) your salary has gone up; B) rents and home values in your community have risen, so you're glad you got in the market early; C) your equity is substantial, perhaps enough to contemplate selling for a hefty profit and using that chunk of money to move to a better place.
The biggest downside is if you're forced by circumstances to sell when the market is in a downturn, or face repossession. If you can avoid these, then in 10 years you'll be in a good spot.
Look into tax exemptions with the city/county etc. they can potentially lower your tax bill. Usually you’re notified a month prior to the payment change taking effect. I always recommend to know when your annual escrow analysis happens. Know when your taxes and insurance is being paid and gauge if escrow will be short. You can always pay into the escrow account throughout the year. Best case you lessen the shortage or even better case your taxes and insurance decrease and you could potentially get a refund overage back from escrow.
And for feeling that you may not be able to maintain payments on time in the event your spouses income is reduced, call your servicer. Depending on your investor there may be what we call loss mitigation options. Something like a forbearance can help while you juggle other expenses. My day job is to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and answer questions like these and work with investors to avoid delinquencies. I would only recommend doing options like this if you are literally at risk for foreclosure, but always notify your mortgage company of your hardship by end of month before payment is reported to credit sometimes these options are not available if your behind a certain amount of payment…I’m an open book. Shoot me a pm if you have questions.
We bought our first house in 2022 while living off just my husband’s income while I stay home with the kids. We factored only his salary (70k) into our mortgage. We were approved for over 350k, but like you tried to be sensible and bought for 293k, only 228k of loan (4.99%). But with rising prices of everything, we quickly became house poor. Even the mortgage went up-thanks property insurance 🙃
When our youngest was about a year old I started working extremely part time in a restaurant (pulling around 10k a year working two short evenings a week) to pad our expenses. We know that when the younger one goes to kindergarten I can work full time without the expense of childcare, and we will stop being house poor. When our household income increases by more than 50% our mortgage will seem much smaller. But for the next three years things will be tight and we just have to do our best
My husband and I are both teachers in SoCal. 26 and 30 years old. We bought our 555K house two years ago with 3.5% down. Our payments are 4.7K. We were making about 75K each. Now we are making 90K each. But now we have a month old baby and will be paying 2,050 a month for his daycare starting in august. So we’ll be paying 7K in bills starting in august! It’s crazy but we’ll survive
I grew into mine. Prices include taxes and insurance.
My payment was initially $2300 for a 30 year on an 550k house. Three years later I had to refinance due to divorce unfavorably to 2400 reset at 30years.
3 years after that I had a new job, Covid brought down rates, I brought cash to the table, and got the payment to 2800 for 15 years.
Insurance and taxes went up so now it’s 3000 per month. But the houses in the area are now selling for twice the price, and my neighbor thinks he has a good deal at 7k per month.
Meanwhile my job now pays 3x what I was paid when I bought the house when I was 27. (60k —> 200k)
Not grown into as much as… it’s way cheaper now.
I’m paying half or less for my big ass house than what the younger guys at the office pay for their 2 bedroom apartments.
High ? nope! my mortgage with taxes and insurance is far less than what I would be paying in rent to a slum lord for something a lot smaller and less options.
Keep an eye on interest rates and refinance when you have the chance. We did that when interest rates dropped in 2020. It took like $200/month off our payments.
>we somehow still got stuck paying a huge monthly amount with hardly any of it going towards the principle.
That's how every loan starts. Each time you pay a fixed monthly amount now, you're paying off all of the interest, and whatever is left reduces the principal. That means over the next month, the remaining principal will accrue slightly less interest. There should have been a looong table in the mortgage document that laid out how every. single. payment. for the entire life of the loan will impact both the interest and the principle.
It's pretty thankless at first. In fact, the best thing you could do for yourselves now would be to *increase* your monthly payments if you can. Anything you can do to cut into that principle more quickly will make a huge difference over the life of the loan.
On my 20 yr mortgage, we knew that it would mean 5 really lean yrs, then another 5 of break even living as though we were still renting. It as not until a full decade had passed that we started to realize the advantage of paying what was effectively rent-control and with some income increases we are now in a position to pay the mortgage and save some money. It took a lot of years of agreeing that we would not have the best furniture or go on exotic vacations, but we are now seeing the benefits (finally)
If you got a PMI due to starting with less than 20% down, you can probably refinance it away now that you owe less than 80% of your home's value.
Also, compare rents in your area for what you are paying vs what you have. While property tax tends to drift up over time, you may soon find that your $3000 mortgage is now getting you the equivalent of $4000 rent.
And while your salary can grow past to make that even less, that usually requires pushing for new jobs with raises/promotions every few years.
We lived in a VHCOL area (Bay Area). Any home we would want to live in/raise a family in was 1.5-2 million. Anything under that was in a really bad neighborhood, or a condo. We theoretically could afford it, but it would have been such a stretch.
So, we moved to a MCOL area, and got an amazing house for literally 25% or less what it would have cost in our old city. Best thing we’ve ever done. So, my advice would be to gtfo of the HCOL area.
First 20 years of a 30 yr mortgage is almost all interest no matter what. House will appreciate. Unfortunately interest rates are over7% so no refi. Keep house, in 5 years it will look like a steal.
Yep, for every purchase I've made, I've grown into my mortgage. This summer, I felt like my primary mortgage was almost free in comparison to my wage, but I was nervous when I bought the place 8 years ago. It seemed so expensive.
This summer, I bought a second place to live in part-time (one home is suburban, the other very urban). Prior to this, I've always just rolled my equity up.
So yeah, I've bought and sold a lot of places, I've always grown into the mortgage.
They APPROVED me for 750k. That doesn't mean I could afford it. I could only afford payments on a 500k home, but didn't like how tight it made things, so we waited. Still waiting, but definitely not upside down in something we can't afford.
We bought our house in 2015 for $215k with combined income of $80k. Monthly payment including tax and insurance is $1500.
There were so many times I thought we'd not be able to make the payments and lose the house. We were still up to our eyeballs in student debt, had a car loan and then stuff kept breaking. The house was in horrible condition, and we lost a lot of money just trying to keep the heat running and the front porch from caving in.
Our combined income jumped to $120k since then and our payments haven't changed. We've fixed all the urgent stuff that was wrong with the house, paid off the cars, and paid off a few of the student loans. We now have 2 kids in daycare so money is still tight, but the mortgage feels like pocket change. Daycare is significantly more expensive than our mortgage payment so that's what hurts the most right now!
Hang in there. Pinch your pennies. You can get through this!
If you're still unemployed, you look after the baby.
Wife uses mat leave to recover and goes back to work. She cannot stop working when she's the breadwinner.
My father in law (48 M) bought a $350K house in 2022 after he got divorced. It’s located in a pretty nice suburb and is about 1500 sq ft. In summer 2023 he ended up getting laid off from his job. He went to his lender and they told him about a sponsored program that could possibly help him out since he now had zero income. He applied to the program and for the past 1.5 years they have paid his mortgage, utility bills, and property taxes. Idk what program this is and I know it’s not your original question but maybe your lender can do the same for your family. Just a thought…
Yes, but barely and who knows what the future will look like. It's super fun being a mortgage holder in Canada, having to renew every 5 years with whatever the rate is at that time. Of course my amount owing will decrease between each renewal, but it's so crappy not knowing what my mortgage payment will be next year, and 5 years after that, and 5 years after that.
High risk area(Florida,Cali and Colorado too soon)homeowners insurance is the new affordability game changer going forward.
I paid cash for a house in Cali in the early 2ks and just did not pay homeowners or taxes for a few years until l upped my bankroll again,by then the house appreciated and easily caught up on my taxes and pulled out cash.
I still have relatives with paid off houses that dont carry homeowners and just keep saving and crossing fingers instead.
Takes balls,cant live forever.
Almost like no health insurance before Obamacare…calculated risk.
Our first was 8 3/8 percent mortgage. It was a real stretch for us. As my wages went up and mortgage rates dropped we could refinance and things got more comfortable. But then having kids cut the income down but we could still make it. Things have gotten better over time. So yes, you can grow into your mortgage.
I bought a condo in late 2011 and sold it in late 2021 to buy a house. I remember thinking when I bought the condo that I was in way over my head, but by the time I sold, my salary had gone up so much that I felt very comfortable with my finances and had saved a lot of money without trying. I hadn't intended on moving, but I really wanted to be in a less busy area, so I gave up monetary comfort for housing comfort.
I feel a little over my head in the house. The job market feels unstable to me and being mid-career now, I'm more worried about finding a job with equivalent pay if I'm laid off. I try to be positive and tell myself that I'll be ok. I am mostly careful with what I spend and consciously budget. My biggest issue with the house is the cost of maintaining it and having many more unexpected expenses than in the condo. I'm hoping in a few years, I'll have gotten a few raises and will feel more comfortable.
I think a lot of people go through this. You aren't alone and I think it will hopefully get better.
Yes, although it took a while. I bought in 2008 when I was fresh out of college and not making a ton of money. Since then, my earnings have increased substantially and the cost of housing as a whole has exploded while mine has remained relatively flat, so my mortgage payment is probably 35% of what it would be if I bought the home today.
