Foreclosures
HOW MUCH HOUSE CAN I QUALIFY FOR?
The answer will depend on a number of factors, most of which relate to you and your personal history. At the very least, in today’s financial setting, you will need to have an adequate, provable income, a verifiable work history, a good credit report (or good FICO score) and a down payment.
There are many mortgage rate calculators on a variety of websites including the Coldwell Banker Town & Country page of which this section is a part. Open any one of these and simply enter your information (income, total monthly non-housing payments, etc.) and you will find not only the amount of loan for which you qualify, but monthly payments on a mortgage.
Once you have a general idea of what you can afford you should go to the next step and determine what seller incentives are available that might enable you to buy a bit more house than what your raw qualifying numbers indicate. For example, you might be able to increase your down payment if a seller or developer will pay your closing costs. Speaking of developers, don’t overlook the fact that falling real estate prices have hit new home builders pretty hard and that there are many, many affordable new homes in California.
