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.
Nope. It only assumes it will available for non-housing purposes.
Those with $5000 additional available will have more options than those with $1000.
Yes, and that's a problem with the metric.
Let's say the metric is happy if your gross income is $50,000 and you pay $15,000 per year in rent ($1,200 per month) leaving $35,000 or about $2,916 gross per month for everything else.
If your rent is $1,600 per month, the metric doesn't want you to keep the other figure at $2,916 (it should; we're talking parallel scenarios here). It wants that to be $3,887.
(Your last sentence isn't on my topic...we can all agree that having more money is helpful.)
How do you define "very common" and what data are you using to quantify the number of other people in your market who are living with ten other roommates while paying rent to one, who is paying rent to the owner?
Such a bizarre living situation being claimed as "common" from someone who uses it as a crutch/excuse for so much fail reeks of BS, so show me I'm wrong here.
Does 12,000 in a county qualify as "very common"? Try this:
Homelessness remains a crisis: Unlike in other large West Coast cities, the overall number of people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County did not increase from 2013 to 2015, but we remain deeply concerned that on one night 3,800 people slept on our streets, in shelter, and in temporary housing, and that an estimated 12,000 people were doubled up, many in overcrowded and often unsafe conditions, including domestic violence survivors
attempting to flee their homes. We must continue to improve and expand our response to this crisis.
1) Rented a room from a (drunk) laid-off construction worker in 2009. Local construction was pretty much dead at the time. He was renting the house from his buddy who had left town to make a ton of money working on an oil rig. A few weeks after I moved in, the drunk went to a bar one day and returned with a woman who had just gotten out of drug rehab. Since she didn't have a job and she needed a place to crash, she moved in with him. She gave up drugs but took up his drinking. (He NEVER goes to a bar to drink - it's too expensive. He goes to a bar to play video poker or to pick up women.) He constructed (hey, those construction skills sure come in handy) an illegal bedroom in the basement and lived in the house for free by renting out the extra bedrooms at a markup. The location sucked - not walkable, close to nothing except a gangbanger housing project complete with drive-by shootings - but he was always able to snag newcomers by posting ads on Craigslist. The illegal bedroom allowed his adult daughters to live in the house for free. After one of his daughters moved out and got married, her other daughter's boyfriend moved into the house for free. Eight people in that house.
2) Immediately before moving in with the drunk, I rented a house - er, room - from a homeowner couple who rented out every spare inch of space because they had to refinance subprime to pay off hubby's huge medical bills. (I later learned that hubby was also an active drunk.) The owners slept on recliners in the living room. When hubby's health rapidly went south, he went into assisted living and was dead a month later. With his disability income gone, the mortgage - which had had a running delinquency - was no longer salvageable, the house was foreclosed, and everyone had to move.
Let's say the metric is happy if your gross income is $50,000 and you pay $15,000 per year in rent
I still prefer the net income metric. AFTER taking all the required payroll deductions and making the
pretax contributions and satisfying any other levy or garnishment obligations you might have...
How much of your NET income is required to meet your housing costs (incl utilities)?
If you can keep that MONTHLY costs number aligned to one WEEKLY pay check... you'll be okay.
The question is how many other boarders the $15-20K/yr Barney Fife's will have to share a toilet with.
---
Under this metric your $50,000 gross person (-20% /52 x12) has a $9200 annual housing budget; not $15,000.
Less if he makes the appropriate pretax contributions to the 401K, IRA, HSA, etc that he should.
Assuming he'll want to have the other things in life that he'll consider appropriate...
that rental (or mortgaged home) won't happen in places like Portland or San Francisco.
If you have debt, kids, car, etc., and live in a cheap city maybe that's worthwhile. Personally I have none of those things and prefer to live in a more expensive city. That's part of how I avoid having a car, and it probably means a larger income than I'd get in most places. The result is I can pay a huge percentage of my income for housing and still save at a good rate.