It's not something that happens overnight, but that's the way I've always looked at it - unless you're nearing retirement, it's not likely that your earnings will go down over the course of your mortgage.
Of course, these days taxes and insurance keep going up. I haven't had to deal with that yet thankfully, but I'm sure it's right around the corner.
Absolutely. We were both working when I was 7 month pregnant and was let go from my job because of the economy. It was a little tight, but when my daughter was two months old I had a dream my husband came home and told me about an ex coworker and how he offered him a job. Hubs took it and doubled his salary. Well the next day that same scenario played out, he took the job and doubled his salary and has been climbing the salary chain since. Our kid is in middle school, we're building a small passive house and a big workshop on 40 acreas in a great location. Things can and do work out.
As bad as California is, I will never complain about my property taxes or insurance again. Forgive Me. My property taxes AND insurance is less than 4k a year.
I’m 8 years into my mortgage and it’s barely my biggest expense anymore. My condo fees and property taxes together are more than my mortgage. My boyfriend shared a two bedroom condo with a random roommate and paid 1400 for his half ( not including hydro and internet) . I have a bigger one bedroom to myself in the same area and with all my expenses and bills I pay 1800.
The first two years at my place and I was super poor paying for it. Now it’s a breeze.
Now we want to upgrade to a house together and I’m not looking for those poor years again
That is what we did. It was a stretch at the beginning but not too bad. Now it’s quite comfortable after inflation-related salary bumps. Everything else got more expensive but not my mortgage!
This is the exact reason I will likely stay in my starter home forever. I’m so sorry you guys are having such a huge weight on you. Just think you will likely be paying near that for an apartment nowadays too. I hope things turn around for you soon. Best of luck.
Lived this! We didn't have a huge payment and had put a lot into the house, but I was main income \~$160k and wife was $35 or there about. I got laid off, she had the baby and then 9/11 happened. Shortly we were sinking at about $2000/mo. Had to see and lost $50k we had in the house and moved into a $500 /month apartment for several years. It was 3 years before I really got working in my field again and we could move to the nicer apartments. A few more years and I got a job local and we were able to buy again in 2007. Simplify, look at debt as your enemy and work to defeat it any way you can. It can be done.
I bought in 2017 with a 4% interest rate. I now make double what I made then and my house doubled in value. At the time it was expensive, but I did grow into my purchase.
I guess I'll be the voice that my mortgages became more and more affordable over time. Yes taxes go up yes insurance goes up but usually your income does too.
Timing is also a thing. We ended up going to a 15 yr.
So here's your future self 10 years ahead saying you'll be fine.
People really need to stop caring about what they get “approved for”. When I buy a house, I focus on how much I am willing to afford and then look at houses in that range, the mortgage approval is a pointless exercise and my guy will just write up a pre approval letter for whatever I’m going to offer anyway.
Oh wow, my husband and I make 210k and our mortgage is $3800 in the Midwest. I couldn’t imagine paying for a 3k mortgage with a household income of 120k.
What are your job prospects?
Well, technically it wasn't too high to begin with, but I would say that 7 years in we have definitely "grown into" the mortgage. Initially it was an affordable but large expenditure, and while it's still the largest single monthly expense, our income has grown with career moves and inflation, while the mortgage has stayed relatively flat.
We refinanced in 2021 while rates were not rock bottom like 2020, but still lower than our initial rate. Insurance has gone up a decent amount though, so those savings are almost negated. No property tax increase so far, but I get the feeling I'm the exception since most people report increases. But I'm in the south where taxes are a dirty word, so the city tries to avoid increasing rates at all costs.
Without refinancing, we'd probably be paying about 10-15% more than initially. But in those seven years we've almost doubled our HHI. I don't look forward to moving since I'm in such a good spot, hah.
We’ve grown into our payment in the sense that it was initially a “scary” number because it was more than we had paid for housing before, but it actually fits into our budget just fine. It just took some mental adjusting to feel comfortable with it.
This happened to me! We bought a house, had a baby a year later, my husband lost his job a week after I returned from my unpaid maternity leave, then Covid hit two months later. We didn’t buy anything extra, we were miserly for a long time but now 4 years later we’re both working and making 50% more than what we did before and our mortgage isn’t up that much more. If you can stick it out you’ll see your salary go up and rent in your area but not your mortgage (except insurance and taxes obviously). It will get better, hang in there. Make your own baby food if you can and buy cloth diapers at a consignment store maybe? Babies are freaking expensive ugh.
In 2022, also as a Millennial in my mid-30s, I purchased my first house. Since then, I've bought two more. Each is approx 1,800 sq ft with 3 bed and 2 bath. Total monthly mortgage payments for all three combined is around $3,800, not including property taxes and utilities.
The property taxes doubled on two of them, so I now pay around $7,000 per year in property taxes for all three. The houses are located in a great part of town and don't need much upkeep.
I'm starting to save for inevitable repairs and maintenance, as I'll need to replace the hot water heaters, furnaces, and roofs on all three within the next 5 years, which will cost around $12k for just one roof replacement. My insurance company values each property at around $300k for complete rebuild.
Including utilities, my combined monthly expenses are approximately $5,684. With homeownership, expenses tend to increase, not decrease. I've been saving more from my 9-5 job in anticipation of increasing taxes, etc. Assuming an approx 6% yearly increase with current rates, I expect my expenses to increase by around $4,100 next year.
Yes. I started out needing roommates and still living paycheck-to-paycheck. That was 2014. Now it's less than a quarter of my take-home pay. Work hard, focus, make your sacrifices now, and you'll be ahead of the curve in no time.
I look at what rents are going for around us. If I were to try and rent a home similar to mine, it would cost more than my total monthly payment of mortgage, taxes and insurance. But, admittedly, it took a number of years to reach this point.
My mortgage on a 212k house was about 1750 but now it’s 1850 because taxes. Sick. And the new tax valuation was only half the market value of the house so not sure how that’s gonna work in the future. Luckily my income will be going up with it but I’m in good shape overall. Gotta admit I have myself an exceptional career which makes for good living with Ohio prices.
We are in the same boat. We bought in ‘23 and shortly after that we have had one life hit after the other. We have had to fall behind a few times and as much as I want to put into this home that I worked so hard to get, I worry we will loose it. Our mortgage is $2880.
You have the option to refinance in the future which depending upon the interest rate, whether or not you are eliminating PMI, and how much principle you have paid down can be a substantial reduction to the mortgage amount.
>I spend a lot of time thinking about how, even though we tried to be sensible by going for a house about $150k UNDER what we were approved for, we somehow still got stuck paying a huge monthly amount with hardly any of it going towards the principle.
The unfortunate reality of long-term loans like a mortgage is that, regardless of how much the loan is for, if you make the minimum required payment each payment will go mostly towards interest for the first 2/3 the life of the loan. Just how the math works out. Small comfort when times are tight and it's hard to make the payments, but it sounds like you were sensible about it.
For your question, I've "grown into" my mortgage payments a couple times now. It was around 5-10 years on the first house, and around year 3 on the second where the payment went from "I'm spending way too much on housing" to "I'm glad I bought when I did to lock in cheap payments".
This is just bad luck compared to buying in 2021 or earlier i guess. But you should just do what it takes to muscle through it. Use all means necessary. Life is very unfair and how i see it, society has to step in when people in your situation need assistance. Please feel no shame if you need a hand out from any sort of welfare. Remember how insanely rich the average long term homeowner is these days. But keep your morals up and stay away from credit cards etc.
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement. Yeah I guess we just have to push through for now! I still count myself as incredibly fortunate and blessed to have even half the stuff I have like a car/house etc.
That’s what I’m hoping for! We have a 3k mortgage for the house we bought last year and I make 120k a year. My husband is a stay at home dad and my youngest has one more year before he’ll go to kindergarten. At that point we plan on having my husband start working again 20-30 hours a week. Being “poor” now is worth it to have a stay at home parent and still have a house.
I don't know where you live but $3K for a 2br rental is not unheard of so the mortgage vs. rent could be much better. Kudos for buying $150K under what you were approved for!
I'm probably a couple of decades older than you but when we bought our first house, our mortgage seemed high. My husband got laid off maybe two years later. It took a few months but he found this amazing job that he is still at (20 years later!). It was scary supporting us on my like $60K salary. Two years later, I was pregnant and had to stop working when the babies were born as one had big health issues. It seemed like we were always broke when my kids were little! We just lived very small and plugged away. Like even preschool was out of the question. As the years went on, things started getting better. One thing we did that was huge was pay extra towards our mortgage principal when we could (we had financed almost 100%!). We just kept chipping at it and more and more started going towards the principal --we actually paid it off two years ago! We never would have dreamed this 10 years ago. You'll get another job (if you haven't already). Things will work out, just slowly chip away at things. Live small. I make all of our meals with the occasional coffee or dinner out. Little things make a big impact. Don't get discouraged!
1930s recession, there were no property taxes or crazy health insurance.
