How much house can we afford with $150k annual income near Reston (Fairfax: for sale, real estate)

[GSG in Htown]

We are somewhat financially conservative. Currently we have a $400,000 home in Houston with $175,000 household income (2 incomes). Consider to relocate back to nova after 10 years. We will only have one income to start with (around $150,000). How much house can we afford with this income? Would $500,000 be a stretch? Even with $500,000 budget, the house will be a downgrade (both size and quality) from our current home for sure.

[boyd888]

Big thing it would depend on how much you are putting down, your other debts, etc. As a general rule 3-4x your gross income (so up to $600K) should be easily doable with 20% down. If you have more to put down you could potentially buy more house. In Fairfax County the median income is about $110K and the median monthly housing expense $2500 /month (PITI) so you see in this area with housing being so expensive things are a bit on the higher side, maybe a little high for a more conservative person. These are real world numbers though not gonna BS you with the "we only pay 15% net so should you" internet finance stuff.

Not an expert on the housing market in Houston, but I'd venture a guess that a 400K house is likely an 800K house close to DC. You don't say job location or commute, but check out Prince William County (bristow, gainesville, etc) if you want more house for your buck.

[GSG in Htown]

Thanks for your response. We can put $150k down from the sale of our home. We don't have any other debts besides the mortgage. Job is near Reston. The property tax in our area in Houston is pretty high at 3.3%. So we save up $10k every year just for property tax.

What's a ballpark figure for property tax for a $600k home and state income tax for $150k salary. We don't have state income tax in Texas.

Thanks again!

[boyd888]

Reston's not a bad area you will get a lot more house west (sterling, ashburn, etc) than you will east (vienna, fairfax). Should see like a 4br/3ba 3000sq ft in the 500s in Ashburn.

Property tax is about 1.1%, personal income tax about 5.7%. Close to a wash I'd guess.

[shamrock847]

You will be fine affording $600k with that income and $150k down. Even $650k would not be unreasonable for many people with that size downpayment and no other debts.

Property tax will be about $500/mo.

State tax will depend somewhat on your deductions so it's hard to say exactly, but the highest bracket is 5.75%. You can plug your numbers into the state tax form to get an estimate.

[ACWhite]

Originally Posted by boyd888

Reston's not a bad area you will get a lot more house west (sterling, ashburn, etc) than you will east (vienna, fairfax). Should see like a 4br/3ba 3000sq ft in the 500s in Ashburn.

Property tax is about 1.1%, personal income tax about 5.7%. Close to a wash I'd guess.

And, here the 1.1% will be applied to a house value that is about double that in Houston. So in effect, if a $400K house in Houston is taxed at $13200, an $800K house here would be taxed at $8800, for less than a $5K savings on property taxes.

[Old Guard]

I think you will be able to find a nice house in Reston on that budget. Personally I would probably look in Vienna with that budget.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by boyd888

Should see like a 4br/3ba 3000sq ft in the 500s in Ashburn.

There are currently 155 4bd/3ba homes for sale in Ashburn.


None are below $500K
Only 7 are below $550k, and most of those are closer to 2K SF than 3K SF.
Only 21 are below $600k.




So, while getting a 4bd/ 3ba house in the 500s is certainly doable; the vast majority of them are priced much higher.

[Ffxdata]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

I think you will be able to find a nice house in Reston on that budget. Personally I would probably look in Vienna with that budget.

$600k in Vienna is nothing. They are selling houses in the $590k to $800k range as tear downs. The real estate agents don't even bother to take photos. There are a very few live able Vienna houses under $700k.

[GSG in Htown]

Thanks all. Job is in Reston so we have no desire to live in Vienna. We can also do chantilly, ashburn, sterling, and perhaps leesburg at the furthest.