Hello everyone!

I am a former post-doc, now working in chemical industry.
Yes, pay rate is much better in industry but I got crazy idea of quitting my current company (really tired of it) and moving to another state for a new postdoc job. Little tired of living here in Texas and want to go back to the East Cost. But right now it is really hard to get industrial job in the state where I want to live. So new postdoc for one more year before settling with a new industry job seems a feasible option to me.

Of course I realize that new postdoc will be a downshifting for me in terms of salary, but it's not too bad. The main question is if I can buy a house there? I can't wait for more than 6 months after moving there.

Right now I own a starter home in TX (only $120K value). And it was fairly easily for me to get approved for that home loan, especially after 3 months of my industrial job.

Now things will totally change: I am aiming for 300K house, but on much lower post-doc salary. Will I get approved by a bank? Has anyone bought a house while working as a post-doc? Another thing is that property tax will be much lower in the new state, so monthly payment for 300K house will be feasible even for a poor postdoc (same as 2BR apartment rate).

Has anyone had such kind of experience? I heard about some postdocs who owned houses. But I am not sure about their house value.

Thanks in advance!

Most people on here are UK based, so you might not get many relevant replies. It's probably different in the UK anyway, but here you generally have to be in a job for 6 months before you can qualify for a mortgage and if you were earning £50k, you would be looking at around a £150-200k mortgage as a maximum. It's about affordability and repayment period.

Check on mortgage lenders/bank websites - they will be able to give you a more accurate idea.

Thanks! I didn't know this is UK-based forum. But people from other forum are saying this is possible.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just highly unlikely in the UK and lender-dependant. Even if they did approve a mortgage, if they think you can't afford it sufficiently, they give you a very high interest rate.

Why do you have to buy a house in the new state or why did you even buy one in Texas? Can't you just rent a house for that period? What if the job you get after your post doc is 200 miles away from your house? In Germany, you would never ever get a loan with a temporary contract, but that's probably not helping...I was just curious

Well I am pretty happy with my current house in Texas. Decently built, not old, no construction issues at all. I don't regret house purchase because I hate paying rent. Just could not living in rental apartment any more. And I have a lot more space, plus little land for the same price as apartment rental. Of course, own house is much better. But originally I was planning to stay here much longer. Now I want to change industry. Here everything is oil-related, but you know what is happening on oil market. It will recover, but I don't have high expectations for this industry in a long run. But once again I will not lose $$ even after selling this property within less than two years from purchase date.

Comment about buying house at new location is reasonable. But I know what I am doing. That is kind of unique location with lowest property taxes and reasonable commute to most jobs in my field. I will just filter out other jobs that are not within reasonable commute. And in general I prefer living in that particular place (I am already familiar with it).