A $700 monthly car payment costs you roughly $100,000 in home buying power. Lenders cap your mortgage payment based on your total monthly debts and income. Paying off that car first could let you buy in a better neighborhood or get more bedrooms.
So what if I told you that a $700 payment was costing you $100,000? Now, this is no joke. I'm going to show you the math on this. You see, when you're buying a home, the lender lists out all of your monthly debts and then compares this to your total household income. This is how they determine how much of a home you can actually buy. So let's just say that you list out all of your monthly debts, and in there is a 700 car payment. Now, if you didn't have that debt or got rid of it, that means that you could afford $700 more a month in your house payment at today's rates there, this works out to be an additional hundred thousand dollars of buying power. That could be the difference between a home in a rough area versus an area that you would actually want to be in. Or the difference between a home with no yard versus one with a decent yard or a home with an additional bedroom. See, you get what I'm saying. All of these things could have a big impact on the property that you're buying and how much it's going to go up in value in the future.