Jessica Smith

I recently acquired some property in Bend, OR where I have lived my entire life and plan to stay.  My plan is to build a house on that property soon after graduating in June.  I currently do not have a job, so finding a good paying job will determine whether or not I can make my dream come true.  For this project I decided to determine how much my home will cost me.  I then looked at what kind of expenses I would be looking at after owning a home so that I could determine exactly how much money I was going to need to make. 

After some research on interest rates in Oregon and extensive research on both the Lowe’s and HomeDepotwebsites I was able to price many components of my future home.  I then talked with the owner of a construction company and asked him to help me determine approximately how much it would cost to build each aspect of the house including the labor involved on many aspects, (some labor I will do myself). 

I then found a calculator on interest.comthat can determine how much ones income must be in order to get a loan for a needed amount.  Through knowing what I learned from research, I was able to determine a few things:  (1) how much I would apparently have to make to even qualify for a loan, (2) how much would be necessary to break even every month, and (3) what a more accurate income for me would be and how that would work with my expenses.