Along the history of time, man has always striven to improve his lot in life. Specifically, his place of residence. Beginning when the first caveman brought home a new mammoth skin to spruce up the old homestead, and continuing up to and including April 28, 2008.
What am I getting at? Well, we went out and did something a little crazy. That’s right. We’ve bought a new house! We have been watching the housing market for awhile. Watching prices fall and keeping an eye on the houses we liked, we pondered. Never seriously considering making a move right now. I mean, we have enough cooking at the moment without that sort of craziness.
But, we were looking to refinance the house we’re in now, to lock in a lower rate. At the same time, just for informations sake, Jess asked the mortgage broker what we might be able to realistically be able to purchase without literally putting us in the poor house. The answer surprised us. Suddenly, a house we happened to walk through an open house back last Labor Day was well within striking distance. We found a good rule of thumb as far as how much house you could afford which was a monthly payment of no more than 25% of your gross monthly income. Needless to say, we’re well below that. (As an aside, it took us a bit to realize just how well off we are with our dual incomes. Amazing.)