How Big Is Your Mortgage?
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34432
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Topic: How Big Is Your Mortgage?
Posted By: yermasyada
Subject: How Big Is Your Mortgage?
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:33pm
OK, this is a super nosey thread, so feel free to ignore  but.......
I'm at a loss to understand how so many people can afford their own home in NZ.  I've only been here 3.5 years, so not a huge amount of experience, but house prices in relation to average earnings just don't add up.
Maybe I'm just to cautious? Maybe it's more common here for people to take bigger risks with buying property? As a general rule of thumb, the maximum we would borrow to buy a home would be 3 x my OH's annual wage (ideally only 2 x or less) and we'd always work out what the repayments would be if interest rates went as high as 15%, and see if it was still affordable. So..... How many times your annual income is your mortgage? If interest rates hit 15%, would you still be able to afford your mortgage? If the main earner of the family lost their job, how many months savings do you have to cover the mortgage etc? |
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Posted By: FionaS
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:45pm
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I think our mortgage is 4x annual income...can't quite recall at the mo.
If interest rates hit 15% we could not pay our mortgage. In the event of DH losing his job we could only pay the mortgage for one month based on our current savings. Bugger huh! On the upside the mortgage is our only debt so we don't have any credit card debts, HPs etc. ------------- Mummy to Gabrielle and Ashley |
Posted By: sem
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:45pm
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How many times your annual income is your mortgage?
2.5 times as big as combined income If interest rates hit 15%, would you still be able to afford your mortgage? Yes If the main earner of the family lost their job, how many months savings do you have to cover the mortgage etc? Too scary to think about, but we'd manage on one income, also only just and with a LOT of sacrifice ------------- Here we go again, another baby on it's way! 
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Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:45pm
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Our mortgage is just under 3 x DPs annual income.
We were able to afford our mortgage @ an interest rate of just under 10% while we were earning a third less than normal coz of the recession. We have, I think, 6 months insurance cover if DP gets laid off and we're trying to save up 6 months mortgage payments. HTH  -------------   
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Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:46pm
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Oh I meant we were able to pay the mortgage in that situation so I reckon we could do 15% -------------
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Posted By: Peanut
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:48pm
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It also depends on the value of the house.
Our mortgage is just under 2x DH's salary but we own just over 3/4's of our house. If interest rates went up to 15% we would be able to afford our mortgage althopugh would involve me working fulltime but I would be fine with that. If DH lost his job we would have no problems paying the mortgage for at least 6 months but DH would be employed again by then or I would be due to our chosen professions. I brought my first home at 20 when I was a student. I was living on student allowance and the token $80 I was allowed to earn on top of that. I had a flatmate too. -------------  
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Posted By: Daizy
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:52pm
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We pay about 4x DH's income. We probably have quite a small mortgage compared to most people, DH just doesn't earn a huge amount.
If interest rates hit 15% then no we wouldn't be able to afford repayments. Usually we would have enough to cover a couple of months repayments but at the moment our saving are scarily low after car repairs, house reno's... oh and buying a new tv  ------------- 
 
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Posted By: _SMS_
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:52pm
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Our mortgage was 3 x the amount of dps old salary but would now be 6 x the amount of his new salary. he started new job this week.
If interests rates went to 15% we wouldnt be able to afford it, but luckily we dont have to worry about that for 5 years, and by then i would be thinking about upgrading our mortgage for a new bigger house because i will be working again We have a small mortgage, we only got a small house, and yet we still needed $50k for a deposit. There was no way we were going to try buy a big house we would be happy in for years but couldnt afford. Im much happier to have a small house we can afford for now. there is always time to upgrade in the future once i am finished being a SAHM. Our mortgage payments for our 3bdrm house are less than what we would pay to rent a 2 bdrm house. -------------  
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 8:53pm
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Too Big!
Mortgage is 3 times our combined salary. We also own over half of our property. 15% is pretty high - we've fixed at 7% DH is in the military losing his job isn't an issue - we'll most likely have our mortgage paid off in 7 years time as DH will be able to collect his super by then, and it more than covers what's left. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">   [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: AzzaNZ
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:00pm
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About 4.5 x our combined income. If one of us lost our job we'd be in serious trouble. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
http://intermittentblogger.wordpress.com |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:04pm
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Yeah our mortgage repayments on our 3 bedroom house are less than what we'd pay in rent for the same size house in our region. We also have heaps of potential re the value - we spend 10k doing it up and the value goes up by 40k soooo better investing in our own house than paying someone elses mortgage -------------
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Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:15pm
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Milliemoo where are you from originally? -------------
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Posted By: yermasyada
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:26pm
Ohhhhh interesting... are you meaning in relation to how much you are prepared to initially invest in a property (ie: deposit) and potentially loose if you were forced to sell and the property had decreased in value? |
Peanut wrote:Posted By: Mrs_B
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:27pm
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Our mortgage is currently quite small as we were lucky enough to buy before the property boom but we are looking at upgrading to a bigger house in a better area so for that will need a much bigger mortgage, about 4.5x DH's earnings.
