Rent or buy? apartment or villa? (Houston, Sugar Land: RV parks, rental, mortgage)

[sweetsarah]

We have decided to get housing in sugarland area. We will be given 1700 dollars a month for rent by my husband's company. We have an option to use that money for rent only. If we do not use that money for rent and we get our own house on mortgage ,that will have to be paid by us and we will not get any money from the company for mortgage. In the case of mortgage the money they will give will be only the one spent at buying and selling the house.
If we get a house on rent, by adding 1700 dollars to my husband's pay, the amount of tax will increase on his salary by 800 dollars, so net money left will be 900 dollars. In that case we will add some money from our pocket to get something on rentf or 1400-1500 dollars a month. Do you think we should still use that money for rent or we should get a house of our own on mortgage.
My second question is that should we get an apartment or villa (If you think we should get a house on rent). The things that go in favour of getting an apartment are more safety , easy maintenance, no money spent on gardening. The things that go in favour of a villa are larger size, no noise. What are your ssuggestions?

[chris_ut]

How can he be paying a 47% tax rate? The highest bracket is 35% and thats if you make over 357k/yr.

[sweetsarah]

His salary will enter into the next bracket and the deduction for tax will be on his overall salary( not only on the money given for rent). I have considered the increase in tax on whole salary

[chris_ut]

Your logic makes no sense. If the housing allowance increases his monthly salary by $1700 and his taxes by $800 then that is a 47% tax bracket and such a thing does not exist. The only way you could get close to that is if he is self-employed and making over $357,000 year (in which case his tax would be $765 on the $1700), but if that is the case then I think maybe you can splurge for a nicer apartment that $900/month . $900/month wont get you much in Sugar Land.

[icon7]

This could be a special housing allowance policy. I know friends of mine that were relocating from other locations to Sugar Land were getting housing allowances or help buying homes. It evens out at the end. the rent allowance was for a 1 year or so period. If a new house was purchased, the company pays for the closing, fees, etc. and also if they leave the company pays to sell it and they keep the profit. However, the sneaky devils in my company were taking 4 year job transfers to California...where they get a COA adjustment & additional compensation that scales down every year. in the hopes that after year 4, they will be at a salary level where they wont need it. But what do these jokers do? They look for a transfer back to Houston after 3 years and the inflated salary...Salaires don't ever go down...even after a transfer

[tstone]

Wow, thank goodness I don't have to deal with that noise. My L.A. is just a temp pay increase and my company could care less what I use it for. I could live in a van down by the river if I wanted to. And actually some people around here do lease RV's & live in RV parks. Borderline insane folks like me use it for gas & tolls.

But anyway, if it's one of these lump sum, direct-deposits through an outfit like Cartus, then 47% tax is a brutal reality where there is state income tax. But there is no state tax here so the rate is more like 38%. Which means you have more like $1,050/mo for rental purposes. Your company isn't grossing up your allowances?!??!

But with that amount of 1050... by all means, 2 bedroom apartment. If you have to add money to live in a nicer place your company is screwing you and it's not worth the move!!! Unless you have no other option.

[recuerdeme]

Rent and work out a deal with the owners to rent-to-own (if you really want to own)... the company doesn't need to know. ;-)