Yeah, “risk-averse” is probably a pretty good descriptor for you.
If I’m not prying too much, could you share what your current monthly debt/gross income ratio is?
Regardless, ISTM that raising your ratio to a bit more than half of what conventional wisdom (if that’s a valid shorthand for the calculators) suggests is “safe” sounds like still a pretty good trade for the benefits you would be obtaining for your wife, your kid, your mother when she comes to visit, and for yourself. On top of that, moving out of your current place makes it available to some less-fortunate family for whom a 1400 sq ft “starter” home actually would approach the 36% ratio. You’d be doing a service not only for that family, but for the local economy.
And at a 20% monthly debt/gross income ratio, you could probably afford a lawn service. Maybe even one run by whoever buys your current house.
Good luck, and enjoy your new home!
Sorry I didn’t have any answers to your actual questions. I’m so risk-averse, I won’t even consider buying a home until I can pay cash for it.
Well, Hell. Now that I’ve read the entire thread, it turns out that I didn’t have anything to contribute at all…
<: (((((((<
(Above is a fish, with which I invite anybody who feels like making a “how is that different from any other time you post?” crack to slap themselves)
Before last week, it was 18% (PITI + Student Loans + a bit of CC debt).
Now, it’s 29%.
I’m not precisely comfortable with it, but we made a 30% profit on the old house, which gave us enough of a cushion after the down payment/prepaids/closing costs on the new place to make all of the fixes we’re going to need to make quickly, plus a pretty sizeable cushion.