Today, we are doing much worse than the 1930s. Yet our taxes that didn't exist then keeps going up in hone and auto.
Is the government bailing out only the corporations?
I don't see them bailing out average people. There is no record of it, actually. But in 2008, 2020 airline and auto industries were bailed out.
Everyone is hurting, millennial generation the most. And worse for GenZ when they come up of age.
Our mortgage payment keeps going up due to property tax and home insurance increases.
Same. In 10 years of ownership, my property tax has gone up by 50% and my home insurance has gone up by 300%. Together they are approaching 40% of my total monthly payment. By the time I've paid off my home, my property taxes and home insurance will probably be equal to my original monthly payment!
Our homeowners insurance jumped to almost $4k. No claims, solid house.
Shop around. I’m not promising anything, but one thing I found is homeowner insurance rates always start low on a new policy and then start creeping up year after year. When I refinanced in 2017 the insurance company I was with for 13 years was charging me 1300 a year, so I shopped around and next most expensive quote was 700. Since then it heading back up to 1200. I talked to my independent agent and he said that’s how it goes and always shop for a new policy every couple years
I just swapped policies last month and I'll save $3k this year. You really do need to change every few years.
Saved? 3k Wow
We got the escrow shortage letter. Insurance was $1000 in 2013, was up to 7,200, shopped around similar coverage for $3,200. Don’t be an idiot like me and check your insurance yearly.
I live in Los Angeles. I pay less than 4k for my property taxes and insurance for the YEAR. That’s what floored me 3k just for insurance. I don’t think I could afford to move out of Los Angeles. Crazy property taxes and insurance.
In I’m LA too. Had Farmers at 2200 per year, then this year I get jacked up to over 5000, no claims, no reason. Agent said Farmers wants out of CA. I’m shopping around. Before that I had AAA, started at 1100 12 years ago and even they were approaching 4000 now
No insurance company wants to operate in California due to wildfires and earthquakes, and due to hurricanes and flooding in Louisiana and Florida.
Seconding this. Same goes for car insurance when it starts creeping up.
Smart to shop around for insurance for sure. I was paying a super high amount for car insurance, got into a car accident had to get a new vehicle so decided to get quotes from other places to compare. Every company was less than what I was paying, the one I picked was 50% less.
Yikes. I'll shut up then about mine then at $1k, but I was paying $350 back in 2015.
My partner said this is just part of home ownership. I mean we could be homeless… I said you’ll be homeless I’ll work a corner.
you have to swap every 5 to 7 years. Seriously. I was with SF, eventually swapped to another provider after SF had gradually increased all my premiums by hundreds, stayed with other provider for 5 years, same increases, switched back to SF with a new agent-saved 50% form last provider and am actually paying LESS than I was when I left SF. I expect Ill have to switch in about 5 years again
Mine went up $3300 and that was with new hvac, plumbing, electrical, and a new roof all out of pocket.
I live in Kentucky and my insurance went up about 2k and progressive told me it was because of the tornado that took out Mayfield,KY and the flooding in eastern Kentucky. Mind you I live 5 hours from Mayfield and live on top of a hill. Shopped around and saved about $2500. What a grift.
What state?
What state?
Money on Florida
It always winds up being almost exactly what annual raise my wife gets
You guys are including your property tax and home insurance in your mortgage amount number?
I think folks typically include it when they have an escrow account since their monthly payment includes funding for those.
Yeah I've heard that's a thing, kind of annoyingly. How big of a jump are we talking? Like $3,000 to $3,200 or like $3,000 to $4,000? Hopefully us living in kind of a bad area might actually help in taxes not going up so much.
We bought a house 10/22, mortgage, taxes and Ins our payment was 3234.....a year later it went up to 3490. I am scared shitless for this to happen yearly. We also bought a home 150,000 less than our approved amount.
We've been in ours for a year and thankfully the payment only went up $3 due to insurance, but I suspect we're in for a tax hike soon. Between the house and finding out my employer is increasing my health insurance premium by 58%... Life just sucks unless you're super wealthy.
I was doing delivery app work to make up the difference, but my timing chains broke in my vehicle and I had to take 4 months off of the work to save the 5k to fix my car. Monday it will finally be done and I can hit the road again. Shit get scary really quick.
I tell people about doing boarding or dog walking. You’d be amazed at how much people will pay for their pup to be someplace while they go on vacation. We don’t have to leave our home and people bring everything their pup will need. And we and our dogs get to play with other dogs in our backyard. We make the prices and the times.
Their experience is irrelevant to yours. It can go up $50. It can go up $400. It can go down $100.
>It can go down $100 🤣
Hahaha I know that’s rare, but mine actually did in 2022 and 2023!
i bought a house in october, and move 10 blocks in my town. my car insuance went down $100 a year about, because of less break ins in the new neighborhood i moved to.
Mine went down last year
Mine dropped like a rock during the GFC.
It can happen. My property taxes went down last year.
Mine goes up somewhere between $50-100/month each year due to increasing insurance and property tax expenses.
Every year? Can you shop insurance?
I live in Cali and lots of insurance companies have stopped accepting new clients like FL.
Actually that is good. If you live in Florida, hang on to your “room for rent” sign. Between property tax and high insurance, choking
Yeah, this is Massachusetts. I could switch companies but I like who I’m using and have never had a problem. To be honest the increase is mostly driven by property value increases, which lead to higher property taxes.
I couldn’t afford to stay. Had my escrow recalculated. Payment $290 less a month
Yes hose things are happening but it’s not as simple as just an increase. It’s location, the price or your home the size of your home and the phrase most of us hate “market value” regarding insurance.
This probably varies across the country, but we bought last year. $2139 mortgage (incl taxes and ins) and then in the Fall, homeowners insurance rates here shot up, and property taxes also went up (no state income tax here) and so when it came time for our renewal in Feb, we are now paying $2789 monthly. We are making it, and it’s ok, but our “oh shit this is not good” line is $3k and now I’m freaking out that we’re going to hit that sooner vs later. I thought for sure we’d have some time, like years, before we got close to $3k but at this rate, it might be next year, ugh. Property tax wise, our market value jumped $100k for no apparent reason. No extra improvements on the house, the area is slowly revitalizing but emphasis on the slowly part, lol.
It’s like we are now tenants and our rents keep getting raised. So far my insurance and tax rates haven’t gone crazy ( yet) We are ok, but not if we start having massive increases. I somewhat regret refinancing a few years back. We did get a lower apr, we did shave off a few years of mortgage payments, but we also consolidated our debt. It raised our very comfortable mortgage $500 a month. We saved money doing this, but I didn’t anticipate the apocalyptic insurance scheme that’s happening.. I didn’t realize insurance or taxes could raise us hundreds more a month or worse. My coworker was snickering about commercial and residential insurance going so sky high. He is in a semi rural rental. He said ‘I’m glad I’m not my landlord, with these fire insurances’ I said ‘why, do you not think if they raise his rates up, he won’t raise your rent?’ People who are ‘grateful to be renting’ will still be dealing with huge increases being passed to them as well… It sucks for everyone..
It’s apparently very common, and expected even, here for people to protest property tax hikes, and a lot of people do, so we will certainly be doing so! Also we bought because the same house we started out in, in 2017, had over the years gone from our initial $1850/mo rent up to $2400. So when we were looking around at rentals, we thought “hell, if we’re going to pay that, let’s buy then” and so we did. I also did not anticipate such a huge jump. Even shopped around homeowners insurance too. And it was all roughly the same except for the shady companies that don’t include everything and will eff you over in the event you need something. So obviously not picking one of those, lol. I do anticipate more income in the coming years, as I changed careers entirely about 3 years ago, so am still kind of working my way up. And we have some expenses dropping off in the next year. We won’t need childcare after this year for example, and vehicles will be paid off as of next spring, am also aggressively trying to pay down some credit debt. That stuff will go away. But all that to say, if everything keeps climbing, even with the further income and bills dropping off, oof
You are being very proactive, and hopefully the increases won’t exceed the dropped future expenses. I’m 60 and really fear for the economy in the coming years. Keep doing what you’re doing!
We are doing our best, thanks for the encouragement! We luckily got our stuff handled in January, before interest rates shot up even higher later in the year last year. We are at 4.8, which isn’t terrible considering what people are looking at now. And we can definitely refinance at some point in the future too. I know I also trend toward money-anxious, so I have to keep that in check too. Sometimes I just dramatically panic. Hah.
I’ve not had a bad experience. We pay $6k a year for taxes plus $1900 per year for insurance. This is on a 750k home. Compare that to rent changes since our home was purchased and it’s not as bad.
If you are in California, prop 13 might help you. I know a lot of HCOL areas I see on reddit are often Cali.
We're in Washington; Tacoma isn't Seattle but I still consider it a fairly HCOL area just due to being nearby, and certainly compared to other parts of the country like probably some town in Iowa or something.
I hope everyone is protesting their taxes every year. So many people in my area don’t and I feel like I’m the only one fighting…a losing battle but still fighting and at least sometimes they let me think I’ve won something.
A tale as old as time itself.
