What % of your monthly take home is your mortgage?

[snooper2]

Rule of thumb is it shouldn't be more than 25% correct? I think this contributed to getting folks into trouble as well...We need financial planning/education in schools. Was talking to a repub co-worker outside bitching about property taxes going up in his county. He has a McMansion with a wife who doesn't work, bought 2 years ago and paid double for his home than I did in 2005. We make about the same money so a third of his income goes just to monthly mortgage...


Mine is at 18.35%

[BlooInBloo]

1. Sorry. On DU, nothing is the borrowers' faults.

[donco]

He/she,s

so silly.:rofl:

[ComtesseDeSpair]

2. That's completely unrealistic.

Especially if you live in a city. Houses are too expensive. I mean, I rent at one of the cheaper apartments in my city (Chicago), and my RENT is 38% of my monthly take home pay. I looked into buying a condo a couple years ago and realized that there was no way I could afford it - it would be over 50% of my pay for even the cheapest condo. The problem is that housing prices skyrocketed while wages remained stagnant. When you can't buy a house for under $500,000 there is a REAL problem!

[stray cat]

6. I work in Westchester Co NY - same thing. Who has 60,000 for a downpayment

for a cheap 300,000 one bedroom 700 ft condo

[snooper2]

15. Here you go, $75,000

What you talking about can't find a home for under $500,000?

12235 S Yale Ave Chicago, IL 60628 $75,000




http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/12235-S-Yale-Ave_Chicago_IL_60628_1103623624

[chatnoir]

24. Looking at the address

That place is a million miles from nowhere. Might as well be Indiana. There's a reason why it's 75K.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

30. Trust Me...

If a house is under $500,000 in Chicago, there's a REASON it's under $500,000. It's either in a crime ridden neighborhood or it's a fixer-upper. This house appears to be in West Pullman - which is one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. You couldn't PAY ME to live there. My last neighborhood (Andersonville) was a very nice neighborhood on the north side, and a house that literally had a TREE growing out of the upstairs window was listed for $500,000. The house down the street - a nice, well-kept house, but hardly a mansion by any stretch of the imagination - sold for a million dollars last year.

[snooper2]

41. Ah, now we see- not good enough...that's the problem...

People should buy what they can afford. Can't afford to live in the city proper and want a house, move outwards...

What's wrong with Romeoville? My sister lived there for years and commuted to downtown Chicago...

219 Hemlock Ave Romeoville, IL 60446 $89,900

[ComtesseDeSpair]

43. Some of us LIKE living in cities.

I could move to a suburb, I could move to Kansas, but I want to live in Chicago. Anyway, I spent the first 37 years of my life living in a rural area in California - and houses were STILL out of my price range. In my experience, houses are completely out of reach and they always will be, unless I want to move somewhere I don't want to live. Where's the joy in that?

[L0oniX]

3. 0%

Paid in full.

[Xenotime]

10. How is that possible?

[harun]

17. What is impossible about someone outright buying a house they can afford?

[havocmom]

38. buy based on realities and pay off the mortgage

It is possible, but one probably has to be a bit different than the norm and not buy a lot of toys.

[mainer]

23. good for you. Same here.

My attorney, a very wise man, once told me: "true wealth is having no debt." We'd been urged by our financial advisor to keep the mortgage instead of paying it off, and put any extra cash into the stock market where we could earn "more than the mortgage interest", which was deductible anyway. We decided to follow our attorney's advice and pay off the mortgage. Man, are we glad we did.

[L0oniX]

25. I bought a home for $40k and lived in it for over 2 years, sold it for $140k...

got married and paid off her home with $55k of it. It was a tough decision to make ...keep 100k in a 4.75% cd or pay off the house. Now that my cds are down to 3.75%, I am glad I paid off the house and still have 40k left over in a 3.75% cd.

[tangent90]

48. Same here. Paid off the mortgage 2 years ago. Now only taxes.

:D
(bought a small house on 5 acres for 20,000 with a 5 year mtg.)

[ananda]

4. My monthly rent is about 30% of my..

.. take home income but it reduces to
about 20 or 25% when you factor in
interest income... but my investments
have pretty much tanked so that should
probably factor in for the future...
but in the end, it's all affordable
for right now.

I have a CD with Citi, that I SO
regret opening (before I knew how bad
Citi was), and CD's in ChaMu, and CD's
and a checking acct with Guaranty Bank.

None of this money is safe. In fact, I
think of it all as completely chimerical,
a kind of magical phantasm that could
just disappear at any time.

Happy days...

[stray cat]

5. 35% for rent

[LiberalEsto]

7. I thought the rule was 28%

At least that's what it used to be before everyone went crazy.

[guitar man]

8. O%

Paid it off a few years ago. Had to work my butt into the ground to do it, but I saw this shitstorm we're in now coming and couldn't see a better way to try and make sure my family is taken care of than to have a paid for place to live. It's a crappy little bungalow, but it's ours and no one can kick us out.

