I’ve Upped My Housing Budget When Looking for a New House. Here’s Why

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I’ve increased the amount I plan to spend on a home. Read on to learn why I decided my original budget was too conservative. 

I’m in the market to buy a new house. When I started my search, I had a set budget in mind, but I’ve since increased it. I’m now looking for houses that cost as much as 10% more than I had originally planned on spending.

Here are a few big reasons why I’ve made this choice.

I don’t want to move again

I have moved several times over the past 10 years because I wasn’t quite in the right house. We were initially living in a home that was too small for our growing family, then we ended up needing to move to a different location, and then the house we bought was in a high-traffic area that became a pain to deal with.

I really do not want to move again any time soon, since each time I do it is expensive and time consuming. And once I started looking for houses, it became abundantly clear that if I wanted to purchase a home I’d be happy to stay in for a very long time, I would need to spend more than I had originally planned.

There were simply no houses in my desired location with private backyards that were big enough for my family that fell within my budget. While I could have moved further out or bought a smaller house, doing either of those things likely meant I would be moving again soon since I wouldn’t be happy with either of those alternatives over the long haul.

I was conservative in my estimated budget

Another big reason why I decided to increase my housing budget was that I was very conservative when I set my initial spending limit.

I don’t generally want to commit too much of my income to housing costs because I have other goals, like saving for school for my kids and traveling a ton and investing for my retirement. So, I’ve generally tried to keep my mortgage costs and total housing payments well below what I could afford — and well below the 25% of my income, which many financial experts recommend capping costs at.

Since I had some wiggle room and I needed more money to live where I wanted in the kind of house I prefer, I felt comfortable increasing the amount I was prepared to spend.

Our household income has increased

I was also comfortable increasing my budget because we have more money coming into our house. My husband has expanded his business by hiring a new person to work in his office under him, and I have been able to continue to increase the work I do over time as my kids become a little bit older and are able to be left with other caregivers for longer.

Since I am making more money, I can easily afford a higher mortgage payment on my new home than I had originally planned.

My experience shows that there can come a time when you need to make an adjustment from what you originally planned when you started the house-hunting process. But, if that happens, the important thing is to make sure you run the numbers and ensure your choices are right for you over the long term. I wouldn’t have upped my budget if I couldn’t easily afford it, so I would have had to make a different kind of change if things didn’t pan out, like perhaps opting to buy a fixer-upper.

Just be prepared for the fact that buying a house may not look exactly like you thought it would, as there are inevitably going to be some surprises along the way.

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