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

The total return from holding a real estate investment for the holding period of time. The computation follows: For a mutual fund investing in a real estate, the return is in the form ...

Arrears is a legal and financial term used to describe payments in regards to their due dates. While the term is more often used to refer to a contractual obligation or liability that was ...

Limit on how much a borrower's payment can increase. ...

The term market segmentation is mostly used in marketing for assembling prospective buyers in groups based on their needs and their response to a marketing action. One definition of market ...

The definition of an open-end lease is what happens when someone rents a property for a monthly rate with the added obligation to make a large final payment when the agreement is over to ...

Ownership in property by two or more persons at the same time. ...

In order to define allotment, we have to take into consideration what it refers to. While generally, it refers to a certain amount of something that is allocated to a particular person, the ...

The term lock-in clause is used in an agreement that prescribes a period of time within which either of the parties that signed a contract cannot terminate the contract. In case one of the ...

Contract containing provisions of the insurance policy specifying who the parties are, what amounts and due dates, deductibles, time period, ceilings, kind of property., location of ...