Household income needed for family to live in an average Dallas suburb? (Plano: middle-class, sales)

[pinkmint]

What do you think? What would be the minimum to average after tax household income needed to live in a Dallas suburb? Let's say family of 5 -> 2 adults + 3 children. Not the Park Cities, but not south Oak Cliff either. Doesn't have to be in Dallas city limits but it can be. A relatively safe, family friendly, not super upscale, not too remote or rural city.

[dallas89]

Do you have any form of debt? (student loans, CC, car loan, etc.)

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by pinkmint

What do you think? What would be the minimum to average after tax household income needed to live in a Dallas suburb? Let's say family of 5 -> 2 adults + 3 children. Not the Park Cities, but not south Oak Cliff either. Doesn't have to be in Dallas city limits but it can be. A relatively safe, family friendly, not super upscale, not too remote or rural city.

Well, the average price to get into a suburb with above average schools is around $300-350k. If you're conservative and like to keep your home purchase to 2X HHI, then $150-175k HHI is needed. If you're more moderate, $100-110k HHI. If you're comjng from a higher COL area and have a huge down payment, you could probably get along with $75-80k HHI.

It also depends on your family's lifestyle; if you max out 401ks & IRA's, if you are actively saving towards college for 3, if you have elderly parents you're supporting, if you have ongoing medical expenses, if you lease cars or buy new ones often, if your kid(s) play an expensive sport like ice hockey or lacrosse, if you have a special needs kid or one with a learning disability or just one that needs extensive tutoring to keep up in class, if you eat out as a family 3-4 times a week, if you take multiple vacations each year....the above numbers may not be enough.

[jdallas]

Lol. that's like asking how much income a family should have before being able to afford children. There answer is always "never enough".

A typical American family of 4 comprised of a school teacher and admin assistant wage earners in non-peak earning years has no problem living in suburbia around here. Much like anywhere else, you simply adapt. If you are struggling where you are now, you will likely struggle here as well.

[aggie972]

Originally Posted by jdallas

Lol. that's like asking how much income a family should have before being able to afford children. There answer is always "never enough".

A typical American family of 4 comprised of a school teacher and admin assistant wage earners in non-peak earning years has no problem living in suburbia around here. Much like anywhere else, you simply adapt. If you are struggling where you are now, you will likely struggle here as well.

Yeah, but presumably (s)he is asking how much to spend and still be secure/not house poor. Sure there are plenty of people who "make it work", but maybe they don't have any retirement savings, their credit is shot, and they're just praying that their alternator doesn't break. There's definitely value in planning ahead and budgeting vs just saying "we'll make it work".

[TheOverdog]

Median household income (half make more, half make less) in Plano is around $77k, so that's what it takes there. I think that is a pretty fair number for DFW - it represents one solid professional with a stay-at-home parent, or two decent but not great jobs supporting kids.

Most of the other suburbs are less than that, a handful are more. The major cities of Dallas and FT Worth are much less, around $55k. That illustrates the higher diversity mix of the major cities vs the suburbs, and the larger number of younger people.

$175k household income like TurtleCreek suggests is the top 5% or so for DFW, meaning 95% of the people in DFW earn less than that.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

$175k household income like TurtleCreek suggests is the top 5% or so for DFW, meaning 95% of the people in DFW earn less than that.

1. My $175k figure was for a very financially conservative household buying a home on the upper end of median suburb price (with above average schools), figuring they would buy a home worth 2X their HHI. Are most people this conservative? No, but some of us actually are.

2. Your 5% figure is not true. In Collin County (where many of the suburbs with good public schools are located), 45% of households make over $100k and 20% make over $150k.
https://www.dfwjobs.com/business/LMI...les/Collin.pdf

In Dallas County, about 20% of households are over $100k and almost 9% over $150k.
https://www.dfwjobs.com/business/LMI...les/Dallas.pdf

If you have recently tried to buy a $300k home, you'd know it feels like all 150,000 households making $150k+ are bidding against you in the current housing market!!

3. Median income is realistic if someone doesn't plan to buy a home. I think the median Plano household making $77k would be hard-pressed to comfortably afford the median home price in Plano ($280k YTD and climbing, several months have had median sales prices over $300k this year). PITI would be over 40% of take-home income, assuming a 20% down payment and 6% 401k contribution & $400/mo for family health insurance which is probably a low $.

[jdallas]

Dallas is no different than anyplace else. We like to think we are a special snowflake but national data applies here as well:

Why isn't the middle class earning $156,000 a year? - Jul. 1, 2015

suburb = middle class = $72,036 which certainly supports Overdog's post and also my own suburban experience.

[EDS_]

In my best Ed McMahon voice............"ONE MILLON DOLLARS"!!!!!

[unknown00]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

If you have recently tried to buy a $300k home, you'd know it feels like all 150,000 households making $150k+ are bidding against you in the current housing market!!

+1 truth

As someone who is in real estate in North Dallas, I honestly feel (again feel) like 90% of people HH around here have HH income $150k+. The amount of money coming in is ridiculous and you'd be surprised how many people can afford $500k+ houses these days