How Much Should I Spend on a House? 5 Tips to Help You Make a Decision
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Loading... - Pamela Anderson
- 27 Feb 2023
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Once you’ve decided to buy a house, the next step is to decide how much you can realistically afford. To help you get started and make the process easier, here are five tips to follow when deciding how much you should spend on a house.
1. Understand what percentage of your income should go toward your mortgage
To calculate how much you can afford to pay for a mortgage each month, start by adding up your gross annual income from all sources, including salary, wages, tips, and commissions. If you have a spouse or partner whose income will also contribute to the mortgage, make sure to include that as well. Divide the total by 12 to get your monthly income, and use that figure as the basis for your mortgage calculations.
Once you’ve determined your monthly income, it’s time to follow the 28/36 rule. According to this rule, you should not allocate more than 28% of your monthly income to housing and no more than 36% to all outstanding debts, including your mortgage. By staying within these parameters, you will have sufficient funds for groceries, fuel, holidays, and saving for your future.
Example: Let’s say you and your spouse are looking to buy a house in Anaheim and have a combined monthly income of $6,000. Applying the 28/36 rule, you wouldn’t want to spend more than $1,680 on house related expenses ($6,000 x .28) and $2,160 on total debt ($6,000 x .36).
2. Use an affordability calculator to calculate how much house you can afford
By inputting information such as your location, annual income, down payment savings, and current monthly expenses, our home affordability calculator can provide you with an overview of what kind of house you can afford to purchase.
Adding advanced filters such as monthly homeowners’ insurance, mortgage interest rate, private mortgage insurance (when applicable), loan type, and the property tax rate can further refine your calculations. The more data you enter, the closer you will be to finding out the ideal amount of house you can afford. Read More…
