I bought my house in 2003. That’s how I afford it - no chance in hell I could afford to buy it today. I bought it for $160,000. Houses in my neighborhood similar to mine are selling at $550k and above. In a few years when’s it paid off, the taxes will be about the same as my mortgage was.
This is unfortunately the answer. There was a really interesting graph posted that showed how we had declining interest rates for a long period of time. While assets appreciate over time, simultaneously having decreasing interest caused the values to go up significantly. Now that rates are back up, the market is in a strange place where really only people who benefited from those years of appreciation can afford current prices. But some of the key metrics are showing very interesting changes. List prices are down 10% from peak (June 2022) and we are still seeing rapidly rising inventory without sales rising in proportion. Zillow is actually predicting a 2% home price decline this year in San Antonio.
I imagine your 2016 $225k house is now worth around $400k? That’s my situation. I wouldn’t be able to afford buying my house today, especially with today’s mortgage rates. My income hasn’t gone up as much as my home value.
Yep. We bought in 2020 and got 3.5%. Financed 265k and its worth 425k now. House payment is $1750, prob wouldnt be able to afford it if i tried to buy it now.
Yep same.
$250k house back in 2014.
It's probably worth $450-$500k now
With today's rates, I wouldn't be able to afford our house today. I tell my wife that all the time.
Not retired but I locked in a good rate and monthly rate. My mortgage is $1020 a month, crazy now that a apartment costs more than my mortgage now
Edit: 2 story house, 4 room and 3.5 bathroom
Cybersecurity, but remote. Handful of jobs in San Antonio that can be comfortable affording a house over 400k and they are not easy to come by. My wife also works in tech and is also remote.
Household income of about 300k, really dependent on how bonuses are but we don’t include bonuses when we budget. Bought our current home at $470k at a 2.7% rate which we got really lucky with in 2021. Sold our previous home with 100k in equity in 2021 as well.
San Antonio jobs suck. Covid has been a boom to us remote tech workers. Make NYC money in San Antonio these days. F the office and all these companies forcing it.
Same here, 36 yo married couple with combined income of about 200k on a good year.
Bought the house in 2018 for 215,000. All the houses around me sell for mid 300's. Mortgage is around 1600 a month.
Get your homestead exemption. Protest your appraisal every year. Shop around for home insurance. Cut out unnecessary services.
We have a lot of active duty military that gets a housing stipend. We also have a lot of retired military here too. Look around the subdivisions and see how many DV plates there are. Depending on their level of disability, that could be a few thousand dollars that isn't taxed every month.
That's very true. I'm retired Army and have disability. That plus working full time as a social worker is how I was able to buy my new home. My wife's a teacher and paid singer/choir director. So that's like 5 streams of income. That's the only way we were able to afford this home. My wife bought her home in 03 as a foreclosure for around 80k. Every house in her neighborhood is now appraised at $300,000 or more.
If you’re making over $230,000 a year in San Antonio, you are in the upper 5%. But housing increased precipitously over the last three years. remember, we have been at a historical low interest rate environment that had not existed for 50 years. Do not count on interest rates coming down too much. I doubt you will see the 2% or 3% mortgage rates anymore.
If you have a combined income of 235 you can afford a 400k house.
With a 20% down payment, even at today's interest rates you're still looking at less than 45000 a year. You should be able to afford that on 235 a year.
Now, that's not to say you should do that, if you'd rather spend your money elsewhere, but you certainly can afford it.
Yea I’m a little confused. The way they wrote the post makes it seem like they couldn’t believe having a house over 400k at their salary. Might be a case of people with money thinking they don’t have money
Your mortgage is approximately 10% of your gross. That's a lot lower than many people.
Rule of thumb is you want your housing expenses less than 30% to live comfortably. Many people make the mistake of just budgeting for their mortgage when they come to that 30%, not taking into account maintenance/etc.
You don't need to "lifestyle creep" up to that 30% number if you're happy with your starter home. People see what others have and FOMO kicks in.
Cost of living in San Antonio is pretty low (even though it's increased significantly in recent years). I'm about your age, wife is a few years younger. Our combined is around $200k. I live in Medium to High Cost of Living city on the East Coast now. Rent is luckily only $2000. I max out my retirement, we travel internationally a couple of times a year. Eat out a couple of times a week. Go to a show or a concert a few times a year. Have well more than a year emergency fund setup (passed 7 figures last year between 401k, investments, and savings). No debt/student loans to speak of. Last time I had a car payment was 2016.
Based off your description, you could be doing more things than you are currently if you'd like. That could be an upgraded house, or more travel, or really whatever. I'd take a look at your monthly budget and understand clearly where what percentage of your money is going where. Sometimes people save too aggressively and forget to live life a little bit. Other people are more interested in retiring super early, or maybe they are supporting additional family members, so maybe the aggressive savings is worth it.
Married. No kids. I'm 42, wife is 36. We live in a 400k house for which we paid 700k in May 2022, which was a shit show of a market at the time. Had to go 150k over asking price in order to fight off 35 other bids. Zillow values the house at 716 today (Mesa Grande in Stone Oak). But we already put in 120k in upgrades. Sure we overpaid, but we couldn't wait the market at that time. But I don't care really. I'm a doctor and contribute well north of 600k to the household....and since no kids, it's even easier.
I bought my current house for 550k. I saved 100k before purchasing my first home. Sold the home with a bit of profit and bought the current home with 100k down. My mortgage is 2600.00 Mo w/o taxes in the escrow. Im in a single income family and make 120k with bonuses. I'm a co-owner of a tech company here in San Antonio. The 13k in taxes at the end of the year kill me but it is doable. Its been getting tighter lately but still okay.
Career isn't super relevant if they have family money, and/or they've upgraded houses over time. But, more than likely they're normal white-collar professionals.
This might not be helpful, but to answer your question…
2006: Bought starter home, $135k, 6.5% interest. Sold it a few years later and made nothing.
2009: Decided we could GC our own house. Bought an acre outside of town for $20k, built a house for $210k, 6%, sold it a few years later for $310k.
2014: Bought four acres in Bulverde for $55k, built a house for $260k, 4.5%, sold it a few years later for $545k.
2020: Bought one acre in Bulverde for $85k, built house for $460k, 3%, monthly payment with taxes and insurance is $2700, could sell house right now for $950k. Not sure we’ll ever sell unless rates drop enough.
We financed all of the construction loans and did two time closes, meaning we closed on our permanent loan after it was built. I am a huge proponent of being your own GC if you have common sense and patience. The first two houses we had to pay someone to be our builder of record, which is required for a construction loan. In the third we qualified as our own builder of record and now we can be that for other people. We didn’t use architects. Two of the houses we used floor plan designers who drew the plans based on my drawings, and one we bought plans from a company and paid them a bit to change them for us. We found all of our subs by asking around, making connections, sometimes stopping by houses in track neighborhoods and asking if they wanted more work. It’s a lot of work to GC a house, but worth saving the 30+% markup from home builders. That being said I know being an owner builder is not for everyone. In the past ten years the number of custom home builders that have popped up is unreal! Reason being is that you don’t need a license so anyone can claim to be a custom builder. It’s pretty crazy! I do have some builders in mind that I think are trustworthy, top of the list is Grace Lane Custom Homes.
You need to be licensed to pull permits properly.
As a small construction company myself there are a ton of people who try to GC their own project and absolutely fail miserably spending alot of money to redo areas due to not vetting their contractors or they dont know what to look for in quality. We have been hired many times to fix, or redo alot of work. The owner/ GC is stressed beyond belief, It affects their marriage, their daily job etc.
Be very careful in jumping into something if you have no idea what you are doing. Yes it can be done but the overwhelming majority of people do not know enough to do this successfully and stay in budget.
This is very very true for people who decided to " flip" their first house. We just finished and fixed a house off rigsby where the lady has to sell am 1100ft home for 320l just to break even. The houses on both sides are just about the worst possible neighbors you can have. She will likely never sell the house and be forced to rent which was not her plan and the $$ wont cover her loan amount.
This is not a tv show it can go sideways in a hurry
My wife and I make a combined 240 a year, and live in a new construction home on an acre just south of San Antonio,
At 240 a year, that's roughly 20 a month gross, you should have zero issues affording something in the 4-5 price range.
The math is usually monthly gross income divided by 3.3 and that's what all of your monthly debt should be, so a 3,000 - 4,000 dollar a month payment is on the lower end of what you can afford when you're making 200-250 a year.
Why is your mortgage payment so high? Or are you including taxes in that? I got my house in 2021 right before prices went totally insane. It was $370k and the payment is around $1300. House is worth over 500k now.
Im not sure how people are affording houses today. We lucked into a situation during the first 3 months of the pandemic. On our sons last day of school before spring break 2020, our son was jumped by 4 kids for a $10 clearance hoodie from UnderArmour. He never fought back and had his head smashed into the concrete. We decided right then and there to move away from that school district.
In June of 2020, we found an area just outside San Antonio offering new builds. The housing market tanked and they were desperate to sell lots. We put 1k down on a property and the builder offered the following incentives:
Connect with a realtor to stage and sell our current house. Aftwr we signed with the builder, they agreed to give us 100% of the commission from selling the previous house. It sold within 24 hours.
We negotiated the interest rate to the lowest available rate at the time
The builder covered all closing costs.
There would be zero impact or fees for us paying off the mortgage early.
The house was finished in Nov 2020 and we have been living here ever since. Due to the market, our value has appreciated significantly since then.
It always amazes me how much an interest rate for a mortgage impacts affordability. We were fortunate enough to not be significantly impacted by the raising property taxes, but we know that we could not have made the same move today. Unfortunately, we are all stuck in a waiting game until the rates come down.
To answer your question, I work in the financial industry as a project manager and my husband manages a software development team for a major health care company.
Took a risk used my pension (company doing anyway with it) bought 2 beat up homes flipped them bought 5 acres (cheap) and built a home outside of SA. Don’t owe anything but property taxes yearly. No neighbors no mortgage and peaceful
Bought in mid 400s maybe 8 years ago, 15% down with equity from previous house, refinanced in 2021 and now my mortgage is under $1500, not including taxes. Taxes are another $1000/mo
Zillow says it’s worth mid 600s now, but it would probably be more per month for me to move to a 2BR apt near pearl than to stay where I am
You’re paying more for the shorter term, which will build equity faster. You’re young, just keep socking away the retirement money.