Yes we would but it would mean I would have to pickup more hours at work. DH is self employed so losing his job is not applicable but if for what ever reason he was unable to work we have income protection insurance and I would be able to go back to work full-time. -------------  
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Posted By: yermasyada
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:28pm
I was raised in the North East of England, then moved to Edinburgh and met my hubby. Stayed there for 10 years and then moved here
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Posted By: JoJames
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:32pm
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Currently on one income our mortgage is 3x dh income.
We had DH's inheritance so we were able to deposit almost a third of the house, but we were very conservative when looking and only bought a house we could easily afford on one income. I think we could afford 15% we'd just have to be super careful. We have enough savings to pay off the mortgage for a few months, but we are currently doing reno's so that would be gone. If DH lost his job, I would go to work (I'm a nurse so there is always work),but we have some mortgage insurance. ------------- http://www.alterna-tickers.com"> 
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Posted By: Staffylicious
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:39pm
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How many times your annual income is your mortgage?
3 times as combined income and we own about 35% of the house If interest rates hit 15%, would you still be able to afford your mortgage? Yes, but with a lot of sacrifice If the main earner of the family lost their job, how many months savings do you have to cover the mortgage etc? We would manage on one income for maybe a year if nothing major happens i.e car blows up ------------- TTC # 1 ~ 2 & 1/2 years Unexplained Infertility Clomid ~ 12 Cycles ~ BFN IUI ~ BFN IVF ~ BFP & 12 frosties [URL=http://lilypie.com][IMG]http://lbdf.lilypie.com/s4HAp12.png][/URL] |
Posted By: luvmylittlies
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:42pm
I have a mortgage in Australia that was 3.5 x my annual salary when I took it out (as a single person). I earn a significant amount less here (around $20k less ) but I try not to think about that. At least my tenants pay most of it now and I just have to make up the gap. But it was a crappy old place just to get my toe in the door. To buy now when I have a partner and a child I'd want something much better - which would be a whole lot more expensive and a whole lot scarier because my partner is hopeless with money.------------- Adoring Mum to Talisin 8/9/11 and Kiara 18/01/10 |
Posted By: _H_
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 9:56pm
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How many times your annual income is your mortgage?
4 and a very little times my wage (mortgage is just in my name) but about 2.5 times our combined income If interest rates hit 15%, would you still be able to afford your mortgage? yes but like someone said there would be a LOT of sacrifice If the main earner of the family lost their job, how many months savings do you have to cover the mortgage etc? None! but i have experience in a certain area so could ring up tomorrow and be working the next day (and there will always be work in that area) the only reason i could afford our place is my parents gave me the deposit |
Posted By: tictacjunkie
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 10:20pm
| Our mortgage is roughly the same as DH's income p.a, we own over 60% of our house. Yes could afford it if rate was 15% no worries. If DH lost his job we have about 3mths payments in savings. But he's qualified for several high demand industries so I doubt he'd be out of work that long. I realise our situation is not the nz norm & I don't quite understand how people can afford to buy in big cities either! I would find a big mortgage too stressful, especially in recent years. |
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 10:46pm
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Mortgage is jsut over 3x my income but just under 2x our combined income. Possibly be able to cope if it went to 15%. If I was to lose my job then we have cover for 6 months of our mortgage, and I am happy to say I was not one of those 200 people at Massey to receive a letter so I know my job is save. ------------- I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 10:52pm
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Our mortgage is about 4x our current annual income, but it was 2.5x our joint income when we bought the house.
