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Buying a Home Before Getting a Car Payment
Buying a home before getting a car payment is a good idea because the bank will lower the amount you can afford by the amount of your car payment. The bank basically takes all of your income and subtracts your current loans to come up with a monthly amount you can afford. Then they translate that into an amount of home and taxes to tell you you're approved for $150,000.
So if your mortgage lender approves you for about $1,500 per month for your mortgage loan and then you go buy a new car with a monthly payment of $250 they'll subtract the $250 right off the $1,500. That obviously gives you less available mortgage payment which translates into less home.
If you get approved for $150,000 and you want to translate it into a monthly amount then start looking at a couple $150,000 homes on the market. Notice the average amount of taxes and figure out the monthly amount for taxes. Then use a mortgage calculator to see what the monthly payment is on a $150,000 mortgage. Then add the 2 together to see a close number of what you can afford per month.
Now that you've done that it can help you find slightly more home for your money. If you came up with $1,500 and $400 is the average amount of taxes then you should keep a closer eye on the homes with less taxes. If you save $100 per month on taxes you can transfer that into the mortgage payment and afford more home. $100 over a 30 year mortgage is $17,000 more home to buy. Use a mortgage calculator and plug in the mortgage amount until the payment is $100 and you can add that amount to your home.
The next thing you want to do is find the best current interest rate. If you can find a half percent better then you can afford more home too. If you get 5.50% instead of 6% you can afford $30 more per month which is another $5,000 towards your home. Playing with the mortgage calculator will teach you more than you thought was available to learn. Many things will pop into your head that you might be able to finagle into more home.
Knowledge and the use of a mortgage calculator will save you thousands of dollars. | 
