After running the numbers, we simply cannot afford a house

Your math is a little flawed trying to compare it to the situation I explained. If you read my original post our home was more than the OP's first off but that is beside the point.

I said we each maxed out our retirement and we also did HSA's. So take an ~7k a year out of your calculation since you are doing roughly 15k into retirement, not maxing it and no mention of HSA.

Also, that would be wonderful if the mortgage was only 1.2k/mo for a 230k mortgage. You forgot to factor in property taxes, insurance, and PMI if you don't put down 20%. So you are looking at a lot more than 1.2k/mo for the mortgage.

And no our definition of fun did not include a "quite of bit of spending" but it did include going out to dinner or to get a drink with our friends once a weekend. You still need some money to have fun, otherwise you are the definition of house poor.

/r/personalfinance Thread Parent