I am not one to push anybody into buying a house, I have sent plenty of wanna-be borrower’s on their way telling them that they truly cannot afford a house.
When someone is educated enough to understand their risks and follow this website, I don’t think that they need to be lectured on whether or not they can afford it.
The fact is that over the last 75 years, MOST of the time buyer’s who stretched to buy their dream house ended up OK eventually. None of us know when/if this market will turn wildly in either direction. Everybody has an opinion. The OP wants to buy his dream house to actually LIVE IN and is not speculating on any appreciation. He doesn’t care about “the bottom”
Somebody with 30% DTI but lots of other debt, cars, boats, RV, credit card, etc is not in a much better position than someone with no other debt that wants to go to 50% DTI.
Without knowing AND understanding a buyer’s motivation/goals/income/assets/potential income it’s difficult to offer advice.
Assuming that one is determined to buy, my advice is to figure out a way to get the lowest rate and fixed payments that you possibly can, even if it means a 401K loan, credit card advance or another option that may not have been considered.
Falling for a no cost/no fee loan at time of historically low rates is pretty foolish in my opinion.. HLS
