Anyone relocate to Austin & decide it wasn’t for them? (Atlanta: 2013, rentals)
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Neither of these issues matter. TCAD is NOT maxing out the bill to 10%. The appraisal is maxing out at 10%, but the tax will go up by whatever the city of austin raises the budget.
I'd crash and burn quickly at that salary. No offense to you. If you can pull that off, cool...but I highly doubt the average joe can.
My last apartment I was paying $1,400 for rent + water, add electric and thats about $150 per month
Rent + Utilities = $1,550
Carnote = $400
Car Insurance = $350 (full coverage, no accidents or tickets) and that was as cheap as I could find it.
Food / Gas for 1 month = Aprox $500 ($200 for gas, $300 for food)
Tolls = $160
Internet = $60
Cell = $120 (2 lines)
At a base for a feasible lifestyle - thats about $3,080 per month living an apartment, not going out or doing anything else. We're not even talking about owning a house ... of which will add about $1k to that base point if you have a weaker down payment. The above is feasible at aprox $65k, you wont be breaking the bank, but you will get by.
My rent went UP to $1,500 monthly (combining utilities makes it ~ $1,700 -- hence why I moved to a slightly cheaper apartment, but I don't expect it will remain cheap very long.)
If you happen to have other expenses (medical / student loans / children / ect) you won't make it here under $80k, no offense - but you won't...especially if you want to own a home.
I mean, my wife and I make north of 100k so I’m not living on the low end of the spectrum being discussed, but you are VASTLY overestimating costs. Full coverage on my new car runs me $135 a month. I spend $0 a month on tolls. That’s almost $400 less than your estimates. I help people access housing and you can get that a good couple hundred cheaper also.
I mean, my wife and I make north of 100k so I’m not living on the low end of the spectrum being discussed, but you are VASTLY overestimating costs. Full coverage on my new car runs me $135 a month. I spend $0 a month on tolls. That’s almost $400 less than your estimates. I help people access housing and you can get that a good couple hundred cheaper also.
I'd be late everyday without the tollroads I'm afraid. I have to use them.
I cant get under $350 a month and my car is a 2017. That's what I'm currently paying with Geico, not overestimating.
In Atlanta it was about $270. In fact I have never in my driving career had insurance lower than $200.
And any decent home within the Austin metro minus Manor area is around $2.3 - 2.7k mortgage if you're currently buying
Last edited by Need4Camaro; 05-16-2019 at 05:09 PM..
I'd crash and burn quickly at that salary. No offense to you. If you can pull that off, cool...but I highly doubt the average joe can.
My last apartment I was paying $1,400 for rent + water, add electric and thats about $150 per month
Rent + Utilities = $1,550
Carnote = $400
Car Insurance = $350 (full coverage, no accidents or tickets) and that was as cheap as I could find it.
Food / Gas for 1 month = Aprox $500 ($200 for gas, $300 for food)
Tolls = $160
Internet = $60
Cell = $120 (2 lines)
At a base for a feasible lifestyle - thats about $3,080 per month living an apartment, not going out or doing anything else. We're not even talking about owning a house ... of which will add about $1k to that base point if you have a weaker down payment. The above is feasible at aprox $65k, you wont be breaking the bank, but you will get by.
My rent went UP to $1,500 monthly (combining utilities makes it ~ $1,700 -- hence why I moved to a slightly cheaper apartment, but I don't expect it will remain cheap very long.)
If you happen to have other expenses (medical / student loans / children / ect) you won't make it here under $80k, no offense - but you won't...especially if you want to own a home.
*shrug* depends on your needs. My Nephew has an efficiency for $900 somewhere up NW and still in Austin I think (hard to tell in that area). Not sure what bills are for elec/water, but probably around $100 mo.
Doesn't have a note on the car, last car he bought was used and paid cash, I am pretty sure. Car insurance - is that per MONTH!?!? Surely not, maybe six months? We pay ~$1,600 year for full coverage, two cars (one brand new), so about $135/month. I have no idea what my nephew pays but think it is probably liability only.
Food cost of $300 is probably doable. When I was 'poor' I lived on a lot less, but it was cheaper than and I was a waiter (somewhat of a 'discount' ). Gas, of course, varies greatly. I spend about $75/month on gas, but have co-workers that spend a lot more than $200, I am guessing.
