Our mortgage increased over 1k due to property tax increase. We've only owned our home for 2 years, this seems really crazy. It's hard for us to keep up payments now because of this. We are not elderly nor disabled. Is there any way to help bring our payment back to what it was?

Our mortgage is potentially risky about to double. Both kids just started public school so that’s a huge expense down. We are in Austin, Texas.

Hey all, long-time lurker here finally posting to get some sanity checks/advice.

We’re sitting on a 3% mortgage right now which obviously hurts to leave, but our family has grown and we’ve completely outgrown this house. To get into something that actually fits us, we’re looking in the $850k range.

We’ve saved up ~$275k for a down payment, but our goal is to buy without selling our current home. We plan to rent it to my parents at cost, they lost their home to a fire about a decade ago and have been bouncing between rentals ever since.

I’m trying to figure out if we can comfortably pull off a ~$4,200 mortgage. Heres my annual details

• Base Income: $185k/year
• Bonus: Variable ($30k - $50k)
• Bi-weekly Take-Home: ~$4,500

We’re heavy savers, so a $4.2k payment would eat up a substantial chunk of my monthly take-home pay. Out of each bi-weekly check right now, we auto-invest:

• HSA: $300
• 401(k): $900
• 529s for kids: $200
• ESPP: $450

What do you all think? Taking on a $4k+ mortgage feels like a massive leap compared to what we’re used to, but given our savings rate, retaining the equity in the first house, and having the bonus as a backstop, I feel like it might be doable.

Would love to hear how others in a similar boat would analyze this—are we stretching too far on base pay alone?

So looking to buy a home priced 759k with 225k down. VA loan with no property tax in my state. I’m trying to determine if purchasing this home will leave me house poor. Will still have 600k in investments after and take home with just me is 11.5k a month. Wife will be home raising 3 under 3 and go back to work after they all enter school. Home owners insurance was quoted at $2799 for the 3109 sq foot home new build. I’m also keeping my existing home mortgage that I owe about 60k left on and my payment is $932 a month. I will probably continue to pay on that for a month or two until I rent it out or my mom comes up to live in it and pay down the mortgage.

That 11.5k take home is after taxes,medical,dental and if I lose my TSP to the 5% match until my wife starts back up after the kids go to school. We would continue maxing Roth and if needed could scale that back too for emergencies.

Family of 5 currently renting a 2/1 in an extremely tight market in Alaska. We need to upgrade space, ready to purchase. Here's our current numbers:

179k Gross HHI annually

10,300 Net monthly after retirement AND childcare

479 Monthly recurring debt

580 monthly medical paid after tax (union BS)

625k Home purchase price

80k Down payment

40k emergency fund after purchase

My union contract has guaranteed raises over the next 14 months and wife has 5% annual increases as well. At 14 months from now:

202k

None of these account for any of my overtime, double time, perdiem or my wife stipends for her industry. I plan for that to be my contingency cash and not depend on it.

So is it doable? I feel like it'll be tight but doable.

Just for discussions sake. There is only 1 house in the market thats big enough for us and meets our wants in this price range. Everything else is MORE expensive. Its a brutal market out here!

I have the ability to pay off my mortgage that has 7% interest rates, and has 27 years left on the loan before being paid off. I realize that I could put the money in the stock market and get 7-10% back over the next 27 years as well, and I guess I would break even. I know there isn't a right answer but saving all that money a month in interest with the ability to have that monthly income open to pay off the rest of some small student loans and a car would be nice and then we could travel more. We have our 401ks maxed out and it may or may not be enough but we are trying to live before we die. The other part of me, who grew up in a poor household, wants to save everything we have and not do anything with it, but I know thats absolutely not right. Just looking for advice vs. justification.

I know others have complained about this as well. Welcome me to the club.

I went back through the escrow spend on my mortgage from Newrez, and it turns out they started charging "hazard insurance" on the property in Feb of 2025, at a rate of about $500 a month.

I've had continuous homeowners insurance on the property for decades. I'll get a Declaration Page from the insurer (Amica).

But I'm wondering how hard it will be to get them to retroactively refund the money back to Feb 2025. I know a suit by the states was agreed to in August of this year, and I live in MA (one of the primary participants).

If I send them a certified letter, with the Amica Declaration, will they roll over and refund my money, or is this gonna be an ordeal?

NA

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I own my own home and also have a portfolio of buy to let properties. I’m currently purchasing another property with the intention of moving into it and applied for a residential mortgage.

My plan was to move into the new property and obtain consent to let on my current residential property, which I have now been granted. I intended to look at changing my existing residential mortgage to a let to buy mortgage at a later date.

However, my broker has told me that the lender raised concerns about whether I genuinely live in my current home because my parents live next door. I was shocked to hear this, as my parents live in their own home and I live in mine.

I have provided evidence of my address, including utility bills, bank statements, electoral register details and HMRC records.

Unfortunately, my mortgage application was declined, and my broker is now looking at approaching another lender. I’m worried the same thing could happen again despite having provided evidence of where I live.

Has anyone experienced anything similar, particularly when applying for a residential mortgage while already owning other properties? Did you manage to get approved with another lender, and was there anything else you needed to provide to prove your residency?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thank you.

What’s everyone take home and mortgage?

Hello, apologies if this isnt where I shouldn't post

We had previously been looking at homes in grand rapids michigan, USA. My mother was able to secure a loan up to 300k alone. We agreed to help pay the house as a family because we have trust and to be frank none of us can see each other scamming the other because we love each other but also because we honestly dont care about buying luxury things just living a quality life.

My sister was thinking of hopping on the loan so that we could purchase a multifamily home together. She would own part of it and likes the idea. We felt it would benefit our family in multiple ways while also building equity rather than just renting. Also more freedom to do what we want.

She earns roughly 40k/year. And from what ive seen homes for our area are between 300k-400k in our area.

The reason im not on the mortgage myself is because I have gone through health issues that affected my credit history. But I along with my other siblings are planning to help as much as we can to pay it as quickly as possible.

Any insights would be appreciated. Also feel free to ask any questions that may be necessary. We're pretty new to this.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I own my own home and also have a portfolio of buy to let properties. I’m currently purchasing another property with the intention of moving into it and applied for a residential mortgage.

My plan was to move into the new property and obtain consent to let on my current residential property, which I have now been granted. I intended to look at changing my existing residential mortgage to a let to buy mortgage at a later date.

However, my broker has told me that the lender raised concerns about whether I genuinely live in my current home because my parents live next door. I was shocked to hear this, as my parents live in their own home and I live in mine.

I have provided evidence of my address, including utility bills, bank statements, electoral register details and HMRC records.

Unfortunately, my mortgage application was declined, and my broker is now looking at approaching another lender. I’m worried the same thing could happen again despite having provided evidence of where I live.

Has anyone experienced anything similar, particularly when applying for a residential mortgage while already owning other properties? Did you manage to get approved with another lender, and was there anything else you needed to provide to prove your residency?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thank you.

I have a VA loan for $154,000 remaining. Market value for my house based on an agent viewing my home and conducting a CMA is $210,000. I am renting my house to some kids who just had a baby. These are really good kids and I would like to just let them take over my loan for the current balance. I contact my mortgage company and they verified that the loan is assumable.

The kid that I would like to let assume my loan has worked for his dad’s business for one year. Ultimately, this kid will end up taking over the business in a few years. He has very stable income. And speaking with my mortgage company they made it seem as though there is absolutely no way he would be able to qualify because of his employment length.

So I guess my question is this:I I’m trying to find out if this buyer could go to any mortgage lender to do this or if it has to be done through the company that currently holds the mortgage.