How to find the perfect home

It isn't the one that has everything. It's the one with more of what you want and less of what you don't. This system can guide you to it.

A home's true cost
Mortgage Payment
month year
TIP: Use about $660 a month for every $100,000 you borrow.
Annual Maintenance
TIP: Figure 2% to 4% of the purchase price.
Property Tax and Association Fees
TIP: Check with your broker.
Annual Utility Costs
TIP: Get recent bills for utilities (winter and summer), including trash removal, and water and sewage service.
Annual Insurance
TIP: Get estimate at insure.com and insweb.com.
Gross annual income
CALCULATE
Total annual housing expenses
Expenses as % of your gross income
Your total annual outlay should be no more than a third of your gross income (ideally, less). Your cost of ownership appears to be manageable with your income.
Your total annual outlay should be no more than a third of your gross income (ideally, less). Your cost of ownership appears to be more than may be comfortable with your income.
A home's true cost
I see a lot of buyers make a basic mistake: When deciding if a particular house fits their budget, they look only at listed price and their probable mortgage payments.

But to make an honest comparison of the houses on your list, you must consider all the costs you'll be facing. In addition to mortgage payments, there are maintenance costs, property taxes and homeowners association fees, utilities and insurance.

Your total outlay should be no more than a third of your gross income (ideally, less). Use the calculator to the right to see if you meet this benchmark.
Alison Rogers is the author of "Diary of a Real Estate Rookie."
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.