I pay about $1 a month in tolls, give or take. Nephew is adamant about avoiding them, so probably less. They are completely avoidable if you want to.
Internet/phone are probably about right? We are old-school and still have UVerse, so our package for phone/internet/TV is around $220.
I would guess my nephews 'fixed' expenses are about half of what you listed, but he does try to keep them down. He also makes good money and is waaay ahead in savings compared to where I was at that age . Up until the efficiency apartment late last year, he was renting a room in G'town.
*shrug* depends on your needs. My Nephew has an efficiency for $900 somewhere up NW and still in Austin I think (hard to tell in that area). Not sure what bills are for elec/water, but probably around $100 mo.
Doesn't have a note on the car, last car he bought was used and paid cash, I am pretty sure. Car insurance - is that per MONTH!?!? Surely not, maybe six months? We pay ~$1,600 year for full coverage, two cars (one brand new), so about $135/month. I have no idea what my nephew pays but think it is probably liability only.
Food cost of $300 is probably doable. When I was 'poor' I lived on a lot less, but it was cheaper than and I was a waiter (somewhat of a 'discount' ). Gas, of course, varies greatly. I spend about $75/month on gas, but have co-workers that spend a lot more than $200, I am guessing.
I pay about $1 a month in tolls, give or take. Nephew is adamant about avoiding them, so probably less. They are completely avoidable if you want to.
Internet/phone are probably about right? We are old-school and still have UVerse, so our package for phone/internet/TV is around $220.
I would guess my nephews 'fixed' expenses are about half of what you listed, but he does try to keep them down. He also makes good money and is waaay ahead in savings compared to where I was at that age . Up until the efficiency apartment late last year, he was renting a room in G'town.
Yes the insurance is per month and also shocked the crap out of me. You see where I come from in Atlanta we were rated pretty high because Republicans dismissed the caps that insurance agencies could charge (because they get a kickback off the industry) thus insurance rates went HIGH. When I left I was paying around $270 - $280 and I thought Atlanta was one of the highest insurers in the country...although I knew Texas insurance wasn't cheap I wasn't exactly expecting to pay even more.
It's not a huge deal because I'm at a salary currently where its negligible but if I were to come below $80k I would definitely have to start skinning my budget down if I wanted to buy a house...and $80k is around the barometer where I barely qualify.
What do you drive? I have never seen insurance that high on a clean record.
Btw, Geico is listed as 15th cheapest - about twice what Travelers and USAA charge. I had Travelers some years ago and they were excellent. Have State Farm now.
I'd crash and burn quickly at that salary. No offense to you. If you can pull that off, cool...but I highly doubt the average joe can.
My last apartment I was paying $1,400 for rent + water, add electric and thats about $150 per month
Rent + Utilities = $1,550
Carnote = $400
Car Insurance = $350 (full coverage, no accidents or tickets) and that was as cheap as I could find it.
Food / Gas for 1 month = Aprox $500 ($200 for gas, $300 for food)
Tolls = $160
Internet = $60
Cell = $120 (2 lines)
At a base for a feasible lifestyle - thats about $3,080 per month living an apartment, not going out or doing anything else. We're not even talking about owning a house ... of which will add about $1k to that base point if you have a weaker down payment. The above is feasible at aprox $65k, you wont be breaking the bank, but you will get by.
My rent went UP to $1,500 monthly (combining utilities makes it ~ $1,700 -- hence why I moved to a slightly cheaper apartment, but I don't expect it will remain cheap very long.)
If you happen to have other expenses (medical / student loans / children / ect) you won't make it here under $80k, no offense - but you won't...especially if you want to own a home.
Wow I only pay $90 a month for insurance, y'all need to shop around. You can avoid tolls with access roads. You can save on electricity by setting the temp up a few degrees (+5) while you're at work. When you pay your car note off don't buy another car, that reduces your costs immensely.
$400 for a car payment. Ridiculous (but enjoy it). We have one car payment and it's $195 (just about paid off).
$350 for insurance. Also ridiculous (but enjoy it). We pay $200 a month for 2 cars. Not sure what the discount would be for one car, but it would drop down some.
If you feel the need to drive the sports car, you pay the price.
We have a 2 bedroom and we pay $1380 on rent. Add electric and that's $75. No reason someone shouldn't be able to easily shave off at least $300 on a 1 bedroom.