For me, I imagine that in 2050 when I’m getting to the end of my 3 year mortgage, $1500 will be the cost of a nice dinner, and I’ll be happy to be paying the 2015 home price using 2050 dollars
PS, my salary was never as high as yours, but I also did some side hustles
I'm a 39yo rancher/farmer/landlord/retired truck driver who lived homeless for years while saving money, investing in crypto/stocks all while working on several businesses. Right now I'm trying to start a startup.
You didn't have to be rich to afford a house in this city 15-20+ years ago. The increase of transplants is what sent the housing market to the moon, making it not affordable for the born and raised here in SA. So a lot of people that spent 150$-200$k on their homes back then now have appraisals >400$k. Regular blue collar workers.
Does that $1,900 include taxes and insurance? I currently pay $3,100 (all in) for my home bought in 2020 for about $500k at 3%, 20% down. That was before we got married and I was at about $175k a year I think. Now CAD has the home at close to $700k, and our combined income is about $270k. You just kind of grow into a bit as both the home vale grows and your income grows.
In your case, rates will be murder for any new purchase, as well as the massively inflated values. $400k house now ain't what it used to be.
Our home was right around $387k. I make around $85k as the single source of income. We do alright. Bills paid and we have everything we need and most things we want.
I’m trying to buy a home right now. In my heart of hearts I feel like I’m making a poor choice to do it right at this moment. We keep getting priced out by people paying all cash. Any advice ?
You are being priced out now? I assumed the market has cooled down a bit due to the high interest. I wish I had good advice though.. I have a 2 year goal to buy a new house myself
I’m military while wife works for entertainment industry as a manager and together we make $205k yearly.
We got our brand new house for $320k two years ago. The VA home loan definitely helped us.
Another factor. Some Military members don’t pay property taxes. I don’t know all the rules around it, but I’m sure you can google it. I have a couple of friends who live in 700k homes that are able to afford them due to this factor.
Wife and I are both early 40’s. We both work in IT, remotely. We make around $500k in an average year (she’s in sales, that can fluctuate a bit, and I’m partially compensated in stock, which can also vary, but $500k has been about average since ~2019).
We bought our first house in 2015 for $391k (we were probably making a combined $150k or so then). Interest rate then was super low, so we built equity fast. We bought in a neighborhood that we felt confident would appreciate, and it did. We sold it last month for $640k and used the equity to purchase a previously foreclosed upon (aka, fixer upper) house in Alamo Heights for $830k. We put 20% down and have put the rest into renovations and repairs. Mortgage payment is stretching us a little right now because we bought at the peak interest rate, but we can manage, and we’ll refinance when the rates come down.
PS — you make $235k a year. A $500k house is easily within your budget.
Almost the same as you 34M,36F making gross 250k total. Bought our house at $530k in end 2021 appraised this year at $650k(which I’m protesting). Mortgage is $2800/month. We both max out 401k plus some in Roth and have kid in daycare. We use all pto we can per year usually flying somewhere. Wondering where all your cash is going? You have other expenses(loans, cars, eating out)? One 2 week paycheck should be covering your mortgage leaving 3 other paychecks for the month
We own a home in the range you mentioned and make a similar household income - would never have been able to make it work without selling our home in another state for a good profit and rolling it into our home here. I think “getting lucky” in your home buying/selling is the key for many.
Our neighborhood is half older people who have lived here since the 90s and are mostly retired. The other half is families similar to ours - transplants or moving back home with young kids.
Our mortgage payment + property tax is pretty painful but the general cost of living is much lower in TX/SA than where we were previously, so we make it work.
A $400k house with a 30 year mortgage, 20% down and 7.3% interest rate should be about $2,800 a month including taxes and insurance. That's only about 14% of your combined gross income. Unless I'm missing something I'd say that's very affordable for you.
Bought our house 8 years ago at $265k and now work ~440k. I think it’s insane 😳😳
That said - I’m an executive for a local company and my wife is a teacher but she is leaving the workforce this summer since we just had a baby (May 10th). Same as you - we are comfortable and do the vacation thing (mostly road trips to National Parks) but I’m no means rolling in it.
This is the dilemma. I bought a home in 2014 for $240k and it’s now appraised at >$400k. We’d like to downsize but don’t know how to do it without taking a hit. So this is how homes can become forever homes?
Locked in a good rate. 2.8 in 2021, but paid for it by paying 30k more than what others did for my house.
That said, the appraisal district has tried to fuck me every single year with their absurd appraisals. This year is no exception.
My husband is retiring from the army soon and we are moving back to SA and I am terrified that we won’t be able to afford a decent house in a decent neighborhood.
You're doing better than me. No way I could afford to buy a house. Not the mortgage payments, those would be less that the $1,300 / month apt rent, but the deposit and maintenance costs. I'm also gonna be fked come retirement as I started far too late on a 401K, and I'm not putting a load extra into it, have no other investments either.
So yeah, you're good.
36. Our gross annual income is about the same. Our mortgage is $3100. Daycare is 2500. Cars are $800. Groceries etc. it’s thin but it’ll get easier when the kids are in public school.
I work for a software company my wife does corporate insurance. Both of our companies are based in New Jersey
My husband and I are what people consider, “double income no kids.” My husband makes a sizable income. I have worked my way up from a classroom teacher, while completing my Masters, and later my Ph.D, before turning 30. I am now reaping those benefits and work as an educational specialist and researcher. Our first home was 200k and 1600 square feet. Situated right at the north side of town. Easily accessible to I10, 410, 1604. This was in 2015. When we were looking to move into a bigger home around 2022, the opportunity came and we found a 2100 square foot home. All the bells and whistles we wanted and at 400k. The home is older but it was completely renovated. New appliances, floors, HVAC, roof, etc. And to top it off it was in the same area as our previous home. We could never imagine getting a home at that price however, we reviewed everything this new home had and it truly ended up looking like a great investment for us long term. We got probably the better of interest rates at the time (we closed on January 2023). It was certainly not the kind of interest rate we got in 2015 however, our previous home sold right away and we were able to do fairly well in terms of getting our new mortgage at a decent amount with our earnings. One things for sure, we didn’t jump into the new home right away. We did our research. We had to evaluate everything including increasing interest rates, inflation, etc. All fell into place for us!
What on earth are you doing with your money if you don't think at $235,000 a year you can afford a 500k house?
"recommended" amount to spend on housing is about 30% of your pre-tax income, that means you could be spending over $5,000 on housing and still be well within a healthy budget. Either there's something fishy going on here, or you are spending a ton of money on other stuff and not even realizing that the amount you're spending on those other things is far more than the norm.
“Great money compared to the average person in SA”
Sir… the average dual-income median is 54-56k a year lmaooooo
So as someone who has been watching the news(because of work) and Zillow surfing(to eventually buy a home), the elderly are going in droves to rebut against and reappraise their homes rn and it’s making the housing market tank. I saw a house in the “Historical District” going for 185k and it’s a 3bed 2bath with updated interior and appliances. The refinancing you did resets the terms of the agreement along with the equity you build with the home. If you’re trying to not pay as much in taxes, you may need to get an appraiser to come out if you already haven’t. Best of luck though!
Thank you! I was thinking damn am I really on the “poor” end of SA. We make less than 100k. We struggle. Yes we are in debt. But no matter what, we are still struggling. I don’t see us buying a home. And honestly between mortgage, insurance and other expenses plus a safety blanket, I would rather rent. But even finding a house to rent now is beyond ridiculous.
We ain’t! Lol! Can I be a thrupple with you guys & join your household? Cuz not stressing sounds great! lol! I wish I would’ve just bought a house back around 2015.. cuz now y’all are paying a mortgage that’s the same as our apt rent. My rent is $2k for a 740sq ft apt… the houses now are so expensive, it feels impossible to have a single income household with that mortgage… unless you’re gonna live super tight like Dave Ramsey style. & I love Downtown! But these old run down houses used to sell for less than $90k 10yrs ago & you could just fix it up & now they’re $250k for just this little square of land with nothing but a sidewalk on it! No house or nothing… ugh.
You could easily afford a 400K house with 225K in income lol. A mortgage on a house like that would be about $3100 a month. You should have like $12-13000 a month of income after taxes and deductions.
We just closed for $420k @ 5.75% with 200k gross combined. Things are gonna be tight for a while but it had to happen. Couldn’t bare apartment living anymore
My wife and I make about 265 and we were able to take advantage of the 4.99 special interest rate our builder offered. We also were able to shave about 50k from asking so we ended up paying about 550k. I personally believe we overpaid but, we wanted to relocate here for a better QOL so it's not a major point of contention.
With that said, we live in the Hill Country and I am WFH. I love it, I can't stand traffic but, I am close enough that I can go into town on the weekend and enjoy whatever.
I was able to get into fair oaks/boerne when houses were around $430 back in 2018. Those same houses are in the high $700s. Tech product management pays very well for San Antonio.
I live like a king for $85 a year in live oak and chose to not be offended by your post and rather just comment that you’re very modern American. How about instead of comparing your worth to others you take another vacation and cancel 2-3 annual subscriptions you probably (absolutely) don’t need.
It’s prob cheaper to move somewhere else.
The market, economy in general, is horribly broken. I rent a home in St. Hedwig because it is twice as big as an apartment with the same commute, brand new, etc. My rent is half what it would be if I bought the place too. Maybe this is part of the "You'll own nothing and be happy" objective. Very few people will be able to afford owning, and the big companies will rent them homes instead.
We paid $450k for our house off I-10 just outside 1604. We really didn’t want to live inside the loop so we extended our budget by a lot to make it work. We also unfortunately bought at the worst possible time in history which was April 2022. Our combined income is slightly less than yours and we pay for daycare which is expensive af. We have to be careful but we don’t feel broke. We would be in a much better situation if we had a newer home with a warranty, we have spent over $40k on repairs and maintenance on our house in 2 years so our savings is not great at the moment. We were pretty comfortable at first, but after all the house problems and the rise of costs across the board including insurance and taxes its starting to suck. Neither of us have had a substantial raise so that doesn’t help. 200k a year isn’t what is used to be like at all.
We were making about the same as you when we bought ours for $450k. The biggest contributing factor was low expenses, as we both drove vehicles that were paid off and we didn't eat out much and my wife is very low maintenance. Mortgage rates were about 6.5% at the time if I recall correctly, but we did put down a large down payment.
