Large Home Price Would Not Be A Stretch
New Girl. New baby. New husband. New House. While season 5 of New Girl airs on Fox, actress Zooey Deschanel spends time with her husband, film producer Jacob Pechenik, and baby daughter Elsie Otter in their Manhattan Beach, California home.
The couple purchased the home in April 2015 for $4.569 million, while Deschanel was pregnant. It has a vast kitchen perfect for baking more batches of cupcakes than the “a-dorkable” trio could ever eat.
It also boasts a walk-in closet with enough space for hundreds of retro-inspired sundresses. Also inside are 6 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms — plenty for big sister and aunt Emily Deschanel or any New Girl costars to be comfortable during a visit.
So, did the did the soon-to-be parents get a mortgage or buy the home outright?
If they got a mortgage, are the payments affordable for this high-income couple?
Verify your new rateZooey Deschanel Has Had A Great Couple Years
Since the home was purchased in early 2015, the couple probably used their earnings from 2014 to make a down payment or pay for the home in full. Deschanel earned $130,000 for New Girl during that year.
She also brings in earnings from her indie pop project with M. Ward, She & Him. The duo has released four albums and sold just over 1 million copies altogether.
Another notable source of income for Deschanel is her endorsement of Pantene products, from which she has earned $2.5 million.
Adding it up, her net worth is an estimated $16 million. It is unclear how much the actress and musician earns each year from these ventures.
Pechenik has a net worth of $3 million. While it is also unclear how much he must have earned in 2014 from producing films, his wife’s earnings are likely greater than his.
The couple sold their former Hollywood Hills home shortly after purchasing their Manhattan Beach, home.The updated 1930s cottage went from the hands of one musician to another, as Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helder bought the home for $2.33 million.
REALTORS® usually earn 5-6% of the money from homes they sell. This means the lucky realtor who sold Deschanel’s former home probably got $116,500 from the sale.
This leaves about $2.2 million to the then-expecting parents, who originally purchased the home for $1.65 million. The couple made made about half a million dollars from the home sale, minus any interest they paid on their home loan while they lived there.
Verify your new rateThis Star’s Monthly Budget Is Surprisingly Frugal
The manic pixie dream girl is also a savvy spender. This was revealed when her financial assets became public during her 2012 divorce from Ben Gibbard. That year she had $1.5 million in the bank and about the same in stocks, and $693,300 in property. Her total net worth was nearly $4 million- about one quarter of her current net worth.
The Hollywood Reporter also unveiled a breakdown of her monthly budget. According to the report she spent about $22,550 per month.
It might not sound frugal, but this amount represents only one-half of one percent of her net worth per month.
It would be the same as someone with a net worth of $100,000 spending only $500 per month.
Her monthly budget included the following expenses.
- $300 per month for her telephone, cell phone and internet
- $500 dining out
- $600 on laundry
- $800 on utilities
- $1,000 for groceries and household supplies
- $2,000 on clothes
She also donated about $1,500 per month to charity. Her three credit cards had zero balance at the time.
But, wait! This only adds up to $6,700. So where might the other $15,800 per month went? This amoung probably went toward her mortgage, spending money, and savings.
It’s hard to say how much Deschanel spent on living arrangements, but if we assume $10,000 per month, it means that mortgage payments made up about 44% of her monthly budget.
Could Deschanel Afford Her Mortgage Payment?
Since Deschanel is smart with her money, we can assume that she didn’t want to spend a large portion of it in one place. She probably used a loan to make the purchase.
She did have a baby on the way, after all.
If her savings continued to grow after 2012, she would have had enough money to make a 20% down payment on the home, equaling $913,800.
This leaves $3,655,200 that the couple would have to borrow to purchase the home.
The average mortgage rate was 3.67% in April 2015 when the couple bought their home according to data from Freddie Mac. Given both their successes, they would have been considered low-risk borrowers to the lender, so they probably would qualify for this rate.
The payment for this loan would be more than $16,000 per month for a 30-year fixed mortgage or over $36,000 a month for a 10-year loan.
This sounds like an unfathomable amount to pay each month for the common home buyer. However, examining Deschanel’s net worth paints a different picture.
Even at the higher 10-year option, the mortgage payment only consumes 0.2% of her net worth monthly. This doesn’t take into consideration her current or future earnings.
She could make the payment for 450 months — nearly 40 years — before she ran out of money.
It would be the same as a person with a $100,000 net worth making a mortgage payment of just $200 per month.
In other words, Deschanel’s mortgage payment, if she took a mortgage at all, is by no means a stretch.
What are today’s mortgage rates?
Whether the couple opted for a shorter or longer loan term, the proposed monthly payments would have been no issue.Home buyers who also want a low-stress homeownership experience have an opportunity to lock in today’s low rates.
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