How much should you have saved up before buying a house?

OP seems like you've thought this through pretty thoroughly and seems like you're in a better position than most when purchasing their first home, I say go for it... just YOLO it? (or whatever the cool kids are saying these days )

Looking at these house prices (and knowing that they would equate to even less when converted to Aussie dollars) does my head in..... In Australia basic first home would run for around 400k.

I'm in a similar position where I've got half an eye open for my first home and figure 20% + 6 months savings is a pretty solid figure.

 

Try to put as much down payment as possible...the interest on mortgage is the biggest cost to you over the long run.

 

When it comes to house, I treat it as if I pay monthly rental including mortgage, insurance, HOA, and extra gas. It's just a place to live, nothing else. "Ownership" and house price appreciation are BS to me.

I make 150k+ plus bonuses a year now and I live in a 180K house.

 

All these horror stories were what scared me off of home ownership for a long time, until my husband finally dragged me into it last year. So far it has not been bad. I had been planning on just renting my whole life - if you need more space you can always rent a house instead of an apartment - but I do understand that it's nice to get something back from it when you move instead of just pouring money down a hole every month as part of the cost of living.

Anyway, especially if you've thought things through, have two good incomes or general financial security, etc., I think you will be fine. In my own experience: our house is not too old - things aren't falling apart - but not too new either (so it isn't ugly with no trees around it, not to mention further away from town). My husband is a massage therapist and lets one client pay in lawn maintenance, so that takes care of that. (We live in a dry climate so those of you in Houston may have more lawn issues.)

 

Patrick.net is a very informative site. A little bit extreme at times, but a nice alternative to the rah-rah-rah real estate machine. Tons of people who bought more than they could afford over the past decade (helping to throw the country into a recession) would have benefited from reading it.

However, if you live in Texas or a place that never really had much of bubble, a lot of the site's content doesn't apply. It's mainly geared towards California (and North East) housing markets, which aren't really comparable to the rest of the country.