help me understand...

"Does anyone remember being the taught the difference between 'want' and 'need' when they were little?"

Love this statement....that is what is wrong with most of America today. I have a nephew who often uses this pharse and will most likely retire very early due to good judgement and smart finances. I missed this thread the first time aroung....glad it was brought up again.

Some things seemed to be inferred into my posts. There is nothing saying $148 worth of debt is not significant to a lot of people and nothing saying just toss another hunk of debt onto the pile and nothing saying there is no credit mentality at higher incomes. The whole point was that if that amount is make or break on your home purchase, you need to be rethinking your price range and get into something where you have a cushion on your monthly cash flow. Prudent folks would.

FYI to anyone interested - Fannie Mae will approve loans up to 64.99% DTI with high credit scores.

As for that "minimal monthly $148" SpinDoc....no problem, just toss it on the top of the heap with the rest of the debt:

Typical misquote.

Some things seemed to be inferred into my posts. There is nothing saying $148 worth of debt is not significant to a lot of people and nothing saying just toss another hunk of debt onto the pile and nothing saying there is no credit mentality at higher incomes. The whole point was that if that amount is make or break on your home purchase, you need to be rethinking your price range and get into something where you have a cushion on your monthly cash flow. Prudent folks would.

FYI to anyone interested - Fannie Mae will approve loans up to 64.99% DTI with high credit scores.

No inference intended I don't believe. You are correct in the fact that if $25K more is going to pinch you, you shouldnt' be looking in that price range.:clap_1:
My statement was in reference to given a choice of 25K in over priced extras, vs. $143 savings monthly, go with the savings.

I too have gotten FNMA approvals with back end debt ratios of around 65%, but you don't get it without compensating factors, like low Loan to value, or good post closing liquidity, job stability etc. and of course excellent FICO scores.

Typical misquote.

OK...here's the exact quote: "but my point here is that 25k in the selling price financed with a typical long term fixed rate is not that big a difference ($148 a month). "

Some things seemed to be inferred into my posts. There is nothing saying $148 worth of debt is not significant to a lot of people and nothing saying just toss another hunk of debt onto the pile and nothing saying there is no credit mentality at higher incomes. The whole point was that if that amount is make or break on your home purchase, you need to be rethinking your price range and get into something where you have a cushion on your monthly cash flow. Prudent folks would.

FYI to anyone interested - Fannie Mae will approve loans up to 64.99% DTI with high credit scores.

I wasn't referring to you SpinDr and even mentioned in my post that I understood you meant $148 a month wouldn't generally impede someone from purchasing a house. Other posters seem to think most high end homes are bought cash, that simply is not true. It also seems to me much of the population enjoys financing anything they can. Sorry if I inferred anything to you directly, I was only using your figures.

I wasn't referring to you SpinDr and even mentioned in my post that I understood you meant $148 a month wouldn't generally impede someone from purchasing a house. Other posters seem to think most high end homes are bought cash, that simply is not true. It also seems to me much of the population enjoys financing anything they can. Sorry if I inferred anything to you directly, I was only using your figures.

No problem - I was just trying to clear up my point as it seemed to get distorted among all the responses.

OK...here's the exact quote: "but my point here is that 25k in the selling price financed with a typical long term fixed rate is not that big a difference ($148 a month). "

That's correct, that was PART of what I posted. Here is the rest of it -

"if that amount on the sales price is the difference between being able to afford the house or not, these buyers are in too high a price range already , IMO."

Here is what you posted in response:

"As for that "minimal monthly $148" SpinDoc....no problem, just toss it on the top of the heap with the rest of the debt"

Typical one sentence taken out of context to spin (no pun intended) things your way. My statement had nothing to do in any way with endorsing more debt, saying more debt was good, etc etc as you inferred. You seemed to infer that I was endorsing getting those add-on's and just going further into debt when the exact OPPOSITE is true.

The entire point was that $148 is not a big difference in REDUCTION of a house payment if you are stretching yourself too far already.

But again the point of the $148 (should be $158 based on my example-slight math error in my haste) comment boils down to this:

275k @ 6.5% = $1738.19 principal and interest - "I'm getting crushed here, living paycheck to paycheck, about to go into foreclosure".
250k @ 6.5% = $1580.17 - "Take out the GCT's and hardwoods, I save $158 a month, now everything is coming up roses".

Not logical IMO and I was disagreeing that 25k less in the price of that house made it a 'whole different ballgame' of affordability and that was my point.

Not logical IMO and I was disagreeing that 25k less in the price of that house made it a 'whole different ballgame' of affordability and that was my point.

Thanks for the clarification of your post, you're right...

It's clear that "affordable housing" doesn't exist for the mid- to lower-wage individuals in this market. The only reason so many are homeowers today is due the exotic mortgage products extended to these individuals over the last couple years.