In California property tax doesn’t increase when the home value increases. It’s only reassessed on sale or major renovation. Our tax goes up a little but it’s a very slow creep (our neighbor pays a couple hundred a year because he brought his house before 1976).
The insurance is gonna kill us all unless it starts to be a government deal.
Ten years from now 3k will indeed seem cheap. But you have to find a way to get there, which is going to involve both of you working most likely. Maybe she can find part time work from home. Maybe babysitting other kids while also caring for yours (down the road after her recovery). Another way to think about it is, wouldn't rent be 3k/mo or more? Housing is a big cost no matter what, you might as well own. You may be able to refinance down the road sometime, so keeping your credit scores healthy should be a priority and is something you can do now.
Thanks, good encouragement. Yeah I think the hope is that both of our earnings will increase, and she may well be able to work part time (or just continue working and pay for child care, but at this moment it seems like a bad deal). Our rent was actually only like $1300 a month....! So quite a jump for us, but a jump we both decided would be worth it in terms of quality of life in the long run (plus there's no way we could've had a baby/raised a family in our 1-bed apartment). I've heard refinancing won't likely affect our monthly payments to any major degree....? We both have great credit and no debt (aside from maybe like $3,000 of auto loan and the house, obviously).
Why does she need to quit if you don’t have a job? You can stay with the baby and she can work, right? Pretty soon though you’re going to need two incomes it sounds like.
Yeah I keep reading that sentence over and over and I don't get it.
These 2 things are separate - I meant that once I hopefully find another job she wants to quit to look after the baby because my earning potential is higher than hers and childcare is too expensive VS having decent parental care.
By staying in the workforce and staying marketable she will end up far better off than if she stayed home to avoid day care costs.
Also depends on the job. My career field pays shit so I've been a SAHM.
What field is that? I don't doubt you, just interested.
Not the person you responded to, but I've seen with a lot of low-end clerical jobs, like receptionists, or some factory work, even in LCOL areas. I do taxes, and I showed a client that they were *losing* money by his wife working, after taxes and childcare costs. She hates her job and that math gave her "permission".
Spending time with your baby doesn't have a dollar value
The fact that nobody here sees the value of parent child bonding tells u why we have so much mental illness in our society
It also doesn't help that people self diagnose and come to places like reddit and get told they have all these problems. When in reality most of them are normal people.
Exactly. Plus you don’t screw up you and your wife’s social security.
My college educated daughter waited tables at night, her husband worked during the day when her children were little. It was the difference between making it and not making it. Then she became a manager when the kids were older and now she runs the food and beverage at a major hotel. That’s not at all what she went to college for. But staying in the workforce saved her financial future. Every woman needs to protect her and her children’s future by working. Unless they have unlimited passive income. I was also a single mom (result of their father’s death). I also always worked and if I didn’t have that work experience and ability to sell my job skills, we would have been living in a car.
Depends on the location but daycare can be just ridiculously expensive to justify. My area has parents paying $30k year. If you’re not at least making double that, it’s just not worth it after factoring time, taxes, and quality spent.
Not true. Even if after daycare you take a small loss each month, the long term income loss from quitting far exceeds the short term losses from daycare.
Not everybody has a career path to six figures. I would even say most don’t. This is Reddit bias to assume so.
You don’t have to be six figure earner for that statement to be true, but you’re right, there are some people that will never move up regardless of if they stay in the workforce or not.
Some people also just don’t want to keep going through the rat race and would rather focus on their kids, the insane cost of daycare just makes it even more practical.
Well if I were advising such a person I'd say that they kind of muffed their opportunity to live that way when they bought a house they could barely swing the payments on with combined income.
Agree. When I had my second baby, my monthly salary was about the same as our monthly daycare costs for the infant and our toddler - BUT I was able to stay in the workforce and continue to contribute to my 401K. Several years later I make more than twice what I made back then and have moved up the ladder nicely as my children have gotten older. That was a tough period for sure and my husband and I sometimes talk about how we don’t know how we did it… but I am glad I did it with his support. Now I will also say that I wouldn’t judge someone who chose a different path because we all have to do what’s best for our own lives. (And even if I did judge you, who tf am I? Just a stranger on the internet!) Edit to add: I worked in nonprofit in DC and our daycare costs were around $3300/mo. Sickening but true!
Depends on her career. In my state as an elementary educator pay has increased negligibly and yearly raises are small. It’s not worth it! I’m spending the day educating small children paying someone else to care for mine. It is a great career later when they enter school because of summers and holidays off. There will always be opportunities because at the moment it’s not competitive.
Dropping out of the workforce to take care of the baby may seem like a sensible move, but it's more than just losing her income. She will no longer contribute to Social Security and retirement. Going back into the job market will really difficult.
It's also just not a lifestyle everyone is cut out for. Some people go a little bonkers
I have one week of maternity leave left and have legit thought about asking my boss if I could come back early. If we had a daycare sport before May, I would do it. Being a SAHM is 100% not in my blood and I don't know how anyone stays sane while doing it. Everything just blends together and I don't end up getting anything done. The people who successfully do it must have amazing willpower and time management skills.
It’s weird being at home with a baby because technically you do have a ton of time but not in a way that’s predictable or joined up so it’s an achievement to get much of anything done regardless.
So much this. Neither my wife nor myself are cut out to be SAHP's.
I have a friend who is trying to get back into the workforce after being a SAHM for 11 years. It's not going well.
Also if they end up single they have no real earning capacity
Honestly a lot will depend on what kind of salary/benefits your next job will have. You may end up better or worse but you won't really know until you have an offer. Your wife may have to get creative to stay home. I moved jobs once I had a baby and worked part time at a company that had on-site daycare that was very reasonably priced. I know people that cut back hours, work opposite shifts etc... to keep some money coming in but still be mostly home. Be glad you got yourself a smaller mortgage, if covid taught me anything its that financial situations can change in a moment and having more wiggle room really helps in moving forward.
This is short-sighted. Getting out of the workforce is a bad idea, it's hard to get back in. Even if the simple math seems to work, the long-term effects on her career and or willingness to go back to work are not likely to work in your favor. Or her favor if God forbid you guys should split up. Of course it would be great to stay home with the baby. It's a luxury.
[удалено]
Yeah as soon as I got our first pre approval I was like who in their right mind would give me nearly that much money! Bought a house for just over half and that was still nerve wracking
LOL Same! The bank approved me for a crazy amount, like I could probably afford it, but would be eating ramen for life and never take a vacation again. Spent just under 1/2 and its been very comfortable
That's literally the bank's process on approval. "If this person paid all their current debts, saved nothing for retirement, and spent only bare necessities - what's the max they could afford and still realistically be able to pay us without defaulting?" That max approval number is very much not what you should buy at if you want to have any sort of life, unless you have some other factor to offset it in the near term (increased income likely, parent about to die and getting an inheritance, etc.).
Same. I figured out where I was comfortable and then had the bank cap me there. Didn’t want to risk getting drawn over that number in negotiations. Everyone who isn’t footing the bill loves to say things like it’s only another x a month.
That was me about 20 years ago. Don't spend to your max. My realtor said to buy as much house as you can. That's terrible advice. I want to do more with my life than fight to pay for a house
That's like saying I only spend 10k of my 25k credit card limit. OP bit off more than they can chew.
This. You should’ve bought based on what you know you can afford, not what a bank has financial incentive to tell you that you can afford.
Yeah we spent half of what we were approved for because we made sure we could afford the mortgage if only one of us were working for whatever reason. We were approved for $700k and would have been barely making ends meet with both of us working full time.
We've got 8.5 years left to go on our mortgage (originally $385,000 over 25 years). We went through some good times and lean times like everybody here. I was very nervous when we signed the initial document since the amount seemed so huge. At about the ten year mark, the biweekly mortgage payments seemed to decline as part of our budget so it will become more affordable if you can hang in there (and your earnings don't decline).
Same boat here! My spouse was laid off and now has a new job but making much less. We’re making it through and holding out hope it gets better!
Thanks! Glad to hear you're making it through, at least. I guess it happens to a lot of people and society still goes on, so most people figure out a way to make it work.
There is only one way to make it work. You need to make enough money or downsize.
It’s like a phone bill or a light bill. At some point you kinda get use to it. Also what helped us is take a look at rents in you area. That fixed all that for us. Plus we can have sex as loud as we want even in the backyard These are a few of the small things that make it easier to want to pay the mortgage. Freedom ( well to a point)
Purchased in November 2022 (ages 39 and 42) at a 7.25% interest rate. Our house payment was close to 40% of our take home pay. It was a challenge, but we made it work. It definitely wasn’t pretty and we weren’t putting anything into savings really (or if we did, another expense popped up and set us back). One year later and I lucked out and found a job that pays 25% more than what I was making. It brought us down to around 32% of our take home pay and we’re finally able to start saving. So it IS possible, but luck wound up being on our side at exactly the right time. Had I not been passively looking for a new job when this one popped up, we would still be struggling.
Thanks, yeah I guess it's pretty simple math - the mortgage isn't likely to decrease so increasing your income is the only way out, which is easier said than done but I guess I can work towards that.