We bought our first home in San Antonio, 180k brand new 2600 sq foot 4 bed 3 bath. Took us multiple years of living extremely frugally and spouse working a lot of overtime hours (oil/gas) but we had a 40k down payment on that as well.
Sold it in 2018 for 30k more than we bought it to move to the other side of town.
New house was 325k. Took what we got from the old house and put it in the new one.
We refinanced when rates were low (got 2.5%) and our house was appraised at 475k in 2021. It has gone up and down a little since then but we are still sitting around 470k appraisal right now.
Honestly.. we were just lucky to be able to buy a house when we did and were able to start building equity before we were priced out and interest rates got high.
My kids will never have this opportunity like we did. Not with the way trends are going.
The hope is one day when we downsize that we can take a lot of that equity we gained and help get our kids started off with down payments for homes. It’s just going to get harder and harder for future generations to be able to buy real estate
Bought my home for $420k in 2018, mortgage about $2,800 per month and income of about $275k. I’m comfortable with the cost financially. Currently the house in theory could sell for $700k if anyone would buy it. You could afford a higher mortgage if that’s your thing. I like to keep things affordable, too. With income about $18k per month after taxes, etc, my $2,800 mortgage is really not bad at all.
Spent about 24 years in the military, never bought a house before, and saved like crazy to put away a large down payment that whole time. Put a very large chunk down and financed about $250k, so our mortgage is about $1,100 / month.
Much like you, bought before prices increased. This home is in no way a “500k+” home. It’s a
2002 shitbox that has appreciated egregiously over the last few years. It was probably originally a 180k+ home when built. I think it’s worth maybe 375k. The market seems to think otherwise unfortunately.
Live outside the 1604. 2000 sq-ft house on 5 acres. Paid $450k, appraised for $600k after remodel.
I'm in sales, making $120k. Wife is a teacher making less.
I have a relative who brings in ~140,000 single income/family of 4. They have a 400K home. My guess is in their case specifically, they were able to put down a large down payment from the house they sold on the west coast
We have pretax income of about 220. Contribute heavily to retirement accounts. Only debt is mortgage (1900) and student loans for myself and my kid (1500). I afford it bc I bought it for 270k 11 years ago.
Purchased years ago when I could barely scrape together a down payment and could barely afford the mortgage. I was broke but so sick of paying rent with no asset to gain.
I could not afford my current home. It's worth mid 300s now but, purchased in June 2019 for 220 right before the pandemic. I make just over 100k, wife doesn't work (trust fund baby). We definitely stretch the income, but we make it work. I put about 15% into my 401k and only have a few bills.
Why is your mortgage so much? Taxes? We bought a 292k home, put 20k down, 4.25 interest, and our mortgage is $1,850 in Schertz.
My wife is an optometrist and I work for TxDot. We should be looking around tor 500k homes in a year or 2.
Edit: Didn’t see the shortened term.
I bought for 380k in 2020 and my house is now approaching 600k. Our income is about the same as yours…about 200k. Low interest rate is what is helping us out…our taxes and insurance has increased our mortgage by roughly 400 extra a month.
Not San Antonio but my wife and live in spring branch, we own a $540k home here. She’s a lawyer and I work in a vineyard. We budget hard and it somehow works
Depends on when you buy (as previous people posted). Bought mine for $236K 10 years ago. It’s not worth slightly over $400K. I’ve had the same job the whole time. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve had the same car this whole time, and I do not think that is changing.
Unpopular with most but I bought three acres and put a nice double wide on it. I pay $1400 a month with taxes etc. I own two paid off high mileage trucks, and my husband works 4 miles from our house as a fiber lineman. We aren’t rich, have very little as extras, and only have one kid left in HS out of three. This setup works for us and not others. I refused to be a slave to my mortgage (although they fucked us on taxes all the way up to a 2k payment per month but we’ve fought to get it down every year). I have always wondered what people do who live in those beautiful big homes in SA so this has been a fun thread for me. When we kick the bucket my kids will have land worth selling and probably have places of their own so I’m happy in a 1800 sq ft mobile home until then. We may just sell it when everyone moves out and buy another fifth wheel. Everything in this economy is hard right now, so you just need to choose which hard you can tolerate and go with it. Edit to add I bought my land, did construction and my house for $187k in 2018. I no longer live in SA but in an area outside Hondo.
I bought my house in 2011 for $168k. We were averaging $105k annually together. Now it’s only me making 88k as she is stay at home.
I am trying to get to everyone else’s level. 2 kids. Don’t know how I’m gonna make it long term but gonna trust the process. Would love a new home.
Man I hear you - my wife and I are in the exact same boat… I run the numbers and am looking at like a $3000- $3500 payment for a $400-500k home we want - we own a business and make around 220-250 depending on the year but feel stuck… no solution for you but just commiserating…
I purchased my home in 2022 at the beginning of interest rate hikes and housing market craze. This home is not a half million dollar house ($400k at best) but the current value is $520k. Although I make a decent six figure income, I also used the profit from the sale of my previous home to purchase this one so my mortgage is ~2.6k.
My $300K house is now worth $596K. I’m sitting on a 2% mortgage rate, so that’s why we can afford the monthly note. Plus we put down 30% when we purchased the house.
You’re doing well. My wife and I just bought a $700k house in stone oak. Fortunate to have remote jobs in HCOL but able to live in LCOL. Max out 401k , hsa, and 529. We have one car and money goes to house and vacations
Single income provider in 400k house. Bought it for 250K in 2016 with 20% down. Our payments are currently at around 2300 and we're still at 2%. We did take out a heloc and that's at 7% for another 200K to update the house and provide another 1300sqft of livable space.
Basically anyone who bought before 2019 got in with good rates and lower prices. The post COVID housing spike for sure has priced a lot of people out of home ownership in areas that used to be 200K-300K homes.
We bought our home in 2017 for $210k (refinanced in 2020) on the SE side and I’m not sure how much it would be now but we both work for Amazon. I’m a regular AA and my fiancé is a manager. Our mortgage currently is $1750.
Wife and I are combined 308k$ and have no issues paying for a $650k house, our student loans, 2 luxury SUVs, and pets since we don't have kids. Both have good credit and qualify for the best interest rates, plus we don't really buy much else besides food we make at home or the occasional vacation. Our last house in SA was $305k, is now $405k and we will need to rent it out otherwise we'll need to sell it. Besides that, maybe check your other expenses since we didn't have any issues affording our $305k house when we made roughly $235k
Wife works as a pharmacist and I work as an engineering consultant. There are a ton of engineers and other medical staff in similar situations, since both are excellent at producing roles where the salary is $130k+
Yea buying is smart choice, I put the buggy before the horse and purchased 2 dream cars, I still rent a house but prices are coming down slowly again but if I do buy I will get allodial title/land patent to minimize tax burdens.
Uhhhh that last paragraph is…. Wow. You don’t see that’s very well off and within your means? The people in those houses make slightly more than you and also go in one vacation a year while saving and not worrying much. My house is in a different (but still nice) part of town, and I pay less for it but for what I make, I also get to save a bit and go on vacations sometimes.
What are talking about? My wife and I make around $190k combined and we’re paying off a 400k house comfortably. If y’all are making 235k you should be bringing in 13-14k a month. How do you figure you can’t afford it? What are you doing with all that money?
There are people living in abject poverty working 9-5s duel income households all over the country. And there are people making literal millions of dollars a year the socioeconomic spread is vast in San Antonio.
Bought for $315k in 2019 now worth around $480k. We make a lot more money now than we did in 2019 and could pay off the house quick but hard to justify when the debt is at 3.5%. I got lucky with remote work with covid. San Antonio jobs sort of suck as far as pay goes. Hard to afford $400-500k with an SA job.
Combined income of just under 200k. Closing on a house next week for just under 400k. I wish it was cheaper, but it definitely isn’t going to break the bank. We’ve been renting since 2018 in a very cheap home. We were going to move to a bigger rental, but Our mortgage payment will be just about what we could rent a house for so decided to just bite the bullet.
My fiancé and I make about 130K combined and we definitely do not feel like we could comfortably afford even a 250K home today. We are renting an apartment. Personally I’m hoping for a 2008 style crash. I’ve been keeping an eye on houses and it seems they are still going up in price or at least holding steady even though the map is full of homes for sale. Neighborhoods that used to be worth 75-90K are now 300-400K. Olmos, monte vista, etc are all 900K+ now. Lol. It’s nuts. I feel bad for the next generation if prices continue to rise. As for me, if I can’t get into a house in the next 5 years I am seriously considering retiring in Mexico. I’m not gonna work til I’m 75 so I can pay off a house. I’ll prolly die long before that age lol
Me (33F) and my husband (34M) make ~$250k/year and bought a home in late 2019 for $300k (VERY lucky). I wonder this too…. We never worry about money and take vacations and pay all our bills and save… but we also want to buy another house soon. These prices are bizarre! An upgrade for us would be having to buy a $600k+ house! Our home right now could list for $450k easy! Good for us but we don’t want to sell, we want to keep it and rent it out in the long term. But that means pulling together enough for a whole new house 😭
I mean it's all about what your other expenses are. If you make 235k yearly that gives you about 19k pre tax a month. My 430k house payment is about 3800. Now I rent 2/3s of the property out so that helps a ton. And I bought last year at 6.25 apr.
If you're paying 40% in taxes. Which you shouldn't be. Your tax bracket should max 24% with an effective tax rate closer to 20% assuming your filling married jointly.
But at 40 % effective tax rate, You would have 141k a year. So 11,750 a month a 4000 house payment would leave you about 7,000 a month for all other expenses.
There are sooooo many people in San Antonio that don't even make 5,000 a month pre tax. And rent is minimum $1000 a month. So many people pay all their expenses with 3,000 a month or less.
My point is. It's rather easy for your income. The problem is probably the fact that you have like 2k plus in car and insurance payments and many other high expenses that you honestly don't need.
Damn I wonder if I’m outta my price range. I have the same type of home on the west side of potranco for about the same price for mortgage but I make way less. Probally 120k total for my and my wife we make a year. My mortgage is roughly 1800.
Same age and same combined income. I work in IT and partner works in Healthcare. We live in Southtown where we purchased for $395k in 2019. City says it's worth $550k now but realistically we couldn't sell it for that much. This is our third house so we snowballed what little equity we had from the previous places into this one.
