How much will banks be looking for salary-wise to afford a 200k home loan?

Where do you live? I presume not in Japan?

People who make $25k do not generally have enough funds to own a house. They rent or if they can't stand that, do something else like live in a trailer park.

My parents bought a house in the midwest worth about $180k, I helped them with it so I know at least roughly what it takes. You should have someone in the household who is making at least around $50k per year before taxes. At that level you have to live pretty frugally.

Now, the easier part. You seem of average or above average intelligence and temperament, I don't see any reason why you can't get a job with over $40k per year in salary. This is about US average.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Or a nicely comfortable older woman?
This really only helps if she has just a touch of a heart condition.

i bought 0 down 4 years ago for over 400K. not a pretty mortgage i have. put down every penny you can-the opposite of a car purchase.

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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I was afraid of that. Thanks for killing my dreams buddy.

Time to start practicing my field goals. Maybe i can make NFL league minimum somewhere so that I can afford to get myself a one bedroom condo in Seattle.

Marry rich.

Originally Posted by mkarim

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Marry Rich.
Is that a Prop. 8 joke?

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Where do you live? I presume not in Japan?

People who make $25k do not generally have enough funds to own a house. They rent or if they can't stand that, do something else like live in a trailer park.

My parents bought a house in the midwest worth about $180k, I helped them with it so I know at least roughly what it takes. You should have someone in the household who is making at least around $50k per year before taxes. At that level you have to live pretty frugally.

Now, the easier part. You seem of average or above average intelligence and temperament, I don't see any reason why you can't get a job with over $40k per year in salary. This is about US average.

Its a little harderfor me to get decent paying jobs than you think.

Sorry, I don't know your e-rep in full. Are you disabled? Ex-con? under 21? Massive face tattoo?

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Sorry, I don't know your e-rep in full. Are you disabled? Ex-c
on? under 21? Massive face tattoo?

Ex con
Stupid stuff i did as an 18 year old.

Ah I see.


Well, as an aside, if I didn't want to work in a conventional office, I would learn some sort of programming and do it freelance/contractor, or do full-time ecommerce. Even as a normal office drone I have thought about quitting and scouring thrift stores full-time. I feel like around $2k per month doing this is pretty feasible. Getting to that $4k a month level is a little harder.

Originally Posted by gamelan

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TS, i wouldn't give up too soon. have you looked at government insured loans like what the FHA offers? http://www.hud.gov/buying/loans.cfm

also, my guess is that Obama will introduce some sort of legislation that will make homebuying easier but i imagine that banks and the government will still require some fairly decent financials.

either way, start saving and work on your credit score. who knows what'll happen in a years time.

-Jeff

Guy named Barney Frank, and some other politicians did this a few years ago. We see the results!

A few years ago ( about 2005 ) 0-3% down, a credit score in the 500's, and an income of 25K annually could have gotten a loan ( perhaps not for $200,000 but close ).

Now it's come full circle. I've heard of people with credit scores above 760 and 10 % down payments, being asked for additional conditions ( like more down payment or audited tax returns ), before getting a loan.

I must admit that I missed the crap that was going on. I sat in model homes for years selling new homes for builders. Primarily 150-300K ( yes, that is possible in Houston, Tx., nice houses too ). At one point about 85% of applicants were being approved for loans ( with my company at least ). This included absurdities like low doc, or no doc loans where the applicant basically said whatever the mortgage person told them to say and the lender accepted it. Because of stuff like that we've come full circle to our current "liquidity crisis".

If home values keep dropping, I see more and more people walking away on their loans. It's hard to get motivated to make a mortgage payment on a home that is now worth $200,000 and you paid $300,000 for it a few years ago. In addition the interest rates are often higher with higher monthly mortgage payments than the first year of the loan ( due to ARMS and such ).

Sometimes renting is not the worst course. Such as in a declining market. My friend just bought a town house in a short sale directly from a bank. Good part of town too, Westview and Voss in the Spring Valley area. It's one of 6 units. The builder went bankrupt after completing the project. 3 of the units have sold. The first went for $200,000, the second for$160,000 and my friend got his for $125,000. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, who knows. What if the other 3 units remain unsold? What if the next closing is for $110,000? Crazy things are happening.

