Is it mandatory they jack up your rent?

[Aquitaine]

So if i stand correct, taxes are voted up on for a increase, we call it mills where i come from. Most of it goes for the school and has to be voted on. I

While we do get to vote on certain tax increases (like school bonds) we are typically at the mercy of the taxing entity to set rates wherever they please. Novacek will correct me if I'm wrong but I think there is a range they are permitted to use without having to go to the voters. It's a pretty big range given the dollar amount of even a small percentage point increase.

If it fails, than no taxes are increase

Even if they don't raise the tax rates, they assess property values every year. Us landlords don't get any exemptions on rental properties. So even if taxes hadn't budged since we bought our place a few years ago, we're still paying a tremendous amount more.

[sojourner77]

Want to maintain an affordable living situation? Buy a house in a marginal area, like Dove Springs. Buy and hold while your disposable income increases YoY. This was our strategy, and it's made our life in Austin much easier and enjoyable instead of chasing the "desirable" areas like our renter colleagues.


I don't think the high rents are a blip, either. We're seeing restricted supply, sure - but we're also seeing years of QE finally making it's way back into middle class paychecks that are paying these rents. I think it's a new plateau.

[DCtoTejas]

Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2

Yes, but im speaking in layments terms.. Not everybody can afford housing period. My spending habits are bills, not play time.. But since you brought it up...and want to assume i am banking it.. let me break it down for you.

Rent 1000, before they raise it 1200 next month..
Bills total between power, water, internet, pre-paid cell phones.. $500 a month
2 cars $400 each as we choose 36 months to pay off quicker, so 800 a month
Insurances for those 2 cars full coverage thanks to drivers who love to tailgate.. is $350 a month. wife was in a wreck 2 years ago, so still paying for that increase.

Than I have one child.. 8 years old. We don't qualify for free food .So $25 a week or $100 a month if he eats everyday.
Groceries about $200 a month.

My gross on 40 hours a week before tax 1k a week. After taxes is $748 since i claim zero.. o minus 100 for heath insurance.. $650

$650 x 52 week 33,800 i bring home a year.

My total bills just shy depending on the monthy bills.. $3000 a month. so 3,000 x 12 =$36,000

So please o greatful, what spending habits needs to be cut? when i cant even pay the living bills we have now.

Wife works but she is part time due to schooling, and all her money goes for school debt, and any extra helps offset a few bills, but even then her yearly wages is 12,000 a year.


I am all ears if you got a better solution?

You are paying $1150 a month for two new cars, more than your rent, that's really the whole problem and it isn't a housing problem. If you drove used cars that weren't worth a whole lot you could get the state minimum insurance coverage and probably pay about $500 a year for insurance.

Also, we live in a house and total bills for services (COA consolidated bill, cell phones, internet, natural gas) even in the summer is "only" about $400, maybe you have expensive pay tv that could be cut out, but something seems off in that number for apartment living.

[Trainwreck20]

So please o greatful, what spending habits needs to be cut? when i cant even pay the living bills we have now.

As mentioned above, new cars, especially with an insurance record 'ding', are a big deal. You are required to have full coverage for the life of the loan, whereas a used car or a fully-paid car only requires liability and maybe UI motorist? That is a crazy high number to be paying for auto insurance, not to mention the actual payments. We pay just under$150/month for full coverage on two vehicles, and have a higher-end coverage than we personally need so that I can drive the car for work. We also like to pay cars off over three years but try to stagger it so we only have one payment at a time.

Your total bills are similar to ours, I guess - All utilities (CoA + gas), mobile phones, TV, and internet average out to about $590 a month over the course of a year. But we have a 2,400 sf house to heat/cool, a generous mobile phone plan with international (my wife has to travel, the cost ends up being reimbursed), a high-end internet connection, and way more TV channels than we will ever need. We could easily cut $100 off monthly billing. If we 'cut the cable' on subscription TV all together, we could probably end up cutting at least $50 more off (assuming we would pay for Netflix or Amazon or something). If we were in a money crunch, we would definitely do that.

[eirenecat]

I have never had a $400 car payment in my life and I make well into the six figures. I have also not bought a brand new car ever. I buy the swankest model of gently used car that meets my budget. I do like the higher end trim options like a loaded stereo, and I let someone else take that appreciation hit first.

There's no reason for that--$800/month in car payments is where I would aggressively trim first. I drive a 7 year old hybrid which I bought used with 50k miles on it and paid it off in 3 years. My car payment was $270. Full coverage for my husband and I on our 6 year old and 7 year old cars is $180/month which I think is high. Time for OP to price-shop insurance too, I think.

[COCUE]

Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2

Yes, but im speaking in layments terms.. Not everybody can afford housing period. My spending habits are bills, not play time.. But since you brought it up...and want to assume i am banking it.. let me break it down for you.

Rent 1000, before they raise it 1200 next month..
Bills total between power, water, internet, pre-paid cell phones.. $500 a month
2 cars $400 each as we choose 36 months to pay off quicker, so 800 a month
Insurances for those 2 cars full coverage thanks to drivers who love to tailgate.. is $350 a month. wife was in a wreck 2 years ago, so still paying for that increase.