We would be able to afford the repayments at 15%, but it would involve a LOT of sacrifice and me probably going back to work in my skilled field, rather than the job I'm in now. Our current interest rate is 9.3%, so not exactly low. We have enough savings for 1 week of mortgage payments, but have the kind of family support that meant we would never lose the house. |
Posted By: WestiesGirl
Date Posted: 01 July 2010 at 11:23pm
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Just out of curiosity, when you say your mortgage is say 3 x your income, is that the amount you paid for your house or is that the amount you borrowed with interest included?? ------------- Our Angel July 08  Gone but not forgotten
And to complete our family, our princess has arrived 
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 7:19am
| Without interest!! With interest it adds about another 6 times our annual income, approx.. |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 7:19am
Oh ours is the amount our house is valued at. We own about a third of our house so the amount we owe is just under 2 x our annual income without interest added and we're paying about 50% more on our repayments than required to get it down. -------------
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Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 7:55am
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Ours is just over 2x our combined income, but as I'll be leaving work when bubs is born it will be 4x DH's salary (we earn basically the same amount). If interest rates went to 15% I'd probably have to go back to work, we've probably got enough savings to cover the mortgage for about 8 months. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 7:56am
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Oh and Westies Girl that is the amount we borrowed, but the number of months we could live for I've based on repayments which obviously includes interest payments. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 7:57am
Nope ours is what's left on our mortgage. We had a sizeable deposit for our house, and it has increased in value in the 4 years we've owned it. We're lucky though in that we live in an affordable part of the country, I have a friend in Akl and she's got a million dollar mortgage - its over 2 properties but still its a lot of money to owe. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 8:26am
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Nope mine is how much is left to pay. ------------- I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: flakesitchyfeet
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 8:53am
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Our mortgage is 3 and a bit times our income, but under 200K, and DH is earning enough that I can stay at home stress free. This will change when we move, but by then his income will have substantially increased. If he lost his job, I can get work pretty quickly easily enough of a similar income, but we would only last a couple of months off savings. We pay off more now then we need to, so would cope if interest went up to15K. We didn't get a handout from our parents as such, but certainly a helping hand in securing the property. -------------  http://lilypie.com"> |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 9:00am
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**threadjack**
OMG Clover you're having a BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!     -------------
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Posted By: GuestGuest
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 9:28am
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Our current mortgage is about two and a half times our combined salaries. Yes we could afford it if interest was hiked to 15% and both of us are on a fairly good income so we could finance it if one of us lost our jobs (DH is on a lot more than me though).
It is definitely harder nowadays to buy a house when you are just starting out. We got really lucky that we bought when the housing market was low. Our first house was only $160k back in 2004, we then sold it two years later for $260k - and had done nothing to it! So then we had that additional $100k to invest into our current home which was a much bigger upgrade in terms of mortgage and size. |
Posted By: T_Rex
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 9:31am
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Ours was twice our combined salary when we bought. Now it is 3 times one of our salaries (we earn the same amount) because we are going hard out to get it paid off - once I go back to work (next week ), pretty much all my wage will be going towards daycare and mortgage.
If interest rates hit 15% we'd be fine because we have paid off so much extra already. We don't have savings as such right now, but we have a $50k flexible mortgage component which is almost fully paid off, so we could draw on that for 2 years or so worth of payments (although I don't think we would do that, but certainly could in the short term till we got sorted again). We own almost half of our place, and it's a lifestyle block with quite a bit of land, so we also have options to subdivide and sell part of it to pay off our mortgage if we needed to. Like Babe and C&J, we chose to live in a smaller town near to the city where we work because we got a lot more for our money there. Plus I wanted land, so we were going to live rural anyway. We have a half hour commute, which isn't too bad, although I'm about to find out what it's like with a baby. DH's job was looking a bit precarious when I went on maternity leave (all good now, thankfully), but I made sure I'd discussed with my boss that I might want to come back early and have DH the SAHD if need be, so there'd always be one of us earning. My sister owns a house in auckland and is 6 months preg. They are selling it now, supposedly because they want to, but I'm pretty sure it's really to avoid a mortgagee sale. We have a much nicer place for a lot less money. So glad I don't live in Auckland! ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: HuntersMama
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 9:44am
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Ours is 3.5 times our combined salary - not that I have a salary at the moment!
If interest rates got to 15% we would have to afford it somehow. And we would be in trouble if DH lost his job. We are managing OK one one income, but its only short term which makes it manageable. I agree that getting into a house at the moment is near impossible. We were lucky getting into our house, but probably took on a mortgage thats a bit bigger than I would have liked. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 9:50am
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Ours is 2.2x DH's income, we own approx 100k of our home. If interest rates went up to 15% we would struggle but I think we could JUST make do. We have just come off a 9% interest rate which while nasty didn't kill us. And if our house hurrys up and sells we are gonna add 30k to our mortgage to get the house we really really really want.
