Help me understand
I have no idea about how to handle this and Chat GPT says one thing but I read posts here that confuse me. my husband and I would like to buy a house next year. what can we afford?
my income: 185k w2 + ~220k 1099 (new)
my husbands income: 115k w2
our debt: 50k in student loans, about 50k combined in car loans, 10k in credit card debt approximately
rent: 1900 + 150-300 in utilities
savings: my husband has a pension, I max out my Roth/401k, and we put about 1.5k towards saving a month currently (going to increase with new income)
Cash on hand for down payment: 30k (very low, we know)
we would buy next year at the earliest so considering we keep our expenses low, and I put my new income aggressively towards savings/paying down debt, we may be able to augment these numbers. We are looking to buy in a very high cost of living area and would rather rent and live here than move elsewhere. Houses are typically 1M+, townhomes about 600k-900k, condos can sometimes be in the 400-500k depending.
please guide me, I have no knowledge about any of these things. chat gpt and Zillow seem to think we could afford a 1M + home but that seems ridiculous. thank you in advance.
edit: credit ~700 for both, no kids, about 150k in investments (including retirement) that we do not want to touch to buy a home.