Can I afford a House? (Realtors, loan, sellers, debt)

[satriela]

NACA -best mortgage program in the nation

[nellydave]

We would love to have my husband on the title but would the debt in his name not further reduce how much we can qualify for? He's never been late in payments and all that, just that the debt in his name is high.

Thank you all so much for your input.

Travelguy thanks for creditboards.com. Great resource!
Satriela thanks too for the NACA link. Great resource too!!

[tstone]

A good estimate I found is that principal, interest, taxes, insurance (HO and flood), and HOA fees will run you about 1% of your house value. This assumes you put nothing down, have good or excellent credit, have about a 3% tax rate, you don't live in a flood plain, and use a 30 year conventional loan. The more you put down, the less your payment obviously. Also taxes, insurance and HOA fees are paid yearly. So a $150,000 house will probably run you about $1,500/mo on average.

[fgcastro]

NACA. 1.25% 30 year fixed. No closing costs.
I did the closing back in april 08, almost a year ago.
NACA interest is 4.75% right now but you can buy down the interest rate (points).
That's what i did to get that 1.25%. (1% of mortgage permanently reduces interest rate by 0.25%)

[ssgmun5000]

Im getting the sense that we are being spammed.

[chris_ut]

Originally Posted by fgcastro

NACA. 1.25% 30 year fixed. No closing costs.
I did the closing back in april 08, almost a year ago.
NACA interest is 4.75% right now but you can buy down the interest rate (points).
That's what i did to get that 1.25%. (1% of mortgage permanently reduces interest rate by 0.25%)

This is terrible advice. Your saying you paid 14 points on a loan to get a 1.25% interest? That means on a 200k house you paid $28,000 up front for points. Points only reduce your interest and not your principal so this would only be a good deal if you held the house for the full term of the loan and paid it off. Statistically it is very rare for people to own one home for the entire 30 years of their mortgage. If you were to sell the house then you eat the 28k you paid on the points less the interest payments you saved. I'm not going to spend time to calculate it but I'm thinking you cant sell for like 6 or 7 years without losing money so this is a big gamble.

[Houston456]

Since you paid 14 points, you could have paid 5 more and made it a 0% APR..

Originally Posted by fgcastro

NACA. 1.25% 30 year fixed. No closing costs.
I did the closing back in april 08, almost a year ago.
NACA interest is 4.75% right now but you can buy down the interest rate (points).
That's what i did to get that 1.25%. (1% of mortgage permanently reduces interest rate by 0.25%)

[foma]

As some that have already alluded, I don't think you have a choice in the matter. What you own, your husband owns 50% and visa versa.

Don't rely on what people tell you here. You need to do your own research and assess your financial situation. Make a budget. What do you spend on bills every month? When you purchase a home, you also need to consider all the costs that go along with it, too. Are you prepared to pay for upkeep? Broken faucet? Home insurance? Property taxes? Initial costs to purchasing your home? New paint? New fridge? New carpet? The list is endless. Do you have 20% down? Or at least something saved up? You also need cushion money. Far too many people use everything they have to put into the down payment, left with no savings, and something catastrophic happens. There are many things to consider. Try googling "Am I ready to buy a house?" or something along those lines. There are many useful tools that can help you asses your situation.

[City Love]

Originally Posted by nellydave

We would love to have my husband on the title but would the debt in his name not further reduce how much we can qualify for? He's never been late in payments and all that, just that the debt in his name is high.

Thank you all so much for your input.

Travelguy thanks for creditboards.com. Great resource!
Satriela thanks too for the NACA link. Great resource too!!

First of all, you should talk to a loan officer about your situation and your husbands. You don't have to apply for a loan to get your questions answered.

Most loans will HAVE TO include your husbands income, score, and debt as part of the loan. So if he has a lot of debt, his score will be low and they will use his low scores to calculate your payback ability and interest rates. Which could be higher. But in the end, if you don't have debt and he does, they will probably calculate what you 2 can afford based on your income. Which is good because once he pays off his debt, you will we way below your means and will be easily be able to pay all bills and continue saving.

Can he pay all debt on his own? They only calculate the minimum payment obligation.

Don't get in over your head, but its a good time to buy with the new $8000 new home buyer tax rebate.

[eshaines]

You’re crazy to think you can buy anything over 100k on a barely-breaking min wage salary. It’s not a salary, it’s an hourly wage. Have you thought about that? I have relatives that bought a 250k house on ONE income of $21/hr and they’ve had to go on welfare, probably more than once. I wouldn’t trust a loan officer that would give you a loan for a quarter mil or close to it on $21/hr! You NEVER want your debt to exceed 30% of your income—someone here said 50%...I don’t think that’s really smart because to have a good credit score you need a credit usage of much LESS than 50% of your total available credits and loans...

Again, don’t trust someone to give you a 30 yr loan for 180K...it may seem freeing but really you’ll end up complicating your later years in life and tying up money that should be used for retirement expenditures, college payments, etc.

Good luck.