A New York City School Teacher and Single Mom Bought Her Dream Home on a $100K Salary: This Is How She Did It

An English high school teacher had been a renter in New York City virtually her entire life. Between making ends meet on her salary and being a single mother, finding a forever home hasn’t always been on the cards.

Joann Mariani makes around $100,000 a year. That doesn’t seem bad until you consider that the median home price in the Big Apple is $800,000.

But Mariani had enough of apartment living. She wanted a house, preferably with two or more bedrooms and a yard—enough room for her, her adult daughter, her seven cats, as well as frequent foster felines.

“I didn’t want anyone telling me how many cats I could own,” says the longtime volunteer of a cat rescue group. But as a single mother making what is an average salary, how could she do it?

Making homeownership happen

To achieve her goal, the first thing Mariani did was look north, to the upper Hudson Valley. There, the price range for single-family homes is lower than in the city and more likely to come with outdoor space. She also considered that the area would be quieter, have more nature, and offer the hometown feel she missed from growing up in Stratford, CT.

Mariani could also commute to work in the Bronx in the same amount of time that she had done for many years while renting in Brooklyn.

“It was only an hour or so away and yet like another world,” she says. “I thought, ‘What am I doing still living in the city?'”

Tapping into a retirement account

Mariani remembered a retirement account from an old job—a Roth IRA she hadn’t looked at in many years.

Last she knew, it had about $57,000. But when she checked again, it had ballooned to $117,000 even without new contributions.

Rather than try to get an FHA loan that would require only a 3.5% down payment, she decided to put down the 20% herself by taking it out of her Roth IRA.

“I’ll never know if I made the right decision, but looking back, if I’d waited, I probably would have gotten stuck with a much higher interest rate, because soon they climbed,” she says.

She did not consult with a financial adviser.

“I probably should have, but I was that determined to just go ahead. With something this drastic, I can’t think too long or I’ll change my mind,” she says.

But she did grill her account management’s representatives and found out that as a first-time homebuyer, she would not pay taxes on the first 10% she withdrew.

At the recommendation of a friend, she met with real estate agent Heather Duffelmeyer, of William Raveis, and was soon looking at houses in her price range.

Ideally, she would snag a two-bedroom with outdoor space for no more than $250,000. She would be lucky to get a cramped one-bedroom with no outdoor space for that in the city.

There were a few false starts, including one bid that was accepted on a house in Putnam Valley. But then the seller’s agent went silent. It turned out the seller had simply decided to go with another offer, and no one informed Mariani.

“It was definitely disappointing,” she says. “And the competition was starting to get fierce. I had no choice but to keep going.”

Another home had everything she wanted, but the inside looked like “Grandma Brady’s vacation home,” she says. “It would have taken another $25,000 to make it not look like that.”

How she found the right house—and sealed the deal

Eventually, she came upon a three-bedroom, 1,046-square-foot house on Larchmont Road in Carmel that looked like a small red barn. Her first impression was not positive due to the metal fence.

“I thought, ‘OK, this looks like a cage,'” she says. The sellers had an autistic son, and the fence kept him from wandering. But once she stepped inside, she knew it was The One.

“It had everything I wanted, and it was in better shape than the other homes I saw,” she says. “And my daughter was like, ‘Here is where we can put the cat litter box.’ She was already picturing living there.”

Her agent advised her not to play coy with her bid, especially since there was an open house the next day. So Mariani bid $10,000 over the $265,000 list price.

“She told me I wouldn’t even notice that $10,000 over 30 years,” she says. At the time, interest rates were in the 2%–3% range, and that could change at any time.

Mariani pounced, locking in a 2.8% rate. It was one of the best financial decisions she ever made.

“Three months later, rates skyrocketed,” she says. “A friend of mine bought a house near me the following year. Hers is only $4,000 more, but she’s paying $500 more a month.”

Mariani withdrew $75,000 from her Roth IRA for the down payment and closing costs and would pay an additional $26,000 in taxes. With her $8,354 annual property tax, home insurance, and mortgage, Mariani pays $1,851 a month. Her rent in the city for a three-bedroom was $2,300.

Worth it with caveats

Since moving in three years ago, Mariani’s red house has appreciated by an estimated $83,000. While she acknowledges that this is great, the main benefits of homeownership are far from financial.

“The thought of a home as a financial asset wasn’t even a consideration,” she says. “It was about leaving the city at the end of the day and having some quiet and green space. It was about not having to stress about putting nails in the wall to hang things, or how many cats I could foster. So freedom was probably the main reason for wanting to own.”

Mariani and her daughter enjoy living in their three-bedroom ranch with a patio and a room they use for a foster cat area. The fence that initially reminded her of a cage works perfectly to allow some of her cats to safely taste the outdoors.

Mariani loves to sit on her back patio with a drink, enjoying the view of the woods and listening to the babble of a nearby brook.

“I love my school in the Bronx, but I just feel the tension drain away as soon as I get home,” she says. “I’m much more aware of the seasons. I’ve become a bird person. I never thought that would happen.”

Not that there weren’t some adjustments. For one, she had to buy a car. The first used car she purchased fell apart within several months, so she had to lease a new one for $427 a month. Still, after doing the math, she said a car, even including gas, would be cheaper than commuting to the Bronx by train.

That said, she admits, “There’s a steep learning curve on homeownership.”

For one, she is muddling through figuring out how to get the septic tank pumped. There was a flood in the basement when the water tank on the boiler sprang a leak (homeowners insurance picked up most of the cost), the corroded pipes needed to be replaced, the UV purification light also needed to be replaced, and a new fridge was needed when a compressor blew.

A recent storm also blew out power, something not typical in the city with its underground electrical wires.

“And then there’s the rude awakening of wanting to call the super for something and realizing I am the super,” she says with a laugh.