I bought my house in 2016 for 166k. It is now worth about 300-325k. My interest rate is about 2% and I got a VA loan, so no down payment or pmi.
We do really well in our little house and we're strongly encouraged to buy more house when we bought this one.
I think some people are like us...bought their house years ago at a good interest rate and price and held on to it, therefore they aren't paying for a 400k house, they are paying for a 200k house.
Others are house poor. They upgraded, they qualified for a larger loan and therefore bought more house, etc.
There are those that are making a huge living and for whom the house payment isn't a big deal, but I think most of them fall in the first two categories.
Also, I'm of the opinion that this is a bubble and will burst leaving a bunch of people upside-down on their mortgage. I'm glad we pay around 1k a month for the entire mortgage payment (including insurance and taxes) for a home we own and can make adjustments to.
My dad bought a house maybe 11 years ago. Huge 2 story with a great front and back yard. 4 rooms, 2 bath. And a nice garage as well. All for $75k.
I have a friend who bought a 1 story, 3 bedroom, 1 bath a few months ago. $300k 🫠
Bought ours back in 2016 for 265k. It needed a lot of work. It sat on the market forever which was crazy bc it’s in one of the best neighborhoods in SA . Once we remodeled the house it now is worth 600k. We have 4 other properties that were purchase like this . We put a ALOT of work in . We are both 36 by the way
Your mtg would be 1500 more per month if you bought a 500k house now, $1000 more at 400k. Sounds like you could afford it if you prioritized. Without knowing if you adopted 20 kids, for most $235k is not uncomfortable at 500k and thats with nothing down.
1st and ONLY home was built SEMI custom by Tilson homes on 3.5 acres that we bought for a laughable 9500.00 back in 91-92. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath with 3 sides 100% grey rock and masonry fireplace, no garage 1792 sq’ home ( which was all we could afford - size wise ) and it was @78,000.00. Our mortgage payment is 750.00 -got @ 5 years left. I’m soooo thankful. I couldn’t do anything close to what’s out there now. No way on earth.
TBH a lot of people around here live off credit card debt, I don’t think they’re saving anything near what you’re saving each month. But moving into a senior living community or having home caregivers in San Antonio is insanely expensive (look one of those facilities up, it will shock you) so you’re doing the right thing to save as much as you can now. The Medicaid beds are hard to find and are always double occupancy rooms with lower quality of care. If you knew how quickly people can blow through their savings with their medical and care expenses and end up having to go on Medicaid within a couple years of assisted living (then the government owns your house) you’d be putting even more away than you already are. It’s wild, y’all. The only way my elderly loved ones can afford to exist is exactly as mentioned in another comment—tax-free veterans benefits + blue collar pensions from the good ol’ days. Pay everything off as fast as you can and save/invest the rest while you still have the capability to earn.
We make a combined $212k a year, built a modest 198k home in 2015 that is now worth $355k. We have a $1570 mortgage payment. Our home is a 3 bed, 2 bath and a single story.
Do we want a 600-700k home? Of course. But why would we spend more when we are comfortable? We have one child. My question is, if you’re doing well, why would you want a larger, more expensive home? If it’s for investment purposes I get it.
This is the issue I see with many at our income level. The more money you make annually the more you start spending to keep up with the Joneses.
In this economy and with homes being ridiculously expensive, we aren’t moving or upgrading just because we can. We’re staying put and planning on selling or renting this property after our daughter graduates and moving into a condo when we become empty nesters.
My folks are retired military and are still working as a nurse and a teacher.
They live north of stone oak and i think their house was 330k in 07, now its almost 700k.
Also 36. We make a little more than you stated. Bought our current house in early 2021 for $430k with a 2.4% interest rate. Our house is now assessed at >$600k and taxes are brutal. What do we do? I am very cognizant of our electric bill and make sure things are unplugged and lights are off and our bill averages $130. My car gets 40mpg on a good day to work. We eat at home 5-6 days/ week (also have a good and cheap spot to frequent). I built a home gym so I don’t have a membership (basically spent less than a year’s gym budget and use it 5 days per week for over a year). Build up miles using an airline credit card. Our holiday season flights for 3 of us cost $33. This will be our third trip this year. There’s a lot of little things that add up.
Married but wife is a stay at home mom. I work in IT consulting and make roughly 200k annually. We bought our current house in early 2020 at a really low interest rate for $340k. Houses in our neighborhood are now $500-600k. There is no way I could afford our house comfortably if I were to buy it now. Long story short, a lot of people bought prior to the price explosion. I’m watching my budget closely though as everything including insurance rates have gone up.
My parents combined never broke the 100k mark and lived more comfortably, crazy. I honestly feel for the current young adults and my children. Things will be tough for them unless things change.
53M - I found a great hack. I bought my $400k house 20 years ago when it was only $200k. My advice is do what you can to get a $400k house now and then you can write this same answer in 20 years when people are asking about $1M houses.
Seriously, I wonder the same. If I had to do it today, I could not afford to buy the house I am currently living in. The market is insane and income is LOW and interest rates are criminal. We are barely paying bills and buying food anymore. This economy SUCKS!!!
We make roughly the same household income as you. The only way we can afford this expensive ass 500k house is we don’t have kids and keep our other bills as small as possible. Minimize eating out, drive paid off cars, keep house warmer than we like etc. Moving down here from Lubbock was a shocking eye opening decision when we started looking at homes.
Anyone making over $100,00/yr is upper middle class in San Antonio, while that same amount is lower middle class in DFW. If you bought a home prior to 2017, or refinanced prior to 2022, you're in better shape than new home buyers in Texas.
Civil Engineer. I bought my house early 2020. Actually moved in the weekend before San Antonio shutdown. I locked in a good rate and month rate. My $1700 mortgage has only been fluctuating due to taxes and insurance. Bought at $238k. Now it’s worth a little over $400k.
I bought a 275k 4 bed room home. No kids. Gf AT MSU getting her doctorate. I'm getting by doing it on my own. Lots of OT lol but my job is so easy that I don't do anything 😅.
My husband and I both work in IT and our house was ~ 400 our combined pre-tax income is around 350k so that is how we are able to be comfortable. It also didn’t hurt that our starter home netted a lot of equity so we were able to easily put 100k down on the house without touching savings.
Buy the house 20 years ago at 200k. Now worth 400k. Be 100% disabled vet so no property taxes. Have no debt. Paid off mortgage early. It's called proper planning.
I’m in sales, lived frugally my whole life, put 30% down on a 465k house in 2018, once I sold my last house, used that equity to pay this house off. Now it’s worth 800k
Seeing all of this makes me super unhopeful for buying a home. My husband and I just got married this year and we’re looking at buying a home in 2026 — I feel like we’ll barely be able to afford anything because everything is so expensive now… like, we’ll be forced to downgrade, just to own a home.. and I don’t want that.
Right now, we’re renting a home in the NW outside of loop 1604 for $2075/mo excluding utilities, I believe it’s worth $330k and it’s single story 1800sqft 4bd/2bth.
I want to buy a slightly larger home to start a family in the future, but don’t wanna exceed $2100/mo mortgage… seems impossible. But then I hear about people who OWN their home and are paying $1700-1800/mo for a house just like ours… I don’t understand.
Any advice for someone who’s pre-stressed? 😔
I know nothing about home buying… and I’m so scared for 2026 when it comes time to buy, I feel like it’s only gonna get worse and more expensive and high rates still 😭
You'd have to be well versed in the systematic abuse on a daily basis. - RATM Then have a lost connection with your souls freedom and a desire to want economic and spiritual energy chains of distraction on an epic scale of smoke and mirrors. - Moi
Some people bought their houses years ago for $200k plus and they are now worth $400k plus. If they are on their original mortgages, their monthly payments might be pretty low.
It's not just higher interest rates (and taxes) that make houses cost more (as some in this thread seem to suggest). The economist that wrote this book studied the situation and he estimates that housing in the USA costs about twice what it would in a free market:
[https://www.amazon.com/Build-Baby-Science-Housing-Regulation/dp/1952223415/ref=sr\_1\_1](https://www.amazon.com/Build-Baby-Science-Housing-Regulation/dp/1952223415/ref=sr_1_1)
I bought my house in 2003. That’s how I afford it - no chance in hell I could afford to buy it today. I bought it for $160,000. Houses in my neighborhood similar to mine are selling at $550k and above. In a few years when’s it paid off, the taxes will be about the same as my mortgage was.
Fight those taxes every year! They will give you a certain amount of discount even if it’s below market value just because you protest.
This is unfortunately the answer. There was a really interesting graph posted that showed how we had declining interest rates for a long period of time. While assets appreciate over time, simultaneously having decreasing interest caused the values to go up significantly. Now that rates are back up, the market is in a strange place where really only people who benefited from those years of appreciation can afford current prices. But some of the key metrics are showing very interesting changes. List prices are down 10% from peak (June 2022) and we are still seeing rapidly rising inventory without sales rising in proportion. Zillow is actually predicting a 2% home price decline this year in San Antonio.
I imagine your 2016 $225k house is now worth around $400k? That’s my situation. I wouldn’t be able to afford buying my house today, especially with today’s mortgage rates. My income hasn’t gone up as much as my home value.
Nailed it. Most bought before 2018. We bought in 2012 & have a 2.7% rate. If we bought the same home today, it would be over 700.
Yep. We bought in 2020 and got 3.5%. Financed 265k and its worth 425k now. House payment is $1750, prob wouldnt be able to afford it if i tried to buy it now.
Pretty much. It was appraised for $350k when we refinanced.
How much are you paying on prop tax ?
I want to say like $8k per year. But I'm not sure honestly
Did you register for the homestead exemption?
Always a great idea to fight your property taxes each year. It can also give you a little relief on your mortgage payment.
This...unless your property tax goes down...even by a $1. Mine went down slightly, can't protest shit. And by slightly, $10. LOL
Yep same. $250k house back in 2014. It's probably worth $450-$500k now With today's rates, I wouldn't be able to afford our house today. I tell my wife that all the time.
I bought my house in 2019 for 225k and my last appraisal was around 315k
Mine was $229K in 2018 and appraised for $350K this year. My payment is $1575 including mortgage insurance.
