Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 09-14-2015, 12:43 PM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,811,272 times
Reputation: 2962

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by stars4losers View Post
I was basing my budget off of this:

How Much House Can I Afford - Home Affordability Calculator | Zillow

Neither of us has any debt, soooo I'm not sure if that calculator is off or what. I had been told by a realtor friend that this calculator was a good representation of affordability.

As for Dedham, I know people from there. I don't dislike the people that I know, and I have friends that live on the line in West Roxbury. The school systems worried me more than the alleged racism.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shrewsburried View Post
Depending on how conservative I enter my debts, the calculator is showing a home price which 40-65% greater than what my personal calculations suggest I can afford and, realistically, far beyond what any lender would suggest or allow.

Seriously - talk to a lender ASAP.
LOL I just used that calculator and it says I can afford a house that's $900,000 MORE than the house I just bought a couple years ago. I can afford a nice single family home in Brookline? I'll keep dreaming...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-14-2015, 01:22 PM
 
Location: East Coast
4,249 posts, read 3,723,943 times
Reputation: 6487
OP is not asking whether you think he can afford 350K. He's asking what the options are for 350K. There are plenty of ways he might be able to swing it -- maybe parents/in-laws are going to help out, maybe sporadically he or his wife get bonuses that can go toward housing, maybe he has a decent down payment. We don't know, and he didn't ask for how much we think he should spend on a house.

This thread is veering off track. (Certainly there could be a discussion of how much is reasonable to spend on housing and whether lending guidelines are appropriate. But that's not what OP asked here.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 01:28 PM
 
3,808 posts, read 3,138,691 times
Reputation: 3333
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
LOL I just used that calculator and it says I can afford a house that's $900,000 MORE than the house I just bought a couple years ago. I can afford a nice single family home in Brookline? I'll keep dreaming...
I wonder if Zillow can direct me towards a lender willing to finance a 580K home with 45K down and 110K gross income.

The only way I got the numbers to within a reasonable range was to enter my circulating debts which, since I use my credit card for nearly everything, represents my total monthly expenses including food, gas, utilities bills, medical bills, pet food, wine, hobbies ... everything. Even then, the suggested home price was still fell outside acceptable debt-to-income ratios.

f#^*&#@ CRAZY.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 01:38 PM
 
Location: Springfield and brookline MA
1,348 posts, read 3,098,971 times
Reputation: 1402
I don't think you would survive on 80k total with a 350k dollar house even in WMass. Where the COL is less than EMass. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 01:41 PM
 
3,808 posts, read 3,138,691 times
Reputation: 3333
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagoliz View Post
OP is not asking whether you think he can afford 350K. He's asking what the options are for 350K. There are plenty of ways he might be able to swing it -- maybe parents/in-laws are going to help out, maybe sporadically he or his wife get bonuses that can go toward housing, maybe he has a decent down payment. We don't know, and he didn't ask for how much we think he should spend on a house.

This thread is veering off track. (Certainly there could be a discussion of how much is reasonable to spend on housing and whether lending guidelines are appropriate. But that's not what OP asked here.)
OP indicated that he/she thought they could afford "probably up to 350K". Whenever someone throws a word like "probably" into a sentence, I get the impression that they "probably" haven't spoken to a lending professional. The discussion is highly relevant to OPs situation because they suggested their budget was largely (or entirely) defined by a mortgage calculator which is not accurate - confirmed by myself and other posters.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 02:24 PM
 
Location: East Coast
4,249 posts, read 3,723,943 times
Reputation: 6487
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shrewsburried View Post
OP indicated that he/she thought they could afford "probably up to 350K". Whenever someone throws a word like "probably" into a sentence, I get the impression that they "probably" haven't spoken to a lending professional. The discussion is highly relevant to OPs situation because they suggested their budget was largely (or entirely) defined by a mortgage calculator which is not accurate - confirmed by myself and other posters.
Valid enough. Although I haven't seen OP chime in with his thoughts. I'm curious whether that portion of the discussion is helpful to him and what he was seeking to find here.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 02:40 PM
 
Location: Mass
974 posts, read 1,898,672 times
Reputation: 1024
OP, don't listen to the suburban naysayers snearing if you don't have $500k for a downpayment... there are many programs to help AVERAGE people afford homes in Massachusetts with 1st time homeowner programs and 3% down payments.

Yes, your rent is cheap, but there are probably no gurantees it will stay that cheap.

Buying now is a good idea because then you're building equity and ensuring against rent increases.

MAHAhome.org | Education - Action - Results
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 03:26 PM
 
1,199 posts, read 638,675 times
Reputation: 2031
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagoliz View Post
Valid enough. Although I haven't seen OP chime in with his thoughts. I'm curious whether that portion of the discussion is helpful to him and what he was seeking to find here.
Did you miss this part?

Quote:
Originally Posted by stars4losers View Post
I was basing my budget off of this:

How Much House Can I Afford - Home Affordability Calculator | Zillow

Neither of us has any debt, soooo I'm not sure if that calculator is off or what.
I had been told by a realtor friend that this calculator was a good representation of affordability.
"I'm not sure if this calculator is off or what" sounds a lot like an invitation for people to offer their perspectives on whether the calculator is, in fact, off. Of course, it's certainly understandable if you'd prefer to focus on more pressing things, like whether the target towns offer curbside trash pick-up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 03:35 PM
 
187 posts, read 217,333 times
Reputation: 224
Quote:
Originally Posted by Partial Observer View Post
For the record, the Zillow calculator estimates that I can afford a house that costs $160K more than the one I actually bought. Even when I go to the advanced settings and adjust for a 3% down-payment and my town's ludicrous property tax rate, Zillow thinks I "comfortably" could have spent $100K more on my house (about $2800/month). That's pretty remarkable, as I'm barely making ends meet with a mortgage under $2K/month... no savings, no annual vacations, no fancy restaurants, no fancy car. Zillow clearly doesn't adequately account for other ongoing costs that don't fit neatly into the "monthly debt" category, such as child care, health insurance premiums/co-pays, utilities, groceries, professional dues, etc.
I completely agree, my husband and I pay for Daycare and its half our mortgage... Think about kids and just figure out a budget instead of the online calculators.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2015, 04:06 PM
 
5,792 posts, read 5,106,539 times
Reputation: 8008
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
LOL I just used that calculator and it says I can afford a house that's $900,000 MORE than the house I just bought a couple years ago. I can afford a nice single family home in Brookline? I'll keep dreaming...
Ditto. I plugged in our number on that zillow calculator and some absurd number came out. I wish!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:12 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top