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# When Are You Ready to Buy a Home?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/El8xVsdn.m3u8" -->
## Video: When Are You Ready to Buy a Home?

[Watch (HLS stream): When Are You Ready to Buy a Home?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/El8xVsdn.m3u8) (1:52)

![When Are You Ready to Buy a Home?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/El8xVsdn/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-04-12. Harold Pollack has a few benchmarks you should hit before you close the deal._


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Jul 27, 2023 7:54 PM UTC

---

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### Ask Yourself These Questions Before You Buy A Home

[Financial Advice From Harold Pollack](/video/F2fDY9SE/)

### Financial Advice From Harold Pollack

---


## Transcript

I'm here with Harold Pollock, he is the co- author of; The Index Card, Why Personal Finance doesn't have to be complicated. Home ownership has long been the quint essence of the American dream. But you say it's not right for everybody and every time, can you explain? It is the most leveraged and undiversified investment most of us will ever make and so And that's bad? That is definitely bad. Suppose that I buy a $ 300. 000 house and I have a pretty small down payment. And the housing market happens to do poorly in my area, and my $ 300, 000 house becomes worth ony $ 250, 000. Well, it might be hard for me to sell it if I owe more on the house then the house is worth at any moment, and I've lost a huge chunk of my wealth That comes from, you know, I could lose $ 50, 000 if my house becomes less valuable, even though maybe I only had a $ 5, 000 down payment for that house.

That's pretty scary. Something can also happen to my job that makes it hard for me to repay my mortgage, or something could happen to my marriage or my family in some other way. So housing brings a big risk. When do you think someone is ready to take on that risk? I think you want to have a good 20 % down payment, and on top of that 20 % down payment, you want to have a strategic reserve so if your boiler bursts or your roof leaks, you're ready to deal with that. So I tell people, don't rush into home ownership, and don't do anything that allows you to get into your home sooner if you can't really afford it.

You want to get a vanilla ice cream 30 year mortgage They're pretty inexpensive. If you can't really afford to do that, that's kind of God's little way of saying it's a little early for you to be buying a house right now. Good advice, thank you very much. [ MUSIC ]

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