DH brought a small 2 bed townhouse in a good area. Together him and I redecorated and tidied it up and made a good profit on it. Without doing that we wouldn't be able to afford the home we have now. |
Posted By: tictacjunkie
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 10:01am
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By "our mortgage is roughly the same amount as DH's annual income" I mean we still owe that amount, not including interest as we only refix for 2-3years at a time & I wouldn't even try to predict what the interest rate would be next time. Our current valuation is about 3 times what we owe.
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Posted By: clover
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 10:31am
haha, thanks! ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 10:46am
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Just under 3 x Hubby's annual salary (excluding any interest or anything like that. .
Yip we can afford the payments if it goes up to 15% but it will be tight on our budget. If hubby lose his job we are in trouble as he is the only one earning but he should hopefully get another one real soon and get head hunted now and then as well. And we will make it work somehow. We would be here 4 years in Oct and didnt think we can afford a house so soon. Grant literally told me when Andrew was 5 weeks old that we are buying a house and within 4 weeks we bought and signed for the house. (yip huge shock to me and huge huge changes to budget but we are living quite comfortable and doing renovations here and there, bit by bit.) ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Shelt
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 1:30pm
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My mortgage is 6.5 times my annual salary (scary high I know) and the only way I can afford it is to have the house tenanted and G and I live with my parents. It was just over 3 times the ex and my annual income when we were together but now I have taken on the mortgage.
I would have to work full time if the rates when up to 15% (I work 30 hours a week currently) and possibly look for a higher paying job. If I lost my job I have enough savings to cover the shortfall between the rent and the mortgage payments to last about 3 months which would hopefully be long enough to find another job. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: lizzle
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 5:23pm
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ours is 3x our combined salary - that's what the house is valued at - and we've only had the mortgage for a year, so we probably own like a shelf and the bank owns the rest. When we worked out how much we could afford - we put interest rates at 15% - so we can afford it if it gets that high - but obviously with sacrfices - mostly wants tho rather than needs.
we are insured to the eyeballs - so if one of us loses a job, or we have to quit due to injury or illness we'll be okay. also we have insurance on the kids, so if they get sick, we get a huge lump sum that will nearly pay off the mortgage for five years - so one of us can stay home easily. we could live off one income in saying that. |
Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 02 July 2010 at 5:37pm
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I think ours would be 2.5 what DH earns in the hand?
Yeah we could suck it up! I was doing his accounts for Apr/May & our interest portion on our revolving credit mortgage was $100 more a fortnight & that is just the interest payment. We are coming off fixed in Nov after being fixed for 5 years, hopefully the rates will stay low or about the same as what we had. ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com"> 
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 3:02pm
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Ours is 5.5 times my DH's salary but only 3x our combined income.
DH won't lose his job (army), and I don't need mine to pay the mortgage. If DH does get injured and can't work he gets paid out, and we also have his super which would pay off 2/3 of the mortgage. We wouldn't afford our house if interest rates were at 15% - but it's very very unlikely they will get that high for quite some time - in the late 80's stockmarket crash they only got to 18-22%, and that was a lot worse than what the world's economy is at the moment. |
Posted By: bumblebee
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 4:17pm
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How many times your annual income is your mortgage?
Maybe 2.5 times DP pay (we did pay a bit for the deposit If interest rates hit 15%, would you still be able to afford your mortgage? Yes, but there would be some sacrifices If the main earner of the family lost their job, how many months savings do you have to cover the mortgage etc? Dont have much on savings at the mo but we would servive on my income but would to cut back on things like sky etc... ------------- [URL=http://lilyslim.com][IMG]http://swlm.lilyslim.com/xSCep12.png][/URL] [URL=http://lilypie.com][IMG]http://lb1m.lilypie.com/yjadp12.png][/URL] |
Posted By: amme_eilyk
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 7:01pm
| 2.6 times dh's, 1.7 times both of ours and 5 times mine. so we really need dh to keep his job. ours is about $30 less a week than we would pay to rent this house so. Either way we would be able to afford it. |
Posted By: scribe
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 8:47pm
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Ours will be 4 times DH's income. I know that is a lot, but it'll only be for another two years max, until I can start earning again, and we're happy to make sacrifices in the meantime if it means we get to live in a new, warm, family-friendly house.