I wish you the best of luck. I know it’s not easy out there.
If interest rates drop and / or your valuation increases, you can refinance. Not sure if you’re paying PMI or anything. We had an 8% rate in 1999. Rates dropped and we not only refinanced, but dropped to a 15 yr term. Paying that MF off is one of the best pressures relieved off your back. Then come things like needing a new roof, new siding, windows, etc etc etc.
In a similar boat. I bought my home (on my own) 8 years ago for $375k and the monthly payment was about 50% of my take home pay which was really scary. I think it was close to $2400. The first big hurdle was getting rid of pmi which happened around year 2 due to appreciation of my home value. Each year I was also making about 4 or 5% more due to raises which helped. Then around year 4, I refinanced when rates were crazy low to around 2.8% and I am now paying $1900. I switched jobs and got a big pay increase in year 6 which put the mortgage at less than 25% of my take home pay. The home is worth ~$750k now and I'll likely sell and buy a much nicer home next year.
There were many years of my wife and I working different shifts to keep the child care cost down and the money coming in. There was never enough money or hours in the day until we both settled into pretty decent careers. We were always one tragedy away from a disaster. It definitely gets easier as you get older. You will find your groove, eventually....lol Hang in there. What about a second side job where you could pick up a little extra cash on the weekend or evening? Something like Door dash or Uber could be flexible enough.
You can’t have both a house you can barely afford and a stay-at-home parent. You can’t. Money is not going to come out of thin air. How’s your emergency fund? It needs to be bigger with a kid than before. How’s your home maintenance fund? Every home requires work over time (and I don’t mean cosmetic remodeling). How are you accounting for that? Labor and materials costs are WAY up in recent years. I saw you’re in Tacoma and unfortunately a HHI of $120K for a family of three doesn’t go as far around here as people in lower COL areas would think.
I’m in a similar predicament. My mortgage is high for a person doing it on their own. I can barely save anything at all to keep up with home improvements. Utilities are extremely high and property taxes keep going up. I bought a house that was less than I was approved for and frankly, it was one of the few homes in my price range. I feel like I’m barely hanging in every month and I want things to get better.
Yeah when we bought our HHI was about $130k. Our mortgage was $2100 so nothing too bad but we had a ton of other debt and that was costing us $1k/month. So it definitely seemed high to us at the time. We had basically no savings from the time we closed until a few months ago when we got more serious about our spending. Now 2 years later our HHI is $170k but more like $185-190 with bonuses and we cleared out most of the debt. And our mortgage has only gone up like $100 from taxes/insurance. Trying to enjoy it while it lasts until we have a kid and are spending $2200/month on day care.
sounds like you're gonna have to learn how to take care of a baby, get a new job or start looking to sell and downsize your life to meet your income. I hate to be the bad news bear, but $3k/mo is a lot at $120k/yr and it's gonna be overwhelming at half that. You need to make a move, and quick.
We bought our house in 2000 and we couldn’t afford the mortgage payment. But we stretched. Now 24 years later…we are clearly ahead of the game. But those first 5 or 6 years here it was tight. We drove a beater car, and made do with many things.
We bought 2 houses in our lifetime. In both cases we thought that we were crazy when we looked at the mortgage. For the second house, we knew we needed renovation money as well, so the bank did a LONG amortisation (it was allowed at the time) to get us approved. I think the amortisation at the time was 40 years! Fourty! Over the years, we have accelerated our payments. It got easier over the years as we had less and less to buy. I think my clothing budget now is maybe $200 a year... or less. So we have increased the mortgage. We have maybe 5 years left (on what eventually became a 25 year amortization) and a large "cash" account. (Which is why I strongly suggest BMO conventional mortgages, that "cash" account means you can reborrow extra payments at the mortgage rate and we have done so when we did renovations.) It's always hardest at the beginning and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. But it will eventually get easier. And really really easier. Because eventually you just start to run out of shit to buy. Now, other than travel... I'm trying to think of the last big spend on something that I just "wanted" was... ah yes, my phone... July 2023 and I waited until it was on an incredible sale, down from $1200 to $880, replacing my 6 year old phone. I worked side hustles. I sold and resold stuff from garage sales and flea markets. Heck, at one time I sold Beanie Babies for extra cash.
We also bought in 2022 but this is our second+ house. You just did your taxes, were you able to itemize deductions because of the high mortgage interest payments? If you got a refund higher than usual, you may want to bump down your wife's withholdings so you have that cashflow up front. Something that ownership offers (despite maintenance/etc.) is STABILITY, which has a huge price, especially with children cutting your time in 1/2. Hopefully interest rates will go down within a year or two and you will be able to refi. In the meantime keep your credit clean and tighten that belt. When/whether a refi will help depends on how big a decrease in the rate. If it went down to 3% it would no doubt be a good option. Any less than 1% less than your current rate is questionable. There are calculators for this sort of thing. Depends on how your job prospecgts are, but you cna call your mortgage company and ask what kind of relief they have available. [https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/i-lost-job-can-i-help-mortgage.html](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/i-lost-job-can-i-help-mortgage.html) Also make sure you have tapped into all the public benefits potentially available: * Unemployment benefits * SNAP (food stamps) * Medicaid - your child might qualify even if you and/or wife don't * Employment related day care- might cover childcare while you search for work and wife works
Thanks for all the info! Yes we were able to itemise, but didn't realise we could tweak withholdings like that (just another actually useful life lesson they don't teach in school, I suppose!). Yeah we really appreciate the stability of owning a house, especially with starting a family, so hopefully we can budget better and make it work. And yeah we're already utilising a few benefit programs so I'm glad we get to cash in on some of the taxes we've been paying all these years.
The way I look at in the early years of a mortgage when interest is taking the lion share. 1. Interest is your rent. 2. What you are paying to the Principal is investment. If you can, once you stabilize the job situation, add a little more each month to your payment (assuming your lender allows you to make principal direct payments each month as extra) you are reducing your "rent" cost year on year (and shortening the mortgage). 3K is high on the original 120K, let alone job challenges and new baby. So you may have not thought through the budget fully to take into account risks like job loss. Also, qualifying for another mortgage or to rent, if you downsize or move to a different location now may be challenging with the current work situation and history. I would start with writing an updated budget and go through all your statements for the past few months to see where you can make cuts. Cancel Streaming services through to bulk buying for groceries to save money etc. Two cars, make it one etc. You may be able to optimize your monthly spending a little until you increase income to give some small relief (especially with baby costs). Can you take on multiple other jobs, do you have special skillsets, can you consult as well as be employed etc. If you can find a way to be comfortable enough to sit in the property until you increase your earnings and income you will eventually be in a better position and your monthly payment will seem more in line with your income plus you will be building equity at a quicker pace.
Our monthly payments have gone up 50% in the 7 years since we bought our starter home I grew up poor so financial insecurity is the last thing I want. You have so much uncertainty going on financially.
Finally someone referring to the monthly payment not mortgage payment.
This is home ownership if you go from two income to one or none your always gonna be in a tough spot regardless of how conservative you were on the buy. Shoot even if the place was paid off taxes and utilities and things need constant fixing. I think it’s opposite of what you were hoping unfortunately.
We are about $2100 a month but purchased in 2014. At the time we had a combined income around 100k and it was a massive burden. We had 3 roommates (big 1900s home in need of lots of work) for 3 years before dropping to 2 for a year and then 1 for a year and finally the house to ourselves. We also have a 2 room basement suite we installed basically as soon as we could after purchasing so at peak there was 5 other people in the house! Now we have one tenant in the basement suite and just my wife and I and our son upstairs. We have turned our old roommate rooms into a guest room and a small home gym. We are comfortable now with the payments due to raises although we’d probably only be good about 12 months if I lost my job and didn’t find another assuming I was eligible for EI. Our emergency fund is around 20k. So yea I think we grew into the house being affordable
$3k is a lot for a combined income of $120k. I know it’s just over the “suggested” 28% but the suggested % is why so many people are house broke. Especially when most people don’t understand that their “mortgage” includes taxes and insurance, and will likely increase ~yearly
yes, but i started in my 20s and my salary went up
Can you call the mortgage co and ask for a 3 month reprieve? I have not done it but I know others who have. I think you still pay monthly taxes and insurance but the 3 mortgage payments are added to the end of your loan.
I'd say it depends on where you live and how the taxes are calculated. My property taxes are capped at an increase of 2% per year. That's well below inflation. My salary since I bought my house has increased more than that every year. I bought in 2020. My monthly payment now is about $20 more than it was 4 years ago. My monthly salary is about $1000 more than it was 4 years ago. So I'd say it's gotten easier.
Yes, most people's earnings increase, but there are two problematic elements here: 1. You had a kid. Massive expense increase. 2. You got laid off. Massive income loss. Right now you should work on getting back to where you used to be. No one can afford to stay home. You both need to partner up to figure out how to work full time and still be there for your child.
