One week's pay for one month's rent (taxes, fees, union)
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There's no one-rule fits all solution. You have to just do basic math and figure out what you can afford to rent given all of your other expenses and financial goals.
Yea but if your stuck in a bad area that refuse to pay anybody a decent wage, your stuck living with the roaches with a high rent fee.. I mean i know somebody who try to pass on a "awsome 2 bedroom apt" for 600 a month, but you have to live with bugs, hole in the walls, and leaky roof in a drug infested area. Given the fact the normal range for a 2 bed room in austin runs 1200+ so we knew it was a dump. I wouldnt live in this place if i was homeless.
slumlords is what puts a bad taste in many people mouths just as bad as poor renters too. But dont out price your self hoping that you can find that rich person who will pay your fee.
......... 600 a month, but you have to live with bugs, hole in the walls, and leaky roof in a drug infested area. Given the fact the normal range for a 2 bed room in austin runs 1200+ so we knew it was a dump. I wouldnt live in this place if i was homeless. .........
My first solution, if salary wouldn't pay for rent, would be to move to a different area where salary would pay for rent. I don't see any point in trying to live in n area that I can't afford to live in.
My second reaction to this is that if all I could afford for rent was $600, instead of the going rate of $1200, I'd pay $10 for a 3 pack of combat gel, patch the holes in the walls for another $10, and let the landlord know, in writing, that his roof was leaking and needed a repair. If nothing else, I could get up onto the roof with a can of Black Jack and tar over the leak.
I might even spring for $20 for a gallon of mis-tint paint and paint the newly patched walls.
But then, I never passively wait around for someone else to improve my life for me or for someone else to take care of me becasue I am too entitled to take care of myself. Personally, I'd much rather spend $10 to get rid of roaches than to be homeless. I find homelessness to be a very unattractive solution.
Um no.. more like needs to be in the 20s. You can work at the same place for years and lucky to get a 1% increase on your paycheck and still be broke. A landlord or if you have APR for your house can increase your rent for any reason at any rate, but your still making the same amount of money for past decade. What you could do with one paycheck, now requires nearly 2 checks if your single or one income house hold. If your in a high COL place such as austin, it takes nearly 2.5 checks to pay rent at the cheapest apt for a family of 1. Finding another job to pay higher is not a option as they pretty much pay all the same for my field of work. No owner or any financial agency should be charging rent or mortgage higher than one week check. (excluding HUD and other government hand outs).
If you're in a fixed rate mortgage, your interest rate is not going to increase - that is the purpose of this type of mortgage.
Sure, your property taxes can increase, either in terms of mill rate or because the property value itself when up between the first and next reappraisal, but many states have caps on the amount that property taxes can rise. Where I'm in Tennessee, "back of the napkin" math for property taxes is about 0.5% of the market value of the home annually. A home selling for $100k will probably have annual property taxes of $500.
Rent has no such protection. When I lived in Indiana, my rent was $720 in 2014. In 2015, it went up to $780. In 2/2016, when I signed the last lease, rent was up to $820. That same unit style is now going for $859.
That's between a 6%-7% increase annually in your housing costs. Mortgages and property taxes are not going up at this rate, nor with this consistency.
Yup that's why renting/home ownership has always been a rock and a hard place for me. I have no desire to settle down in one area, but nor do I want to throw away money on constantly rising rent. Rents are rising in my area because it has become a bedroom community for long distance commuters with high paying white collar jobs. Been thinking of going with the converted van route, heh.
As the poll question is currently worded, "Do you make enough in one week to pay your monthly rent?" my answer is no. The OP said they changed the question to be 30% further down. By that figure, my answer would be yes as my rent is 27% of my take-home income.
Good thing I moved to Sacramento. In the Bay Area my rent was 46% of my take-home income. Ouch!
FWIW, in both the Bay Area and Sacramento I always heard that landlords used 30% of gross income as the figure for qualification (by that figure I qualified even in the Bay Area). I did always find that odd, because depending on employer benefit packages and various optional payroll deductions, there could be a very wide relationship between gross income and take-home income.
