I don't want to know who you are! We're buying a home and the area is higher priced than in our old home to get even remotely what we had. I'm wondering how people are making these big payments to live in the houses that we 'want' to live in but can't afford. We have a very good income, but are very concientious with our money as well, so we don't just get always what we want but more what's best for the long run and not to keep up with the Jones'. I'm choosing to post Anon just to keep it about money and not about who you/we are. It's up to you, but finances are usually private.

So what is your mortgage?
Ours is currently $700/month, 20 year mortgage refinanced 3-5 years ago.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 08:51 pm:

ours is $2000 but we owe less than 200k and are paying extra. the mortgage is 15yr fixed so we are almost done.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 08:54 pm:

Full payment is $865. That's with escrow and interest. I don't recall what it is all broken down.

We have a 1600 sq ft Cape Cod house that would be modest, by most standards. We don't have a master bedroom and bath. We don't have an offical family room, just a corner of the basement where we watch TV. My kitchen has hardly any counter space, but we manage. We go have a detached 2-car garage, 1-1/2 baths, 3 bedrooms, a nice-sized living room and a HUGE yard!

When we applied for our mortgage, the gave us a range of what they thought we could afford. We stayed way at the bottom of their estimation and are quite happy here. Now, with the real estate market what it is, we are glad we have a smaller house.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 09:00 pm:

We pay $1,800.00 a month on a 20 yr. fixed mortgage. I love our house, and it is very nice. Dh makes a great salary, so we are still just spending about 20-25% of our income on our housing costs. We have moved a lot, and we have made a lot of wise choices when buying/selling, so we had a lot of money to put down on our current house. Also, I want to note that we have no other debt, except for 1 car. We keep our cars for 10 years+, so a lot of time we don't even have a car payment.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 09:32 pm:

Just our mortgage with no escrow for taxes or anything with a fixed rate is 900, and that is for a 1444 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and a attached 2 car garage. Both DH and I work and make good money but we would love to move into a larger house but we don't see how people make a 1600 a month mortgage payent with any other debt which we have a car payment and some credit card debt that we are trying to get rid of.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 09:49 pm:

30 year loan. $1638.00 per month includes escrow and insurance. The majority is for insurance.
Our home is now worth twice the amount that we purchased it for.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:03 pm:

Well, I am feeling quite blessed after reading these high numbers. We pay $940 (includes insurance and escrow, no PMI) and our house is a 2500ish sq ft tri-level with 4 BR, 2 1/2 baths, formal living room, family room, and all of our rooms are quite spacious except for the 4th BR which we use as an office. We are on a large wooded lot, have a large unfinished basement, and a huge 2 car attached garage. We put 33% down on our house and have no debt except 1 small car payment (used car).

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:20 pm:

$2,800 a month including escrow and taxes - don't know the term - I think 30 year.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:30 pm:

We have a small house, honestly too small for our growing family. Hopefully we will be in the financial position to upgrade before we go nuts,lol, but seriously

We pay $585 a month including property taxes and insurance. 30 year fixed. We've had it for about 5 years and it's probably gone up a little in value. The housing slump isn't as big of an issue where we live compared to other parts of the country. Very low cost of living here but there aren't many good jobs at all.

It's a nice neighborhood close to schools and we have good neighbors. Houses here(neighborhood) don't go for sale too often. It's not the fancy part of town by any means but definitely not scary. I don't know the square footage but I think it's like 1600? 1 and a half baths, 2 bedroom, good size kitchen, newer windows. Nice yard for the kids, garage.The house was built in the fifties sometime so there isn't much closet space but some updates were done before we bought it. I think it would be considered a starter home.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:48 pm:

I'm original anon - The $700 doesn't include escrow, that's just the mortgage part.

For those of you with higher mortgages, I guess my question is what percent of your income is your payment? Someone listed that, and I realized that's probably part of my question as well.

Some of these seem so high to me, but I know that in some areas it's inevitable so I wonder how other expenses are managed to accomodate for the high mortgages/necessity of high mortgage.

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:51 pm:

Our $1638.00 mortgage is 25% of monthly income

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 11:15 pm:

ours is 459. on a 30 year fixed and thats on a 5 bedroom home in Oklahoma

By Anonymous on Monday, July 7, 2008 - 11:20 pm:

Our total payment is $820.00, including escrow, taxes, homeowners' ins. We re-fi'd mayge 5(?) years ago with a 20 yr. mortgage @ 5.35%, but we made the mistake of adding in a fair amount of revolving debt, so obviously we had a larger loan. If we had just stuck to my original mortage of 30 yrs., the house would be paid off in another 6+ years, but the interest rates were sky high and we re-fi'd down with a considerably reduced rate.