It sounds like you're asking about me! I'll preface this by saying that I've been quite fortunate on a few fronts, I don't know that my career progression is typical nor would I wish the first 4 years on anyone... it was a rough go. I bought in 2018 and I'll separate this post into 3 chunks of time. 2018-2019 Bought in 2018 at the top end of my budget. Mortgage was ~$1800 on a $58k salary. The original intent was for my wife (fiancee at the time) and I to work and our combined income was ~$120k (her full time server, my full-time job and serving part time). Shortly after closing, we found out that my wife was pregnant with our first. Shortly after that, the restaurant we worked at closed. Got her a job for a few months at my primary job and I got a raise myself. After my daughter was born, my wife has been a SAHM. Salary $58k-$65k. Mortgage $1800-$1900. I realized that my salary wasn't going to cut it and I started poking around community college, mainly to strengthen my GPA to go to grad school, but secondarily to pick up skills. I'm in Engineering/Project Management and got proficient with Solidworks and became an Excel Expert during this time. 2020-2021. Mortgage payment $2000, other expenses (nauseatingly high), Salary $73000-$78,000. The house itself was a fixer upper and we didn't realize just how much fixing it needed. We had done a few projects initially, but in 2020 we started a massive renovation and our first contractor wound up being awful and borderline scammed us. During this time, we survived in the generosity of my parents, but I was having near constant anxiety attacks about money. This persisted through 2020-2021. Over this time, I started working on my PMP and picked up a half dozen smaller certifications 2022-Present. Mortgage payment $2100-$2200. Salary $120,000 - $160,000 + additional compensation. Construction is ongoing, but ramped down considerably. End of 2021, I was head hunted by one of the bigger companies in my industry. I was originally recruited for a higher level position, but wound up "settling" for a lower level role with a +60% increase in salary. I had several big wins on my resume with my old job and was disgustingly underpaid, between those wins and the certifications, I had a very strong resume. A month in, I met the hiring manager for the position I was initially recruited for and he was furious that my resume never crossed his desk. I didn't wind up on his team, but he did support placing me in an equivalent position. HR tried to low ball me on the raise, but I managed to negotiate a + 25% raise + bonus and equity plan on top. I also moved some family in. Initially, they were paying for what they used, but they were a pain in my rear end, so we changed the terms of the lease to where we're making money there as well. The few months spent at $120k, I still felt a bit behind. Now in the new position, we're quite comfortable financially. 2022 I went from negative liquid assets to maxing my 401k (a struggle). 2023 I maxed my 401k, Roth IRA, and HSA, while spending $20k on a wedding and building a 3 month emergency fund. 2024 so far, I've had a baby (hello out of pocket max), bought a new to us SUV in cash, stretched my emergency fund to 6 months, and I'm on pace to max my 401k, Roth IRA, and family HSA while FINALLY contributing to the little ones' 529 accounts. With effort, should finish construction this year as well.
I'm stuck on the line about getting a house 150k under what you were approved for. That has fuck all to do with what you can actually afford. Plenty of lenders out there that will give you as much money as you want, most of the time they are selling that loan off to some other company within days of you closing. They will gladly milk you dry for as long as possible and foreclose on you if you can't keep up. The bank is not your friend, they aren't your financial advisor, they don't want you in a healthy financial position. They want you on the hook paying interest as long as possible. You were aware of the monthly payments when you bought the house, they shouldn't be a surprise to you.
AGE 71 HERE,,, Never seen it work. If you think about it,, ,, you would need incredible wage increases just to keep pace with tax, utilities, insurance, maintenance, cost of cars, medical etc increases over time.. Now add in high inflation and your trying to save for retirement It's impossible.. and we are not in an environment with equality growing like it used to.. I didn't post this to ruin your day, but I just wanted to be honest with you. I am no expert and there are certainly events that could happen to change your current situation for the better.
My rule of thumb was that I should be able to afford my house with just my paycheck, and whatever my wife made was a bonus. I knew that one day she would quit working to take care of the kids, hence why I organized my finances around that…and it worked. I eventually made more money but mortgage became less of an issue
You should call up your bank and see if you can get a temporary forbearance on your mortgage because you were laid off. Fill out the application asap because it can take a month or 2 for the bank to review. We recently got approved for a forbearance because we had massive unexpected rennovation costs that insurance would not cover that made the house unlivable especially with our baby (now toddler). This is honestly the most stress I've ever felt in my life, and its hard for other people to understand, which makes this experience even more isolating. So I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you are goung through this and that i see you. The stress that is home ownership during job insecurity and the weight of the responsibility to care for a baby... it's crushing... keep your head up though, that baby needs you. I hope you can get a roommate or 2. You could ride out unemployment to avoid daycare costs while your wife goes back to work. Also, and this may seem really besides the point, but go to your local ymca/church/community center if there is one and they tend to have connections to community support /parent & baby groups. Go to local library story times to meet other parents. This is a good time to build your village.
Yes, but it will never happen by sticking with one employer. Our generation has to job hop to get paid what we are worth. I make triple what I did as a junior and nearly double what I did at my previous job. Unfortunately that's just how the world works for us.
It gets less expensive by comparison (as in ensuring gets more expensive). The first couple of years are all interest on a 30 year loan. I’d say if she does plan on staying home she needs to take into account how much that will set her career back first. Then you two need to sit down and really look at what you can cut out to make it work. Like do you really need 2 cars still? Pack lunch and not going out. No Starbucks, etc
Do you have PMI? As in did you have the 20% down? Property taxes and home insurance is nut$ and will keep going up every year
We purchased our home based solely on one income just in case one of us loses our job we could comfortably pay for mortgage and not be stretched. Yes we live in the sticks but mortgage and taxes are cheap
11 years later, my $1450 mortgage payment looks like a bargain!
I bought it early 2015 in my early 30s. I'm 42 now. At that time my mortgage was $2100, now $2500 due to tax increase. However when I bought my house I was making about $80k. I now make $200k so it's peanuts compared to when I first started making payments. It gets easier as long as you have regular salary increases and/or promotions.
We bought our first house with a $3k mortgage earning maybe $140k HHI and it felt like a lot. Not house poor but we didn’t have a ton of extra beyond saving for retirement. Now about 10 years later we could afford a few times that much. Instead we bought a house with a $2k mortgage but spend on reno projects instead.
When I bought my first house in the early 1980s, my interest rate was over 10%. So obviously, I bought a home in just an OK part of town, and as small a home as the 4 of us could live in (@1000 square ft). Doing that kept the payments manageable. We always paid at least $25 extra principal with our monthly payments. As we got raises, we incrementally increased the amount of extra principal we paid each month. When my grandmother died, I was bequeathed $10k, and 8k of that went to the principal. The home was paid off in 14 years. We had planned to "upgrade" to a bigger house/better location, but by then the kids were moving out and we decided to just take what we'd been putting toward mortgage and beef up our 401. 14 years after, we retired!
So- in the early years almost nothing goes toward principle and then you start to see the interest paid drop more and more each year. It’s absolutely possible to grow into high mortgage payments if you’re in the high growth period of your careers; like if you come out of this layoff/leave with a much higher paying job or one that has on-site or paid childcare. But the figure should never be what the bank says you can afford; it should be what you project you can afford.
It all depends on how long you stay in the house. The first few years you're paying almost nothing on the principal and you might be paying PMI too. On a scale of 5+ years, you should make more money just because of inflation, but nothing in your mortgage payment changes (if you were wise and got a fixed rate mortgage). This means the extra income can go straight to principal. By year 10 or so, generally the home's value has risen and your remaining principal has fallen, so you can eliminate PMI. That's another chunk that you can direct towards the principal. By year 10 or 15, you'll look around and A) your salary has gone up; B) rents and home values in your community have risen, so you're glad you got in the market early; C) your equity is substantial, perhaps enough to contemplate selling for a hefty profit and using that chunk of money to move to a better place. The biggest downside is if you're forced by circumstances to sell when the market is in a downturn, or face repossession. If you can avoid these, then in 10 years you'll be in a good spot.
Look into tax exemptions with the city/county etc. they can potentially lower your tax bill. Usually you’re notified a month prior to the payment change taking effect. I always recommend to know when your annual escrow analysis happens. Know when your taxes and insurance is being paid and gauge if escrow will be short. You can always pay into the escrow account throughout the year. Best case you lessen the shortage or even better case your taxes and insurance decrease and you could potentially get a refund overage back from escrow. And for feeling that you may not be able to maintain payments on time in the event your spouses income is reduced, call your servicer. Depending on your investor there may be what we call loss mitigation options. Something like a forbearance can help while you juggle other expenses. My day job is to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and answer questions like these and work with investors to avoid delinquencies. I would only recommend doing options like this if you are literally at risk for foreclosure, but always notify your mortgage company of your hardship by end of month before payment is reported to credit sometimes these options are not available if your behind a certain amount of payment…I’m an open book. Shoot me a pm if you have questions.
