Looking to gut check house budget in HCOL area (but grew up LCOL so prices seem insane). Married, no kids, 33 years old, household income ~277k, no debt.
Retirement: ~200k saved and saving ~50k annually, including employer match. So a bit behind but should catch up. Also have a pension that should replace about a third of our income in retirement.
Savings: ~220k saved and saving at least 4k monthly. Waiting to buy until we hit 250k, which should be in the summer.
Expenses: Rent is 3700 and everything else is under 4k.
Thinking max budget of 800k. We’d put 160k down (20%), allocate 40k for closing costs and moving expenses, keep 50k for emergency fund.
PITI would be around 4700, vs. 3700 rent. So savings would drop from 4k monthly to 3k (seems okay since we won’t need to save toward down payment anymore?).
Emergency fund would last six months if we both lost our jobs, a year if one of us lost our job. (Jobs both very stable though.)
House budget in HCOL area
byu/Odd_Fall_304 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Odd_Fall_304
1 Comment
> PITI would be around 4700, vs. 3700 rent. So savings would drop from 4k monthly to 3k (seems okay since we won’t need to save toward down payment anymore?).
Your costs will be higher than PITI because you’ll now have to cover maintenance and repair costs too. I’d budget $10k per year for at least the first year or two, until you have a good handle on which major costs may come next.
If you are going from renting a 1-2 bedroom apartment to owning a single family home, you can also expect higher utilities.
You should also look into how property taxes are assessed in your area, as sometimes a sale triggers a higher assessment and thus you get the unpleasant surprise of property taxes increasing right after you buy.
Also–no kids means no plans to have kids? Or no kids yet, but you might want them and should think about how to fit childcare into your budget?