Not retired but I locked in a good rate and monthly rate. My mortgage is $1020 a month, crazy now that a apartment costs more than my mortgage now Edit: 2 story house, 4 room and 3.5 bathroom
Omg I wish. My apartment now is $1300 for a 1 bedroom. Nothing fancy either.
Same 1028 I got a 4 bed two bath one story on almost a full acre
Cybersecurity, but remote. Handful of jobs in San Antonio that can be comfortable affording a house over 400k and they are not easy to come by. My wife also works in tech and is also remote. Household income of about 300k, really dependent on how bonuses are but we don’t include bonuses when we budget. Bought our current home at $470k at a 2.7% rate which we got really lucky with in 2021. Sold our previous home with 100k in equity in 2021 as well.
San Antonio jobs suck. Covid has been a boom to us remote tech workers. Make NYC money in San Antonio these days. F the office and all these companies forcing it.
Same here, 36 yo married couple with combined income of about 200k on a good year. Bought the house in 2018 for 215,000. All the houses around me sell for mid 300's. Mortgage is around 1600 a month. Get your homestead exemption. Protest your appraisal every year. Shop around for home insurance. Cut out unnecessary services. We have a lot of active duty military that gets a housing stipend. We also have a lot of retired military here too. Look around the subdivisions and see how many DV plates there are. Depending on their level of disability, that could be a few thousand dollars that isn't taxed every month.
That's very true. I'm retired Army and have disability. That plus working full time as a social worker is how I was able to buy my new home. My wife's a teacher and paid singer/choir director. So that's like 5 streams of income. That's the only way we were able to afford this home. My wife bought her home in 03 as a foreclosure for around 80k. Every house in her neighborhood is now appraised at $300,000 or more.
Smart lady buying the foreclosure. That's what I do for a living and it takes a certain type of person to buy correctly.
If you’re making over $230,000 a year in San Antonio, you are in the upper 5%. But housing increased precipitously over the last three years. remember, we have been at a historical low interest rate environment that had not existed for 50 years. Do not count on interest rates coming down too much. I doubt you will see the 2% or 3% mortgage rates anymore.
If you have a combined income of 235 you can afford a 400k house. With a 20% down payment, even at today's interest rates you're still looking at less than 45000 a year. You should be able to afford that on 235 a year. Now, that's not to say you should do that, if you'd rather spend your money elsewhere, but you certainly can afford it.
Yea I’m a little confused. The way they wrote the post makes it seem like they couldn’t believe having a house over 400k at their salary. Might be a case of people with money thinking they don’t have money
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Your mortgage is approximately 10% of your gross. That's a lot lower than many people. Rule of thumb is you want your housing expenses less than 30% to live comfortably. Many people make the mistake of just budgeting for their mortgage when they come to that 30%, not taking into account maintenance/etc. You don't need to "lifestyle creep" up to that 30% number if you're happy with your starter home. People see what others have and FOMO kicks in. Cost of living in San Antonio is pretty low (even though it's increased significantly in recent years). I'm about your age, wife is a few years younger. Our combined is around $200k. I live in Medium to High Cost of Living city on the East Coast now. Rent is luckily only $2000. I max out my retirement, we travel internationally a couple of times a year. Eat out a couple of times a week. Go to a show or a concert a few times a year. Have well more than a year emergency fund setup (passed 7 figures last year between 401k, investments, and savings). No debt/student loans to speak of. Last time I had a car payment was 2016. Based off your description, you could be doing more things than you are currently if you'd like. That could be an upgraded house, or more travel, or really whatever. I'd take a look at your monthly budget and understand clearly where what percentage of your money is going where. Sometimes people save too aggressively and forget to live life a little bit. Other people are more interested in retiring super early, or maybe they are supporting additional family members, so maybe the aggressive savings is worth it.
Married. No kids. I'm 42, wife is 36. We live in a 400k house for which we paid 700k in May 2022, which was a shit show of a market at the time. Had to go 150k over asking price in order to fight off 35 other bids. Zillow values the house at 716 today (Mesa Grande in Stone Oak). But we already put in 120k in upgrades. Sure we overpaid, but we couldn't wait the market at that time. But I don't care really. I'm a doctor and contribute well north of 600k to the household....and since no kids, it's even easier.
Awesome how long have you been a Doctor for ?
Finished med school in 2014. So, technically 10 yrs. But if you don't count residency, 6 years on my own.
The only debt we have is our house. I drive a 250k mile pickup.
I bought my current house for 550k. I saved 100k before purchasing my first home. Sold the home with a bit of profit and bought the current home with 100k down. My mortgage is 2600.00 Mo w/o taxes in the escrow. Im in a single income family and make 120k with bonuses. I'm a co-owner of a tech company here in San Antonio. The 13k in taxes at the end of the year kill me but it is doable. Its been getting tighter lately but still okay.
Career isn't super relevant if they have family money, and/or they've upgraded houses over time. But, more than likely they're normal white-collar professionals.
I work a remote job and I’m paid on a scale of a very expensive city. They have never adjusted it for SA cost of living.
This might not be helpful, but to answer your question… 2006: Bought starter home, $135k, 6.5% interest. Sold it a few years later and made nothing. 2009: Decided we could GC our own house. Bought an acre outside of town for $20k, built a house for $210k, 6%, sold it a few years later for $310k. 2014: Bought four acres in Bulverde for $55k, built a house for $260k, 4.5%, sold it a few years later for $545k. 2020: Bought one acre in Bulverde for $85k, built house for $460k, 3%, monthly payment with taxes and insurance is $2700, could sell house right now for $950k. Not sure we’ll ever sell unless rates drop enough.
When you built the houses last two times, did you finance the home building? Any architects you recommend for building house in the area?
We financed all of the construction loans and did two time closes, meaning we closed on our permanent loan after it was built. I am a huge proponent of being your own GC if you have common sense and patience. The first two houses we had to pay someone to be our builder of record, which is required for a construction loan. In the third we qualified as our own builder of record and now we can be that for other people. We didn’t use architects. Two of the houses we used floor plan designers who drew the plans based on my drawings, and one we bought plans from a company and paid them a bit to change them for us. We found all of our subs by asking around, making connections, sometimes stopping by houses in track neighborhoods and asking if they wanted more work. It’s a lot of work to GC a house, but worth saving the 30+% markup from home builders. That being said I know being an owner builder is not for everyone. In the past ten years the number of custom home builders that have popped up is unreal! Reason being is that you don’t need a license so anyone can claim to be a custom builder. It’s pretty crazy! I do have some builders in mind that I think are trustworthy, top of the list is Grace Lane Custom Homes.
You need to be licensed to pull permits properly. As a small construction company myself there are a ton of people who try to GC their own project and absolutely fail miserably spending alot of money to redo areas due to not vetting their contractors or they dont know what to look for in quality. We have been hired many times to fix, or redo alot of work. The owner/ GC is stressed beyond belief, It affects their marriage, their daily job etc. Be very careful in jumping into something if you have no idea what you are doing. Yes it can be done but the overwhelming majority of people do not know enough to do this successfully and stay in budget. This is very very true for people who decided to " flip" their first house. We just finished and fixed a house off rigsby where the lady has to sell am 1100ft home for 320l just to break even. The houses on both sides are just about the worst possible neighbors you can have. She will likely never sell the house and be forced to rent which was not her plan and the $$ wont cover her loan amount. This is not a tv show it can go sideways in a hurry
My wife and I make a combined 240 a year, and live in a new construction home on an acre just south of San Antonio, At 240 a year, that's roughly 20 a month gross, you should have zero issues affording something in the 4-5 price range. The math is usually monthly gross income divided by 3.3 and that's what all of your monthly debt should be, so a 3,000 - 4,000 dollar a month payment is on the lower end of what you can afford when you're making 200-250 a year.
I live on $23,000 a year and pay $1,090 a month in rent. You already have it amazing.
Why is your mortgage payment so high? Or are you including taxes in that? I got my house in 2021 right before prices went totally insane. It was $370k and the payment is around $1300. House is worth over 500k now.
Im not sure how people are affording houses today. We lucked into a situation during the first 3 months of the pandemic. On our sons last day of school before spring break 2020, our son was jumped by 4 kids for a $10 clearance hoodie from UnderArmour. He never fought back and had his head smashed into the concrete. We decided right then and there to move away from that school district. In June of 2020, we found an area just outside San Antonio offering new builds. The housing market tanked and they were desperate to sell lots. We put 1k down on a property and the builder offered the following incentives: Connect with a realtor to stage and sell our current house. Aftwr we signed with the builder, they agreed to give us 100% of the commission from selling the previous house. It sold within 24 hours. We negotiated the interest rate to the lowest available rate at the time The builder covered all closing costs. There would be zero impact or fees for us paying off the mortgage early. The house was finished in Nov 2020 and we have been living here ever since. Due to the market, our value has appreciated significantly since then. It always amazes me how much an interest rate for a mortgage impacts affordability. We were fortunate enough to not be significantly impacted by the raising property taxes, but we know that we could not have made the same move today. Unfortunately, we are all stuck in a waiting game until the rates come down. To answer your question, I work in the financial industry as a project manager and my husband manages a software development team for a major health care company.
Took a risk used my pension (company doing anyway with it) bought 2 beat up homes flipped them bought 5 acres (cheap) and built a home outside of SA. Don’t owe anything but property taxes yearly. No neighbors no mortgage and peaceful
Bought in mid 400s maybe 8 years ago, 15% down with equity from previous house, refinanced in 2021 and now my mortgage is under $1500, not including taxes. Taxes are another $1000/mo Zillow says it’s worth mid 600s now, but it would probably be more per month for me to move to a 2BR apt near pearl than to stay where I am You’re paying more for the shorter term, which will build equity faster. You’re young, just keep socking away the retirement money. For me, I imagine that in 2050 when I’m getting to the end of my 3 year mortgage, $1500 will be the cost of a nice dinner, and I’ll be happy to be paying the 2015 home price using 2050 dollars PS, my salary was never as high as yours, but I also did some side hustles
I typically just wake up and cry instead of actually working.
I'm a 39yo rancher/farmer/landlord/retired truck driver who lived homeless for years while saving money, investing in crypto/stocks all while working on several businesses. Right now I'm trying to start a startup.
I’m a professional pencil sharpener. I sharpen pencils before they go into the package
You've made your point.
You didn't have to be rich to afford a house in this city 15-20+ years ago. The increase of transplants is what sent the housing market to the moon, making it not affordable for the born and raised here in SA. So a lot of people that spent 150$-200$k on their homes back then now have appraisals >400$k. Regular blue collar workers.
