Insane Cost Of Living (sales, rent, daycare)

[windtimber]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Back in 1972 your parents were probably making a cool $9000 a year and doing very well on that income too.

In 1972 when I finished high school a local businessman told me "$40,000 per year. You'll be able to live like a wealthy man the rest of your life." My, how times change.

[nick is rulz]

if you're single $40k is a decent amount of money. Granted, you wouldnt be able to live like a king but you could live pretty well.

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by countrymanl67

Minnesota used to be a place of reasonable cost of living. My parents used to live in Richfield and bought their house for $22K back in 1972. They sold it in 1991 for $80K. Looking at zillow that house just sold in 2006 for $259K!! This is just a starter type home mind you. My question is, how is a first time buyer even going to be able to buy? Think about it. A 200K house has around a $1400 a month mortgage payment. Banks require the payment not exceed 30% of your monthly income. Which in this case would have to be at least $4700 a month. A starter home in the Twin Cities is around $240K. Just to afford a starter home you would need to be making $65,000 a year! Very few jobs pay over $40K, even those that require many years of college. If you spent many years in college you likely have debt up to your ears and they wouldn't let you get a house anyways because of that debt.

So whats the secret? There must be one, or else people wouldn't be able to afford a house until they are 40.

At the peak of the housing boom, my sister moved to Edina, not too far from Richfield and they paid 400,000 for a home that would be under 200,000 in a town like St Cloud. Last year, a McMansion went up across the street. They were asking 1.5mil when it when up and now they are down to 899,000. It makes me wonder how bad my sister got ripped off.

[randomrun]

a quick inventory of my friends and family show that about half own their own homes. of those, roughly 3/4ths are married, and the other 1/4th are single. the single folks basically took care of their credit and saved, saved, saved. they all have roommates that help pay their mortgages and bills. this is a mostly blue-collar/lower and middle class crowd with college degrees in the twin cities area.

the rest of us are single and either not interested in owning right now, or (such as my case) are in the middle of saving and building credit, and praying that prices drop into a reasonably affordable range.

[BreaOC]

OMG I would kill for average house prices of $250,000!!! The average price of a home in my area is $641,000, and that's after a decline of 11.75%!!! Some communities in OC have home averages of 1.1 to 4.4 million, just as an average. Of course those areas normally are not effected by economic downturns like what we are in now. I miss the cost of living in Mpls!!! At least most Mpls employers keep up with the cost of living with their pay. Just remember it's way worse elsewhere!!!

[Ishten]

Like the commercial says...


"How do I do it?"


*smiling* "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs"


That commercial always makes me laugh.

[earthwar]

I stayed away from the cities and bought my house in 1998 for 50,000. I just recently sided and roofed it. It is now worth about 125,000. I was 22 years old when I bought it. If I would have bought the same house closer to the twin cities I probably at time would have forked over about 90,000. The 40,000 a year is about right but I knew plenty of people in the construction business making over 40,000. Minnesotans are hard working people and they don't fork over money if you aren't willing to work hard for it. Minnesota was in my opinion, one of the best places to live but it seems like a lot of wealthy people moved here and when that happened they got involved in politics. It seems like the politicians here aren't happy unless they are making new laws. But most of them snobs live in Wayzata or Minnetonka. Out in the country you get a lot of freedom and the cost of housing goes way down. Houses in the Litchfield area are affordable. The cost of heating your affordable home might make you go broke however. EW

[Cain]

Alot of areas have a bubble issue. Reading up on it, California and Florida are gound zero for it.

As for MN, looking in the area, I would look at the zillow estimates for properties in the area and see what comes up. Compare what the house sold for early in the 2000's and what it went for at the bubble peak in 2006.

could get an idea of where the market on housing is heading.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Cain

Alot of areas have a bubble issue. Reading up on it, California and Florida are gound zero for it.

As for MN, looking in the area, I would look at the zillow estimates for properties in the area and see what comes up. Compare what the house sold for early in the 2000's and what it went for at the bubble peak in 2006.

could get an idea of where the market on housing is heading.

I was just looking at a house in the exurbs that recently dropped the asking price from $199,900 to $159,900. The sale records on Zillow reveal that the owners paid $104,000 for it in December of 1999.

I am still waiting for prices to drop more before I will start going to home showings and consider buying.

[Vagus]

Originally Posted by countrymanl67

My parents used to live in Richfield and bought their house for $22K back in 1972. They sold it in 1991 for $80K. Looking at zillow that house just sold in 2006 for $259K!!

So that's a 263% increase 19 years (1972-1991) compared to a 223% increase over the next 17 years (1991-2008) . . . what's the big difference? Your parents were probably pretty stoked to get a whopping $80K in 1991 -- it's all relative.