PS, the metric should probably also vary depending on what you're paying yourself vs. only paying others. A large chunk of any mortgage goes to principal (shorter durations and lower the interest rates help). I consider that portion of my mortgage almost like paying into a retirement fund, and not any more risky.
Related to that, extending your finances a bit to buy property is reasonably safe if you own a good percentage of it, i.e. not 5% down. Is the sort of bet that's resulted in many people making a lot of money in some cities.
Does 12,000 in a county qualify as "very common"? Try this:
Homelessness remains a crisis: Unlike in other large West Coast cities, the overall number of people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County did not increase from 2013 to 2015, but we remain deeply concerned that on one night 3,800 people slept on our streets, in shelter, and in temporary housing, and that an estimated 12,000 people were doubled up, many in overcrowded and often unsafe conditions, including domestic violence survivors
attempting to flee their homes. We must continue to improve and expand our response to this crisis.
That statistic you googled up says nothing about renting from a non-owner, it is an estimate by a homeless advocacy group of people in situations with nebulous definitions like "overcrowded" so no it doesn't provide any backing to your claim that your situation is common.
Again, how many of the 800,000 in your county Multnomah rent from non-owners? You made the claim, prove it.
If you have debt, kids, car, etc., and live in a cheap city maybe that's worthwhile.
Nope. It's worthwhile anywhere and regardless of those qualifiers.
More than being worthwhile... it's really required.
Well, that is assuming you don't want to be a wage slave for 40 years.
Quote:
Personally I have none of those things and prefer to live in a more expensive city.
Then you'll need to earn more money or share with more people.
Even if you can manage to avoid owning a car. ---> LINK
I understand that this is a less appealing prospect for many and that it isn't easy.
The questions remain: How many WEEKLY nets are required to cover the MONTHLY costs.
And how much more than the required Tax/FICA is being deducted pretax.
the main thing, if you are unhappy with your minimum wage, then you need to do something to change that. Education, trade school, etc. To just work a job which requires no experience and demand something other than minimum wage, is not how you get further in life, it is how you stay current in your life.
That statistic you googled up says nothing about renting from a non-owner, it is an estimate by a homeless advocacy group of people in situations with nebulous definitions like "overcrowded" so no it doesn't provide any backing to your claim that your situation is common.
Again, how many of the 800,000 in your county Multnomah rent from non-owners? You made the claim, prove it.
Where did I make a claim about renting from non-owners?
I've been overcrowded renting from owners and renting from non-owners; I have not noticed any meaningful qualitative difference, They both suck.
The definition of "doubled up" is pretty straightforward. Even "overcrowded" is usually pretty simple. I've never seen anyone argue that 11 people in a 3BR/1BA house is not overcrowded.
p.s. renting from non-owners is vastly more common in this country than renting from owners. Owners generally take on renters only when financially distressed.
Nope. It's worthwhile anywhere and regardless of those qualifiers.
More than being worthwhile... it's really required.
Well, that is assuming you don't want to be a wage slave for 40 years.
Then you'll need to earn more money or share with more people.
Even if you can manage to avoid owning a car. ---> LINK
I understand that this is a less appealing prospect for many and that it isn't easy.
The questions remain: How many WEEKLY nets are required to cover the MONTHLY costs.
And how much more than the required Tax/FICA is being deducted pretax.
I already live with 10 other people; I don't think 20 would be allowed. Plus with the middleman appropriating to himself the cost savings, I don't know that I'd actually see lower expenses.
Am I missing something because I read the whole article and didn't see the 12 counties listed.
Rising rents are a problem everywhere it seems including where I live which has seen some of the biggest increases in the country. Some suggestions: get a roommate, don't have children outside of marriage unless you can afford them, get an education that will provide more than minimum wage, cut back on unnecessary expenses like smart phones and all the latest gadgets. You do what you have to do. My mother is going through this right now: getting rid of her iPhone and buying a flip phone for emergencies; she is also getting rid of her internet. Between the two she will save $150 a month. She is not expecting government handouts although she is probably eligible for some assistance since she only receives $1299 a month in Social Security.
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.
