Pre-qualified first time home buyer question
Hi, and thank you in advance to anyone who gives us advice.My husband and I are first time home-buyers. We make a little over $90,000 a year combined. Jobs are safe and we are quite young (mid-20's) with no large debt. We were pre-qualified to buy a home up to $271,000 in the Dallas-area through FHA. We want to put 3.5% down. The loan officer we are working with said we could certainly go above that, decent credit scores, though we took a small hit due to our car being completely totaled when we were t-boned by a dump truck and bought a new car, and I had bought a new car right around then. Anyway, husband's credit score is a 730-740 depending on the credit bureau and I'm a 670-680. We aren't buying until May-October because we are going to work to save more and get our credit scores up some.Anyway, here's the question (finally), if we have $800 a month in bills (credit cards, car payments, student loans), in your opinion, are we safe spending around $200,000 on our first home? We have no kids yet, though plan to start trying within the next year or so. We want to be conservative and have "a life" outside of our financial obligations. The loan officer said we are absolutely within our means. We just want to be smart about our first purchase!Thanks and we appreciate any input! We trust our loan officer and realtor but want to be smart! by wilmao_675_706 from Boise, Idaho. Feb 21st 2012
William J Acres (William_Acres)
#74 ranked lender in Arizona - 8,728 contributions
Hey Wilmao.. You are well within your means and based on the information you provided, should have plenty of money left over every month... but my question is why wait till May to October to purchase... rates are EXTREMELY low right now and home values are on the rise. Your credit score is more than sufficient to purchase and there will be little to gain even if your score improved to 730-740. As Wall Street gets more and more good news about the economy, watch rates start to rise.. Any insignificant gain you might get by a better credit score will be offset by leaps and bounds by higher home prices and higher interest rates... Don't wait.. do it now.. WilliamAcres.com
Jessika Ondrick (jondrick)
#8 ranked lender in Idaho - 11 contributions
Hi Wilmao_ - You are smart to look to Mortgage Professionals for "their guidance." All the answers below are right on. You can buy a beautiful home in the Boise/Meridian area for 200,000 with plenty of room to hopefully fill with children one day. With rates as low as they are, this is helpful so you can get more of a house. (are you staying in Boise or moving to Texas?) Either way, with great jobs, great scores and minimal debt, you will do just fine. Good luck! Jessika Ondrick o NMLS#13465 o Evergreen Home Loans, Meridian Idaho o 208.321.4310
Bert Carpenter (BertCarpenter)
#37 ranked lender in Arizona - 2,431 contributions
Based on the information you provided, there is no reason to wait. If you are looking to finance FHA, because of the low down payment, then any score above 640 will get you access to the best rates from just about every lender. FHA does not have any pricing adjustments for scores better than that, meaning you will get the same rate with a 640 score that you will get with an 800 score. When rates are as low as they are, there are more things that can cause them to rise then there are that can cause them to fall. By waiting, you are risking losing out on this great opportunity. When you say "We want to be conservative and have "a life" outside of our financial obligations", it seems to me your real question is should we be buy more house because we can. Generally, I would answer do not buy more than you are comfortable with. If you are thinking of starting a family not to far down the road, then being a little more conservative today may be prudent. Don't forget to check out your selected Mortgage Originator at the National Mortgage Licensing System at www.NMLSConsumerAccess.org ~ Bert Carpenter, The LoansA2z team of NOVA Home Loans ~ NMLS 40586 ~ www.LoansA2z.com
Ask our community a question.
Get an answer
Related Questions
