How much can i afford. Housing?

The rule of thumb is about 3 times your gross salary on the high end. But if you want to play with the numbers you can use a home buying calculator to play with the numbers (see link).

Not enough info. How much is your payment on the car per month.. do you have any other debt? Have you been paying rent for the last year & has it been paid on time with a check (to prove it's been paid- receipts don't work since anyone can write a receipt).. Do you have a 2 year job history? Do you have at least 3 tradelines showing on your credit bureaus? Even if some are paid in full you will need at least 3 accounts open for at least a year or two with no lates.

I'd like to know what the mortgage broker tells you. A really quick rule of thumb is to multiply the income by 3 and subtract debts, which puts you at 165K. However, interest rates are pretty low (so the multiply by 3 rule maybe should be multiply by 4 in todays market) and with excellent credit and good savings I suspect you could go even higher, maybe up to 250K.

Another way to look at it is that the mortgage expense (including PMI and escrows) can be 40-50% of your income minus debts. Run the numbers for that and you probably come up with a loan amount higher than 250K but I still think thats your upper lmit maybe not of what they'll lend you but of what you should buy even if they offer you more.

If you are willing/planning to buy a house that needs work (since you're a carpenter) this could be a great way to make good money via sweat equity but will limit the mortgage programs you can use and probably the mortgage amount and you may need to come up with a decent downpayment (which you can possibly do with the 25K in savings). Not a bad idea to ask about this if you are willing to try it.

U will not be approved for more than 200, most probably 150

Under the new mortgage rules, you're probably looking at 225K to 250K plus your down payment. This takes into account the fact that you also have to pay property taxes and other monthly bills on your house. It does not take into account your car debt so the actual amount you're approved for may be lower. For the most part in BC, that's not going to get you very far.

Anything priced over 500K, you require a 20% down payment.

Also, keep in mind that if you put less than 20% down, you will be required to purchase mortgage insurance.

A couple things to think about:

There are mortgage calculators online that will tell you what you can afford, according to a specific bank.

Shop around. There's still quite a large variation on what institutes charge between each other. I offered my business to the bank I use for daily banking, but they couldn't/wouldn't match an offer I got from another lender (it wasn't even close).