save for a down payment on a house

We own a home in New Jersey, but will be relocating to California later this year. So we’re facing two problems:

1) the equity we had in our New Jersey home is likely gone now (we purchased in late 2004)

2) homes in California are very expensive

I know that once we move, we’ll be back to renting, likely for an extended period of time. However, I’d like to be able to purchase again in 5 or so years. To save up 20% for a California home is insane ($100,000???). But you’re never going to achieve something if you don’t set a goal, so I’ll go ahead and put it out there.

As of today we’ve got ~$12,000 in our emergency fund. I’m going to continue adding funds to the same account and watch it grow from there.

I’d like to have $30,000 (20% on a $150,000 house) in 2 years. I’m pretty sure this isn’t realistic, but it’s good to start applying actual numbers to my vague hope to own a house someday. I’m aiming a little high on the amount since there’s also other expenses associated with buying a house, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be buying in a more expensive or less expensive community. Plus, houses are relatively cheap now, but who knows what the housing market will be doing when I get around to buying.

Right now, I have $2,600 sitting in my dedicated house fund at ING. I haven’t done my budget for this year yet, so I might have some extra money sitting around in my bank account that I could throw at this. I’d like to be able to put $1000/month toward my house, but again, I’m not sure this is realistic. I’ll check in again once I crunch some numbers.

But hoping that will happen in early 2008!

With my job settled I have finally begun. I’m working out with my friend who is a lender what kind of mortgage I would be eligible for and I have set up some automatic transfers to my savings account in order to make this goal possible!

I was doing the same thing! But I recently found out there is a way to buy a house WITHOUT having to actually pay the down payment! you “pledge” the money instead. Not many people know about it, they just started it a couple years back. This will save a ton of money in rent. If anyone wants some more info, email me at ncpardue@yahoo.com
have a wonderful day! and happy house hunting :)

I have opened a money market account and have started putting away money. Im on my way to being a home owner!!!! Yippy!!!!

Big news. I managed to not only be preapproved for an RRSP line of credit with our c.u., but I also got the amount doubled. And, because it’s a line of credit, I don’t have to requalify every year.

We’re that much closer to the house. W00T!

Sitting on hold waiting to talk to the bank about rrsp options and such… this might take a while. But at least it’s February 1 and not February 21!

I have to pay off my debt and become a bit more financially independent first. Besides, until I finish grad school, affording a half-way decent place in NYC (unless I want to live where there is no subway) is going to take quite some time.

Well, we’ve been working toward this goal for a few years. But, really, the main reason we’ve been waiting to buy a house is because the prices in our area are, in a word, outrageous. In theory, the market is going to slow down soon (a year or more, I hope) and, with all our major debts paid off (or basically paid off) we’re finally in a place to start saving.

The first step, for us, is to create our budget so we know how much we can save monthly. So, at the end of January I’ll be pulling out my envelope of receipts and tallying them up. Fun!