Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Am I buying too much condo? NYC $2mm

Am I buying too much home? NYC, Married, both 30-32, at most one kid in the future, but potentially none.

This would be our first home purchase after renting all our lives. We do not have any large inheritances or anything like that in our future.

Potentially accepting offer for $2.01mm (after closing costs & concessions)/$1.98mm (before closing costs, after concessions). Condo was listed at $2.15mm (before closing costs). This is a new construction.

Mortgage: Planning to finance 80% at an ARM of about 6.5%, which implies total monthly housing expenses of ~$14k after principal, interest, and HOA/taxes

Currently renting at about $7.2k/month, excluding electricity, internet, etc type bills

Pre-tax HHI: ~$730k, ~$50k of which is in deferred equity. This could either go up 10-15% per year if staying in current role/field or decrease 20-30% if I switch out of client services to an industry role

Combined Net Assets: $320k in cash, $500k in brokerage, $400k in IRAs/401ks, $50k in HSA

Assuming we move forward with this purchase, and add in our other personal expenses and net pay after 401k/IRA/HSA contributions, we would be saving ~$35-$50k per year.

We are hesitating to pull the trigger here. This is a more expensive place than we initially sought out for (we were looking in the $1.5-1.7mm range initially) but have found that this is the size that we could grow into (vs feel is too small in 3-5 years) and also preserve optionality to have a kid or re-sell at better value. We have made offers and viewed many other units that are cheaper (in the $1.7mm range mostly) but we have question marks around whether they will appreciate/be hard to sell or whether rental cash flow will be material.

We have at times, dreamed of FIRE, but this purchase may eliminate that possibility altogether, make us house poor, and tie us to my stressful career.

Any advice would be much appreciated as we need to decide in the next couple days.

Statistics: Posted by nyclon — Thu Jun 06, 2024 2:18 am — Replies 4 — Views 414