05-30-2006, 06:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-30-2006, 06:52 PM by Concillian.)
On top of the fees that the lender will have a good handle on (requirements and costs vary widely by location,) the lender will likely want you to have another 3-6 months worth of mortgage payments in reserve.
Fixed costs at purchase are not such a big deal. You have to factor them in, but if you're looking at what it takes to afford what house, I'd pay more attention to recurring costs:
1) Property taxes are also one of those things that vary dramatically by location, here in California we pay a bill that's a little bigger than a monthly mortgage payment on a 30 year fixed with 20% down every 6 months, so you figure on paying ~14 mortgage payments a year when doing calcualtions of what you can afford. Other places have much lower or much higher property taxes. Lender will probably have this information, but that's something to consider when putting values into an online calculator.
2) Some of your other monthly bills might be higher as well, or you will be paying bills you didn't pay when renting (water and garbage are often not payed by renters, at least in the US). Energy bills will likely be a little higher to go along with the larger living space. So you might want to factor in that your monthly bills will be seeing a jump on top of your mortgage payment and property taxes.
Fixed costs at purchase are not such a big deal. You have to factor them in, but if you're looking at what it takes to afford what house, I'd pay more attention to recurring costs:
1) Property taxes are also one of those things that vary dramatically by location, here in California we pay a bill that's a little bigger than a monthly mortgage payment on a 30 year fixed with 20% down every 6 months, so you figure on paying ~14 mortgage payments a year when doing calcualtions of what you can afford. Other places have much lower or much higher property taxes. Lender will probably have this information, but that's something to consider when putting values into an online calculator.
2) Some of your other monthly bills might be higher as well, or you will be paying bills you didn't pay when renting (water and garbage are often not payed by renters, at least in the US). Energy bills will likely be a little higher to go along with the larger living space. So you might want to factor in that your monthly bills will be seeing a jump on top of your mortgage payment and property taxes.
Conc / Concillian -- Vintage player of many games. Deadly leader of the All Pally Team (or was it Death leader?)
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.