Than I have one child.. 8 years old. We don't qualify for free food .So $25 a week or $100 a month if he eats everyday.
Groceries about $200 a month.

My gross on 40 hours a week before tax 1k a week. After taxes is $748 since i claim zero.. o minus 100 for heath insurance.. $650

$650 x 52 week 33,800 i bring home a year.

My total bills just shy depending on the monthy bills.. $3000 a month. so 3,000 x 12 =$36,000

So please o greatful, what spending habits needs to be cut? when i cant even pay the living bills we have now.

Wife works but she is part time due to schooling, and all her money goes for school debt, and any extra helps offset a few bills, but even then her yearly wages is 12,000 a year.


I am all ears if you got a better solution?

OP - sorry for your difficulties. Hope things get better for you and your family.

Anyway, looking at your spend here got me thinking of there was anyway you could make some cuts

- Bills of $500 / month. How much do you pay for your cell phone? I believe there are plans that would cost $50 for 2 phones at walmart. In fact, DH and I are on T-mobile and pay $80 for both. Maybe you could shave off a bit here an there to get to ~$400/month

- Car note of $800/ month. That's crazy. Why do you have new cars? With your income, you could have gotten cheaper cars even if just for your wife. IMHO, there really is no reason why your wife, who is a student and just works PT for $12K a year should have a car with a $400/month note. I understand the need to have at least one good car, so i say you keep your car, sell your wife's car and pay a $2-$3K older japanese car for her with no car note.

- Groceries of $200 seems pretty good. However, why is your child spending $100 for school lunch. Why is he not taking packed lunch from home? You would save at least half of that and possibly be able to give him something healthier. Also, even if you continue with school lunch, at $25 a week sounds like he's eating both breakfast and lunch at school (my kids school is $2.35 for a meal so i imagine that's pretty standard for schools in the area), perhaps consider having him eat breakfast at home if possible, My vote is for packed lunch though FWIW.

- Car insurance.. That's is absolutely crazy that you are paying $4,200 a year for 2 people. I've never even heard of that. That's probably more than your car is worth replacement value. Did you shop around? There's just something wrong with that number. Even with a ding, your insurance shouldn't be that high. Again, your wife, with the bad insurance record should get a $2,000 jalopy and get just liability and you can keep your car but i reckon, your insurance for you alone may be less than $100/month or there abouts

- Finally, why are you claiming 0. You clearly have 2 dependents, so go to one of these online tax calculators and figure out what you can claim so you dont owe taxes at the end of the year instead of waiting to get a tax refund. Time value of money and all that.

All in all, good luck and hope things work out.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2

2 cars $400 each as we choose 36 months to pay off quicker, so 800 a month
Insurances for those 2 cars full coverage thanks to drivers who love to tailgate.. is $350 a month. wife was in a wreck 2 years ago, so still paying for that increase.

I know that a lot of people are mentioning the cars, but financing for 36 months instead of 60 is probably adding around $300 total to your monthly payments. It's probably saving you about $450 in interest per car throughout the life of the loan had you gone with 60 months, but not sure that it's worth it given your situation. By the numbers, if you didn't put anything down and paid the standard in sales tax, with the 36 month loan, you probably bought your cars for $13K on average. That's not extravagant by any means with the amount of driving that you have to do in the Austin area. It sounds like the issue is that by saving that $450 interest, you're raising your monthly payment by $150 per car (assuming about a 3% interest rate on an auto loan).

What about refinancing your cars through your credit union to get a lower rate and a longer term? If UFCU is your bank and you have good credit, you can get an auto loan right now for 2%. Even refinancing one vehicle should make up for the $150 in rent increase. I wouldn't want my wife driving around an old car prone to breaking down in this heat so I think the 36 month thing is hurting you more than anything else.

With all that said, we were in a similar situation as you in CA a little over 10 years ago. After growing up and living in CA our entire lives, the same thing happened there where our 1 bedroom apartment rent in 1998 went from $700 per month to over $1100 in less than 18 months. Everyone from everywhere was moving to CA at that time and housing prices went through the roof. We ended up moving to Texas in order to escape the high cost of housing there because like yourself, we couldn't find a better solution and we knew that we couldn't afford to buy a home there.

[Zifoose]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

I have never had a $400 car payment in my life and I make well into the six figures. I have also not bought a brand new car ever. I buy the swankest model of gently used car that meets my budget. I do like the higher end trim options like a loaded stereo, and I let someone else take that appreciation hit first.

There's no reason for that--$800/month in car payments is where I would aggressively trim first. I drive a 7 year old hybrid which I bought used with 50k miles on it and paid it off in 3 years. My car payment was $270. Full coverage for my husband and I on our 6 year old and 7 year old cars is $180/month which I think is high. Time for OP to price-shop insurance too, I think.

I fully agree with you. We are part of a society where marketing makes its job by letting us know that we have to buy all kind of things, even if we cannot afford them...just let's allow common sense works more often.