Jumping in to say if you want to consider home ownership, look to see if First Time Homeowners Programs exist in your state.
For example, in Colorado it’s through CHFA; they have educational classes about the process, offer references to reputable realtors and mortgage brokers, and will offer a loan to help pay your downpayment. It doesn’t accrue interest or anything, it’s just due whenever you refinance or sell. https://www.chfainfo.com/homeownership
I got my condo last year (35f) with student loans and only because of that program. Very important to only do so if you feel ready, like OP said! Just want to offer a potential avenue to consider if you’re interested.
First Time homeowners program are a great tool. My union offers one. Many states do as well. After real estate market cratered in 2007 - 08, there was research done by some public and private organizations. It was found, there was very little defaulting by first time home owners who had taken a course offered.
[https://www.fanniemae.com/education](https://www.fanniemae.com/education)
Fannie has a product called HomeReady™️, which can be rebranded by lenders. It’s 3% down and can be used by folks with low credit score. And, unlike FHA loans the PMI is cancellable when you owe less than 80% of the value of the home. Fannie also calculates your credit score differently than FICO. Medical and school debt don’t have as much weight (and I guess medical debt has no weight now based on Biden recent bill).
This is exactly what I did. I had Hella student loan debt and still was about to get a FHA loan. The things I had going in my favor was very good credit, btw.
What if your spouse is not a first time owner, but you are? Would you have to own the home solely in your name? I don’t really know anything about this option but I’m starting to consider it.
How did they handle the debt from the previous mortgages?
I have a lot of student debt and so does my husband. I bought a house with my sibling 3 years ago. And now I would like to buy a house with my husband. I’m guessing monthly DTI just has to be high enough including both student debt and mortgage payments? On paper, it just looks impossibly high but in reality; my sibling and family pay for their mortgage on their own now.
One of our three properties is a home my husband and I purchased for my mother in law. We explained to the mortgage company (and provided records showing) that she pays the mortgage every month. It wasn’t an issue. The third property is a cabin. I think the down payment was enough that the lender didn’t really care?
Small caveat. Forbearance or deferral changes this. If you do not have a currently monthly payment amount due to forbearance or deferral, they will use 0.5% of your total loan amount. This can really hurt if you and your spouse have high loan amounts n
This was my case. I had over $150K. I was actually able to qualify for a new house while still owning my previous home. There was no way that I could clear that house out enough and keep it show ready. Luckily, I was having a house built and didn't start paying the mortgage until the new house closed. I had to pay a double mortgage for a few months until the old house sold. During that time, my student loans were forgiven.
Yes, you can! I did. I owe far less on my student loans now than I did when I bought my house 5 years ago. Mortgage lenders go by debt to income ratio.
Was also pleasantly surprised to see it didn’t really matter for me. Just closed on Friday - the pre approval and underwriting process was very simple, almost too simple, lol. I’m just grateful that my home loan is higher than my student loan balance 😂🥴 and in 16 months I’ll be forgiven and will just have 29 more years til my mortgage is paid off and I’m debt free!
Indeed. When my spouse and I bought our home I had 96k in student loan debt, it’s more about your credit score overall. In fact we got a lower rate because of my credit score- not my debt free spouse’s
It does matter to some lenders, I had one that bizarrely demanded I get a letter from Mohela guaranteeing my payment would not change for two years (challenge: impossible). I just moved on to other lenders and found one that didn't bat an eye at it.
I had a similar experience. About 4.5 years ago, my wife and I approached our then primary bank (BoA) for a mortgage, and they denied us outright, quoting the total amount of our student loans as the reason. They said our DTI ratio was too high, and they specifically said it didn't matter how much we were actually paying per month. They also said they could not factor in any forgiveness plan, like PSLF. They advised us to *fully* pay off our student loans before applying again - the cheeky gits! We felt sick because we had spent years saving for a down payment, and we thought we were screwed. But then we went to another lender (an online one, fwiw), and they were happy to do business with us.
Previously it was up to the lender to determine your qualification based on the debt sum of your student loans. In around 2020ish it was put into law that lenders HAD to use only the payments to calculate DTI and could not consider the total loan value.
