Saving for that good ol' downpayment and a few more mortgage questions

[Anonymous]

1. So here is where I stand. I'm one year out of a professional school and i have a lot of education debt, nothing saved, but make a very good income. I've been told no fewer than 10,000X I need to buy a house (because of the down market, for tax reasons, etc, etc, etc) and I have some questions that you all maybe able to help me with. 

The basics: 

1. Credit.  EQ:770; TU:765 Never late, nothing negative on report other than the fact that I have a large number of education loans.
2. Income.  250K
3. Source of income.  Salaried employment
4. Monthly debt payments.  I'll give you what's needed for the DTI and then I'll give my actual monthly expenses minus rent. 
5. For DTI purposes I have about 200K in education loans which comes out to $1500/mo; 65K in auto loans which comes to $1500/mo; no credit card or other debt.

My actual monthly expenses considering the above loans plus life insurance, disability insurance, auto insurance, school tuition for the kids, food, utilities, etc, etc, etc is  closer to $5K per month.

1. Employment (for those who are employed).  FT W-2'd employment. Graduated from a professional school and completed two residency training programs. I've been in private practice for about 1.5 years but was salaried in my profession as a resident since 2005.
2. Assets/Reserves.  Just finished paying off about 35K in credit card debt that accumulated during school so savings is currently about $10K and  have $20K in a 401K. 
3. Location.  Fairfield, CT
4. Property.  Is it a single family house in good condition. 
5. Value.  $500-600K
6. Occupancy.  Primary residence
7. Transaction Type.  Is it a purchase

My questions are:

1. Based on my DTI ratio is this a good price range to be looking in considering I have relatively high fixed expenses from school loans? 

2. I'm assuming I do not qualify for any tax programs due to income. Are there any programs I should be looking into that I may qualify for?

3. How little of a downpayment would I qualify for given the information above? Is there a "sweet spot" in terms of percent down where I don't need the full 20% but wont take a hit in points?

Sort of off topic: I'm a USAA member and when using their online mortgage webpage it says I should be putting 33% down.......anyone know if they have a loan program that would suit my needs with  20% or less down?

Thanks in advance for any help......just trying to get the ball rolling. 

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

1.  At a $600k sales price, 3.5% down, your housing ratio would be about 20% and your total debt ratio about 35%... both are well within FHA's preferred debt ratio levels, so you should have no problem there.

2.  At your income level pretty unlikely, as the first time homebuyer assistance programs are generally for people who make less than the area median income (typically less than 80% of the area median income). 

There are some programs in CT:

http://www.chfa.org/FirstHome/Homebuyer%20Programs.htm

http://www.ct.gov/ecd/cwp/view.asp?a=3680&q=433340&PM=1

http://www.chif.org/owner_borrowers/index.shtml

3.  FHA with 3.5% down will likely be the lowest down payment option, the alternative is putting at least 10% down (up to 15% down if the lender determines it's in a declining market) and going with a conventional loan.