“If you don’t have a down payment, you shouldn’t buy a house.”
Why do so many of you tie the notion of affordability and possesion of down payment together? They are not necessarily the same thing.
If my monthly budget allows me to pay $3,100/month on rent/mortgage, that means I can afford a $400k loan (PITI @ 8% int).
Whether I have the good fortune of having $80k sitting in the bank makes no difference as to what I can afford to pay.
What having the $80k for a down pmt DOES mean is I can buy a house for $480k rather than $400k. Down payment or not, I still have a $400k mortgage & I still have the same $3,100 check to pay each month.
Maybe 10 years ago when you could buy a starter home here for $150k, saving $30k was not to unreasonable, but expecting every first-time buyer to come to the table w/ $100k is just absurd.
I guess the point is that if we hadn’t deviated from good sense lending standards like the 20% down pmt deal, we would not be in this mess, and thus would not have to come up a six-figures down. But here we are – and some of us still want to own a home.
“Sense of entitlement” – really? You sound so damn pompous. If you are in a position to save that kind of $$ and have done so, good for you. Here’s your freakin’ cookie.