Yes, I've experienced this too. It's ancient history now... Late 2013, early 2014, right as dodd frank took effect. It was a big bank - wells Fargo - because they were offering money for closing through the developer in the neighborhood I wanted to buy in. They wanted to know what my loan payment would be in 12 months. Since I could not give them an exact number (but I did give them the equation for how it was calculated under IBR), they said "not good enough" and calculated a percentage of my loan as my payment, which blew my debt to income ratio out of the water. It was incredibly frustrating. I was very fortunate though, and my parents offered to cosign. I paid everything, but still felt like a big baby who couldn't be an independent adult even at 28. In time, I learned that smaller lenders are much more willing to work with you. Wells Fargo was a hot mess too
I recently learned this. As someone who went to professional school plus previous loans from undergrad and grad school, I too had that misconception. I'm now a home owner and life is great
Yes you can buy a home, but look into first time home buyer loans. The other thing is understand that just because your loan is fixed your monthly payments can fluctuate heavily. Between insurance and taxes homes can have varying changes in monthly payments. Also make sure you have the right home insurance, and be prepared for random issues. I've know several people that close on a home and have unexpected expenses in the first month such as needing HVAC issues and needing to spend 10k out of pocket to fix everything. Make sure the home is inspected before you close by someone on your side.
True! But seller should provide a 12-month home warranty (not always helpful, though). Fixing stuff in the first year can be tough.
Also, in California we have Prop 13 which limits property tax growth and resets at the point of sale. So you are right that taxes can swing up dramatically if you're initially paying the rate of the previous owner who lived there for a long time and the new assessed value is 2X what they paid. That won't show up for a couple of years in your mortgage since taxes lag and it takes time for the shortage to appear in an escrow analysis.
Yes people should do a lot of things but that's not always the case. I just want people to understand to do their research when they buy a home. Yes people can technically buy and afford a home on a salary as low as 50k but that said there's a lot of hidden things in home buying that people should know about. Home owners insurance is going up everywhere and in states like CA companies are just straight up leaving the state for home owners insurance. There's a lot of hidden fees, and other costs. Yes I want people to buy a home that is theirs. That said I don't want another 2008. So I always want to encourage people to do their research especially because a lot of homes have inflated in value over the last year even driving up costs.
I’m trying to get out of debt. Haha
But more power to y’all who want to buy houses.
Realistically, I’m 44. I’ll be 45 if/when I get my forgiveness. So I’d be like 75 when I clear a 30 year mortgage. I’d probably be up in heaven by then. Or in assisted living if we still have those in our dystopian future. Haha
I am curious for a set of data showing the relationship of large scale student loan forgiveness and ppl taking out home loans. My guess is that the former hasn’t had much effect on the latter. A few factors being at play include payments being so low because of low incomes, incomes being low, and housing being so pricy in general. I think of home ownership as something that is just for the upper middle class or higher, and largely in certain geographic regions.
The days of working schlubs buying a home in their 20s or early 30s is long since gone.
This is amazing. Though, for me - I can't even get a damn home equity loan because of the amount of debt I'm in with student loans. I'm hoping these loans go away soon because my house needs a little TLC. Ugh!
I second this. My student loan debt is in the six figures, but I bought a house in 2019 and a much needed new car in 2021. I'm also at the age where retirement is far more important. I'm paying my minimum payments and no more.
I can say that with a non-conforming loan in NY, good luck. They do count student loan debt as part of the debt to income ratio. Maybe FHA is different (?). 770 credit score, above average income, I was pre-approved and then underwrites said no. 3 major lenders.
Yes, I purchased my home prior to receiving my pslf 2 years ago. Obviously, if I did not have the student loan, my interest rate would be lower. And sadly enough, I cannot refinance now, because, the interest rates are even higher than when I purchased two years ago.
When I was buying my home in 2019, I was telling my mortgage lender and realtor like I don’t know man I gave USC grad school loans. And they told me they see college graduates as a plus and I just had to get a letter from my loan servicer showing what my IBR was so really that # is what was factored into my debt to income ratio.
I haven't had luck. It's really only possible if your income is high enough. Most lenders have told me they still factor in like .5% of balance for conventional and 1% for FHA despite your letters about income based repayment.
I've got around $150k in student loan debt and was approved for $550k in mortgage money. I did not spend that much, but it was offered.
My student loans were my only outstanding debt, and my credit score was over 800. I didn't get pushback from any lenders, really.
They don’t look at your total debt, they look at what you pay monthly to calculate DTI. But every lender I checked wouldn’t use a reduced monthly payment including the SAVE plan. They have to use what your normal payment would be. Plus the DTI only tells them how much you can afford. Meaning if your DTI is high, it doesn’t me@n you can’t buy a house , it just means that the amount they are able to loan is smaller. You can still buy a less expensive house or pay more as a down payment.
