How right are those 'can you afford it?' online calculators?

I've been playing on realtor.com trying to figure out when dh and i may be able to afford a house... and at this point it looks like never if we're going to be able to in northern va.

it's so frustrating... here we are, me with my masters, and him almost with his Eds., and we'll be lukcy if we can afford a 1 br condo in like 3 years

but anyways, i'm putting that our yearly income is $115k (which is approx what it will be in 3 years), we'll have $60k to put down (I hope!) and it's giving us that we can afford like $340,000... which basically buys us squat down here.

i swear, i'm going to start selling myself at this rate...

Re: How right are those 'can you afford it?' online calculators?

I found them to be fairly accurate BUT there are other things to factor in, such as your rate on the mortgage, electricity and gas/oil on a house, and you really need to know what the taxes are, too, to get a good idea. Please don't lose faith! There are so many other alternatives besides HOUSES!!! Believe me, we thought we'd never buy anything, but we bought an apartment (well, we bought shares, since it's a co-op, but still, ) Knowing that we didn't have to buy a house really opened up so many doors that we had never seen before!

Re: How right are those 'can you afford it?' online calculators?

hmm, yeah, we'll be living in a 1 br condo till we're 40

my mom has to get over her 'you have to own a house before you have a baby' kick... or she won't be a grandma for a very long time at this rate