Rule of thumb - you can afford a mortgage (when you have the required employment) of three times your salary- so you are okay there for a $300K mortgage.
You need minimum credit scores of 640...you are borderline. With say a 650, you won't be looking at the best rate, which today is right around 4% - if you could get a mortgage, you are looking at 5 - 5.5%.
So, running the numbers using 5% and a $300,000 mortgage, your Principal and Interest comes out at just about $1,700/month. To that, you add in property tax, home owners insurance, and Private Mortgage Insurance (since your equity is less than 20%) - figure on $300,000, that adds another $400 per month - so now your payment is at $2,100 - right in your range.
Now the bad news - you don't have enough actual cash. The minimum down payment for a mortgae if you go FHA is 3.5% - that is $10,500. But wait, you say,m I should have $15,000 handy. True, but you will have to also pay closing costs which can be 5 - 6% of the cost of the house AND in addition to don payment and closing, you will need to have two month's worth of payments in the bank - that's another $4,200. In essence, you need about 10% of the price of the house in cash - about $30,000 for a $300,000 house (this can cut down if you can convince the seller to pick up some of the closing and you can also negotiate with the closing/title company on some of the fees - but you are still looking at probably 7% - or about $21,000 in a nest case scenario). And none of his includes costs you will incur after buying the house - such as furnishing it, lawn equipment, etc. - none of which you should even think of buying in the 6 - 9 months leading up to purchase. Pay cash for this stuff and you dip into that needed money, charge it and you run the risk of having your mortgage denied.
Suggestion - spend the next 18 months building up your on-the-job time, saving as much as you can to get that $30,000 (that way of you get closing help, you have a cushion), and fixing your credit. IN about 18 months of seriously working on your credit, you should have your scores above 700 which can save you 1/2 a point on that interest rate - which can lower your payment $100 a month.
Credit needs to be 640 minimum, get those scores up.
You will need more time on your job.
Interest rate shouldn't be above 5%. If you have to be above 5.5%, wait until your credit is better.
$2500 mortgage payment will be borrowing probably $250K or so, and $10K isn't enough to put down. You need 3.5% down minimum, plus closing costs.
You can call any mortgage lender today & give them this info to get pre-qualified. They do this free & you can tell them you aren't ready yet. You may have problems if either of you have scores under 640 though. Most lenders require that as a minimum score for both borrowers.
You BOTH need to have steady employment for, at least, 2-years before even thinking about buying a home.
Remember, NO one will give you a loan on 'anticipated' wages.
I will be graduating in December with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and as soon as I get a job my husband and I want to start looking for a house to buy for ourselves and two young boys. I know I can use mortgage calculators online, but I don't know how accurate (or close to) they really are. I really want to get an idea of how much my monthly mortgage will be to give me an idea of what neighborhoods to start researching for homes. I've heard before that a mortgage is roughly 1% of the home cost. Ex: home price $300,000 mortgage $3,000/mn.
Stats:
Credit scores - both between 600-650
Anticipated yearly income combined - 130k
Monthly credit card bills - $700
Interest rate - hoping for less than 7??
Down payment - between 10-15k
Home price - depends on what monthly mortgage will be.
I really think we will be able to afford at least a $2000 - $2500 monthly mortgage