I wish the new administration well. They are going to need some luck. And I hope they have a comprehensive well thought out plan which includes some austerity IMO. I don't think it will happen ( too many special interest groups to pay back ), but one can hope.

Can anyone imagine a world without bigger and better LCD and plasma TVs. What a nightmarish thought but be prepared.

And to the OP, TS. If prices are flat, let alone declining, maybe your lack of buying ability isn't that tragic. I've been around long enough to see that things work in a cyclical fashion. I' hope you are ready when this current cycle turns. The good news for you that it won't be turning very soon

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Ah I see.


Well, as an aside, if I didn't want to work in a conventional office, I would learn some sort of programming and do it freelance/contractor, or do full-time ecommerce. Even as a normal office drone I have thought about quitting and scouring thrift stores full-time. I feel like around $2k per month doing this is pretty feasible. Getting to that $4k a month level is a little harder.

Freelance is the way to go for the difficult-to-employ. Pitch ideas to magazines, start putting together a portfolio of whatever it is you can do. If you can't do something, learn to do something. It's not so bad since you can start doing this while holding down a 9-5.

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Ah I see. Well, as an aside, if I didn't want to work in a conventional office, I would learn some sort of programming and do it freelance/contractor, or do full-time ecommerce. Even as a normal office drone I have thought about quitting and scouring thrift stores full-time. I feel like around $2k per month doing this is pretty feasible. Getting to that $4k a month level is a little harder.
If clearance is not an issue and he is technically inclined, I see no reason why he could not be making 5-10K/mo if he put in the effort to specialize. There is, as he said, never "enough money," but I feel that one needs at least 50K/yr if not 75K to live comfortably.

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Ah I see.


Well, as an aside, if I didn't want to work in a conventional office, I would learn some sort of programming and do it freelance/contractor, or do full-time ecommerce. Even as a normal office drone I have thought about quitting and scouring thrift stores full-time. I feel like around $2k per month doing this is pretty feasible. Getting to that $4k a month level is a little harder.

That's actually a good suggestion for TS. I've met lots of substandard coders that do websites and stuff to earn decent money. There's no reason he couldn't do that if he had the inclination. I don't do websites because I'm no good at graphics/design and prefer more nerdy stuff, but if you do good work for one company your name will get passed around through word of mouth and you'll eventually have enough to keep you going and maybe even quit your day job. There's a lot to learn at first, but it's manageable for someone that's good with computers and has a logical brain. For websites, the coding is actually the easy part. TS seems to have a good eye (at least from his photography), so maybe he'd be good with the design aspect of it too.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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That's actually a good suggestion for TS. I've met lots of substandard coders that do websites and stuff to earn decent money. There's no reason he couldn't do that if he had the inclination. I don't do websites because I'm no good at graphics/design and prefer more nerdy stuff, but if you do good work for one company your name will get passed around through word of mouth and you'll eventually have enough to keep you going and maybe even quit your day job. There's a lot to learn at first, but it's manageable for someone that's good with computers and has a logical brain. For websites, the coding is actually the easy part. TS seems to have a good eye (at least from his photography), so maybe he'd be good with the design aspect of it too.

**** websites; no money in that.

Originally Posted by arnach

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**** websites; no money in that.

That's not necessarily true. Given that an increasing part of the US economy is dependent on small business, I'd imagine there's tons of work for people that take the effort to learn web design really well. I've seen tons of really crappy websites that could do with a make-over or additional functionality. Of course, just html skills won't be enough, as you'll need database skills and other things as well. Like anything, you need to work at. Most computer people aren't salesmen though, and working on your own requires the ability to sell.

Either way, it would be pretty stupid for TS to take your attitude. He's obviously had trouble getting good jobs because of his record. Whether he decides to do websites or something else is beside the point. Nobody pays top dollar to someone that's just starting out in something. No matter what he does, there's not going to be a whole lot of money in it to start. If he's persistent and good, there might be money in it one day. He'll certainly earn more making simple websites for a few hundred to a thousand bucks a pop than he will sitting on his ass, and he won't have to quit his day job to do it. He could easily double his earnings if he really worked at it imo.