I don't think the problem is that house prices are too high (although they have definitely gone a bit high, and will probably flatten out during the next few years), I think it's that wages are too low in NZ. We could live a really good lifestyle with overseas trips etc, when we were living in NZ and DH was earning UK pounds (then our mortgage was 2.3 times his income), but his new NZ wage - for the same kinda job - is much smaller. Like everything else, the housing market has become globalised - people overseas buying here and pushing prices up, bringing house prices into line with overseas prices ... but maybe when nearly every skilled person has left to work in Melbourne, London or Hong Kong, wages will rise too! ETA: but no of course wages won't rise, unless NZ can make more money, by adding value to its commodity exports or by exporting more valuable stuff like technology... |
Posted By: snooze
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 9:59pm
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Interesting thread! Ours is 4x DH salary and 3x our combined. It used to be 1.7 times our combined but I left that job after DS was born and now work part time. We own about 60% of our house, but it was kinda expensive and maybe more than we should have paid, we are here for good now though as we don't need anything else!
15% would really be streching it, but we do have a reserve in that we have a family bach that I own with my bro's. We are considering selling and if so, our mortgage will be 1.7 times DH salary which is very manageable. As for cash reserves we operate a overdraft home loan so we would need to dip into that. When I left my old job I paid my superannuation against the mortgage, so that is gone .------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Blankney94
Date Posted: 06 July 2010 at 11:54pm
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Interesting reading! Our remaining mortgage is 3 x DH's wage - I've just been made redundant. We own a nice house built last year on a lifestyle block, and we own over 70% of it. We only have average jobs, but both sold a house each during the 'boom' and I have saved like a little squirrel since I was 18. We could afford the mortgage if rates went to 15%. Most of our mortgage is fixed at 5.75% and we only have a small floating portion. We don't have cash reserves, but we do have an emergency credit card and also have some livestock we could sell. We don't have any other loans, HPs etc. We also have income protection insurance for DH's job. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Lulu
Date Posted: 07 July 2010 at 10:14am
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We have three properties, one mortgage free, one that is about 1/3 of DH's wage and the third that is about 9 x DH's wage - however the third property has about 70% equity and several income streams i.e. it is a rural property with three houses and a commercial building as well as a water source that we lease out the rights to be bottled. I would put us in the asset rich, cash poor category which can be frustrating sometimes! ------------- Lou http://www.babysfirstsite.com"> 
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Posted By: myfullhouse
Date Posted: 08 July 2010 at 10:02am
Our mortgage is 5.3 times DH's salary  !! We have just extended the house from 94m2 to 164m2 so it cost a bit! Although I do work a bit part time and we also get a bit from WFF so that helps.
If the interest rates went up to 15% we could not afford to pay the mortgage in our current situation. However I work part time for the company I worked for before I had the boys and I am 100% sure that if I wanted to go back full time I could. I would think that we could afford 15% then. And our combined income would take the mortgage down to 2.8 times (or less) our combined salaries We have no savings as it was taken up with the extension. But as I said I could go back to work straight away and earn almost as much as DH if not the same depending on the role work gave me. This is all quite interesting (and scary!) to think about ------------- Lindsey 
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Posted By: SophieD
Date Posted: 08 July 2010 at 11:23am
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this is really interesting :-)
our new mortgage is about 2.5x dH's income and yes we could afford to pay it at 15% (not much left over though so would be horrible!) We have insurance for it DH lost his job which covers about 6months I think and then we could pay it on my income if I worked fulltime. We have always been pretty cautious though and prefer to travel overseas etc then have a large mortgage so I guess that affects our choices :-) ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 08 July 2010 at 1:31pm
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It is really interesting, but remember that most people are at different stages in their lives, for example, I'm only 24 and have only had a mortgage for 3 years so we haven't paid off as much equity say, as someone who has been in the property market for 10 years, got lucky in the boom and was on 2 incomes before having kids.
So don't freak out if you're in the higher ratio bracket, we all end up with the same at the end of the day (house, kids). |
Posted By: sbeach
Date Posted: 08 July 2010 at 4:20pm
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this is really interesting reading...
Our mortgage is about 3 x our combined incomes but nearly 6 x DH's...only 4 more months of 2 incomes *gulp* We live in Auckland and have only had our house three years If the interest rate went to 15% we could afford if I was working too...it would be tough though... If DH lost his job and his income protection insurance didnt cover it (only have the sickness one) then I could go back to work full time and he become a SAHD (which is what he wants anyway!!!) we have about 2 months of repayments covered with saving but that money is already earmarked for baby stuff and current building projects so wont be there for long! ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
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