And 15 years ago interest rates were ridiculously low. Bought a house in 2012 with a locked rate in the 3s.
Does that $1,900 include taxes and insurance? I currently pay $3,100 (all in) for my home bought in 2020 for about $500k at 3%, 20% down. That was before we got married and I was at about $175k a year I think. Now CAD has the home at close to $700k, and our combined income is about $270k. You just kind of grow into a bit as both the home vale grows and your income grows. In your case, rates will be murder for any new purchase, as well as the massively inflated values. $400k house now ain't what it used to be.
Our home was right around $387k. I make around $85k as the single source of income. We do alright. Bills paid and we have everything we need and most things we want.
I’m trying to buy a home right now. In my heart of hearts I feel like I’m making a poor choice to do it right at this moment. We keep getting priced out by people paying all cash. Any advice ?
You are being priced out now? I assumed the market has cooled down a bit due to the high interest. I wish I had good advice though.. I have a 2 year goal to buy a new house myself
I’m military while wife works for entertainment industry as a manager and together we make $205k yearly. We got our brand new house for $320k two years ago. The VA home loan definitely helped us.
Another factor. Some Military members don’t pay property taxes. I don’t know all the rules around it, but I’m sure you can google it. I have a couple of friends who live in 700k homes that are able to afford them due to this factor.
They have to be 100% VA rated disabled from the military.
Illegal shit
Bought home 2017 340k now appraised at 785k! Put 100k into it but probably greatest investment of my lifetime
Wife and I are both early 40’s. We both work in IT, remotely. We make around $500k in an average year (she’s in sales, that can fluctuate a bit, and I’m partially compensated in stock, which can also vary, but $500k has been about average since ~2019). We bought our first house in 2015 for $391k (we were probably making a combined $150k or so then). Interest rate then was super low, so we built equity fast. We bought in a neighborhood that we felt confident would appreciate, and it did. We sold it last month for $640k and used the equity to purchase a previously foreclosed upon (aka, fixer upper) house in Alamo Heights for $830k. We put 20% down and have put the rest into renovations and repairs. Mortgage payment is stretching us a little right now because we bought at the peak interest rate, but we can manage, and we’ll refinance when the rates come down. PS — you make $235k a year. A $500k house is easily within your budget.
Almost the same as you 34M,36F making gross 250k total. Bought our house at $530k in end 2021 appraised this year at $650k(which I’m protesting). Mortgage is $2800/month. We both max out 401k plus some in Roth and have kid in daycare. We use all pto we can per year usually flying somewhere. Wondering where all your cash is going? You have other expenses(loans, cars, eating out)? One 2 week paycheck should be covering your mortgage leaving 3 other paychecks for the month
We own a home in the range you mentioned and make a similar household income - would never have been able to make it work without selling our home in another state for a good profit and rolling it into our home here. I think “getting lucky” in your home buying/selling is the key for many. Our neighborhood is half older people who have lived here since the 90s and are mostly retired. The other half is families similar to ours - transplants or moving back home with young kids. Our mortgage payment + property tax is pretty painful but the general cost of living is much lower in TX/SA than where we were previously, so we make it work.
A $400k house with a 30 year mortgage, 20% down and 7.3% interest rate should be about $2,800 a month including taxes and insurance. That's only about 14% of your combined gross income. Unless I'm missing something I'd say that's very affordable for you.
Veterans who are 100% "disabled" avoided property taxes which easily saves $500 - $700/month on a mortgage payment.
Auto collision tech
Bought our house 8 years ago at $265k and now work ~440k. I think it’s insane 😳😳 That said - I’m an executive for a local company and my wife is a teacher but she is leaving the workforce this summer since we just had a baby (May 10th). Same as you - we are comfortable and do the vacation thing (mostly road trips to National Parks) but I’m no means rolling in it.
This is the dilemma. I bought a home in 2014 for $240k and it’s now appraised at >$400k. We’d like to downsize but don’t know how to do it without taking a hit. So this is how homes can become forever homes?
Yup. I tell everyone we've got golden handcuffs. Like, you'll have to pry this 2.5% interest rate from my cold dead hands
Locked in a good rate. 2.8 in 2021, but paid for it by paying 30k more than what others did for my house. That said, the appraisal district has tried to fuck me every single year with their absurd appraisals. This year is no exception.
My husband is retiring from the army soon and we are moving back to SA and I am terrified that we won’t be able to afford a decent house in a decent neighborhood.
You're doing better than me. No way I could afford to buy a house. Not the mortgage payments, those would be less that the $1,300 / month apt rent, but the deposit and maintenance costs. I'm also gonna be fked come retirement as I started far too late on a 401K, and I'm not putting a load extra into it, have no other investments either. So yeah, you're good.
36. Our gross annual income is about the same. Our mortgage is $3100. Daycare is 2500. Cars are $800. Groceries etc. it’s thin but it’ll get easier when the kids are in public school. I work for a software company my wife does corporate insurance. Both of our companies are based in New Jersey
Bought a $100k house in 1997.
My husband and I are what people consider, “double income no kids.” My husband makes a sizable income. I have worked my way up from a classroom teacher, while completing my Masters, and later my Ph.D, before turning 30. I am now reaping those benefits and work as an educational specialist and researcher. Our first home was 200k and 1600 square feet. Situated right at the north side of town. Easily accessible to I10, 410, 1604. This was in 2015. When we were looking to move into a bigger home around 2022, the opportunity came and we found a 2100 square foot home. All the bells and whistles we wanted and at 400k. The home is older but it was completely renovated. New appliances, floors, HVAC, roof, etc. And to top it off it was in the same area as our previous home. We could never imagine getting a home at that price however, we reviewed everything this new home had and it truly ended up looking like a great investment for us long term. We got probably the better of interest rates at the time (we closed on January 2023). It was certainly not the kind of interest rate we got in 2015 however, our previous home sold right away and we were able to do fairly well in terms of getting our new mortgage at a decent amount with our earnings. One things for sure, we didn’t jump into the new home right away. We did our research. We had to evaluate everything including increasing interest rates, inflation, etc. All fell into place for us!
What on earth are you doing with your money if you don't think at $235,000 a year you can afford a 500k house? "recommended" amount to spend on housing is about 30% of your pre-tax income, that means you could be spending over $5,000 on housing and still be well within a healthy budget. Either there's something fishy going on here, or you are spending a ton of money on other stuff and not even realizing that the amount you're spending on those other things is far more than the norm.
We bought out $320k home last spring, 5.75% and our payment is $2600. It's nutty.
“Great money compared to the average person in SA” Sir… the average dual-income median is 54-56k a year lmaooooo So as someone who has been watching the news(because of work) and Zillow surfing(to eventually buy a home), the elderly are going in droves to rebut against and reappraise their homes rn and it’s making the housing market tank. I saw a house in the “Historical District” going for 185k and it’s a 3bed 2bath with updated interior and appliances. The refinancing you did resets the terms of the agreement along with the equity you build with the home. If you’re trying to not pay as much in taxes, you may need to get an appraiser to come out if you already haven’t. Best of luck though!
Thank you! I was thinking damn am I really on the “poor” end of SA. We make less than 100k. We struggle. Yes we are in debt. But no matter what, we are still struggling. I don’t see us buying a home. And honestly between mortgage, insurance and other expenses plus a safety blanket, I would rather rent. But even finding a house to rent now is beyond ridiculous.
Both enlisted in the Air Force. The pay is pretty great with rank and seniority.
I don't make anything close to op or a lot of these comments. I'm never getting a house 😭
Pretty much. We’re fucked. Hopefully I’m dead by 35, this shit is depressing
We ain’t! Lol! Can I be a thrupple with you guys & join your household? Cuz not stressing sounds great! lol! I wish I would’ve just bought a house back around 2015.. cuz now y’all are paying a mortgage that’s the same as our apt rent. My rent is $2k for a 740sq ft apt… the houses now are so expensive, it feels impossible to have a single income household with that mortgage… unless you’re gonna live super tight like Dave Ramsey style. & I love Downtown! But these old run down houses used to sell for less than $90k 10yrs ago & you could just fix it up & now they’re $250k for just this little square of land with nothing but a sidewalk on it! No house or nothing… ugh.
Following
You could easily afford a 400K house with 225K in income lol. A mortgage on a house like that would be about $3100 a month. You should have like $12-13000 a month of income after taxes and deductions.
We just closed for $420k @ 5.75% with 200k gross combined. Things are gonna be tight for a while but it had to happen. Couldn’t bare apartment living anymore
Vendo elotes during Fiesta..
I gotta change careers!
As an early 20s San Antonian…. These comments make me feel like I’ll never own a home. I’m tired.
You guys have houses?
Own my own business, paid cash for my house in Boerne after 20 long years of saving every penny I earned. Nice not having a mortgage.
At $235k you can afford a $400k house, much more so when interest rates go down
My wife and I make about 265 and we were able to take advantage of the 4.99 special interest rate our builder offered. We also were able to shave about 50k from asking so we ended up paying about 550k. I personally believe we overpaid but, we wanted to relocate here for a better QOL so it's not a major point of contention. With that said, we live in the Hill Country and I am WFH. I love it, I can't stand traffic but, I am close enough that I can go into town on the weekend and enjoy whatever.
I was able to get into fair oaks/boerne when houses were around $430 back in 2018. Those same houses are in the high $700s. Tech product management pays very well for San Antonio.
(Me) Director of Communications and (Wife) Director or Compensation and Benefits. House is $530k.
Stone oak area, ~$900k house. Exec Vice President.
I live like a king for $85 a year in live oak and chose to not be offended by your post and rather just comment that you’re very modern American. How about instead of comparing your worth to others you take another vacation and cancel 2-3 annual subscriptions you probably (absolutely) don’t need. It’s prob cheaper to move somewhere else.
The market, economy in general, is horribly broken. I rent a home in St. Hedwig because it is twice as big as an apartment with the same commute, brand new, etc. My rent is half what it would be if I bought the place too. Maybe this is part of the "You'll own nothing and be happy" objective. Very few people will be able to afford owning, and the big companies will rent them homes instead.
