[swendoog]

I'm really, really curious how you got your numbers.

I just 'did the math' in Redfin's mortgage calculator on a $990,000 home. The total monthly cost came out to $6,495 or $3,247 per person (in a couple). That's almost exactly 1/2 of the take-home (after tax) pay of someone making $120,000 a year in California.

-- Monthly expenses on a $990k house in SF --

Principal and Interest: $4,185

Property Taxes: $1,015

HOA Dues: $551

Homeowners' Insurance: $183

Mortgage Insurance: $561

1) That's far more than your $2,000 per person number

2) I'm no expert but, throwing 50% of your income at a mortgage seems foolish. So whether or not you can afford it, depends on your definition of "afford"

[cobookman]

You are forgetting interest deduction & property tax deduction.

so 900k mortgage at 4.1% interest is ~3k of interest and 1.2k of principal for first month.

Now you have 1k/month of property tax, 0 HOA (i was not talking about a condo), and 180$/month of insurance. I've been quoted 80-10-10 which have 0 PMI fees.

Let's be safe and assume that you're taxed at 30% at your highest level. Its likely you're being taxed at 40% though.

Now doing some math....

3k*0.7 + 1.2k + 1k+0.7+.180k = 4180$/month. Obviously there's maintenance and other costs but that's how much its actually costing you.

[swendoog]

Ah, fair enough. I appreciate the breakdown.

[dmode]

I have a similar priced home. My mortgage payment is around $4200. Doesn't include property taxes (around $12k/yr) and Home insurance ($1200/year). Some numbers above are way too high - HOA is $551 is generally for condos. My HOA is $60/month and in my previous neighborhood, didn't even have HOA. If can do 80-10-10, many banks won't charge mortgage insurance. So the OP's numbers are actually quite close.