[moc]

9. Ours is 26%, and we're doing fine with that. Little other debt. I think the actual question should

be total debt load, not just mortgage debt.

We pay a little more than we might otherwise because about 4-5 years ago we re-financed to a lower rate and a 15 year mortgage rather than a 30 year mortgage.

[harun]

18. Correct. One needs to look at the big picture. All debt, wealth and income.

[Burma Jones]

11. About 10%

We bought less than we could afford.........In fact, I had to write a letter explaining to the Mortgage lender why we were "Downscaling" back in 2003......

[tandot]

12. 30 year fixed mortgage, 25% of our take home

We live in a 3 bedroom, 1300 sq ft house we purchased last year here in Northern California. Because of the sky-high house prices, we were not able to afford to buy a house before than. We are in our mid-forties and this is our first home.

[Venceremos]

13. Bought our house almost 20 years ago

so our mortgage is at 1% of our take home pay. The day we bought it our mortgage was 10% of our take home. Although I personally think even 25% is much too high, I seriously doubt we could buy a house today for less than that.

[Terran]

14. 30% of your income is considered about the normal maximum

Low income families often spend up to 40%. Mine looks like about 23% (though I'm still broke all the time because freaking credit cards).

[RockaFowler]

20. This is the same for me

[NC_Nurse]

16. Ours WAS about 25-30%. Now my husband doesn't have a job. We rented out

our house to move in with my folks due to family illness. If our tenants leave, we're screwed.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. The rule of thumb PITI shouldn't be more than 28% of monthly gross income

PITI is mortgage principal+interest+taxes+insurance, and monthly income is annual gross income divided by 12 or weekly gross income times 4.3.

The other guideline is that all expenses (e.g. car payments and insurance, credit card debt, child support, utilities, etc.)shouldn't exceed 36% of monthly gross income.

So for someone grossing $25,000/yr, the monthly PITI payment should be less than $583 and total monthly expenses should be less than $750. If the person can manage to pay less than that it's even better.

These are guidelines used by prudent lenders and there is a little wiggle room -- some will approve a slightly higher PITI if the borrower has excellent credit, other assets, and little debt.

Of course in recent years there have been lenders who ignored the guidelines and made up their own.

[NoSheep]

59. Mine is 1/3 of my gross

[NoSheep]

60. Didn't intend to respond directly to you-oops

[distantearlywarning]

21. Including mortgage, taxes, insurance and all that stuff:

Our ratio is just about 19%. I'm very comfortable with that figure, and it allows us to maintain a nice lifestyle. I am currently in graduate school, and when I get a "real job", that ratio will go down significantly, which also makes me very happy.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. 22%, . Paying it down as fast as we can.

If we pay an extra 2000.00 a year on the mortgage, we can save 50 something K on the interest.
( Thank you, bankrate.com !!!!)
Essentially just that extra 2 K makes that much difference, and gets us about 18 years paid off on a 30 year note.
I send the payment in about every 3 weeks, so am usually apid up about 3 months ahead.
Fortunately, we bought in this area, where housing is/was relatively inexpensive.

Comparable house in Cal. would go for 900 K.

[serrano2008]

26. Mortgage company just approved me for 35% of monthly take home.

One of the problems out there is that mortgage companies approve buyers for certain amounts and buyers think this is the amount they can afford, so they go ahead and buy a house for the amount approved for.

I know that I can't afford 35% of my monthly take home for my mortgage so I'll be looking to spend 25-28%. Many people out there spend as much as they're allowed.

[hfojvt]

27. 0%

Back when I had a mortgage it was about 25.8%, although I always paid more. When I first got the house it was about 14% until I got fired from that job.

[marlakay]

28. Mine is 32% because we both lost our part time jobs

we are semi retired and now live on retirement only. Not old enough for social security yet. When we retired early we both had part time jobs.

[ogneopasno]

29. Ours varies because our income changes all the time. But it's about 25-30, where it should be.

[Tracer]

31. 0%

Paid off.

[CreekDog]

32. 21%. you need to give a break to folks in high cost metro areas though

it's not as though there are many options when housing is uniformly expensive.

when i first bought in 2000, my ratio was 32%, rent would have been about the same and i was having trouble finding rentals as a single male in my 20s, so i bought.

[laylah]

33. Currently at

67%

edited to add, it has not always been this way...divorce, bankruptcy, job loss, blah, blah, blah

[The Hope Mobile]

51. ours is similar for the same kinds of reasons

[flvegan]

34. 15%

[mnhtnbb]

35. 12.38%--doesn't include social security or pension.

But that will change. Today is hubby's last day (laid off) from one of the county clinics he works (psychiatrist) due to lack of funding. Two more days per week at other county clinics are in jeopardy.

