Lender miscalculated my income, and I can't afford the new monthly payment. What recourse do I have?
EDIT: Based on some of the comments, I feel like I didn't articulate the situation clearly. I know full well what I can afford, and was approved for a loan within my budget. It came to my attention last week that my monthly payment would be increasing beyond what I can afford, due to information about previous income that has no bearing on my current finances.
I was approved for a loan in February, put in an offer that was accepted and have been moving forward with buying my first home. I am in an income bracket where I qualify for a few state assistance programs for first time homebuyers. I have been at my job for 7 years, credit score of 810.
This week I got a call from my lender saying that underwriting dug into my income and some changes would need to be made to my loan. 1 year ago I took a significant pay cut at work in order to offload some job responsibilities that were burning me out. My income is being calculated based on my previous pay rate, making me ineligible for any of the assistance I was counting on. I am paid hourly. I work remote and am currently living in a state with no income tax, and moving to a state with income tax, so my take home pay will be significantly less than it is now, which again is significantly less than the average the lender has calculated.
I understand that it is standard to use the average of one's gross pay to calculate eligibility, however, without the state assistance this is putting me in a position where I can't afford the monthly payment. It is not what I signed up for, and I would not have moved forward with the house if I had known this were the case. The branch manager called me and was super apologetic that they had missed this, he offered to forgo his commission on this loan and give it to me to offset some of the cost, but said he would need to check with his superiors to see if that is even possible.
What choices do I have here? My flights are booked and I'm set to close in 18 days. It would pretty much destroy my life right now to not move forward with the home, but the only way I could afford the new rate is to take a second part time job while I look for a higher paying role. It doesn't seem right that I was approved and got this far only to have it changed. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!