Food/Gas - We're about the same for 2 people. Would be able to shave off $200 for one of us.
Tolls - Zero (no reason for us ever to pay toll). You choose where you want to live.
Cell - $99 for two lines. Unlimited data (Verizon)
Internet/Cable - $125
Making the adjustment for one person, I see about $1900-$2k per month. That could be bumped up for an medical insurance payment to maybe $2500 (so about $30k per year). So looks like about a mid-point between you and Austin97. Admittedly, with some modifications, it can certainly be less. I come from an area where most single people have a roommate (that could knock off $5k-$6k per year). We enjoy our Directtv but certainly don't need it.
Most of these things comes down to "wants" vs "needs".
I think the Average Joe will be fine. I don't buy for a second they would need $80k. But that's on the individual. Their debt is their debt and how they manage money is on them.
Yes you can get by under $80k but the keyword is comfortably...and I dont see that happening under $80k here. You would have to make sacrifices.
The average car payment in America is north of $500 monthly (Google this) $400 a month is dirt cheap for a new car covered under warranty. While my carnote may be higher than yours, I pay $0 in car maintenance, not even oil changes.
If I chose to live any closer to work, I'd be paying MUCH more in rent than difference in tolls.
If I were to get Verizon service, I would need phones capable of connecting to a CDMA network, that will cost more than $90 monthly when you add the cost of the phone in the bill, of which $90 monthly is only for the plan.
$300 a month in food is aprox $150 biweekly (H.E.B) with me and a pet. $200 monthly in fuel is a bit on the high side but that's mostly because I'm sitting in traffic where I get horrible MPG. On the highway I can get north of 30 mpg so long as it's not stop and go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach
Wow I only pay $90 a month for insurance, y'all need to shop around. You can avoid tolls with access roads. You can save on electricity by setting the temp up a few degrees (+5) while you're at work. When you pay your car note off don't buy another car, that reduces your costs immensely.
Many people just don't know how to budget.
Trust me, I've shopped. When I first moved here when I was shopping I was attempting to find insurance with GAP coverage and most wouldn't do it, the others were ridiculously high (over $450 monthly).
As for avoiding the toll roads, you can with access roads only to a certain decree. 183A forces you to use it between U.S. 183 and Whitestone.
45 Also forces you to use it after FM 620 exits the highway, if you have to use Loop 1 then you pretty much have no choice at that point.
Could take Parmer but that adds almost half an hour, same for US 183.
The average car payment in America doesn't matter to me. I don't need to Google it because I don't care.
I recall reading awhile back that the majority of Americans don't even have $25k saved for retirement. Should I be striving to replicate that? I assure you, I will save considerably more even with maintenance. You don't have to drive a new car. You could also get a more gas efficient car. You choose not to and therefore you pay the price....choices.
Fair enough regarding the average American not saving for retirement, however once again, that comes at a sacrifice. If you want to live here comfortably, you can forget about saving anything at a salary under $80k
Poor gas mileage is replicated in any car when your MPG is 0 behind the bumper of another car unless you're sitting in a Tesla. On the highway I still crack higher fuel mileage than the average vehicle on the road, both newer and older... and I wasn't paying $350 monthly in insurance until I moved here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeSmow
If you're renting a one bedroom, I see no reason you have to live at that rent level....choices. If it's for convenience, then you're paying for that.
It's practically impossible to find anything fairly convenient here under $1,300 monthly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeSmow
Don't know anything about your CDMA network, so can't comment on that. Perhaps someone more tech savvy could explain why it's a need vs a want.
There are two different cellular networks within America.
GSM and CDMA. Typical phones can only use one or the other.
Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, meaning if you have a Verizon or Sprint phone, you can switch between the two carriers so long as the phone is unlocked.
AT&T, T-Mobile, Google Fi, ect use GSM. Because of this you can take a phone between AT&T and T-Mobile but you cannot take it to Verizon or Sprint, you have to buy a CDMA compatible phone.
I think the real difference is the idea of what is 'comfortable'. I have friends working on the state making <$50k and seem quite comfortable.
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). Gas, of course, varies greatly. I spend about $75/month on gas, but have co-workers that spend a lot more than $200, I am guessing.
. Up until the efficiency apartment late last year, he was renting a room in G'town.
