Hello!
Thank you in advance for your input. This is my first post, although I have been reading this blog/forum for about a year now.
My wife and I recently moved to a city that has a MUCH higher COL than what we are used to. Reason being that we absolutely love the outdoors and being in/near this city actually has some sort of ROI with us exploring more, taking less vacations, and doing a lot of "free" activities (music festivals, camping, hiking, etc.). With that being said, the housing market here is absolutely terrible and the economy here is just wack. Starter homes go for 300-400k and the average income is terrible. However, we are fortunate with our income and would like to purchase a home within the next 1-1.5 year(s). Before my question, here are a few details:
Age: 25/26 (Just married 2 weeks ago)
Combined income: $155,000 + small bonuses
Student Loans: $18,000 (down from $63,000 - ~5.5% interest)
401k: $36,000
Roth: $6,000
Savings: $5,000 or so - throwing everything we have at student loans
Expenses: I don't "track" (yet), but we are very mindful with our money
My question to you all is in regards to how much house we can afford. I realize and appreciate that there is already a post on this topic, but the area that I came from had starter homes listed for $100,000 and it would give me sanity to confirm. The research that I have done shows that we should be able to comfortably purchase a $400,000 home, but that just seems outrageous, ridiculous, and stressful to me. However, that seems to be par with the market and maybe I/we just need to adjust our mindset. Thoughts? Advice? Are we jumping the gun?
P.s., we fully understand that we will need to "pause" the loan payments and save aggressively for a down-payment. We plan on starting that process next week.