How much home can YOU afford?

I’m always getting asked, “Hey, so how much would I be able to afford to spend on a house?”  Usually, it’s at a social gathering after a glass or two of wine and I guess people figure that if you’re a REALTOR, it’s a party trick that you can just do in your head.  

Well, I’m good at helping people buy homes in San Francisco – I’m good at the matchmaking, the offer presenting, the negotiating, the handholding and all that.  Performing complex mathematical equations in my head though, that’s a different story.

I usually just tell them to call a good mortgage broker – I do what I do best (help you buy a home), and they do what they do best (help you finance that home).

So, I was happy to stumble upon the National Assosociation of REALTORS’ housing affordability calculator.  Here, you can plug in your stats, including your gross incomes, your debts, your current mortgage rates (you can call a mortgage broker for that or just go to a variety of sites like www.bankrate.com or something), your debt to income ratios and more. 

Don’t know what your debt to income ratio is?  Don’t even KNOW what a debt to income ratio is?  Well – not to worry, the site explains that too. 

Now, once you figure out how much home you can afford, the NEXT step is figuring out if you can afford a home in San Francisco, and that’s where I come in.  Once you have a rough idea of how much you can spend, we can take the next step and figure out if your budget and your list of wants and needs are realistic criteria and will allow you to buy a home in the San Francisco real estate market. 

If you have questions about whether or not you can afford to buy a home in SF, call me at 415-307-1392 or email me.  Advice and consultation is always free.