What would be a reasonable maximum loan amount for us?

We would never never ever spend €300,000 or more on a condominium. And if that’s not possible, then it’s not possible, then we will rent.

We saw it similarly and our construction costs were very low compared to others here in the forum. However, lifetime cannot be fully calculated in terms of money. If you spend one hour every day going to the city and one hour returning, that is about 18 days per year spent on the road. Assuming you don’t want to build new anymore, that amounts to almost 2 years spent on the road in 30 years. Now you have to weigh what your time is worth. If the maximum daily working hours are limited by a daycare mother/kindergarten/school, then less commuting time could mean more work and thus more earnings, which could offset the additional costs for the land. Possibly you also don’t need a second car. All this should be considered. I am a typical small-town person and would probably get lost in the city. However, a village was also not an option for us. I don’t want to either encourage or discourage you, but you should be clear about what living outside means. Deciding something now out of desperation due to your current financial situation that you would regret in 5 years would be fatal.

No, so it would still only be 15 minutes by S-Bahn instead of now 15 minutes by tram. Of course, the S-Bahn doesn't run as often as the tram (every 30 minutes versus every 5-10 minutes), but it's not like we would be traveling and waiting for hours. We wouldn’t need a second car because the place also has a tram connection (which only runs every 20 minutes there and takes noticeably longer to get to the city center, which is why the S-Bahn would be preferable). We have even lived in this small town for a while before. Sure, we would prefer to stay on the outskirts of the city, like we do now. But not at any price. We will now have some things checked out and then take another look at the pros and cons list. But if we still think we would rather stay on the outskirts instead of moving to the suburb, then we will just stay here and keep renting.

OK then you know what is coming your way.

I have to say that until now I was rather opposed to the idea of moving to the suburb. I really love the short distances and the better connections in the city. Objectively speaking, though, that's actually nonsense. That's why we want to get informed about it first and then reassess. Although this initiative mostly comes from my husband, I am happy to reconsider if we have all the necessary information for decision-making. Of course, it would be nicest if we could find a pretty little house in the city within our budget. But we can probably forget that dream if we don't want to put all our money into the house.

...because it’s certainly nice to see in the end how things actually went:

At the beginning of 2017, we made the deal of the century and bought a house from 1921, which actually had a value of about €280,000-300,000; for €198,000 from an owners’ association that just wanted to get rid of it quickly – with a lot of energy and persistence, we finally won the bid. We paid the incidental purchase costs out of equity and financed €239,000. From that, we carried out the necessary renovations (completely everything inside from electricity to bathrooms, doors, etc.; from the outside the house was still in good condition), moved in quickly (after only 5 months of renovation) and have since been finishing what was not yet done bit by bit out of current income. The house is a semi-detached house, small but in a great location, with a beautiful garden, great neighbors, and we are very happy with it. We pay €1,052 monthly to the bank and about €319 in additional costs (water, electricity, gas, chimney sweep, heating maintenance, building insurance, street cleaning, garbage collection, property tax). It’s tight but doable. My husband now earns €2,690 net, and I am starting this year with about €900-1,700 net (depending on whether part-time or full-time). We are satisfied and would do it again, but always only on the premise that it was clear that I would also start earning again soon. In the long run, it would be too tight and leave hardly any room for vacations or important larger savings. Currently, we only pay into the private pension insurance in a reduced form and required coverages like disability and life insurance, but no building savings contract or similar. Once I earn alongside, we can save again and also go on vacation. And prospectively, both salaries will definitely increase significantly. The house is now, just 1 year later and renovated, worth significantly more than what we paid and invested.

Maybe this will help others here.