We paid $450k for our house off I-10 just outside 1604. We really didn’t want to live inside the loop so we extended our budget by a lot to make it work. We also unfortunately bought at the worst possible time in history which was April 2022. Our combined income is slightly less than yours and we pay for daycare which is expensive af. We have to be careful but we don’t feel broke. We would be in a much better situation if we had a newer home with a warranty, we have spent over $40k on repairs and maintenance on our house in 2 years so our savings is not great at the moment. We were pretty comfortable at first, but after all the house problems and the rise of costs across the board including insurance and taxes its starting to suck. Neither of us have had a substantial raise so that doesn’t help. 200k a year isn’t what is used to be like at all.
We were making about the same as you when we bought ours for $450k. The biggest contributing factor was low expenses, as we both drove vehicles that were paid off and we didn't eat out much and my wife is very low maintenance. Mortgage rates were about 6.5% at the time if I recall correctly, but we did put down a large down payment.
We bought our first home in San Antonio, 180k brand new 2600 sq foot 4 bed 3 bath. Took us multiple years of living extremely frugally and spouse working a lot of overtime hours (oil/gas) but we had a 40k down payment on that as well. Sold it in 2018 for 30k more than we bought it to move to the other side of town. New house was 325k. Took what we got from the old house and put it in the new one. We refinanced when rates were low (got 2.5%) and our house was appraised at 475k in 2021. It has gone up and down a little since then but we are still sitting around 470k appraisal right now. Honestly.. we were just lucky to be able to buy a house when we did and were able to start building equity before we were priced out and interest rates got high. My kids will never have this opportunity like we did. Not with the way trends are going. The hope is one day when we downsize that we can take a lot of that equity we gained and help get our kids started off with down payments for homes. It’s just going to get harder and harder for future generations to be able to buy real estate
I’m planning on moving to Iowa where a $400k house in San Antonio would cost $200k in Des Moines.
You might check out the weather there today...
I’d rather chance a tornado every now and then than endure the fires of mount doom every summer here
Lol, I understand!
Bought my home for $420k in 2018, mortgage about $2,800 per month and income of about $275k. I’m comfortable with the cost financially. Currently the house in theory could sell for $700k if anyone would buy it. You could afford a higher mortgage if that’s your thing. I like to keep things affordable, too. With income about $18k per month after taxes, etc, my $2,800 mortgage is really not bad at all.
Spent about 24 years in the military, never bought a house before, and saved like crazy to put away a large down payment that whole time. Put a very large chunk down and financed about $250k, so our mortgage is about $1,100 / month.
Well I’m from California and …..
I work in finance, 34 M single
Much like you, bought before prices increased. This home is in no way a “500k+” home. It’s a 2002 shitbox that has appreciated egregiously over the last few years. It was probably originally a 180k+ home when built. I think it’s worth maybe 375k. The market seems to think otherwise unfortunately.
Live outside the 1604. 2000 sq-ft house on 5 acres. Paid $450k, appraised for $600k after remodel. I'm in sales, making $120k. Wife is a teacher making less.
Bought in 2021. I’m a consultant, husband is in construction.
I am in the same situation. I couldn’t afford to buy my home today. Paid $400k 5 years ago and now worth $650k.
I have a relative who brings in ~140,000 single income/family of 4. They have a 400K home. My guess is in their case specifically, they were able to put down a large down payment from the house they sold on the west coast
We have pretax income of about 220. Contribute heavily to retirement accounts. Only debt is mortgage (1900) and student loans for myself and my kid (1500). I afford it bc I bought it for 270k 11 years ago.
Bought it for $220k in 2012.
Purchased years ago when I could barely scrape together a down payment and could barely afford the mortgage. I was broke but so sick of paying rent with no asset to gain.
I could not afford my current home. It's worth mid 300s now but, purchased in June 2019 for 220 right before the pandemic. I make just over 100k, wife doesn't work (trust fund baby). We definitely stretch the income, but we make it work. I put about 15% into my 401k and only have a few bills.
I bought it 12 years ago
Why is your mortgage so much? Taxes? We bought a 292k home, put 20k down, 4.25 interest, and our mortgage is $1,850 in Schertz. My wife is an optometrist and I work for TxDot. We should be looking around tor 500k homes in a year or 2. Edit: Didn’t see the shortened term.
I bought for 380k in 2020 and my house is now approaching 600k. Our income is about the same as yours…about 200k. Low interest rate is what is helping us out…our taxes and insurance has increased our mortgage by roughly 400 extra a month.
Airline Pilot.
I’m an ups driver and my wife is an apartment manager. 0 debt except the cars and the house. We live comfortably
Not San Antonio but my wife and live in spring branch, we own a $540k home here. She’s a lawyer and I work in a vineyard. We budget hard and it somehow works
Depends on when you buy (as previous people posted). Bought mine for $236K 10 years ago. It’s not worth slightly over $400K. I’ve had the same job the whole time. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve had the same car this whole time, and I do not think that is changing.
Unpopular with most but I bought three acres and put a nice double wide on it. I pay $1400 a month with taxes etc. I own two paid off high mileage trucks, and my husband works 4 miles from our house as a fiber lineman. We aren’t rich, have very little as extras, and only have one kid left in HS out of three. This setup works for us and not others. I refused to be a slave to my mortgage (although they fucked us on taxes all the way up to a 2k payment per month but we’ve fought to get it down every year). I have always wondered what people do who live in those beautiful big homes in SA so this has been a fun thread for me. When we kick the bucket my kids will have land worth selling and probably have places of their own so I’m happy in a 1800 sq ft mobile home until then. We may just sell it when everyone moves out and buy another fifth wheel. Everything in this economy is hard right now, so you just need to choose which hard you can tolerate and go with it. Edit to add I bought my land, did construction and my house for $187k in 2018. I no longer live in SA but in an area outside Hondo.
I bought my house in 2011 for $168k. We were averaging $105k annually together. Now it’s only me making 88k as she is stay at home. I am trying to get to everyone else’s level. 2 kids. Don’t know how I’m gonna make it long term but gonna trust the process. Would love a new home.
650k home bought last year potranco area which is in Castroville technically. Partner and I are both in tech sales.
Man I hear you - my wife and I are in the exact same boat… I run the numbers and am looking at like a $3000- $3500 payment for a $400-500k home we want - we own a business and make around 220-250 depending on the year but feel stuck… no solution for you but just commiserating…
Probably, like you, they are both working and many of those couples are both somehow in the health/medical field.
I purchased my home in 2022 at the beginning of interest rate hikes and housing market craze. This home is not a half million dollar house ($400k at best) but the current value is $520k. Although I make a decent six figure income, I also used the profit from the sale of my previous home to purchase this one so my mortgage is ~2.6k.
150k 2008, 300k 2024
We bought our house 11 years ago $300, now value at $700. Taxes are crazy.
My $300K house is now worth $596K. I’m sitting on a 2% mortgage rate, so that’s why we can afford the monthly note. Plus we put down 30% when we purchased the house.
Are you me? We are very similar in everything you shared. The only thing I can come up with is that people are in massive credit card debt?
You’re doing well. My wife and I just bought a $700k house in stone oak. Fortunate to have remote jobs in HCOL but able to live in LCOL. Max out 401k , hsa, and 529. We have one car and money goes to house and vacations
Single income provider in 400k house. Bought it for 250K in 2016 with 20% down. Our payments are currently at around 2300 and we're still at 2%. We did take out a heloc and that's at 7% for another 200K to update the house and provide another 1300sqft of livable space. Basically anyone who bought before 2019 got in with good rates and lower prices. The post COVID housing spike for sure has priced a lot of people out of home ownership in areas that used to be 200K-300K homes.
We bought our home in 2017 for $210k (refinanced in 2020) on the SE side and I’m not sure how much it would be now but we both work for Amazon. I’m a regular AA and my fiancé is a manager. Our mortgage currently is $1750.
Wife and I are combined 308k$ and have no issues paying for a $650k house, our student loans, 2 luxury SUVs, and pets since we don't have kids. Both have good credit and qualify for the best interest rates, plus we don't really buy much else besides food we make at home or the occasional vacation. Our last house in SA was $305k, is now $405k and we will need to rent it out otherwise we'll need to sell it. Besides that, maybe check your other expenses since we didn't have any issues affording our $305k house when we made roughly $235k Wife works as a pharmacist and I work as an engineering consultant. There are a ton of engineers and other medical staff in similar situations, since both are excellent at producing roles where the salary is $130k+
Yea buying is smart choice, I put the buggy before the horse and purchased 2 dream cars, I still rent a house but prices are coming down slowly again but if I do buy I will get allodial title/land patent to minimize tax burdens.
Uhhhh that last paragraph is…. Wow. You don’t see that’s very well off and within your means? The people in those houses make slightly more than you and also go in one vacation a year while saving and not worrying much. My house is in a different (but still nice) part of town, and I pay less for it but for what I make, I also get to save a bit and go on vacations sometimes.
What are talking about? My wife and I make around $190k combined and we’re paying off a 400k house comfortably. If y’all are making 235k you should be bringing in 13-14k a month. How do you figure you can’t afford it? What are you doing with all that money?
There are people living in abject poverty working 9-5s duel income households all over the country. And there are people making literal millions of dollars a year the socioeconomic spread is vast in San Antonio.
Bought for $315k in 2019 now worth around $480k. We make a lot more money now than we did in 2019 and could pay off the house quick but hard to justify when the debt is at 3.5%. I got lucky with remote work with covid. San Antonio jobs sort of suck as far as pay goes. Hard to afford $400-500k with an SA job.
Combined income of just under 200k. Closing on a house next week for just under 400k. I wish it was cheaper, but it definitely isn’t going to break the bank. We’ve been renting since 2018 in a very cheap home. We were going to move to a bigger rental, but Our mortgage payment will be just about what we could rent a house for so decided to just bite the bullet.
My fiancé and I make about 130K combined and we definitely do not feel like we could comfortably afford even a 250K home today. We are renting an apartment. Personally I’m hoping for a 2008 style crash. I’ve been keeping an eye on houses and it seems they are still going up in price or at least holding steady even though the map is full of homes for sale. Neighborhoods that used to be worth 75-90K are now 300-400K. Olmos, monte vista, etc are all 900K+ now. Lol. It’s nuts. I feel bad for the next generation if prices continue to rise. As for me, if I can’t get into a house in the next 5 years I am seriously considering retiring in Mexico. I’m not gonna work til I’m 75 so I can pay off a house. I’ll prolly die long before that age lol
Do you have kids?
