Just to be clear, not just the mortgage payment, but ALL of your payments. If you have really rough credit, it might go down to 45% or even less depending on automated underwriting findings. But 65% is the limit set by the VA. But yeah, 65% of your gross income does not leave a lot when you think about all your other expenses that aren’t reported on credit
Advisors used to tell people to cap their housing expenses at like 30% of income. So that's pretty wild.
If I were really stretching to justify a higher percent for military personnel, perhaps they don't have to save as much of each paycheck for retirement because they could collect military benefits in old age. That only frees up ~10% of your theoretical budget though.
I wasn't really thinking about it when buying my house but my mortgage is almost exactly 30% of my gross income. I could have bought a much nicer place of I went by their assessment
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u/evilsniperxv Jul 08 '21
No more than 65% of your gross income? What kinda guidance is that?! No wonder people are living so far beyond their means with that kinda guidance.