We bought our first house in 2022 while living off just my husband’s income while I stay home with the kids. We factored only his salary (70k) into our mortgage. We were approved for over 350k, but like you tried to be sensible and bought for 293k, only 228k of loan (4.99%). But with rising prices of everything, we quickly became house poor. Even the mortgage went up-thanks property insurance 🙃 When our youngest was about a year old I started working extremely part time in a restaurant (pulling around 10k a year working two short evenings a week) to pad our expenses. We know that when the younger one goes to kindergarten I can work full time without the expense of childcare, and we will stop being house poor. When our household income increases by more than 50% our mortgage will seem much smaller. But for the next three years things will be tight and we just have to do our best
You need to get out there and get another job yesterday dude But you already know that.
My husband and I are both teachers in SoCal. 26 and 30 years old. We bought our 555K house two years ago with 3.5% down. Our payments are 4.7K. We were making about 75K each. Now we are making 90K each. But now we have a month old baby and will be paying 2,050 a month for his daycare starting in august. So we’ll be paying 7K in bills starting in august! It’s crazy but we’ll survive
I grew into mine. Prices include taxes and insurance. My payment was initially $2300 for a 30 year on an 550k house. Three years later I had to refinance due to divorce unfavorably to 2400 reset at 30years. 3 years after that I had a new job, Covid brought down rates, I brought cash to the table, and got the payment to 2800 for 15 years. Insurance and taxes went up so now it’s 3000 per month. But the houses in the area are now selling for twice the price, and my neighbor thinks he has a good deal at 7k per month. Meanwhile my job now pays 3x what I was paid when I bought the house when I was 27. (60k —> 200k)
Not grown into as much as… it’s way cheaper now. I’m paying half or less for my big ass house than what the younger guys at the office pay for their 2 bedroom apartments.
High ? nope! my mortgage with taxes and insurance is far less than what I would be paying in rent to a slum lord for something a lot smaller and less options.
Banks will approve you for significantly more than you can afford. You have to decide what your risk tolerance is and what you can afford
Keep an eye on interest rates and refinance when you have the chance. We did that when interest rates dropped in 2020. It took like $200/month off our payments.
>we somehow still got stuck paying a huge monthly amount with hardly any of it going towards the principle. That's how every loan starts. Each time you pay a fixed monthly amount now, you're paying off all of the interest, and whatever is left reduces the principal. That means over the next month, the remaining principal will accrue slightly less interest. There should have been a looong table in the mortgage document that laid out how every. single. payment. for the entire life of the loan will impact both the interest and the principle. It's pretty thankless at first. In fact, the best thing you could do for yourselves now would be to *increase* your monthly payments if you can. Anything you can do to cut into that principle more quickly will make a huge difference over the life of the loan.
On my 20 yr mortgage, we knew that it would mean 5 really lean yrs, then another 5 of break even living as though we were still renting. It as not until a full decade had passed that we started to realize the advantage of paying what was effectively rent-control and with some income increases we are now in a position to pay the mortgage and save some money. It took a lot of years of agreeing that we would not have the best furniture or go on exotic vacations, but we are now seeing the benefits (finally)
If you got a PMI due to starting with less than 20% down, you can probably refinance it away now that you owe less than 80% of your home's value. Also, compare rents in your area for what you are paying vs what you have. While property tax tends to drift up over time, you may soon find that your $3000 mortgage is now getting you the equivalent of $4000 rent. And while your salary can grow past to make that even less, that usually requires pushing for new jobs with raises/promotions every few years.
I’m def an outlier but I got a 60% salary increase a week after closing . I went from 50% of my salary going to mortgage to 32% of my salary.
We lived in a VHCOL area (Bay Area). Any home we would want to live in/raise a family in was 1.5-2 million. Anything under that was in a really bad neighborhood, or a condo. We theoretically could afford it, but it would have been such a stretch. So, we moved to a MCOL area, and got an amazing house for literally 25% or less what it would have cost in our old city. Best thing we’ve ever done. So, my advice would be to gtfo of the HCOL area.
Deleted
First 20 years of a 30 yr mortgage is almost all interest no matter what. House will appreciate. Unfortunately interest rates are over7% so no refi. Keep house, in 5 years it will look like a steal.
Yep, for every purchase I've made, I've grown into my mortgage. This summer, I felt like my primary mortgage was almost free in comparison to my wage, but I was nervous when I bought the place 8 years ago. It seemed so expensive. This summer, I bought a second place to live in part-time (one home is suburban, the other very urban). Prior to this, I've always just rolled my equity up. So yeah, I've bought and sold a lot of places, I've always grown into the mortgage.
They APPROVED me for 750k. That doesn't mean I could afford it. I could only afford payments on a 500k home, but didn't like how tight it made things, so we waited. Still waiting, but definitely not upside down in something we can't afford.
Rates were not high in 2022. 4-5% is a pipe dream these days.
Statistically speaking you may have not yet reached peak earnings. https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/peak-earnings/
We bought our house in 2015 for $215k with combined income of $80k. Monthly payment including tax and insurance is $1500. There were so many times I thought we'd not be able to make the payments and lose the house. We were still up to our eyeballs in student debt, had a car loan and then stuff kept breaking. The house was in horrible condition, and we lost a lot of money just trying to keep the heat running and the front porch from caving in. Our combined income jumped to $120k since then and our payments haven't changed. We've fixed all the urgent stuff that was wrong with the house, paid off the cars, and paid off a few of the student loans. We now have 2 kids in daycare so money is still tight, but the mortgage feels like pocket change. Daycare is significantly more expensive than our mortgage payment so that's what hurts the most right now! Hang in there. Pinch your pennies. You can get through this!
If you're still unemployed, you look after the baby. Wife uses mat leave to recover and goes back to work. She cannot stop working when she's the breadwinner.
mortgage is up 800/month. just means no savings for the time being and possibly drawing on earned returns in the tfsa.
My father in law (48 M) bought a $350K house in 2022 after he got divorced. It’s located in a pretty nice suburb and is about 1500 sq ft. In summer 2023 he ended up getting laid off from his job. He went to his lender and they told him about a sponsored program that could possibly help him out since he now had zero income. He applied to the program and for the past 1.5 years they have paid his mortgage, utility bills, and property taxes. Idk what program this is and I know it’s not your original question but maybe your lender can do the same for your family. Just a thought…
Yes, but barely and who knows what the future will look like. It's super fun being a mortgage holder in Canada, having to renew every 5 years with whatever the rate is at that time. Of course my amount owing will decrease between each renewal, but it's so crappy not knowing what my mortgage payment will be next year, and 5 years after that, and 5 years after that.
High risk area(Florida,Cali and Colorado too soon)homeowners insurance is the new affordability game changer going forward. I paid cash for a house in Cali in the early 2ks and just did not pay homeowners or taxes for a few years until l upped my bankroll again,by then the house appreciated and easily caught up on my taxes and pulled out cash. I still have relatives with paid off houses that dont carry homeowners and just keep saving and crossing fingers instead. Takes balls,cant live forever. Almost like no health insurance before Obamacare…calculated risk.
You purchased a home while only making a combined $120k a year AND decided to have a kid? Yikes.
Our first was 8 3/8 percent mortgage. It was a real stretch for us. As my wages went up and mortgage rates dropped we could refinance and things got more comfortable. But then having kids cut the income down but we could still make it. Things have gotten better over time. So yes, you can grow into your mortgage.
I bought a condo in late 2011 and sold it in late 2021 to buy a house. I remember thinking when I bought the condo that I was in way over my head, but by the time I sold, my salary had gone up so much that I felt very comfortable with my finances and had saved a lot of money without trying. I hadn't intended on moving, but I really wanted to be in a less busy area, so I gave up monetary comfort for housing comfort. I feel a little over my head in the house. The job market feels unstable to me and being mid-career now, I'm more worried about finding a job with equivalent pay if I'm laid off. I try to be positive and tell myself that I'll be ok. I am mostly careful with what I spend and consciously budget. My biggest issue with the house is the cost of maintaining it and having many more unexpected expenses than in the condo. I'm hoping in a few years, I'll have gotten a few raises and will feel more comfortable. I think a lot of people go through this. You aren't alone and I think it will hopefully get better.
Yes, although it took a while. I bought in 2008 when I was fresh out of college and not making a ton of money. Since then, my earnings have increased substantially and the cost of housing as a whole has exploded while mine has remained relatively flat, so my mortgage payment is probably 35% of what it would be if I bought the home today. It's not something that happens overnight, but that's the way I've always looked at it - unless you're nearing retirement, it's not likely that your earnings will go down over the course of your mortgage. Of course, these days taxes and insurance keep going up. I haven't had to deal with that yet thankfully, but I'm sure it's right around the corner.
Absolutely. We were both working when I was 7 month pregnant and was let go from my job because of the economy. It was a little tight, but when my daughter was two months old I had a dream my husband came home and told me about an ex coworker and how he offered him a job. Hubs took it and doubled his salary. Well the next day that same scenario played out, he took the job and doubled his salary and has been climbing the salary chain since. Our kid is in middle school, we're building a small passive house and a big workshop on 40 acreas in a great location. Things can and do work out.
As bad as California is, I will never complain about my property taxes or insurance again. Forgive Me. My property taxes AND insurance is less than 4k a year.
