{"id":17,"date":"2026-09-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.room-vu.com\/kimmarinloans-com\/2026\/09\/23\/home-affordability-may-be-better-than-headlines\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:00:00","slug":"home-affordability-may-be-better-than-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/23\/home-affordability-may-be-better-than-headlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Affordability May Be Better Than Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-zmyer\">\n<div class=\"video-frame-zmyer\">\n        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.roomvu.com\/agent\/embed\/kim-marin\/home-affordability-headlines-remotion-videos-864a\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><br \/>\n        <\/iframe>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"video-description-zmyer\">\n<p>You may be seeing headlines highlighting how tough home affordability is right now, but as someone who\u2019s helped families navigate these waters for over 20 years, I know there\u2019s more to the story. When we look at what buyers are actually facing, it\u2019s not just about the sticker price. For example, financing a home around $417K at about 6% interest means spending roughly 32% of your income on your mortgage, and about 43% when you include total housing costs.<\/p>\n<p>What really challenges most folks? It\u2019s often about saving enough for the upfront costs and managing higher insurance\u2014real hurdles, but not roadblocks that make homeownership impossible. The old rule of needing 20% down? That\u2019s less true today. First-time buyers have access to low down payment options, FHA loans, and even zero-down programs in some cases.<\/p>\n<p>My approach has always been to focus on your local payment math, check your savings comfort level, and look for ways to boost your credit and income. Don\u2019t let sweeping national headlines decide your future\u2014let\u2019s look at your unique situation and find out what\u2019s possible for you.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may be seeing headlines highlighting how tough home affordability is right now, but as someone who\u2019s helped families navigate these waters for over 20 years, I know there\u2019s more to the story. When we look at what buyers are actually facing, it\u2019s not just about the sticker price. For example, financing a home around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kimmarinloans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}