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There is FHA - 3.5% down - many good options there. Also, I'm a broker in Florida and you can put 10% down on many programs and recently, I did one where it was 5% down so you never know.
With FHA - usually, you just pay the mortgage insurance (PMI - MIP) upfront 1/2, then pay it for 5 years not 11 like conventional.
Hope this gives you some ideas. Contact a small mortgage broker in your area and I'm sure you'll get some answers!!
FHA is not a wise idea IMO. The payments would be ridiculously high even for a small house. I'm talking $1,400+ just for a $200,000 ranch here in CT. I simply can't do that on my own. At least having put down 20% would allow the payment to be $1,200 max. Also, FHA is not a good idea, because if the buyer wants to buy a 2nd home, they MUST put 20% down, which means that they will have to stay in their firsthome for at least 4 years so that a large enough equity/downpayment is accumulated again for the 2nd home. People don't see this fallacy in going with FHA. With a 20% downpayment, the homeowner is free to move out of the house as early as they wish and still have enough equity to apply to the 2nd house.
My daughter and her husband were your age when they bought their first house last year. They scrimped and saved to get than 20% downpayment. The are in the PNW, and paid more per square foot than you are looking at.
My son and his wife also bought their first house last year. They got the same amount of house as our daughter did... but paid around 25% what she did, as western PA is WAY cheaper. They somehow did so with just 5% down... I don't know how. But they jumped at home ownership, as the house is far cheaper than renting a decent apartment.
As another poster suggested... can you move, to a lower COLA?
This would be difficult, because I have only been in my current job for 10 months, which makes it hard to be attractive to a new employer. So I am pretty much stuck here in central CT.
Don't fall for get rich quick schemes. They are just that: schemes. Someone else will get rich, but never you.
There is no magic way to buy a house faster. Make more money (2nd job, sell spare stuff, get a money making hobby, sell blood, something) and spend less (get a roommate, stop eating in restaurants, and do without some of the "wants" in your life, whatever they are) are the only ways to save more money.
You already know the options, and have said you are unwilling to do any of them. You don't want to get a roommate to help with expenses. You don't want to move to a less expensive area. You don't want to put less down, even though the programs exist. If you are unwilling to use any of the options available, then your only remaining option is to save up until you can afford to do what you want to do, whether that takes one year or ten.
I am getting really frustrated with the homebuying process. I have just calculated that it will take me 6 more years to save the required 20% downpayment on a home. And I am only able to save about $7,000 per year. I'm 26 years old and just realized that I won't be able to buy my first house until age 32. And it would have to be a $200,000 home at most. And in CT, most homes in that price range are in awful condition or in awful locations.
Is there anything more I can really do to get the downpayment sooner? I know there is FHA for a 3.5% downpayment, which would take me only about 1.5 years to save up for. But then the mortgage payment is going to be like $1,400 for a small $200K home (remember, property taxes are wicked high in CT).
What should I do? Right now I'm renting for $1,165/mo. and hate it. I hate apartment and/or community/shared property living beyond belief. I grew up in a rural area in a house and had lots of privacy, quiet and no PEOPLE to annoy me. I have been renting for almost 5 years now and can't stand it.
Is there an easier way to get a downpayment ASAP or something? Help!
Btw...this is typical of a $200,000 home in the area. 1,256 sq ft 3 br on 1 acre, built in 1951 and property taxes are $4,112 per year.
I think your expectations are too high. I don't see anything wrong with the home you showed the picture of. It's a great starter home for someone your age.
Without looking into it I would venture to say most people to buy a home until early 30's so your a foot up on most others if you buy a home now at 26 or even in the next year or two.
There's really nothing hard to beieve about what your talking about. You need 20% down, if you don't want to wait til you have that you can buy now but will have to pay PMI as you don't have enough skin in the game and could potentially walk away without much consequence if you lost your job or something.
I bought my first home last year when i was 27 1160sq foot duplex. I have a roomate which I dont need but he pays me $400 plus utilities and that's half my mortgage.
Your going to have to wait til you have 20%, pay PMI, or get a roomate. That's what life is, unless your super rich you have to make concessions. Maybe you want the big home, then it cant be in the great location, if you want location then you have to give on size.
You talk about the downsides of FHA being you can't buy a second home. You hvan't even bought a first home and your already worried about your second?
I want a Hummer but I don't have 60k. Buy a used one, I dont wnna buy a used one. Finance one, finance charges are a ripoff. I just want someone to sell me a new hummer for the price i can afford and that I wanna pay.
32 is not an old 1st time homebuyer- especially in the northeast!
On the bright side, your income will likely rise a good bit in the next 5 years, allowing you to save more and ultimately afford the home more comfortably.
Also- Are you remembering to save 6-12 months of living expenses in an emergency fund before you start saving for down payment?
32 is not an old 1st time homebuyer- especially in the northeast!
On the bright side, your income will likely rise a good bit in the next 5 years, allowing you to save more and ultimately afford the home more comfortably.
Also- Are you remembering to save 6-12 months of living expenses in an emergency fund before you start saving for down payment?
Yes, I have a $10,000 emergency fund that I never touch and will not use it for a downpayment on a house.
Well, on the bright side, folks, today I just got my performance review at my job, and it was positive. Next month are when the raises and bonuses kick in. So hopefully I get something and then maybe I can afford a house by age 30 instead of 32! Lol. I based my assumptions on making the same income forever.
Dude, I will probably draw flak. But why don't you invest??
I raked out 10K worth of profit in the last 2 months of 2010 alone. And I wasn't even daytrading properly, I was intra-day or week-trading, if you know what I mean.
FHA is not a wise idea IMO. The payments would be ridiculously high even for a small house. I'm talking $1,400+ just for a $200,000 ranch here in CT. I simply can't do that on my own. At least having put down 20% would allow the payment to be $1,200 max. Also, FHA is not a good idea, because if the buyer wants to buy a 2nd home, they MUST put 20% down, which means that they will have to stay in their firsthome for at least 4 years so that a large enough equity/downpayment is accumulated again for the 2nd home. People don't see this fallacy in going with FHA. With a 20% downpayment, the homeowner is free to move out of the house as early as they wish and still have enough equity to apply to the 2nd house.
Yep; that would mean you can skip the PMI that raises your payment as it stads now. Poeple do not see that saving for equity for most miidle income means the same as not buying that car on credit from a 5% loan verus the "well qaulified buyer" as in the commercials at 0% interest.Very few can make the no interest and other opitons of the past workout for them in this nation.
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