My first solution, if salary wouldn't pay for rent, would be to move to a different area where salary
would pay for rent. I don't see any point in trying to live in n area that I can't afford to live in.
But then, I never passively wait around for someone else to improve my life for me
or for someone else to take care of me becasue I am too entitled to take care of myself.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
If you're in a fixed rate mortgage, your interest rate is not going to increase - that is the purpose of this type of mortgage.
Sure, your property taxes can increase, either in terms of mill rate or because the property value itself when up between the first and next reappraisal, but many states have caps on the amount that property taxes can rise. Where I'm in Tennessee, "back of the napkin" math for property taxes is about 0.5% of the market value of the home annually. A home selling for $100k will probably have annual property taxes of $500.
Rent has no such protection. When I lived in Indiana, my rent was $720 in 2014. In 2015, it went up to $780. In 2/2016, when I signed the last lease, rent was up to $820. That same unit style is now going for $859.
That's between a 6%-7% increase annually in your housing costs. Mortgages and property taxes are not going up at this rate, nor with this consistency.
Not quite, property tax rate calculations vary by state. In our case there is a 1% cap on the rate, but the rate is based on the value. The value can and does go up every year, unless a recession causes it to drop as happened in 2009. Our property tax went up over $500 from 2013-2014, because the assessed value went up by over $100k, and has continued to go up since, about 10-12%/year. In terms of the tax bill, that amounts to about $40/month increase each year. Still less than many rent increases, however.
I am single and I cannot stomach the thought of roommates, so I spend 50% of my net pay on my teeny-tiny studio/room in a very, very high COL area of California. I am happy with my little private space and all utilities are included (including internet), so this mean the other 50% is spent on savings, bus pass, cell phone, food and my small little luxuries. I'm fine with that.
If you're in a fixed rate mortgage, your interest rate is not going to increase - that is the purpose of this type of mortgage.
Sure, your property taxes can increase, either in terms of mill rate or because the property value itself when up between the first and next reappraisal, but many states have caps on the amount that property taxes can rise. Where I'm in Tennessee, "back of the napkin" math for property taxes is about 0.5% of the market value of the home annually. A home selling for $100k will probably have annual property taxes of $500.
Rent has no such protection. When I lived in Indiana, my rent was $720 in 2014. In 2015, it went up to $780. In 2/2016, when I signed the last lease, rent was up to $820. That same unit style is now going for $859.
That's between a 6%-7% increase annually in your housing costs. Mortgages and property taxes are not going up at this rate, nor with this consistency.
Yea if your on a fix rate, but if your on a adjusted APR than your payment goes up or down. It never stays consistent. We are trying to buy a house, but we keep getting excuses and red tape that keeps us from getting one. We got our credit in-line to get the paperwork, than we was told needed 3.5% down. So we saved for that, then was told needed another 3k for closing, and they want us to bump our score up another 20 points to lock in our rate. Just excuse after excuses.. but back on point.. We have to rent, and like you said when we got here in austin. We got a 2bd for 875. Was 100 more than my check was a week bring home. So we was ok with that. Than renew our lease as other places were full, rent jump to 925. Third time, since our lease ended in the holiday, we got lucky to find a another place, but wanted a huge deposit and rent. Out of budget, so again reup the least and it jump to 1050 over 1.5 years as we do 6 months lease. Finally was able to save and move to another town and got a 3 bedroom HOUSE for 600 a month and only driving 30 mins a day to work vs 5 mins. Just wish i knew about this place sooner, could been a huge difference in our lives and savings account. They think you work in a big town that you make good money, and they are soooooooo wrong with that idea. Not everybody can make 1k week unless you own a business or in a high profession working career. Only excuse we get is there is so much housing available and they only want rich people in town, and property tax went up.. should be cost of doing business vs making renters pay for it.
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