How Much Money Can I Borrow To Buy A Home?

Definition of "How much money can I borrow to buy a home?"

There’s really no easy and quick answer to “how much money can I borrow to buy a home?”

It will all depend on the overall financial health of the area in question, the financial health of the mortgage company in question and the risk that giving a loan to you will provide to that same company. However, the first two aspects mentioned will weigh less when you apply for a mortgage, after all; everybody wants some profit, right? So, if the overall market condition is good and the financial health of the company is great, they *might* get a portion of their earnings to re-invest to bring even more revenue but the bigger part of it will be converted into profit for its shareholders  not necessarily on making your life easier by loaning you more. That’s capitalism, buddy.

Alright, are you lecturing me or answering how much money can I borrow to buy a home, RealEstateAgent.com?

Ok. Let’s cut to the chase. You will get as much money as the calculations of the mortgage company say you will be able to pay it back in a timely manner. And to figure out how much that means in your case, we will need to figure out what is your risk to the company.

To do that, you'll need to figure out what your gross income is (before taxes) monthly and yearly. To get a quick ballpark figure, take the yearly income of yourself - and your co-purchaser if applicable - and multiply by 2 to 2 1/2. Most people will fall into this category. There are other things to consider, however – like monthly debt payments and home-related expenses like homeowner’s insurance policy cost and homeowner’s association fees, your expected loan term and interest rates. If you have a large down payment combined with little to no bills, the lender may believe that you could afford a more expensive home than the ballpark figure allows.

An important thing to do in order to prepare yourself to lure the mortgage companies into a large loan amount is taking care of your credit score, developing good habits towards it. Once you understand what is a credit score and how does it impact real estate, you will be able to secure, most of the times, not only better deals, but with less hassle.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Questions

Popular Real Estate Glossary Terms

Document between two or more parties indicating a need to take or not take a previous action taking place. For example, a bank may commit to make a loan dependent on a satisfactory credit ...

The direction in which a community is growing. Directional growth is measured over time, and its path strongly influences current and future market values of those properties clearly in ...

The Exclusive Right to Sell Listing is a type of Listing where the Listing Broker/Agent wins his/her commission even if he/she wasn’t directly responsible for the sale.Let’s ...

Major city in a metropolitan area. ...

What does viz. mean? The meaning of viz. derives from the Latin word videlicet which is translated into English as namely, that is, which is, as follows. You may encounter it in legal ...

Claude in a contract, title, or mortgage that is subject to being annulled, repealed, or revoked upon the satisfaction of a claim or completion of a future event. ...

Gradual deterioration of land due to nature such as because of floods, hurricanes and storms. Gradual decline in the value of real estate because of poor market and economic conditions. ...

Adobe construction is one of the oldest types of construction that has been used in the Americas, ancient Egypt, and the Middle East to build long-lasting structures that can be seen even ...

A large enclosed shopping mall having several national and regional retails stores acting as anchor tenants. The enclosed floor area of regional shopping centers ranges between 250,000 ...