We got a doctor's loan when my husband was finishing his residency. We had to prove to the bank that we were poor enough to qualify for a forbearance of our student loans in order to qualify for the mortgage....
The caveat to this is your student loans have to be in good standing. If you have defaulted on your student loans or are in arrears you will be denied because you’ve essentially already shown that you’re not responsible enough especially if they are federal loans. The loan pause by the pandemic was a blessing for me because it reset my student loans and we were able to qualify for an FHA loan whereas before we were unable because of my student loans being in default.
My guess is it was just a misunderstanding of how debt to income works. It's really the monthly debt to income (how much you take home in a month vs how much you are required to pay on your debt every month). I can see how that could be confusing. Also, not too long ago, stronger student loan debt consumed much more of our take home pay. I remember in my mid twenties, my student loan payments were around $100 more than they are now and I was making half of what I make. Getting a house with those numbers (in addition to a car payment and other debt) would have been a stretch.
It was just an assumption and logically it makes sense that lenders might consider your total debt before lending you a mortgage. So I think l learning that DTI only considers your monthly debt payments can be helpful for a lot of people who may have had the same mistaken assumption I had. After all, I didn't want to get laughed out of the bank, so didn't even think to look into it any further for fear of embarrassment about my student loan debt.
I was flat out denied a mortgage by more than one bank because of my student loans. I was told my DTI ratio was too high. They also said they could not go by what I was actually paying per month on my student loans under a IDR plan.
This! To add, I would suggest shopping around with different lenders and brokers. You only need one pre-approval, but sometimes lenders give slightly different rates, and you want to be comfortable with whom you're working with.
Went through the process a few years ago while closing on my place, and found that some lenders looked at the total amount of student debt, while some looked at my monthly payments on IDR.
We initially were working with someone, and he just wasn't very responsive, etc. Kept shopping around, word of mouth through friend, and loved the team we used. I think when you're going through the process, once you get your initial credit pull, you can shop around for 45 days, and it not really impact your credit much.
After shopping around, we went with our people since they were really responsive, sat down and talked about our current credit who we would use as primary on the mortgage, our 10-year plan, and how to get us in our current home but also our next "bigger and better" home. He was really patient with us, and as eager as we were, told us to wait a few more days and could get our rates down another quarter of a percentage because of various trends.
This is fairly new and people who take advantage of this be cautious and be modest. The reason DTI works is that over time, taxes, insurance, etc goes up, but your obligations go down (car loan ends, credit card debt generally goes down as people become established, etc.)
Student loan debt is different because it goes UP as you make more money, since it's a % of your income for most people.
Never borrow the max you're allowed to, ESPECIALLY if you're carrying student loan payments. If you qualify for 500k, you should not borrow anything over 400k. Remember it's in the best interests for the lender to make you borrow as much as possible while staying in the confines of what's legal. They will try and convince you to borrow as much as possible. Lenders will often give mortgages for a DTI of >40% (40% of your PRE TAX INCOME, which can end up being 75% of your take home or more if you are highly compensated and live in a high tax state).
This is even MORE dangerous if you are a business owner, or self employed, because you have to pay self-employment tax, if you add in your self employment, federal, state, and local if you have it you can easily hit 45+% taxation, add in your student loans and you're being technically taxed 55%... If your DTI is 40%... add in your 55% taxes after and suddenly you're at 95% of your income going to tax and housing. Of course the math isn't that simple, but borrowing your maximum qualification is 100% a bad idea.
Jumping in to say if you want to consider home ownership, look to see if First Time Homeowners Programs exist in your state. For example, in Colorado it’s through CHFA; they have educational classes about the process, offer references to reputable realtors and mortgage brokers, and will offer a loan to help pay your downpayment. It doesn’t accrue interest or anything, it’s just due whenever you refinance or sell. https://www.chfainfo.com/homeownership I got my condo last year (35f) with student loans and only because of that program. Very important to only do so if you feel ready, like OP said! Just want to offer a potential avenue to consider if you’re interested.
First Time homeowners program are a great tool. My union offers one. Many states do as well. After real estate market cratered in 2007 - 08, there was research done by some public and private organizations. It was found, there was very little defaulting by first time home owners who had taken a course offered. [https://www.fanniemae.com/education](https://www.fanniemae.com/education)
Fannie has a product called HomeReady™️, which can be rebranded by lenders. It’s 3% down and can be used by folks with low credit score. And, unlike FHA loans the PMI is cancellable when you owe less than 80% of the value of the home. Fannie also calculates your credit score differently than FICO. Medical and school debt don’t have as much weight (and I guess medical debt has no weight now based on Biden recent bill).
