{"id":22823,"date":"2023-11-06T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=22823"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:25:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:25:54","slug":"buyer-avoid-being-house-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-avoid-being-house-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Being House Poor With These 8 Critical Buyer Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you imagine paying a mortgage<\/a>, does it make you feel a little queasy? Are you worried or anxious you won\u2019t have any money left over at the end of the month?<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not alone. There\u2019s a term for this scenario: It\u2019s called being \u201chouse poor<\/a>,\u201d \u2014 when your housing costs eat up the bulk of your income. It\u2019s an uncomfortable way to live, but you don\u2019t have to resign yourself to it if you want to buy a house. You can have a mortgage and still afford the things you want in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n \"homelight\n <\/div>\n \n

Step one: Talk to a few buyer's agents!<\/h3>\n

Tell us a little bit about your plans (where you’re looking to buy and when you want to make a purchase) and we’ll connect you with top-rated buyer’s agents in your area. It takes only a few minutes, and it’s free.<\/p>\n \n

\n Get Started<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But if you want to avoid being house poor, you\u2019re going to need to do a little work upfront to make sure your home loan<\/a> is going to be manageable for you once you\u2019ve bought the house. (And with home values skyrocketing<\/a> across much of the country, it\u2019s possible that you might not be able to avoid being house poor, at least at first.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve combed through the lending data and talked to some experts to help you figure out exactly what you need to do to avoid being house poor \u2014 before signing that dotted line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What does \u2018house poor\u2019 mean?<\/h2>\n

The basic definition of house poor means spending more than you can afford on your housing expenses. That means not just your mortgage payment, but other housing costs, too, such as insurance, taxes, and maintenance. When you\u2019re house-poor, too much of your income is tied up in your house<\/a>, making it difficult to pay for the other necessities of life.<\/p>\n

How much is \u201ctoo much\u201d when it comes to housing expenses? Well, there are different measures, but financial experts commonly recommend you spend no more than 30% of your income on housing costs \u2014 and 28% is better<\/a>. In 2022, real median household income<\/a> declined by 2.3 percent, falling to $74,580 from the 2021 estimate of $76,330. With a monthly income of about $6,215, it’s recommended not to spend more than $1,740.20 on your home each month.<\/p>\n

That figure would include not just your mortgage, but your utilities<\/a>, too. And home insurance and maintenance<\/a> costs and taxes. Ouch.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

How being house poor holds you back<\/h3>\n

So what\u2019s the big deal if you spend more than 30% on your housing costs<\/a>? It\u2019s a free country, right? With mortgage rates reaching their highest levels since 2000, the average American now allocates as much as 43% of their income<\/a> to afford a home.<\/p>\n

The more of your money that goes to housing, the less you have to spend on other costs<\/a>, and with the average American spending more<\/a> on food, healthcare, and transportation, year over year, that\u2019s going to leave less and less for everything else: education, savings, insurance, and retirement<\/a>. That doesn\u2019t even include the fun stuff, such as brunch, weddings, or vacations.<\/p>\n

When your assets are all tied up in your house, you can\u2019t afford to save up<\/a> an emergency fund or put money away for a splurge. There\u2019s less wiggle room for things that come up in life, like needing a new furnace and central air<\/a> (that will run you about $7,000 on average<\/a>) or replacing a roof<\/a> ($9,211 on average cost according to Angi<\/a>).<\/p>\n

You might live paycheck-to-paycheck (at least, statistically speaking<\/a>), so one bad run of luck, one job loss, could put your mortgage \u2014 and therefore your home \u2014 in jeopardy<\/a>. And if you have unsteady work (hello, gig workers, permalancers, and contract employees), it\u2019s tougher to predict your finances from one month to the next.<\/p>\n

You might even struggle to make ends meet, choosing which bills to pay in a month, and putting necessities<\/a> on a credit card. You could be racking up finance charges<\/a> and late fees, and putting yourself further behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you avoid being house poor? Start with researching what you can realistically afford, then take steps to improve your finances before the mortgage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":38953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192,620,623],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-buyers","category-buy-house","category-afford-home"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou Can Avoid Being House Poor ... If You Know This Before You Buy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you avoid being house-poor? 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