Buying On A Moderate Income In Metro Md (renting, HOA)

[dangelo]

We are a low 100k household and looking to buy. We'd like to spend about $300k-$350k.

-Condo Fee's are comparable to Property Taxes for the same property which significatly raises the total cost. I see little advantage here than to buy a Townhouse.

-Townhomes generally cost more than the Condo's but when you factor in condo fee's it's not as bad. HOA fee's that I'm seeing are generally around 1/4-1/5 of Condo Fee's.

-SFH are at the top of our Budget and what we really want. It's also the hardest to get when factoring in schools and work commutes.

After we budget all our bills/expenses (Cars, Phones, Car/Life Ins, Medical and Dental, Cable and Internet, Elec, Food/Lunch, Small Emer Savs, Mortgage @350k) we come up with about $700 a month left to split between two people. This $700 will have to pay for birthdays, Christmas, Gas, and all the other misc expenses. $350 a month per person seems like a crunch.

I'm not factoring the tax savings from homeownership so is that what I'm missing? A Tax Calculator said we'd save an estimated 6k our first year. So thats now $600 per person which is better. Are these estimates about right?

Please help us. We are trying to buy and be happy but not house poor.

[Debi18]

Did you include property taxes and home owners insurance in your estimated mortgage payment and have you factored in home maintenace/repairs in your overall budget? Even if you did, I suppose it's possible but getting by on 700 seems way too tight to me. You won't be going out to dinner much or enjoying any type of entertainment for that matter, on that budget. You might want to consider purchasing at a lower price.

[dangelo]

Yes. Mortgage, HO Ins, and Propeerty Taxes are in my numbers. Anyone else want to share there experiences or opinions.

D.

[ReefAreCoolToo]

i think you should lower the house you want to $250k range You dont want to be house poor

[FrankLaw]

$700 or even $1200/mo between two adults seems way too little, honestly.

If you work downtown, say Metro Center, and take the Metro from, say, Grosvenor, you'll be paying $3.45 one-way during peak hours, so that's about $7/day/person. If you assume 22 work days in a month, you're already at $308/month in the hole for both of you.

And that's assuming you live close enough to Grosvenor to walk there (and in all likelihood, you're not going to find anything large enough for 2 people within walking distance to Grosvenor), so you're talking about an extra $4/day to park. That's nearly $400/month just for commuting costs, and that's before you factor in gas, and gas prices are only going up.

Once you figure in groceries and the like, it's probably way too lean to do realistically.

Honestly, I would consider renting for a while until your incomes come up a bit more. There's no sense in putting yourself into debt just to buy a home.

[BrianC350]

Those numbers $eem tight. I would suggest a home in the 250-275 range. You never know how much more electric and gar are going to go up.

[dangelo]

Thanks to everyone for their import.

[Joykins]

You should be able to get a town house in the $200s these days. If that $700/month is pizza/beer/fun money you should be able to get by on it if not with extravagant meals out all the time.