How We Bought a $300,000 House and Are Paying Down the Mortgage

After we got married, Jane and I knew we wanted to purchase a house to settle our family.

We had lived in an apartment for a while but we really wanted a full house to call our own. I didn’t want to share walls with other neighbors and wanted a yard with space to call my own.

Plus, it’s much harder to convince your wife to get a puppy if you don’t have a yard.

We knew we wanted to be property owners for reasons other than purely financial. We also liked the idea of building equity and potentially being able to sell for higher than we bought the house.

While buying a house was the right thing for our family, there could be a financial case for some people to just rent. When you are considering whether to buy or rent, think through all the costs, both financial and otherwise.

Creating a Mortgage Budget

Once we decided we were ready to buy a house, we got preapproved for a mortgage. The next step was to start to think about our budget. We quickly realized that we would not be comfortable buying a house for the full amount that we were preapproved for.

The bank originally said that we could purchase a house for up to $450,000, based off our current income and debt. A 30…