We knew there was a reason we bought a small house and took out a small mortgage after our house
burned down in 07.

Even if/when his income is reduced by 60% (losing 3 days per week of work) we should be ok with our house payment and only need to adjust discretionary expenses.

On edit: at the point if/when he loses 3 days of work, we count social security and his VA pension
in with the remainder of his income from working two days/week, our house payment will then be 19.2% of income.

[Dukkha]

36. 33% which includes taxes in escrow

not including the condo fees which jumped 50% in the past 5 years :mad:

thankfully I got married now with two incomes making home management much eaier now.

[CTyankee]

37. A little lower than yours at just about 18%.

We have a modest, but nice, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, colonial house in New Haven, on a quiet street. It is perfect for us since we are older andhave no kids around. I'm retired and my spouse still works. We own our cars outright (mine is 10 yrs old). Since I don't work I don't need much in the way of wardrobe.

I save money so that I can travel to Europe once a year. If you have the time and look hard enough there are deals out there. I don't care about staying in fancy hotels, I care about being in the towns and cities and experiencing the culture and the food. Last fall it was Northern Spain. My idea of a fun time is spending hours in places like the Prado in Madrid or the Picasso museum in Barcelona. Salad for lunch, tapas and a glass of Rioja for dinner. heaven!

[EnviroBat]

39. 27%

Life will be much easier after vehicle loans are paid off...

[scheming daemons]

40. About 16%

To me, 25% is too high.... especially when you're trying to save for college for two kids.

[Earth_First]

42. 26%

[lumberjack_jeff]

44. Our payment is currently 39% of our net income. Property taxes add another 16%.

A total of 54%. I built the house so despite the downturn we still have good equity and enough savings to deal with the troughs.

[Mari333]

45. sold my old house when the market was better

bought the new little one with cash and no mortgage. glad i did it now.

[seemunkee]

46. 21%

Against the advice of our realtor we took all the profits from the sale of our townhouse and put it down for our current house. I guess if would actually be less than 21% if you took out the extra principle we've been paying.

[Romulox]

47. 10%--I had to fight the realtors who wanted to upsell me. nt

[Ilsa]

56. Yeah, they work hard to get you to spend more, don't they? And

in my city, I suspect them of collusion to try and keep the housing costs out of sight even though the market is trying to bring them down a little bit. The city is trying to prevent a decline as well. I can understand that no one wants home prices to plummet, but this area needs a pull-back in prices. Current levels are unusual and unreasonable for the average pay level of this area.

[seabeyond]

49. around 20%. n/t

[ThomWV]

50. 0%

Like so many others we bought what we could afford and then we paid it off.

[demokatgurrl]

52. 13%. n/t

[11 Bravo]

53. Just a hair over 15%.

[Ilsa]

54. Monthly payment is less than 20% of take home pay, but we are

saving quite a bit of each paycheck now in hubby's 401(k). If we weren't saving, the % would be around 16%.

[ContinentalOp]

55. 40% if you include property tax.

When we bought it was more like 28%.

[RadiationTherapy]

57. 33% when I bought, but over 42% now I am back in school.

I live in a 1400 sq ft pre-fab home that came in two pieces and was assembled with a crane. It is as wide as a single wide trailer. The trains rumble by every 20 minutes; I could hit it with a rock if I wanted to.

I live in Flagstaff AZ and the 'land' (.1 acres) was $80k and the house was $105k. We had to have an assistance organization to help us. We had a combined income of $48k/year when we signed up.

[slackmaster]

58. About 27%

Including taxes and insurance. It would be lower, but I'm having a chunk taken out pre-tax for savings.

[ozu]

61. Rent is about 20% of my gross and 28% of my net.

But like someone else said, it's really all about total debt to income versus merely housing debt.

[LaPera]

62. 15% because my mortgage payments on a 600K home is only

around $650.00 a month on the same adjustable loan I stared with 13 years ago when I bought the house...I expect another drop in my monthly mortgage payment in a couple of month's (my loan adjusts every six month's).

I owe 81K on my home - and I have NO 2nd mortgage, no credit card or auto debts, I don't use credit cards and only buy excellent used vehicles when needed, and only with cash...I have no other debts.

However, my home was worth over 80k more last year....

But it'll start creeping back up in about two years, I'm not worried, by then I should owe only around 50k on the house, and I should be able to cash out in three or four years with about 600K to 700K or more to fuck around with.

[aikoaiko]

63. about 20% if you had in prop tax and PMI.

[ejpoeta]

64. we don't have a mortgage. we have a personal loan. i am not sure

how much we have left, as there was one for our house (doublewide) and one for the move and the concrete pad. we also have a personal loan for our car. and we have one for our outdoor wood burner. i think we will be done paying it all off in 5 years, maybe a little more for the car.