$65K enough to live on? (Denver, Littleton: equity, hoa fees, budget)

[scatterbrain]

I am a mailman in Houston, Tx. I do pretty good down here financially speaking. My wife is from is from Littleton. Every time we go there to visit friends and family I find myself wanting to move there and get my wife back to where she grew up. Talking to some of the letter carriers there in the Denver area, the pay is not up where it is here, speaking of overtime. I am estimating I will make between $65K and $70K in the Denver / Littleton area. My wife is a stay at home Mom. We would like to keep it that way. Looking at houses we see them from $175K to $210K. WOW! There are some cheaper, but not in the area we would like to live nor the amount of house we would LIKE, not need. How about it, is it doable? I tell myself that people do it every day, they make it work because they want to make it work. What is the assessment of the people who live there? Thank you for your time.

[Mike78613]

Now I know why postage is so much and the postman still cannot even get it right!

I cannot even comment how many times we needed to setup an meeting w/ our postmaster. 60K-70K for a mailguy to me is way over paid. If Denver willing to pay that much, then I go for it and if in Houston you are making more, I probably would park my _butt and stay put.

[denverian]

Do you have a decent amount of equity to put down on a house here? That would make a big difference. Even though you have an above average salary, it could be hard if you want to own a home here.

[steveco.]

I would search for a cost of living calculator which compares how your salary holds up in different cities. They give you a fairly accurate guess of what to expect.

[Mike78613]

W/ my research, its a wash-up. Maybe to live the same lifestyle you have in Texas / Houston, you will need to make maybe 5% more on income. 5% ain't ****, I'll donate that to charity to come back home

[DanBev]

Like my brother inlaw said one time a long time back,if I work a little longer my retirement will be $27,000 along with survivor benefit and health care plus COLA.He had 35 years with P.O. As for me 34 years with bell $14,000 and medicare and no survivior,no ingrease in pension in 20 years. I guess that's part of reason for postal rate increase each year.

[wankel7]

If you are looking to buy a house in that price range it really is about the same cost of living that you have in Texas. Considering how high property tax is in texas and how low it is here. It sort of evens out...

Also, this is a great website to house search...

COhomefinder | Colorado's better way to buy or sell a home

And dont forget about craigslist.

[wil45]

Does anyone else think this is an outrage?

[McGowdog]

Not necessarily. The OP said that they get good overtime in Houston. I have no idea how many hours of OT they're putting in.

If they're working 50 hour weeks, then sign me up. Someone else also pointed out that postal workers make mistakes. Then there was a rant about how they make too much money.

Waa. If you can't beat em', join em'.

To the OP; It sounds like you're doing very well in Houston. I still don't understand whether you'll make more or less in the Denver area, I believe it's the latter. If that's the case, how much less? A lot, a little? For your wife to be a stay-at-home wife and all, that's great. But it's also one less income. I moved out of the Metro area about 8 years ago and it seems to me like the housing along the Front Range has almost doubled since then.

I'm not for sure about this, but I do believe that housing in the Denver area is way higher than it is in Houston. In fact, Houston may be one of the best in the Nation. If that's true, where's the extra money going to come from? How are you going to "make it work" or "make it happen"? If anything, you'll have to make MORE in this area to live comfortably where you want, not LESS.

Denver's not near as sprawled out as Houston is, but things are far apart. That means lots of driving. And we all know which direction gas prices are going. So that means groceries, clothing, shipping costs, how about the heat bill?

The only time that I think "make it work" or " make it happen" apply is when you're having children. Either that or some powerful prayers. Just be careful and plan well is what I say.

Good luck.

[rkb0305]

Good luck, and plan ahead! From the day my husband applied for his job in Littleton, until the day we sold our house in CA and were able to buy one here was 11 months. Prices were falling fast, and what we had at the end for a down payment was a lot less than we thought when we started planning. As a result we have a smaller house than we wanted. Fortunately, my husband only drives 3 miles to work and I stay home, so gas prices aren't a huge issue for us, just a small issue. We live on $70k-ish but had over $100k as a down payment. We also took utility costs into account and bought a newer, more energy efficient house than we had in CA. To answer the original question, yes, it CAN be done. But even with a carefully planned budget, the unexpected can happen. Don't cut it too close. Don't forget the HOA fees, too.