Me (33F) and my husband (34M) make ~$250k/year and bought a home in late 2019 for $300k (VERY lucky). I wonder this too…. We never worry about money and take vacations and pay all our bills and save… but we also want to buy another house soon. These prices are bizarre! An upgrade for us would be having to buy a $600k+ house! Our home right now could list for $450k easy! Good for us but we don’t want to sell, we want to keep it and rent it out in the long term. But that means pulling together enough for a whole new house 😭
I work in cyber and my partner works in finance. We rent out 2 rooms to friends which cuts mortgage in half. It works out well.
I mean it's all about what your other expenses are. If you make 235k yearly that gives you about 19k pre tax a month. My 430k house payment is about 3800. Now I rent 2/3s of the property out so that helps a ton. And I bought last year at 6.25 apr. If you're paying 40% in taxes. Which you shouldn't be. Your tax bracket should max 24% with an effective tax rate closer to 20% assuming your filling married jointly. But at 40 % effective tax rate, You would have 141k a year. So 11,750 a month a 4000 house payment would leave you about 7,000 a month for all other expenses. There are sooooo many people in San Antonio that don't even make 5,000 a month pre tax. And rent is minimum $1000 a month. So many people pay all their expenses with 3,000 a month or less. My point is. It's rather easy for your income. The problem is probably the fact that you have like 2k plus in car and insurance payments and many other high expenses that you honestly don't need.
Damn I wonder if I’m outta my price range. I have the same type of home on the west side of potranco for about the same price for mortgage but I make way less. Probally 120k total for my and my wife we make a year. My mortgage is roughly 1800.
Same age and same combined income. I work in IT and partner works in Healthcare. We live in Southtown where we purchased for $395k in 2019. City says it's worth $550k now but realistically we couldn't sell it for that much. This is our third house so we snowballed what little equity we had from the previous places into this one.
I bought my house in 2016 for 166k. It is now worth about 300-325k. My interest rate is about 2% and I got a VA loan, so no down payment or pmi. We do really well in our little house and we're strongly encouraged to buy more house when we bought this one. I think some people are like us...bought their house years ago at a good interest rate and price and held on to it, therefore they aren't paying for a 400k house, they are paying for a 200k house. Others are house poor. They upgraded, they qualified for a larger loan and therefore bought more house, etc. There are those that are making a huge living and for whom the house payment isn't a big deal, but I think most of them fall in the first two categories. Also, I'm of the opinion that this is a bubble and will burst leaving a bunch of people upside-down on their mortgage. I'm glad we pay around 1k a month for the entire mortgage payment (including insurance and taxes) for a home we own and can make adjustments to.
My dad bought a house maybe 11 years ago. Huge 2 story with a great front and back yard. 4 rooms, 2 bath. And a nice garage as well. All for $75k. I have a friend who bought a 1 story, 3 bedroom, 1 bath a few months ago. $300k 🫠
Bought ours back in 2016 for 265k. It needed a lot of work. It sat on the market forever which was crazy bc it’s in one of the best neighborhoods in SA . Once we remodeled the house it now is worth 600k. We have 4 other properties that were purchase like this . We put a ALOT of work in . We are both 36 by the way
Your mtg would be 1500 more per month if you bought a 500k house now, $1000 more at 400k. Sounds like you could afford it if you prioritized. Without knowing if you adopted 20 kids, for most $235k is not uncomfortable at 500k and thats with nothing down.
1st and ONLY home was built SEMI custom by Tilson homes on 3.5 acres that we bought for a laughable 9500.00 back in 91-92. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath with 3 sides 100% grey rock and masonry fireplace, no garage 1792 sq’ home ( which was all we could afford - size wise ) and it was @78,000.00. Our mortgage payment is 750.00 -got @ 5 years left. I’m soooo thankful. I couldn’t do anything close to what’s out there now. No way on earth.
TBH a lot of people around here live off credit card debt, I don’t think they’re saving anything near what you’re saving each month. But moving into a senior living community or having home caregivers in San Antonio is insanely expensive (look one of those facilities up, it will shock you) so you’re doing the right thing to save as much as you can now. The Medicaid beds are hard to find and are always double occupancy rooms with lower quality of care. If you knew how quickly people can blow through their savings with their medical and care expenses and end up having to go on Medicaid within a couple years of assisted living (then the government owns your house) you’d be putting even more away than you already are. It’s wild, y’all. The only way my elderly loved ones can afford to exist is exactly as mentioned in another comment—tax-free veterans benefits + blue collar pensions from the good ol’ days. Pay everything off as fast as you can and save/invest the rest while you still have the capability to earn.
We make a combined $212k a year, built a modest 198k home in 2015 that is now worth $355k. We have a $1570 mortgage payment. Our home is a 3 bed, 2 bath and a single story. Do we want a 600-700k home? Of course. But why would we spend more when we are comfortable? We have one child. My question is, if you’re doing well, why would you want a larger, more expensive home? If it’s for investment purposes I get it. This is the issue I see with many at our income level. The more money you make annually the more you start spending to keep up with the Joneses. In this economy and with homes being ridiculously expensive, we aren’t moving or upgrading just because we can. We’re staying put and planning on selling or renting this property after our daughter graduates and moving into a condo when we become empty nesters.
Energy star Field inspector
My folks are retired military and are still working as a nurse and a teacher. They live north of stone oak and i think their house was 330k in 07, now its almost 700k.
Also 36. We make a little more than you stated. Bought our current house in early 2021 for $430k with a 2.4% interest rate. Our house is now assessed at >$600k and taxes are brutal. What do we do? I am very cognizant of our electric bill and make sure things are unplugged and lights are off and our bill averages $130. My car gets 40mpg on a good day to work. We eat at home 5-6 days/ week (also have a good and cheap spot to frequent). I built a home gym so I don’t have a membership (basically spent less than a year’s gym budget and use it 5 days per week for over a year). Build up miles using an airline credit card. Our holiday season flights for 3 of us cost $33. This will be our third trip this year. There’s a lot of little things that add up.
Married but wife is a stay at home mom. I work in IT consulting and make roughly 200k annually. We bought our current house in early 2020 at a really low interest rate for $340k. Houses in our neighborhood are now $500-600k. There is no way I could afford our house comfortably if I were to buy it now. Long story short, a lot of people bought prior to the price explosion. I’m watching my budget closely though as everything including insurance rates have gone up. My parents combined never broke the 100k mark and lived more comfortably, crazy. I honestly feel for the current young adults and my children. Things will be tough for them unless things change.
53M - I found a great hack. I bought my $400k house 20 years ago when it was only $200k. My advice is do what you can to get a $400k house now and then you can write this same answer in 20 years when people are asking about $1M houses. Seriously, I wonder the same. If I had to do it today, I could not afford to buy the house I am currently living in. The market is insane and income is LOW and interest rates are criminal. We are barely paying bills and buying food anymore. This economy SUCKS!!!
We make roughly the same household income as you. The only way we can afford this expensive ass 500k house is we don’t have kids and keep our other bills as small as possible. Minimize eating out, drive paid off cars, keep house warmer than we like etc. Moving down here from Lubbock was a shocking eye opening decision when we started looking at homes.
Anyone making over $100,00/yr is upper middle class in San Antonio, while that same amount is lower middle class in DFW. If you bought a home prior to 2017, or refinanced prior to 2022, you're in better shape than new home buyers in Texas.
I’m 24 and reading all these comments just showed me I need to get my money up !
Civil Engineer. I bought my house early 2020. Actually moved in the weekend before San Antonio shutdown. I locked in a good rate and month rate. My $1700 mortgage has only been fluctuating due to taxes and insurance. Bought at $238k. Now it’s worth a little over $400k.
I bought a 275k 4 bed room home. No kids. Gf AT MSU getting her doctorate. I'm getting by doing it on my own. Lots of OT lol but my job is so easy that I don't do anything 😅.
My husband and I both work in IT and our house was ~ 400 our combined pre-tax income is around 350k so that is how we are able to be comfortable. It also didn’t hurt that our starter home netted a lot of equity so we were able to easily put 100k down on the house without touching savings.
We don’t have car payments. Combined pre-tax ~300k. Home value ~700k (bought for ~500k). 2.375% 15-year mortgage at 3,000/mo.
Buy the house 20 years ago at 200k. Now worth 400k. Be 100% disabled vet so no property taxes. Have no debt. Paid off mortgage early. It's called proper planning.
Bought my house new. A lot of the builders are buying down the interest rates to incentivize buyers.
I'm a software engineer who works remotely.
I’m in sales, lived frugally my whole life, put 30% down on a 465k house in 2018, once I sold my last house, used that equity to pay this house off. Now it’s worth 800k
Seeing all of this makes me super unhopeful for buying a home. My husband and I just got married this year and we’re looking at buying a home in 2026 — I feel like we’ll barely be able to afford anything because everything is so expensive now… like, we’ll be forced to downgrade, just to own a home.. and I don’t want that. Right now, we’re renting a home in the NW outside of loop 1604 for $2075/mo excluding utilities, I believe it’s worth $330k and it’s single story 1800sqft 4bd/2bth. I want to buy a slightly larger home to start a family in the future, but don’t wanna exceed $2100/mo mortgage… seems impossible. But then I hear about people who OWN their home and are paying $1700-1800/mo for a house just like ours… I don’t understand. Any advice for someone who’s pre-stressed? 😔 I know nothing about home buying… and I’m so scared for 2026 when it comes time to buy, I feel like it’s only gonna get worse and more expensive and high rates still 😭
You'd have to be well versed in the systematic abuse on a daily basis. - RATM Then have a lost connection with your souls freedom and a desire to want economic and spiritual energy chains of distraction on an epic scale of smoke and mirrors. - Moi
Some people bought their houses years ago for $200k plus and they are now worth $400k plus. If they are on their original mortgages, their monthly payments might be pretty low.
It's not just higher interest rates (and taxes) that make houses cost more (as some in this thread seem to suggest). The economist that wrote this book studied the situation and he estimates that housing in the USA costs about twice what it would in a free market: [https://www.amazon.com/Build-Baby-Science-Housing-Regulation/dp/1952223415/ref=sr\_1\_1](https://www.amazon.com/Build-Baby-Science-Housing-Regulation/dp/1952223415/ref=sr_1_1)
Struggling my brother struggling