House buying - No idea what one can afford

No offense, but you're fooling yourself there. Vacation and Christmas bonuses are just window dressing for the employee. I don't receive that. Why? Because my salary is fundamentally higher than such, I apologize, nonsense.

Alright then, add it to the regular income. It amounts to the same thing. But profit distributions count?

Quite specifically, we saw a dream house that is listed by the Sparkasse for 399k, but it dates back to 1964, so there is certainly still a lot to do and there will be later. That means you would need 450k alone just to get the thing

Right. 450k just to get it. You haven’t even had a single wall freshly painted, nor laid a square meter of carpet. And with two 50-hour jobs, you can’t really contribute any equity, or manage the move yourself.

Add another 30k on top so that it’s somewhat okay for you.

That means financing 490k. Assume 2.8% interest (due to the over-100% loan-to-value ratio; and 15-year fixed interest period) and 2.5% repayment: That already means 2164 EUR monthly for the installment. Then add another ~400-450€ for ancillary costs (1964 also doesn’t sound energy efficient).

That makes 2600 EUR per month; and that for the next 32 YEARS!

Another topic: Are such house prices still negotiable or is everything basically fixed when it goes through the Sparkasse brokers?

At the moment the market is simply so greedy, you can’t expect any concession at all. Unless it’s a really bad location or has restrictions, the houses sell like hotcakes.

You can ask the Sparkasse if they will finance you.

Given the current market situation, rather in theory

For many financiers, existing properties are more of a risk or a ball and chain. It is not uncommon for 20-30% to be deducted from the purchase price for the loan. Without equity, it is actually utopian, then you quickly end up with a 140%+ financing.

To make it even clearer for you. With a 2.5% repayment rate (the bank might want even more due to the high loan-to-value ratio; but 2.5% is currently common for 95% financing) you need to get the €490,000 for 1.3% interest.

Then you would have a monthly loan payment of €1,552 (1.3% interest; 2.5% repayment); plus the €450 ancillary costs.

No matter how much of an academic you are, you won't get that in 5 years.

By the way, the bank evaluates *now* to decide on the terms and feasibility.

Thank you for the further answers. It is also about calming my emotional wife a bit, who would prefer to buy tomorrow.

We have 2 workplaces far apart, so the potential place to live is quite limited and this would at least fit there. But the rest not really. Too expensive in itself, then logically having to invest something, not the most energy efficient, etc.

What happens from the banks' and scoring perspective if I am completely debt-free and only have a car lease running, which I think will always be ongoing anyway, I nowadays no longer really see a car as debt, even if many see it differently. It should always have roughly the same value as the remaining loan, so that the outstanding amount and the value neutralize each other.

Is one then still worse off in scoring because one had loans or even better because it shows that one has always paid everything off without problems?

A buddy bought a 130k house, has to have it completely renovated, got a 200k loan, only one income and also many small loans... that probably blinded me a bit. I don’t really want to pay more than 2k at the moment for outstanding loans and probably even less income if another child comes.

Although I don’t know whether one should then buy something cheaper, maybe something new, significantly smaller around a total sum of 300k or even less, or pay off first plus ideally build equity and then buy something bigger later. But I think it will come down to number 1. Maybe pay everything off completely now, then there would only be BAföG from my wife at some point (I think that is not scoring relevant, right?), so that one takes a cheaper loan without equity but also without debts and just lives smaller...

How is the calculation done here? Doesn't the monthly rate in combination with repayment and interest rate also depend heavily on the term and remaining balance? Or am I mistaken? That would mean less repayment and that is not possible with bad parameters? I thought 2% is a lot nowadays... In the past, many had only 1%... but as you can see, I am not an expert..

I then wonder how others with significantly less income take out loans of 300k or even more... that's why this post exists here.. Then it seems that with half the income but 20k equity, one is much better off regarding house building and a 30-year loan, meaning if the basic income is higher...