How Much Can You Really Afford To Pay For A House in The Northwest Valley?

How much you can really afford to pay for a house in Northwest Valley is determined by a lot more than the sales price. Often enough, people buy houses without first knowing what they can really afford, which can be a costly and life-impacting oversight. Qualifying for a $300,000 mortgage doesn’t mean that you can actually afford that much house. Your other monthly recurring payments, outstanding debt and cost of ownership should be taken into account.

Other Debt

This is one of the biggest factors in determining how much you can afford to pay for a house in the Northwest Valley. Do you have a car payment, student loan debt, what about credit card debt? While lenders do take into account all your debts, they look at only your minimum monthly debt payments.

At some point you’re likely going to want or need to make more than the minimum payment, unless you like paying 2.5+ times more than the original debt. For example, a $25,000 credit card debt at 17% on which you pay $390 a month will cost you a total of $41,000 over the course of 14 years.

Other Expenses

Debt alone doesn’t tell the whole story about what you can afford to pay for a house in the Northwest Valley. There are plenty of other expenses that doesn’t even figure into the mortgage qualification process, but that is still part of your regular monthly expenses. Your ability to afford a house depends on more than just those things that show up on your credit report, for example:

• Groceries
• Clothing
• Gas
• Utilities
• Cable
• Internet
• Car Insurance
• Eating out
• Entertainment
• Travel
• Daycare

WWhat the bank considers debt is only part of the equation. You need to take all your expenses into account when looking at how much you can really afford to pay for a house in the Northwest Valley, there are some costs to owing that you’ll need to take into consideration. Homeowners insurance for instance. Property taxes are another expense that can change over time. Don’t forget about maintenance and repair costs too.

Need for Emergency Cash

How much you can actually afford to pay for a house in Northwest Valley is also determined, at least in part, by how much in reserve funds you can keep on hand to cover emergencies, especially emergency repairs. As a homeowner, you’ll want to have some emergency repair money available in case something breaks. Like your air conditioner in the middle of summer or if your roof starts leaking. Studies show that nearly half of American don’t have enough cash on hand to cover a $400 emergency expense

Buying a house is a big step and a large financial transaction even for experienced investors. You should, then, before signing the contract, figure out how much you can really afford to pay for a house in Northwest Valley. For there’s a lot more to it than just how much your bank is willing to lend.

Are you ready to buy a house in Northwest Valley? We can help! Send us a message or give us a call today! (602) 806-8834

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