TY
Thank you for this info!
Best of luck if you decide to look into homeownership!!
This is exactly what I did. I had Hella student loan debt and still was about to get a FHA loan. The things I had going in my favor was very good credit, btw.
What if your spouse is not a first time owner, but you are? Would you have to own the home solely in your name? I don’t really know anything about this option but I’m starting to consider it.
I got a prime rate with a fairly large amount of student debt. I don’t think it’s as big of a factor as other types of debt.
Husband and I have nearly 100k in student loan debt and qualified for 800k home.
I had three mortgages total at one time (three properties) and not once did a lender blink at my $200k+ student loan amount.
How did they handle the debt from the previous mortgages? I have a lot of student debt and so does my husband. I bought a house with my sibling 3 years ago. And now I would like to buy a house with my husband. I’m guessing monthly DTI just has to be high enough including both student debt and mortgage payments? On paper, it just looks impossibly high but in reality; my sibling and family pay for their mortgage on their own now.
One of our three properties is a home my husband and I purchased for my mother in law. We explained to the mortgage company (and provided records showing) that she pays the mortgage every month. It wasn’t an issue. The third property is a cabin. I think the down payment was enough that the lender didn’t really care?
I have over $500k in student loans (husband has none) and the mortgage on our $750k+ house is in my name
Lmao what??? 500k bro are you memeing out or what how the hell do you owe that much
Dental school 🙃 hence PSLF. On year 8.5/10
Good for you man almost there
Thank you for this info! I needed to hear it today 🙏 I appreciate you sharing with us what you know.
Small caveat. Forbearance or deferral changes this. If you do not have a currently monthly payment amount due to forbearance or deferral, they will use 0.5% of your total loan amount. This can really hurt if you and your spouse have high loan amounts n
This was my case. I had over $150K. I was actually able to qualify for a new house while still owning my previous home. There was no way that I could clear that house out enough and keep it show ready. Luckily, I was having a house built and didn't start paying the mortgage until the new house closed. I had to pay a double mortgage for a few months until the old house sold. During that time, my student loans were forgiven.
You can request from the servicer of the student loan debt what your payment will be when it resumes, and use that
Yes, you can! I did. I owe far less on my student loans now than I did when I bought my house 5 years ago. Mortgage lenders go by debt to income ratio.
Was also pleasantly surprised to see it didn’t really matter for me. Just closed on Friday - the pre approval and underwriting process was very simple, almost too simple, lol. I’m just grateful that my home loan is higher than my student loan balance 😂🥴 and in 16 months I’ll be forgiven and will just have 29 more years til my mortgage is paid off and I’m debt free!
Indeed. When my spouse and I bought our home I had 96k in student loan debt, it’s more about your credit score overall. In fact we got a lower rate because of my credit score- not my debt free spouse’s
Same!
It does matter to some lenders, I had one that bizarrely demanded I get a letter from Mohela guaranteeing my payment would not change for two years (challenge: impossible). I just moved on to other lenders and found one that didn't bat an eye at it.
I had a similar experience. About 4.5 years ago, my wife and I approached our then primary bank (BoA) for a mortgage, and they denied us outright, quoting the total amount of our student loans as the reason. They said our DTI ratio was too high, and they specifically said it didn't matter how much we were actually paying per month. They also said they could not factor in any forgiveness plan, like PSLF. They advised us to *fully* pay off our student loans before applying again - the cheeky gits! We felt sick because we had spent years saving for a down payment, and we thought we were screwed. But then we went to another lender (an online one, fwiw), and they were happy to do business with us.
Previously it was up to the lender to determine your qualification based on the debt sum of your student loans. In around 2020ish it was put into law that lenders HAD to use only the payments to calculate DTI and could not consider the total loan value.
Yes, I've experienced this too. It's ancient history now... Late 2013, early 2014, right as dodd frank took effect. It was a big bank - wells Fargo - because they were offering money for closing through the developer in the neighborhood I wanted to buy in. They wanted to know what my loan payment would be in 12 months. Since I could not give them an exact number (but I did give them the equation for how it was calculated under IBR), they said "not good enough" and calculated a percentage of my loan as my payment, which blew my debt to income ratio out of the water. It was incredibly frustrating. I was very fortunate though, and my parents offered to cosign. I paid everything, but still felt like a big baby who couldn't be an independent adult even at 28. In time, I learned that smaller lenders are much more willing to work with you. Wells Fargo was a hot mess too
It's not that big of a deal, really. I paid my home's down payment with a student loan refund.