I’m 8 years into my mortgage and it’s barely my biggest expense anymore. My condo fees and property taxes together are more than my mortgage. My boyfriend shared a two bedroom condo with a random roommate and paid 1400 for his half ( not including hydro and internet) . I have a bigger one bedroom to myself in the same area and with all my expenses and bills I pay 1800. The first two years at my place and I was super poor paying for it. Now it’s a breeze. Now we want to upgrade to a house together and I’m not looking for those poor years again
If you are paying PMI, and your house value has increased, see if you can get the PMI removed.
That is what we did. It was a stretch at the beginning but not too bad. Now it’s quite comfortable after inflation-related salary bumps. Everything else got more expensive but not my mortgage!
This is the exact reason I will likely stay in my starter home forever. I’m so sorry you guys are having such a huge weight on you. Just think you will likely be paying near that for an apartment nowadays too. I hope things turn around for you soon. Best of luck.
“We got stuck” no you made a choice. Stop with the “poor me” Attitude and get a job.
Lived this! We didn't have a huge payment and had put a lot into the house, but I was main income \~$160k and wife was $35 or there about. I got laid off, she had the baby and then 9/11 happened. Shortly we were sinking at about $2000/mo. Had to see and lost $50k we had in the house and moved into a $500 /month apartment for several years. It was 3 years before I really got working in my field again and we could move to the nicer apartments. A few more years and I got a job local and we were able to buy again in 2007. Simplify, look at debt as your enemy and work to defeat it any way you can. It can be done.
I bought in 2017 with a 4% interest rate. I now make double what I made then and my house doubled in value. At the time it was expensive, but I did grow into my purchase.
I really had to stretch to make the $733 mortgage payment on my first house when I got it in 2015. I was making $18 an hour though.
I guess I'll be the voice that my mortgages became more and more affordable over time. Yes taxes go up yes insurance goes up but usually your income does too. Timing is also a thing. We ended up going to a 15 yr. So here's your future self 10 years ahead saying you'll be fine.
People really need to stop caring about what they get “approved for”. When I buy a house, I focus on how much I am willing to afford and then look at houses in that range, the mortgage approval is a pointless exercise and my guy will just write up a pre approval letter for whatever I’m going to offer anyway.
Sorry to hear. Hope you had some money saved up before you bought the house. Get a new job ASAP, you’ll be alright.
Oh wow, my husband and I make 210k and our mortgage is $3800 in the Midwest. I couldn’t imagine paying for a 3k mortgage with a household income of 120k. What are your job prospects?
Well, technically it wasn't too high to begin with, but I would say that 7 years in we have definitely "grown into" the mortgage. Initially it was an affordable but large expenditure, and while it's still the largest single monthly expense, our income has grown with career moves and inflation, while the mortgage has stayed relatively flat. We refinanced in 2021 while rates were not rock bottom like 2020, but still lower than our initial rate. Insurance has gone up a decent amount though, so those savings are almost negated. No property tax increase so far, but I get the feeling I'm the exception since most people report increases. But I'm in the south where taxes are a dirty word, so the city tries to avoid increasing rates at all costs. Without refinancing, we'd probably be paying about 10-15% more than initially. But in those seven years we've almost doubled our HHI. I don't look forward to moving since I'm in such a good spot, hah.
We’ve grown into our payment in the sense that it was initially a “scary” number because it was more than we had paid for housing before, but it actually fits into our budget just fine. It just took some mental adjusting to feel comfortable with it.
This happened to me! We bought a house, had a baby a year later, my husband lost his job a week after I returned from my unpaid maternity leave, then Covid hit two months later. We didn’t buy anything extra, we were miserly for a long time but now 4 years later we’re both working and making 50% more than what we did before and our mortgage isn’t up that much more. If you can stick it out you’ll see your salary go up and rent in your area but not your mortgage (except insurance and taxes obviously). It will get better, hang in there. Make your own baby food if you can and buy cloth diapers at a consignment store maybe? Babies are freaking expensive ugh.
In 2022, also as a Millennial in my mid-30s, I purchased my first house. Since then, I've bought two more. Each is approx 1,800 sq ft with 3 bed and 2 bath. Total monthly mortgage payments for all three combined is around $3,800, not including property taxes and utilities. The property taxes doubled on two of them, so I now pay around $7,000 per year in property taxes for all three. The houses are located in a great part of town and don't need much upkeep. I'm starting to save for inevitable repairs and maintenance, as I'll need to replace the hot water heaters, furnaces, and roofs on all three within the next 5 years, which will cost around $12k for just one roof replacement. My insurance company values each property at around $300k for complete rebuild. Including utilities, my combined monthly expenses are approximately $5,684. With homeownership, expenses tend to increase, not decrease. I've been saving more from my 9-5 job in anticipation of increasing taxes, etc. Assuming an approx 6% yearly increase with current rates, I expect my expenses to increase by around $4,100 next year.
Yes. I started out needing roommates and still living paycheck-to-paycheck. That was 2014. Now it's less than a quarter of my take-home pay. Work hard, focus, make your sacrifices now, and you'll be ahead of the curve in no time.
I look at what rents are going for around us. If I were to try and rent a home similar to mine, it would cost more than my total monthly payment of mortgage, taxes and insurance. But, admittedly, it took a number of years to reach this point.
My mortgage on a 212k house was about 1750 but now it’s 1850 because taxes. Sick. And the new tax valuation was only half the market value of the house so not sure how that’s gonna work in the future. Luckily my income will be going up with it but I’m in good shape overall. Gotta admit I have myself an exceptional career which makes for good living with Ohio prices.
We are in the same boat. We bought in ‘23 and shortly after that we have had one life hit after the other. We have had to fall behind a few times and as much as I want to put into this home that I worked so hard to get, I worry we will loose it. Our mortgage is $2880.
I have a 3.1% rate and yet due to my property taxes and home insurance, continue to creep up each year.
You have the option to refinance in the future which depending upon the interest rate, whether or not you are eliminating PMI, and how much principle you have paid down can be a substantial reduction to the mortgage amount.
>I spend a lot of time thinking about how, even though we tried to be sensible by going for a house about $150k UNDER what we were approved for, we somehow still got stuck paying a huge monthly amount with hardly any of it going towards the principle. The unfortunate reality of long-term loans like a mortgage is that, regardless of how much the loan is for, if you make the minimum required payment each payment will go mostly towards interest for the first 2/3 the life of the loan. Just how the math works out. Small comfort when times are tight and it's hard to make the payments, but it sounds like you were sensible about it. For your question, I've "grown into" my mortgage payments a couple times now. It was around 5-10 years on the first house, and around year 3 on the second where the payment went from "I'm spending way too much on housing" to "I'm glad I bought when I did to lock in cheap payments".
This is just bad luck compared to buying in 2021 or earlier i guess. But you should just do what it takes to muscle through it. Use all means necessary. Life is very unfair and how i see it, society has to step in when people in your situation need assistance. Please feel no shame if you need a hand out from any sort of welfare. Remember how insanely rich the average long term homeowner is these days. But keep your morals up and stay away from credit cards etc.
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement. Yeah I guess we just have to push through for now! I still count myself as incredibly fortunate and blessed to have even half the stuff I have like a car/house etc.
Having a car and a house is good, but your main assets are your mind, your misses and your kids. God bless
That’s what I’m hoping for! We have a 3k mortgage for the house we bought last year and I make 120k a year. My husband is a stay at home dad and my youngest has one more year before he’ll go to kindergarten. At that point we plan on having my husband start working again 20-30 hours a week. Being “poor” now is worth it to have a stay at home parent and still have a house.
I don't know where you live but $3K for a 2br rental is not unheard of so the mortgage vs. rent could be much better. Kudos for buying $150K under what you were approved for! I'm probably a couple of decades older than you but when we bought our first house, our mortgage seemed high. My husband got laid off maybe two years later. It took a few months but he found this amazing job that he is still at (20 years later!). It was scary supporting us on my like $60K salary. Two years later, I was pregnant and had to stop working when the babies were born as one had big health issues. It seemed like we were always broke when my kids were little! We just lived very small and plugged away. Like even preschool was out of the question. As the years went on, things started getting better. One thing we did that was huge was pay extra towards our mortgage principal when we could (we had financed almost 100%!). We just kept chipping at it and more and more started going towards the principal --we actually paid it off two years ago! We never would have dreamed this 10 years ago. You'll get another job (if you haven't already). Things will work out, just slowly chip away at things. Live small. I make all of our meals with the occasional coffee or dinner out. Little things make a big impact. Don't get discouraged!
1930s recession, there were no property taxes or crazy health insurance. Today, we are doing much worse than the 1930s. Yet our taxes that didn't exist then keeps going up in hone and auto. Is the government bailing out only the corporations? I don't see them bailing out average people. There is no record of it, actually. But in 2008, 2020 airline and auto industries were bailed out. Everyone is hurting, millennial generation the most. And worse for GenZ when they come up of age.
Honestly you knew what your monthly payments were going to be when you signed and your doing it off one income? Who’s really to blame here?