美国买房子的价格和收入之间比率应该多大?
作者: JC, 更新日期: 2012-12-06
很多在美国租房的朋友都想买房子，实现美国梦。但要买多少钱的房子可以负担得起呢, 也就是什么样的house price vs. income ratio 更make sense? 下面根据笔者搜集的资料整理一下这方面的看法. 欢迎跟帖讨论.
有一种说法是, 假设downpayment是房价的20%, 买房的budget和收入的比应该控制在2.5比较合理. 因为买房只是开始，首付完了以后，还有可能用很多钱做renovation, 并且还要适当的买一些家具. 这个2.5的倍数可能是过于保守的想法。如果按这个买房子的话，也许买不到地界和专修很好的房子。大家毕竟在外面奔波一天，回到家里，还是希望住在一个让自己比较满意的环境里. 但通常比较满意的环境的房价会比较高。
另一种说法是, 房子应该在可自由支配的收入的5~10倍比较合理。因为这意味着节衣缩食可以在5到10年内还清房贷。可自由支配的收入，定义是收入减去必须的支出，比如说，税，需要还的贷款，小孩的学费，日常基本生活费，基本的孝敬父母和亲戚的钱。
根据以上这两种说法，笔者认为要看个人心理承受能力。及其保守的2.5倍的收入即可，最高可以到5倍的pre-tax income.
Comments (1)
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As a real estate professional, I've often been asked this and other similar question. I have a different approach to answer this question all together. The fundamental thing buyers would like to know when they ask this type of question is, how much of a house can I afford to buy?
Income vs. purchase price is a good starting point but usually not the final or anywhere near your final answer. Each family is different in terms of their financial situations. Even if their income is the same, different family would have different fixed monthly expenses such as food, gas, clothing and entertainment, etc. Out of what remains, then you decide how much you can devote to paying for your monthly mortgage. How much a family is willing to devote to the monthly mortgage also varies from family to family, some are willing to sacrifice more than others.
However, as I have always advised my buyers, your home should be a place of peace and relaxation. It should be a place where you come back from a long day of hard work to come and rest in. With this in mind, the guideline I give is, never devote so much that it drastically affects your life style negatively. If that's the case, your new home would become a burden and everyday you come home, you're reminded of this fact. This completely ruins the purpose of buying a new home for you and your family.
Once you figured out how much to devote to paying the mortgage, it's then a simple matter of going to your favorite internet search engine, find one of the many free mortgage calculators, plug in the values and a few clicks later, you'll end up with a pretty good idea of how much you and your family can comfortably afford.
Of course, before you actually go out shopping for your next dream home, I always highly recommend buyers to speak with a mortgage loan professional to confirm the numbers and your price range.
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