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Inside the beltway. Commuting grinds on you. Been there done that. Financially, as long as you are prudent in what you buy, it will increase in value.
I know you are many years away from retiring but I have several friends that owned houses just outside the beltway (Vienna and parts of Alexandria) and when it came time to retire, they sold and moved to cheaper areas of Virginia to live. They did well financially with that move.
Good luck in whatever you do.
Happening a lot in other parts of country Take the equity and run.
A large down payment ties up cash unnecessarily and only serves to reduce the bank's risk by making sure you have 'skin' in the game. The only things that matters to you is DTI (indicator of ability to make the payments). I would have put down $0 if my mortgage lender let me and I could afford the payments.
Just talked to a lender (he's a national bank lender so not a small mortgage broker), he will let me put down only 5% down payment for my next house.
Sure there's the PMI to deal with but it will go away once you pay down the mortgage, or the property appreciate to 80% LTV, whichever comes first. In my case, it will only be temporary (in-between purchase new house and selling old one).
$500K will get you a small townhouse or condominium in Arlington, Virginia. If you’re okay with that amount of space, then I’d say go ahead and do it. Arlington is an excellent location.
I would caution you not to go into a less desirable area to try to get more space for that price point. You will end up regretting it.
+1. Location, location, location. You dramatically improve your quality of life by lowering your commute time and you get to make far better use of the city. You can certainly find 2 bedroom condos walkable to the Metro in Arlington for sub-$500k. If you do the math on the cost of a car, it might make sense to go car-free and rent when you need more than Uber.
Just talked to a lender (he's a national bank lender so not a small mortgage broker), he will let me put down only 5% down payment for my next house.
Sure there's the PMI to deal with but it will go away once you pay down the mortgage, or the property appreciate to 80% LTV, whichever comes first. In my case, it will only be temporary (in-between purchase new house and selling old one).
Yeah I wish I had put down 5% instead of 10%. My payment would only have been marginally higher, can't remember why I didn't. My PMI is basically a rounding error as far as the overall payment's concerned.
A large down payment ties up cash unnecessarily and only serves to reduce the bank's risk by making sure you have 'skin' in the game. The only things that matters to you is DTI (indicator of ability to make the payments). I would have put down $0 if my mortgage lender let me and I could afford the payments.
Yep, with mortgage rates where they are/have been, the VA funding fee was well worth it to be able to put no money down, IMO.
I think you are going to be very, very surprised how expensive outside the beltway is. Given your very high mortgage, I wouldn't consider a condo with fees that you have no control over. I would take a look at Reston before moving to Ashburn, etc.
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