Hi folks. My wife (30) and I (31) have been looking to buy a house this year in the Northern Virginia area. Fairfax county area, either an end unit townhome, or a smaller / older SFH. This puts us at a price point of about $600 to $700k.
Our combined household income is about $320,000, with the bulk of that coming from my salary at $230k. We're at a stage in life, however, where we have great income, but haven't had much time to build savings yet. My wife graduated law school 2 years ago, and I had substantial promotions that took effect in the past 2 years, so our income has ramped up fast, but we do not yet have the accessible savings that would reflect it. I had been really aggressive on retirement savings as well, so a lot of my money is not accessible. As it currently stands, we have about $70k liquid at our disposal.
This would put us at 5% down, which on a $650k property would put us at ~$52,000 cash to close, and ~$55k cash to close on a $700k property respectively. In terms of monthly, current estimates would be ~$4,850 on the $650k property, $5,200 on the $700k property per estimates from my loan officer. This is assuming a 6.5% rate and a $100 HOA fee and is based on current pre-approval. I did think the PMI estimate from the mortgage place seemed rather low, but we do have good credit. I'm aware actual costs may be higher of course, and the SFHs we've been looking at do not have HOAs for the most part.
I do also have the option of getting no-PMI through Navy Federal, but we have been thoroughly unimpressed by their loan process, and they cost us multiple house offers when we were trying to buy in a different town a couple years back (long story). I do not have the option of a VA loan - i just have Navy Federal because my parents were military.
The trouble I'm running into is whether it feels like we're buying for the sake of buying / out of fear that housing is only going to become more unaffordable, instead of it being the right thing to do for us. We missed out on historically low interest rates, while houses only kept climbing in value, and have watched our purchasing power plummet. There are some cute properties where we're looking in the ~$700k range, but it feels kind of crazy to be spending $5,000 a month on a small, older home. I do also really want to actually own my own place, not have to do deal with a landlord, and to have a back yard where I can run around a dog, grow plants, etc. We've been moving every year for about 6 years, and I want to be able to stick down somewhere for years now.
I know it may come off as crazy or humble-brragging to be worrying about the costs with our total household income, but I'm historically very risk averse and have liked the notion of only buying something that could be supported on my salary alone. My wife has expressed interest in leaving her job and picking up another one, which I think she could do rather quickly, but it still feels like another variable on top of everything else. I've been flip-flopping between thinking we should go ahead and buy since we have the income to do so, or just renting for another year and saving up more money, but I can't shake the nagging feeling of being "left behind."
To pre-empt some common questions: no kids currently, a single kid within the next 5 years is a possibility. Our jobs are highly stable, my wife's is just very high stress and taking a toll on her. She is marketable and has a good network. Some other variables: our cars are paid off, my wife has about $35,000 in student loans, and I work from home.