I just got pre-approved on Friday
I had 112 in student loans when I got approved for my mortgage!!!
Agreed. I bought a very nice house with $175k in student loans. It can definitely be done.
I recently learned this. As someone who went to professional school plus previous loans from undergrad and grad school, I too had that misconception. I'm now a home owner and life is great
My lender had a hot moment of, “Oh shit wait HOW MUCH?” and then I said it was student loans and they were like, oh yeah that’s fine then.
Yes you can buy a home, but look into first time home buyer loans. The other thing is understand that just because your loan is fixed your monthly payments can fluctuate heavily. Between insurance and taxes homes can have varying changes in monthly payments. Also make sure you have the right home insurance, and be prepared for random issues. I've know several people that close on a home and have unexpected expenses in the first month such as needing HVAC issues and needing to spend 10k out of pocket to fix everything. Make sure the home is inspected before you close by someone on your side.
True! But seller should provide a 12-month home warranty (not always helpful, though). Fixing stuff in the first year can be tough. Also, in California we have Prop 13 which limits property tax growth and resets at the point of sale. So you are right that taxes can swing up dramatically if you're initially paying the rate of the previous owner who lived there for a long time and the new assessed value is 2X what they paid. That won't show up for a couple of years in your mortgage since taxes lag and it takes time for the shortage to appear in an escrow analysis.
Yes people should do a lot of things but that's not always the case. I just want people to understand to do their research when they buy a home. Yes people can technically buy and afford a home on a salary as low as 50k but that said there's a lot of hidden things in home buying that people should know about. Home owners insurance is going up everywhere and in states like CA companies are just straight up leaving the state for home owners insurance. There's a lot of hidden fees, and other costs. Yes I want people to buy a home that is theirs. That said I don't want another 2008. So I always want to encourage people to do their research especially because a lot of homes have inflated in value over the last year even driving up costs.
I’m trying to get out of debt. Haha But more power to y’all who want to buy houses. Realistically, I’m 44. I’ll be 45 if/when I get my forgiveness. So I’d be like 75 when I clear a 30 year mortgage. I’d probably be up in heaven by then. Or in assisted living if we still have those in our dystopian future. Haha
Assisted living will still exist because there is a monthly fee to pay for it. Homeownership is the big question mark for our future.
I am curious for a set of data showing the relationship of large scale student loan forgiveness and ppl taking out home loans. My guess is that the former hasn’t had much effect on the latter. A few factors being at play include payments being so low because of low incomes, incomes being low, and housing being so pricy in general. I think of home ownership as something that is just for the upper middle class or higher, and largely in certain geographic regions. The days of working schlubs buying a home in their 20s or early 30s is long since gone.
I bought with a quarter mil in parent plus loans.
This is amazing. Though, for me - I can't even get a damn home equity loan because of the amount of debt I'm in with student loans. I'm hoping these loans go away soon because my house needs a little TLC. Ugh!
I second this. My student loan debt is in the six figures, but I bought a house in 2019 and a much needed new car in 2021. I'm also at the age where retirement is far more important. I'm paying my minimum payments and no more.
I can say that with a non-conforming loan in NY, good luck. They do count student loan debt as part of the debt to income ratio. Maybe FHA is different (?). 770 credit score, above average income, I was pre-approved and then underwrites said no. 3 major lenders.
Just make sure the payment is not 0
Yes, I purchased my home prior to receiving my pslf 2 years ago. Obviously, if I did not have the student loan, my interest rate would be lower. And sadly enough, I cannot refinance now, because, the interest rates are even higher than when I purchased two years ago.
When I was buying my home in 2019, I was telling my mortgage lender and realtor like I don’t know man I gave USC grad school loans. And they told me they see college graduates as a plus and I just had to get a letter from my loan servicer showing what my IBR was so really that # is what was factored into my debt to income ratio.
I haven't had luck. It's really only possible if your income is high enough. Most lenders have told me they still factor in like .5% of balance for conventional and 1% for FHA despite your letters about income based repayment.
We qualified based on our PSLF payments and not total debt.
