Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Considering that entry level houses here cost $600,000 and up I don't think this is a realistic expectation of any single person, perhaps not even dual earning couples anymore!
Using the conventional formula used for decades which is 3 times gross income approximately one needs to make $200,000/yr to own an entry level house (3 bedroom/2 bath, 1800 sqft). What percentage of singles make that kind of money?
And think of the down payment. Unless you're rich, how are you supposed to have that much money lying around? One of the reasons I don't care if I ever own a house is because of the expensive down payment.
Owning a place in Los Angeles is very expensive... I consider myself very fortunate to have my place, but in some ways I wish I had gotten an apartment instead of just buying a condo. Simply because it would have given me a bit more flexibility, but I love my place. Even a decent condo here is still going to run you $350,000 even in this lousy economy; my place was up past $500,000 at one point. I had it re-financed this year, thank god, to save costs, but it's true you need a lot of money lying around and to be making a fair amount per year to afford it.
Unless you just have incredibly low standards, you need to make about $60,000/year in Los Angeles to live just ok. I own my own place, I have a pretty damn nice car that I just bought, and I have nice things overall, but I eat at Subway every night because I can't really afford to eat out at a real restaurant that often. Maybe a few times a month, but living where I do, it's easy to spend $100-200 on a meal for two people with alcohol. It's just very expensive. In some places, you can live like a king on $5,000/month. Where I went to college, that would be a ridiculous amount, you could get a sweet apartment for $900/month (two bedroom, brand new) and you'd probably not spend more than $1,100/month on other basic stuff between food, cable, cell phone, car insurance, etc. Maybe a bit more, but that would mean having $3,000/month to save or spend.
Here, my condo plus HOA dues plus property taxes are still up there close to $3,000/month. With my own insurance, car insurance, cell phone, gas, cable, food, and various other expenses that just happen by living life (fridge breaks, car needs a repair, home repair, new pair of shoes, whatever), there is no chance you're going to come in below $2,000 to $2,500, so you're looking at living just ok on $5,000+ per month. If you want to live very well you need a lot more money. But until then Subway is healthy haha!
Yup, houses here in Northern VA are pretty expensive (500k+ for the lower end ones). Townhouses are well over 300k.
Everyone I've met in my age/generation group who have a house/townhouse of some sort either A) has wealthy parents who handed them a house/trust fund babies or B) is paying off the house with several very close friends who have equal ownership.
"A" is more typical than "B" and "A" definitely does not equate to responsibility, if anything they're less responsible because they got a house handed to them and spend whatever they make frivolously.
"B" while more responsibile probably isn't very conducive to marrying a girl and starting a family unless you don't mind a bunch of roommates which probably isn't the case for most of you ladies.
I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I'd probably prefer more a lady who is responsible herself and saving so that if/when she meets the right guy, they both have savings they can put towards a home together rather than partying through their 20's and then playing house with some sch muck who will put a roof over her head after she's finished playing the field.
Yeah... it'd be difficult for most people in their 20s to afford anything like that without having money behind them.
I know a lot of people get jealous over that, but honestly in today's society, even with the recession, there is a lot of money stored up in a lot of generations, and plenty of people start the game off ahead. If you're not ahead, you're behind. The good thing is, a lot of rich kids are idiots and don't have a very good work ethic because they had everything handed to them. If you really want to make it, you have to have more than just some head start, you also need to be very hard working and intelligent. Then it becomes a deadly combination Haha, otherwise you have some of the people I grew up with in my classes, just total idiots whose parents always bailed them out of everything they got themselves into.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
haha!
