If he makes $100k he should be able to buy a $300k house FWIW. Unless that is, he has a lot of extra expenses (multiple car payments, hookers, blow…).
The town I lived in until about a year ago (Gilroy) is a 45 minute drive to my office w/o traffic. Peak commute hours, it can easily double. Housing is cheaper there, I could probably get a nice place in the 400s. To get into the 300s I’d have to be about 2hours away from my office w/o traffic, but out some of the worst rush-hour freeways in the world. I had thought about buying something out that way, in a particular a town where they’re about to build a giant multi-function motorsports complex in the next few years.
But I’m not commuting 4+ hours/day. So I figured I’d crash at my Parents’ place mon-thurs nights. But do I really want to get into a mortgage for a place I’ll be at just on the weekends in the Central Valley (hot, land-locked, nothing to do, nowhere to go)? Maybe, we’ll see.
-TJ