Something to always keep in mind - property taxes and homeowners insurance increases every year, so your escrow will increase accordingly - *if* you have that paid by your mortgage company, which we do.

There are new subdivisions in my area, with very nice/larger homes that have more amenities, and though it was tempting, we chose not to have a mortage rate that was double or even triple what wer currently have. Oh - and our house is not large by many standards - 1600 sq. ft; 4 BR/2BA, large fenced yard, no carport or gargage. We also put a lot of work into it in the last few years, so it IS updated.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 01:25 am:

3,500.00 a month for a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1400 sq foot home.
Thats what you get in Los Angeles. After reading this I think we need to move.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 02:00 am:

1500 total payment, with insurance and taxes. I am not sure of our percent. But it is a little over half of one of our take home paychecks. We get paid every other week.

The formula I heard growing up is, you can reasonable afford 1 percent of your annual salary in payment. So if you make 150k a year, than you can afford 1500 a month and so on.

We financed 30 years, fixed loan.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 08:24 am:

$3500/mth. Anon in LA - does that take a huge chunk of your income???? I can't imagine that type of mortgage!!! I know it's incredibly expensive there. My aunt used to live in the LA area. She's been renting her home to the same couple for 7 years for right at $3000/month...for RENT!

By Karen~admin on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 08:35 am:

RE: CA real estate/rent prices: My sister has lived in Marin Country for around 25 years - she *just* moved from Mill Valley to Sausalito 2 months ago to escape the high rents, and she and her b/f are STILL paying over $4000 for a 1500 sq ft rental. I cannot imagine paying those kinds of prices.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 08:47 am:

Oh wow. We don't even make $3000 a month. I don't know how I could "handle" dropping that much on a house payment. I am a "tight wad" and wow.. Guess I won't be moving to CA, just stay right where I am.

Our house payment is $600 and that covers everything, 30 year fixed. I am not sure of the square footage of the house. We have three floors. Finished basement, main and second floor. We have 6 bedrooms, 2 full baths, my dinning room has a table that sits 10 people in it, a two car detached garage. Our house is a very old, from the road it looks like a, small cottage.. Inside it is huge. Our yard is huge. I love my house, we aren't in the best neighborhood, but like someone said above you hardly ever see a house go up for sale around here so it isn't to bad, considering. Have I mentioned I love my house. LOL

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 08:54 am:

We are currently building a home. Our mortgage payments will be around $700 per month without taxes and insurance. That is for a 7 year mortgage though. We have one small car payment that should be done soon. We've recently had some job issues so our yearly income combined right now is only 85K which, according to the anon above means we should be ok. We could finance for a longer term I guess.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 09:02 am:

I am the anon that pays 2K. It is a little less than 25% of our monthly income, we only have one car payment and the mortgage. The 2K includes taxes and insurance and extra $$ on the principal.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 09:59 am:

We pay $599 a month. We have almost 2 acres, a 1500 sq ft cape cod, a 3 car detached garage that is 1600 square foot, and a new steel shed that is 2500 square foot. Our taxes are $1500 a year and insurance is $700 a year. This is about 10% of our monthy income.

We are going to be tearing down the house next year and putting up a new one. Our payments will still only be about 15% of our monthly income. We hate debt and hope to get it paid off in 10 - 15 years.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 10:07 am:

I'm in CA and our mortgage is 2700/month. That's about 40% of our income but we have no other debt, period and given the cost of living here, it's a necessary expense. Since we've both grown up here and have all of our family here, moving out of state is not an option. Our home is 1800 sq ft, 4BR/2B with a separate family room, smallish fenced yard and three car garage.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 11:19 am:

I am the anon that pays 900 for 1444 sq ft. That isn't with insurance and taxes. but it comes out to about 25% of my DHs monthly salary (a little less). We are a 2 income family and I guess it ends up less than 10% of our total income, but we have a lot of other debt we are getting rid of before we get a new house. But our taxes are around 3000 a year and last I heard our insurance was about 1200 to 1500 a year (we don't need flood insurance where we live.. thank god)

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 12:38 pm:

I pay $527.13 for a 1800 sq ft home plus 2 car attached garage.This includes taxes and insurance also.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 12:50 pm:

$585 is about 20% of our income. There have been times it was 50% even 60%. Stressful and not fun, but it's not like we bought a mansion we couldn't afford. We stuck it out somehow because it's not like you can go rent and it be cheaper. Now things are better and it's about 15% of our income. Where I live the average family of 4 makes $27,000 a year. There are alot of new developments here, it's a low cost of living area to people that are retiring from some of the neighboring big cities.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 01:22 pm:

I think it is difficult to compare. Housing here starts at $400,000 and that would be a condo not a house.
The cost of living is very high, so incomes are higher here.
I would love to have a mortgage that is less than $1000 but I wouldn't want my husband to have a lower income job. I think you need to take into consideration the area.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 01:50 pm:

We pay $1170 per month (includes escrow for taxes and insurance) on a 33 1/3 year fixed mtg. We have had the mortgage for 20 years already, though. It is approximately 25% of our gross income...we live in a small ranch home in New England, and we love it. It does take a serious bite out of our budget, but we know that it will be paid off less than 14 years from now, and we are only 39, so I guess we'll muddle through. We could have re-fi'd for a lower rate, but we have a USDA-RHS mortgage, and although right now we are not receiving any subsidy as our income is a lot higher then when we bought the house, if DH ever lost his job and had to work for a lot less $, our payment would go down accordingly. That security is worth paying the extra interest now (we got the mortgage at 9 3/4 %, which was not bad in 1988 when we got it!).....on another note, my son and his wife live in an apartment in the southern end of the state, and they pay $850 per month for RENT. And that is normal for this area. So that makes me feel better that we are at least making an investment in our future (DS and his wife are still college students, so buying a house is not in their plans right now)...Good luck with your decision!

By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 02:30 pm:

We pay $2300/mth incl escrows. We refied in 2003 and have 10 years left with a current balance of $150,000.00. We bought our house in 1998 for $295,000 and the current market value is $700,000. It actually dropped $100,000 in the past 1.5 years due to the market. DS and I are both incredibly blessed with great jobs. I have my own business and ds is VP level at a large co. With our annual income we could afford a much more expensive house but neither of us are really into that. We don't want to pour our money into a multimillion home like many of our friends but absolutely love the freedom of being able to travel, safe for collegee etc w/o any worries. We also help support extended family members, approx $3000/mth. If we had a huge mtg payment we wouldn't be able to do that.

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 05:29 pm:

I've lived in CA most of my life and I can't swallow the idea of a 3-4K/mo payment! LOL When I think of those payments, I think of luxurious houses along the coast! Or mansions! Here around Camp Pendleton the basic housing allowance (that is adjusted yearly based on the economy) they give us, if we lived off base, just over $1700/mo. Of course rank plays a factor but if we wanted we could move 30-40 minutes inland and buy with just the housing allowance. I think it's crazy how CHEAP some of your mortgages are!!! I was used to pay 400-500/mo in CAR payments, I would love to have that been a house payments instead. LOL

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 07:45 pm:

Wow, Melissa. I don't think we've ever had a car payment that high!

By Karen~admin on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 07:54 pm:

Melissa, where my sister just moved from in Mill Valley, a 2 BR apartment, less than 1000 sq. ft. in her building was on the market for $700,000 two summers ago, when we were visiting.

Location dictates real estate values. Period.

I would love to have a brand new house; I'd also love to live on the water. I'd love to move outside of Louisiana. But I DON'T want a bigger mortgage, so I am staying put.

By Breann on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 08:50 pm:

I'd love to live on the water too. I love the beach.
We currently pay $1700/month. We live in a custom built home. Our payment is kind of high for our area. You can easily buy a home and pay closer to $1000-$1200/month here.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 09:09 pm:

I live close enough to the water! LOL! I can be at the water's edge, in just a few minutes! I don't really want to LIVE on the water, though. People who live on Lake Michigan bluffs, sometimes have trouble with erosion. I'm happy just to visit the water.

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 09:46 pm:

LOL Dawn. DH was the King of 0 down and transferring negative equity! Thank God we don't have vehicle payments anymore.

Karen, I believe it! But at the same time I don't WANT to! LOL Living in CA, the market right now is the ONLY market DH and I can afford in this area.

By Karen~admin on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 06:58 am:

Melissa, I didn't mean that you should move - on the contrary! I just meant that location dictates the prices - meaning, that compared to Louisiana, California real estate prices are through the roof. What would sell for $300,000 here would probably go for over $1,000,000 there, easily. I think you are probably not alone, like a lot of other people who can only afford to buy in today's market. My sister is one of them! LOL She just bought a re-po house in Pensacola for a ridiculously small amount of money.

