Related Posts
Visual Storyteller
Hello Fishes,
Noob query. So there is an LTA Reimbursement component in the FAP allocation. I've mistakenly set it to the max amount. Now in June, 2022 salary I only received half of the monthly expected amount. Any idea when will I get back the money? And why did this happen. I'm sorry I don't have much idea on these
HSBC India
Let’s go SHIB. - Wauting for Robinhood then 🚀
More Posts
Rising Star
Most controversial opinion?
Can't wait to get started on 2017 walkthroughs!
Additional Posts in The Boston Bowl
Rising Star
Rising Star
We bought a house with 15% down. We have a PMI of $60 for 2 years. That’s literally paying $1400 for 2 years instead of an additional 5% down right now or having to wait for another 8 months to save it. That’s not a bad deal if you think of it.
Also, we took a loan only in my partners name. So that I still will qualify for FHA for our second home.
This. The PMI isn’t that much
We just bought a single family house and put down a little less than 15%. Our banker told us that putting down less than 20% is super common since homes are so expensive- in Boston, the average 1st time home buyer puts down about 7%. Like others in the thread have said, we’ll be paying for PMI for a few years but, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the mortgage. PS- the rules might be completely different for being a condo.
VA loan.
Ask my parents to help with my down payment. 50% down payment and 50% mortgage.
20% down payment. We have friends that did the 5% or whatever the lower one is but that comes with it’s own costs
If you are a “HHI” you should have $125k to put towards a home. If you don’t, your choices with money suggest you do not prioritize saving.
In Cambridge and Boston you typically need the 20%+ down to compete with multiple offers so we saved $400k+ for our home over multiple years.
In short… we made a lot of money and saved a ton and put 20% down on a condo we could be happy with for at least a few years in a growing neighborhood.
Saving for a down payment comes with its own opportunity cost so I would focus on finding somewhere in the lower end of your budget you can be happy in while knowing your equity is working for you.
At the end of the day the two biggest levers you have are driving income growth and time earning said income.
I was kinda in this boat (we didn't have 20%) and with covid (less competition for city condos) and low interest rates, we went for it. Even now, I think I'd go for it (we put down ~8% and pay ~110/mo in PMI but we've already picked up 60k in equity). One sneaky thing with low down payments is that you may not be competitive if there's other offers. Since it was a city condo, we could do a 24 hr exploding offer and got very very lucky and had no competition.
It sounds like you're a HENRY - high HHI but relatively recent. In Boston area most of the people I know either bought after many years of having relatively high incomes and/or have family support with down payment. Lower down payment is also an option but it will make you less attractive vs other buyers in this market because it increases mortgage contingency risk. If you live like you did at lower income, it may be easier to save for a decent down payment.
Not in as much of a hurry to buy now that rates are so much higher than 6 months ago. We live in a low-rent 1br at the moment and would love a nicer place with another bedroom, but it makes more sense to stay where we are so that we’re able to buy sooner.
Yes. Parking spots generally a luxury not a necessity here in Boston so take that off your filters and you will find better options.
I’m an independent landlord and love long-standing tenants getting a good deal :)
I was fortunate that I was able to sell a huge chunk of my company stock to fund my 20% down payment (the split was like 60% company stock and 40% other stock/savings). I did this to get the lowest mortgage rate and to avoid PMI. I bought a place I knew I could comfortably afford at the time (before a promotion and raise and bonus).
Depending on where you are trying to buy a house, you may be able to qualify for Bank of America's Community grant program. They gave me $17,500
Seems very unlikely that we would qualify for this
I bought a low cost house (in CT) at 24 with 5% down and then built equity by renting out two of the bedrooms while also living there. Eventually moved out and rented the whole thing, continuing to build equity. Bought second low cost house in central MA with two incomes and we were able to put 20% down. Built equity over 8 years. Eventually sold both houses and had enough equity for 20% down on high end home.
So I guess my answer was I started early and used starter homes that were lower priced to build equity so I had enough for something more expensive.
Honestly, my partner dramatically out earns me and I make a decent six fixture salary. My partner was very frugal before we met and saved a ton. We bought an awesome house in a great location before expanding our family. The down payment was big (20%) but our monthly mortgage is only 2K over what we were paying in a fancy managed apartment building. We’ve refinanced twice to take advantage of rates.
We bought in a cheaper area and put 20% down. We lived there for a few years and upgraded. The increase in equity over those years more than paid for the next downpayment.
The Mega Millions jackpot is at $530m this week🤔🤔🤔
We put 15% down. 1) the pmi cost is negligible per month, like $100 and 2) allowed us to keep a material amount of cash in bank and to use for new home costs and improvements