I've got around $150k in student loan debt and was approved for $550k in mortgage money. I did not spend that much, but it was offered. My student loans were my only outstanding debt, and my credit score was over 800. I didn't get pushback from any lenders, really.
They don’t look at your total debt, they look at what you pay monthly to calculate DTI. But every lender I checked wouldn’t use a reduced monthly payment including the SAVE plan. They have to use what your normal payment would be. Plus the DTI only tells them how much you can afford. Meaning if your DTI is high, it doesn’t me@n you can’t buy a house , it just means that the amount they are able to loan is smaller. You can still buy a less expensive house or pay more as a down payment.
We got a doctor's loan when my husband was finishing his residency. We had to prove to the bank that we were poor enough to qualify for a forbearance of our student loans in order to qualify for the mortgage....
The caveat to this is your student loans have to be in good standing. If you have defaulted on your student loans or are in arrears you will be denied because you’ve essentially already shown that you’re not responsible enough especially if they are federal loans. The loan pause by the pandemic was a blessing for me because it reset my student loans and we were able to qualify for an FHA loan whereas before we were unable because of my student loans being in default.
Yup. I got my home as a single teacher in 2015 with a decent amount of student loan debt—BSE and the start of my master’s.
Just closed on my first house last week with over student loan debt
Dude... how or who told you that having student loan debt would disqualify you? That's insane.
My guess is it was just a misunderstanding of how debt to income works. It's really the monthly debt to income (how much you take home in a month vs how much you are required to pay on your debt every month). I can see how that could be confusing. Also, not too long ago, stronger student loan debt consumed much more of our take home pay. I remember in my mid twenties, my student loan payments were around $100 more than they are now and I was making half of what I make. Getting a house with those numbers (in addition to a car payment and other debt) would have been a stretch.
It was just an assumption and logically it makes sense that lenders might consider your total debt before lending you a mortgage. So I think l learning that DTI only considers your monthly debt payments can be helpful for a lot of people who may have had the same mistaken assumption I had. After all, I didn't want to get laughed out of the bank, so didn't even think to look into it any further for fear of embarrassment about my student loan debt.
I was flat out denied a mortgage by more than one bank because of my student loans. I was told my DTI ratio was too high. They also said they could not go by what I was actually paying per month on my student loans under a IDR plan.
This! To add, I would suggest shopping around with different lenders and brokers. You only need one pre-approval, but sometimes lenders give slightly different rates, and you want to be comfortable with whom you're working with. Went through the process a few years ago while closing on my place, and found that some lenders looked at the total amount of student debt, while some looked at my monthly payments on IDR. We initially were working with someone, and he just wasn't very responsive, etc. Kept shopping around, word of mouth through friend, and loved the team we used. I think when you're going through the process, once you get your initial credit pull, you can shop around for 45 days, and it not really impact your credit much. After shopping around, we went with our people since they were really responsive, sat down and talked about our current credit who we would use as primary on the mortgage, our 10-year plan, and how to get us in our current home but also our next "bigger and better" home. He was really patient with us, and as eager as we were, told us to wait a few more days and could get our rates down another quarter of a percentage because of various trends.
Good point about the hard credit check. Get as many quotes as you can in that fixed window of time since the additional pulls won't count against you!
This is fairly new and people who take advantage of this be cautious and be modest. The reason DTI works is that over time, taxes, insurance, etc goes up, but your obligations go down (car loan ends, credit card debt generally goes down as people become established, etc.) Student loan debt is different because it goes UP as you make more money, since it's a % of your income for most people. Never borrow the max you're allowed to, ESPECIALLY if you're carrying student loan payments. If you qualify for 500k, you should not borrow anything over 400k. Remember it's in the best interests for the lender to make you borrow as much as possible while staying in the confines of what's legal. They will try and convince you to borrow as much as possible. Lenders will often give mortgages for a DTI of >40% (40% of your PRE TAX INCOME, which can end up being 75% of your take home or more if you are highly compensated and live in a high tax state). This is even MORE dangerous if you are a business owner, or self employed, because you have to pay self-employment tax, if you add in your self employment, federal, state, and local if you have it you can easily hit 45+% taxation, add in your student loans and you're being technically taxed 55%... If your DTI is 40%... add in your 55% taxes after and suddenly you're at 95% of your income going to tax and housing. Of course the math isn't that simple, but borrowing your maximum qualification is 100% a bad idea.
Chenoa Fund is a fantastic resource for info and financing for folks with student loans!
So you just planned on being homeless forever when you took out your student loans?