Damn right it’s not. North of $200.00 in the majority of growing areas of the state.

Yes we could with no issue, but we are also smarter than that. We are on 20 acres, bought with cash. Restored an old house that was on the property, and owe nothing. We did not run out and buy a house that was at the max of what banks said we could borrow. Our house in Madison we were lucky and bought at the bottom of the market with a 15 year loan, lived in it for 11 years and sold near the top of the market. Our interest rate was nothing, and the house was well below what we could afford. Luckily we had finished the mountain house so we didnt need to buy one. My wife and I have never tried to impress anyone with what we buy, and I think that is a major issue in todays world with people trying to be flashy.

Yes, but we wouldn't have built/bought in today's market. We built 2 years ago with a sub 3% rate, with the current rate our payment would be almost $1600 more per month than we locked in 2 years ago. Everybody thought we were crazy building in the covid inflated construction material times, but we saved a boat load over the 30 yr time frame compared to if we built today with the high rates/lower material cost.

Built in 2009 which was one of the lowest material cost windows in some time. Called in all my favors from people I had wired houses for over the years. Was my own contractor and had a hand in everything except sheetrock. Paid it off in 20 and retired in 21. Feels good living "MY" house !!!

Yes, but I purchased my house in 2002.

I'd sell it to my self at bargain price, so yes I could.

I will use real numbers because I don't think some understand the math......

$250k house @ 5% = approx $1,350 monthly payment

$500k house @ 7.5% = approx $3,500 monthly payment

Same house 10 years apart. This is very realistic in a lot the nicer neighborhoods in Birmingham BTW.

Your Property tax and insurance also go up comparably with the value and replacement costs.

The question is you bought the house @ $250k 10 years ago.... can you afford it today?


If you bought a few acres down by the creek and been living there for 40 years and have it paid off that's great..... that's not OP's question.

It's like people are purposefully trying not to understand the question, I thought the question/concept was pretty straightforward.

I could, but would not want to
Value up over 120k
3.5 vs 7.5% makes a big difference in monthly payments

I understood what the OP was saying.
Yes, I could buy it again today, at what it’s worth today.

There’s probably some people in here lying to themselves too.

I purchased my house in 2003 for $108,500. Based on property around my area I think at the high end it's worth $200,000 today. I could afford to buy it today at 8% interest.

1.25. Could do it but would hate to.

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Pretty sure my place would be over 1MM if I were to try to buy one like it today. Not sure what that monthly payment would be, but I doubt I could swing it.

Like I said before, I am concerned about what kind of situation my kids will be faced with. I have a nice house on about 200 acres on a dirt road, not a mansion on some giant tract of land. 20 years ago owning a decent size tract and a nice home outside of town was attainable for a middle-class family, but not anymore. My wife and I work hard and have good jobs, but there is ZERO chance we could afford to buy anything that's over a million bucks, plus how could we justify paying that much for something that's not going to earn us any return on our investment.

We do have some timber but honestly, I will be lucky if I make $3,000/acre over the life of a stand of loblolly. Hard to justify spending (and financing) a pile of money to buy a decent tract of land knowing the timber may not even cover the cost of the purchase price. A person can literally invest in anything (CD's, money market, mutual funds, etc.) and have a better return than buying land as a timber investment. But land continues to be purchased around me at these sky-high prices. I just don't know who has the money to pay for it.

What’s it matter now is now and then was back then these two are mutually inclusive but that don’t matter currently

The math on mine is P&I is just under $700/mo. If I had to buy it now, and put 20% down, my note would be about $65K higher, and at todays interest rate, P&I would be $1,500/mo.

Insurance and property tax add another $150 to $200/mo. That would be tough on 1 income.