How much money should I spend on a house?
Rule of thumb is your mortgage maximum should be between 2x and 3x your annual income or $180,000 to $270,000. The 28/36 rule is no more than 28% of your gross income to your housing payment and no more than 36% of your gross income to all of your monthly debt obligations (either one can limit you). One of the other answerers is right in saying to come up with the most you feel comfortable affording and figure out how much that buys you. An even better suggestion is to simulate it for a few months (putting the excess over rent into a savings account) to see if it really is what you want to spend. Las Vegas is one of those areas that went crazy during the boom and is going bust right now. It will take quite some time until the mess is sorted out, so look for bargains and foreclosures and even consider waiting for a while for it to settle out some more. good luck!
