Suburbanites! What multiple of your income did you spend on your house? (Houston: real estate, mortgage)

[Faster10154]

When you purchased your most recent home, what multiple of income did you spend on the final home price?

For example, if your home was $200,000 and your income was $50,000, you spent 4 times (4x) your income.

Yes, I'm still researching (for those of you who are looking at my previous posts) so please avoid comments like "it shouldn't matter what someone else does", or "each individual's situation is different". I'm simply trying to get some statistics for the suburban homeowners in the greater Houston area.

Thanks for all your helps guys!

I think my wife and I are considering spending no more than 3x our income. Just wanted to know where that stands amongst other Houstonians.

[testmo]

paid 1.5x my income. enjoying looking forward to paying off my mortgage whenever I want and putting more money into my vacation home. 4x? egads. I'm not really a suburbanite though.

[bronstew]

We paid a little less than 2.5 times our income. I have heard that is really the best, i.e. safest, ratio.

[chris_ut]

2.5x, wouldn't feel comfortable going over that.

[Dopo]

When I bought it, about 2.4X, now 2.0X my salary.

I was looking for a house in the 2.0-2.5X range, even though the bank said that I could get a loan for a little more than 4X my salary and the real estate agent that was "helping me" kept on pushing me to go for houses past my limit.

[CAHomeschoolMom]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

2.5x, wouldn't feel comfortable going over that.

Ditto here.

[sldee66]

When we bought it was 1.2x and now it is .5x I am always amazed at how much people overextend themselves when buying a home in the suburbs.

[predatorprey]

Bought 2x income, but had 20% down. So loan was much less than 2x income.

I think what is more important question you and your wife should ask is what is my loan value vs annual income. Don't let that go above 2x income unless you want to live off rice and beans. Don't care what banks say.

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by predatorprey

Bought 2x income, but had 20% down. So loan was much less than 2x income.

I think what is more important question you and your wife should ask is what is my loan value vs annual income. Don't let that go above 2x income unless you want to live off rice and beans. Don't care what banks say.

This is a true statement. We also put down 20% and have a 15 year mortgage. Price paid is 2.6x, loan amount 2.1x and it is tight financially but we're hoping to have another income coming in within the year.

Either way, I'm really liking the fact that in 5 years we'll have some SERIOUS equity in our home! Our last house was a 30 year mortgage and it was like staring into a black hole.

[Texascrude]

Under 2x, but we put it on a 15 year mortgage. Even after only 2 years, we have some serious equity in the house... loving it.