What price house would I be able to comfortably afford?

Conventional wisdom is that your mortgage can comfortably be about 2.5 times your annual income. Do you have a 20 percent down payment?

3 times your salary is your maximum mortgage amount Ex: $15,600 a year (your salary) = $46,800 home Note: The maximum is a recipe for disaster Many articles suggest: 2 times your annual salary as a mortgage: Ex: $15,600 a year = $31,200 mortgage This will allow you to save for the things you want such as for buying a car, saving for retirement, vacations, retirement Note: Banks do not make mortgages for amounts of less than 40K to 50K You will need a down payment and good credit with little or no debt Rent the cheapest place you can find and save up for a home of your dreams. I would not pay more than $325 in rent = 25% of your income This will allow you to save. Any more and you will struggle

Rule of Thumb: Same rules for buying or renting as % of income. You can afford to spend 2 to 2.5 times annual income, NOT more than 3 times annual income to buy a home. OR, you can spend 1/4 of monthly income on housing, not more than 1/3 with all utilities. The MORE you put down, the better your chance of loan approval and the LESS you pay in interest over the life of the loan. Putting down 20% avoids substantial extra costs of PMI. Most common mistake of first time buyers is OVEREXTENDING themselves, buying MORE house than they need or can afford.

Your house with insurance and taxes shouldnt cost more than 90k. Good luck, we've been looking for 2 years. You really should look for somewhere around 80k

You are looking at a house no more than $90,000 and that would not be comfortable. Assuming that you could spend the entire $700 on a mortgage, you first have to take $200 right off the top for homeowners insurance and taxes, meaning you would have no more than $500 a month towards principal and interest. Mortgage payments at 4% for 30 years on $100,000 is about $480. Assuming you have less than $20,000 to put down, you would need PMI which will eat up the last $20 (or more). However, you will also need extra money for maintenance (as a house owner you are responsible for ALL maintenance - plumbers, yard maintenance, etc.). If there was an HOA, you would have HOA dues, and there is more. Working solely off your income, I assume that since you are taking your expenses off the $1,300, that is your net income, meaning your gross income is probably closer to $1,700 a month or $20,000 a year, meaning your max mortgage is about $60,000. At best, you can look around for a $63,000 house (you'll need $3,000 down payment plus another $3,000 in closing costs at a minimum).

The rule of thumb is 2.5 times your yearly gross income. But to get better numbers it is always a better idea to go sit down with a local mortgage banker who can also advise you on any credit issues you may have and give you different loan options. When it comes to buying a house, the place to start is with a lender. When it comes to renting you want your rent to not exceed 35% of your monthly gross income. I am willing to bet your expense estimations are incomplete (for getting things like car insurance, gas, clothes, laundry, taxes, etc).