How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Ok, so ....I'm curious, as I'm trying to gauge what is the "norm."

I'm trying to decrease my Debt to Income here, so I'm wondering.


So...poll time for privacy, but any thoughts/advice welcomed!!

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Credit Card: $0
Car: Lease, $300
Student Loan: Under $1500

That's was it.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

None, but we never have had any. We didn't need student loans, paid for our cars with cash (never bought new ones), had a cheap apartment, ect. But I think car and student loans are okay when you are shopping for a mortgage, I think they have problems if it is a lot of credit card debt.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Thanks your for responses!
All this stuff seems scary, because it seems they are so strict nowadays (but I don't blame them)

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

i think you are going to get crazy results adding in college loans.. most people I know owe AT LEAST 30,000 themselves without DH

I put more than 25 just counting student loans.. DH got a PHD and I got a masters

Message edited 1/7/2010 8:57:22 PM.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Yes, student loans at a fair interest rate and a 10, 15 or longer payback period are much different than credit card debt at 20% !

We were lucky to be debt free when we bought. I paid my school loans off and we paid for our car in cash (share one).

I think you will find people's answers are high. I would look to reduce as much as possible any credit card or other non school, non car debt.

Good Luck

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

I put 25K or more because of my student loans but that was the only debt we had when we were buying our home. I wish I could say it was that way now!

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

So, it IS possible to still qualify while there are some loans out?

I have a car loan that currently has about 15,500 left (which sickens me...because it's a vehicle..not an education or something worthy! lol)
That's it, but I guess I feel hopeful now, knowing that you can have some loans out and still get a home.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

I know $15,000 is a lot of money, but they don't really see it as you owing $15,000 for your car. They see how much you owe per month, and subtract that from how much money you EARN per month. The banks will allow you to borrow enough money so that all your debts, when combined, are no more than about 40% of your monthly salary.

So to use round numbers: if you make $10,000 per month, and you owe $500 per month for your car and have no other debt, your debt-to-income ratio is 5%. They will approve you for a mortgage that - when you add principal, interest, taxes, and insurance - brings your total debt-to-income ration to that 40%, in this case, $4000. So they'll approve you for $3500 a month, or a mortgage of way over $300,000 with today's interest rates.

Make sense?

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

40k in debt when we bought our house. However, it was all federal student loans. We got our learn on...

Debt To Income Ratio in terms of home affordability is a very important subject.

Your costs of home ownership, including Principle, Interest, Taxes and Insurance (PITI) should be...

< or = 25% if you are conservative & want to be wealthy one day
26-35% most are in this group since its so expensive to own a home in a good neighborhood in LI
more than 35% and you are house poor...whether you admit it or not

Message edited 1/7/2010 9:42:18 PM.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

$0 credit card
$300/mnth car lease

Nothing else- however, our credit still wasn't in top shape cause of past issues

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

A LOT. I can't even tell you how much CC debt and student loan debt we have, it's insane. Most of the CC debt is DH's, and the student loan debt is mine. But we have no car payments (other than insurance).

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

I had minimal CC debt, my car had maybe $15k left to pay and my student loan debt is astronomical (I paid my way by myself through college and grad school). DH only had CC debt but it was a lot.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

oops i put only 5K i forgot to add more for the car!

3K in CC
18K on a car

Otherwise i had taken all my money and paid off my student loans even though we could of put it to a down payment on a house (10K) and get a better house but i didn't like owing money.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

OMG, I don't know if its a norm, but I would NEVER EVER purchase a home with cc debt...loans, maybe but not cc debt. This is one thing that we will NOT have when purchasing a home. My loans are paid off, we have 1 car payment and a little of cc debt left, but it will all be gone before we purchase a home. I don't want to scrape by every month, no way.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Credit Card: $0
Car: around $4000
Student Loans (combined b/w me & DH): around $35,000

DH and I both had loans from grad school....

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

None

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Thankfully, none. I was lucky that my parents paid in full for my education, as did DH's, and we didn't have any car loans at that time (we do now). We never carry CC debt.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

We do not have any credit card debt or car debt. The only debt we have is student loans for both my and DH's law degrees - you can only imagine how much they are!

When we bought our co-op 3 1/2 years ago, we had private student loans and federal student loans. We have paid all of our private student loans back. We just sold our co-op and are in contract for a house. We still have federal student loan debt for both us, but are only paying about 2.75 - 3.00% interest on the loans. Our federal student loans are more than $25K.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

I agree with above poster, i wouldn't buy a home (create more debt) if i already had cc debt. We had 10k (mine) in cc debt and we paid it off the year before we decided to buy. Our home mortgage is enough debt for us!

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

We have no cc debit. But, we do have our car loans. And, add my school loans to that. But, I think that is considered good debt though.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

Since I have about 100K in student loan debt, my DH took out the mortgage only in his name (although at the closing my name was added to all the documents and the deed).

We didn't have any CC debt or car payments and all his student loans were paid off.

Re: How much debt (credit card/car/student loans) did you have as you purchased a home?

When I bought my co-op (before I met DH):

Student Loans $0
Car Loan /Payment was $250 mo. (VW Jetta)
CC debt: under 1k