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Good for you that you have saved 18K! I agree, take a close look at your spending, and try to cut out luxuries that aren't all that important to you. But you should be able to buy a home now. With 100K income, you should be able to afford a 300K home. Look into first time homebuyer programs, like FHA. There may be a homebuyer course in your neighborhood - take it. Save like crazy. Start looking at houses - go to open houses, cruise realtor.com and zillow.com, educate yourselves. You should be able to buy a home within a year.
Good for you that you have saved 18K! I agree, take a close look at your spending, and try to cut out luxuries that aren't all that important to you. But you should be able to buy a home now. With 100K income, you should be able to afford a 300K home. Look into first time homebuyer programs, like FHA. There may be a homebuyer course in your neighborhood - take it. Save like crazy. Start looking at houses - go to open houses, cruise realtor.com and zillow.com, educate yourselves. You should be able to buy a home within a year.
Guys - she's already signed a purchase contract. And two days ago, she was considering divorce. Way more problems here than a down payment.
Aside from people that have no savings being able to afford a home. . . .
I am not even sure if people WITH savings are able to afford a home, when you take into consideration that in the US, home ownership is indirectly subsidized by the government to the point where it makes home 'ownership' possible to more people but if:
Someone can only buy a home due to the government (via the Federal Reserve) keeping interest rates for home loans artificially low and manipulated, along with enabling the existence of 30 year mortgages at those same low interest rates. . . . . It could be argued that the segment of the population that can actually afford a home is actually really low once the smoke and mirrors are removed from the shell game.
Second thread started by this OP about the difficulty of house buying. OP, based upon this thread and the other one you started it is clear that you are not in the proper emotional state to be buying a house. I suspect, based upon this thread alone that you are not even in a good place financially. I am just some faceless poster on a piblic forum so take my advise with the proper caution. My advise is to WALK AWAY! Screw the earnest money. It will be cheaper in the long run.
The way most people live is beyond stupid. If you consider $5,000 a huge amount of money you shouldn't be a home owner. A fridge can break or a heater or even a roof may fail and you need money to pay for that.
I've had tons of people say oh wow I'd never own a condo because I don't want to pay any HOA dues! Well news flash you already pay many of those expenses you just call them something else. A condo owner never needs to worry about roofs or lawns or foundations or any of that. It's all properly budgeted and saved for by the HOA. If you're a smart home owner you either don't care because you have plenty of savings or you put aside maybe $200 per month into a savings account for when something goes wrong. Sadly Americans are incredibly stupid and can't figure out how to save for ANYTHING for the most part. Months go by and they can't save for retirement, don't save for their home, and don't even save for an emergency fund in case they are fired.
I have no clue how anyone could own a home and spend money on dumb nonsense like eating out and movies and clothes they don't need and then think $5,000 is some huge sum of money. I mean seriously get your priorities straight!
The way most people live is beyond stupid. If you consider $5,000 a huge amount of money you shouldn't be a home owner. A fridge can break or a heater or even a roof may fail and you need money to pay for that.
I've had tons of people say oh wow I'd never own a condo because I don't want to pay any HOA dues! Well news flash you already pay many of those expenses you just call them something else. A condo owner never needs to worry about roofs or lawns or foundations or any of that. It's all properly budgeted and saved for by the HOA. If you're a smart home owner you either don't care because you have plenty of savings or you put aside maybe $200 per month into a savings account for when something goes wrong. Sadly Americans are incredibly stupid and can't figure out how to save for ANYTHING for the most part. Months go by and they can't save for retirement, don't save for their home, and don't even save for an emergency fund in case they are fired.
I have no clue how anyone could own a home and spend money on dumb nonsense like eating out and movies and clothes they don't need and then think $5,000 is some huge sum of money. I mean seriously get your priorities straight!
I save every month into two funds. One is a general savings and one is called "house emergency fund" also I am putting 15% of a six figure income into my 401k. I put two hundred extra toward the priciple each mortgage payment. And what is left over after taxes from my yearly bonus goes toward a lump some mortgage payment. I still think 5,000 dollars is some huge sum of money. Apparently this makes me one of the smart ones. Still, I would not get on a forum and lament how stupid Americans are or how irresponsible it is to eat out. I am smart enough to know that there are a plethora of circumstances that dictate why people do things and not every one is due to stupidity......well perhaps your post is the exception.
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