I have been in my house for going on 24 years. It no longer is what I would choose, it doesn't have a nice master bath (both bathrooms are almost identical), even though we put a lot into renovations last year, it's still *outdated* (as in, you KNOW it's an 'older' home that has been 'updated'), I hate the location now (we initially chose this when J & J were toddlers and the older 2 were in school, due to the schools in our parish), I hate Louisiana........the lists goes on and on. But with the soft real estate market, I wouldn't get what it is worth to sell, I don't want to pay more right now, especially since I am no longer working, and at this stage in our lives, we won't be moving until DH retires.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 11:03 am:

Melissa, 0 down on a loan never is a good thing! Yikes.

Karen, hang in there. I live in an older home, too. My house was built in 1956, so 4 years before I was born! We've replaced the windows and the previous owners updated the electricity and some of the countertops, plus added a dishwasher. It still doesn't change the fact that we have hardly any counterspace, though!

By Boxzgrl on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 11:31 am:

Oh, we're not moving any time soon! We probably *should* but I don't feel comfortable with such a big purchase until i'm working again.

Dawn- Try telling that to your 19 year old boyfriend (at the time), then again when he's your 21 year old husband. They DO know it all. You know that, right???? LOL (That's why I do finances now!) We still get into little bickerments about how certain things make your credit score go down (such as reaching your credit card limit) and he likes to argue the contrary. One day he will realize that we really ARE smarter. ;) LOL Until then...

By Paulas on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 12:37 pm:

Speaking of mortgages...
We are about to buy a new home as I mentioned in another post. Our new home is going to cost about $185000. We need to buy new kitchen appliances (~$4000 for stainless steel), a woodstove for the basement (~$2000) and work on finishing the basement a bit so we were planning on getting a mortgage for $200 000. We have $135 000 to put down on the house.

The bankers are saying we should get a larger mortgage and invest some of our down payment. What are your thoughts?

By Tayjar on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 01:07 pm:

NEVER NEVER NEVER listen to bankers. They are wanting you to do that because it's money in their pockets via more interest money you have to pay over the next 30 years. If you do it right with a large down payment, your house payment will be manageable and you will be able to save money each month to go towards an emergency fund.

Your best bet is to take some of the 135,000 and use that to buy your new appliances, etc. Otherwise you are paying interest on them for 30 years. You won't have them paid off before it's time to buy new ones.

By Debbie on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 02:27 pm:

I would not get a larger mortgage!! I would keep a lower payment, and then take the extra $$ that you have and put them in savings, invest, or whatever you want to do.

I always say, the lower your monthly bills the better. If for some reason you monthly income were to lower, you will not be as stressed. You can always cut back on the amount you are saving, if something were to happen. But, you can't cut back on your mortgage payment.

On a side note, how are things going, Paula? Now, that you are buying a house and moving forward, are you starting to feel more settled??

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 09:21 am:

I agree with Tayjar and Debbie. And I hope you are talking to a couple of different bankers or mortgage companies before making your final decision. You need to watch out for a number of things, including pre-payment penalties (bad), anything that might cause the interest rate to rise (also generally bad), hidden fees & closing costs, title insurance fees. The bank/mortgage company should provide a list of such fees and costs so that you have a basis for comparison.

You might also want to inquire about whether you can pay an extra point (1% of the mortgage amount)or partial point in return for not having to pay your real estate taxes and homeowners insurance through the bank/mortgage company escrow program. I did that when we re-mortgaged, paying an extra 1/4 point, because I'd had the experience with my former mortgage company of them paying the taxes after the discount period had expired and not paying the homeowners timely. Now I just put that money aside every month in ING so that I have it ready when the payments are due and I get the interest - and pay my real estate taxes within the discount period, which saves several hundred dollars each year. Every so often I have to provide proof of payment of taxes or homeowners insurance to the mortgage company, which is easy, and in the long run I have earned a nice chunk of interest on that money.

By Reds9298 on Friday, July 11, 2008 - 10:49 am:

I would recommend finding a lender where points aren't involved at all. You can also do a piggy back loan for the downpayment, thus avoiding PMI and the escrow, if you prefer to pay your homeowners and taxes on your own. We've not done this but my sister (a banker) recommends it all the time to avoid those costs.

I would also use cash for the appliances you need in the new home in this case. You could even put the money back, let it collect interest, and put all of your appliances on a 0% card from Best Buy, etc. Figure out the payments needed to pay it off within the 0% time frame (usually long, like 2-3 years). Pay that amount monthly, let your money collect a little interest, and if you decide to just pay it off before the period at some point you can. Your overall mortgage will be relatively small even after taking that out of your downpayment.