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Depends on where they are. In general if home prices are in the neighborhood of $400K or higher then income for professionals and trades is usually quite good to support those prices. In say Iowa, average home prices will be far less but so will average income levels. Many of these shows are filmed in Canada where home prices are outrageous and I would assume income goes along with it because if it didn't then the homes wouldn't sell and the prices would tumble. There are also those who live above their means regardless of income level.
I actually disagree. What would pay 40k in Mississippi might pay 60k in Kansas city and 80k in NYC. In MS, one could live well on 40k, in KC decently on 60k but in NYC 80k is almost poverty. The myth about higher wages in high cost areas does not hold water anymore
In the Bay area there are tech jobs paying 60-70k a year, The same ones pay that in Boise, Idaho. Go figure
OK. How many of you that earn six figures did it right out of school or with less than 5-10 experience. The American dream is dead in many areas. Two people working to get to 6 figures sure. But what job actually starts out with a 50-60k entry level salary? Talking degreed jobs here so assume 50-60 a piece in student loan debt.
In my generation even (I am a gen xer), people bought homes in their early 20s and raised kids
Starter homes seem to be dead. I have no doubt rich people who bought low and lucked out making tons of money off their appreciating asset can do it
Even with that. Two people would need to make 100k a piece to buy in the bay area.
I think people who tout emergency funds and talk about 20 percent down payments are out of touch with the average person and spend most of their time around the well off. This country is a nation of haves and have nots. Is it any wonder millenials live with their parents until they are 35?
I do agree in small places its more possible. IF you can get a good job there. Also what about people who used to have kids?
College dropout here. No student loan debt.
Had I finished four years of college straight of high school, I would have graduated in 2005.
I made $80K in 2008. No less than $50K every year since, and $100K each year since 2012.
The American Dream is only dead in expensive areas. When I moved here (Denver) in 2007, it wasn't expensive. The Dream is dead here now. C'est la vie.
Personally, I got in on the ground floor of a small business. All I really did is bust my butt, and took the word "no" out of my vocabulary. I did everything asked of me. I worked long hours, and "uncomfortable" hours. I learned that putting myself out got me more money.
We waited, waited, and waited some more, and didn't buy our home until 2014. Even though we "could afford it" prior to that, we wanted to be in as ideal of a financial situation as possible to do so when we did. When we bought our house, we had zero other debt. It felt nice. It's worth at least $400K now, and our payment is about 20% of our net.
If I'm a millennial, I don't turn 35 until later this year. Mom moved away when I was 20, but then I followed her up to where she moved while I was still 20, I moved back in with her, moved back out, then back in, then she went into a nursing home (her brain cancer went out of remission). Dad hadn't been in my life since I was 7, and I've never lived with any other family.
I'll also mention that I/we did all of this with three kids in tow.
Furthermore, if people would just OPEN THEIR EYES, there is life in this country outside of the coasts and the other few expensive interior locales like Denver. There's no excuse for a FAMILY making $40K-$50K to not afford a house in much of the country.
If one chooses to make their life and career in an expensive locale, they shouldn't feel entitled nor blame the local market because they can't afford to purchase a home.....it's part of the choice in deciding to be (or remain) there in the first place.
And where on earth to school teachers make anywhere near 80k? In most places its 30s to start and tops out around 50
New Jersey. Police, teachers, etc easily hit that here. Just read a long piece about longshoremen at the ports in the area. A number of guys clear close to 500k per year. They basically stay on the clock 24/7 with 2x holiday and overtime pay factored in, although much of that time is spent fishing in Florida.
Have a cousin who works for the Port Authority (basically a police force for the bridges and tunnels in NY/NJ). He bought a house for 750k. No college, just a few years on the force. Go figure.
Another thing that confounds me is the total cost. I pay about as much per month in property tax as the loan principal/interest on a 30-yr mortgage. So my buying power is cut in half in this area. I do realize that much of the country is not nearly as expensive, tax-wise, as here. But still, 700k on a loan would mean you'd need a verifiable income of close to 200k.
I actually disagree. What would pay 40k in Mississippi might pay 60k in Kansas city and 80k in NYC. In MS, one could live well on 40k, in KC decently on 60k but in NYC 80k is almost poverty. The myth about higher wages in high cost areas does not hold water anymore
In the Bay area there are tech jobs paying 60-70k a year, The same ones pay that in Boise, Idaho. Go figure
I'm in the bay area and tech jobs are at LEAST $100K. Same for CPAs, lawyers, engineers, and nurses here. I confirm because I know people in these jobs!!
I'm in the bay area and tech jobs are at LEAST $100K. Same for CPAs, lawyers, engineers, and nurses here. I confirm because I know people in these jobs!!
Yeah there has been an increase in tech companies in L.A the past several years
There is an area that is being called “Silicon beach”
Yeah average pay for a software engineer at Tinder is $125,000 yr .. That’s for a dating app .
I hear it’s not uncommon for those at companies like Google to make $200,000 or more .
There is a lot of money coming in that has helped to bring up already high prices.
Areas that were viewed as lower middle class /middle class type neighborhoods when I was growing up are now neighborhoods where homes start at $1.5 million for a small probably outdated home .
A lot of these techies are using stock options to help them buy the homes even though their salaries are high sometimes it’s not enough due to the very high prices .
It seems that an awful lot of people automatically just think the right next step for them is necessarily applying to a 4-year college starting in junior year of high school, and then going on to attend one of the schools that happens to accept them.
I'd argue that not every kid is ready or able to maximize their experience in college, to make it worth the cost of incurring tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. I understand there are certain things students ideally get out of college, and it's more than about the academics, but not every kid knows what to get out of college and how to get it, to really make it worth the cost. They end up with psychology, communications, or ancient civilization bachelor degrees and find themselves with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off. Already, they are playing catch-up, before even landing their first real job post-graduation. They may spend the next 5-10 years paying it off, while trying to also make rent, pay off their car, and etc. In hindsight, for those kids, it may have been better if they sought out a job right out of high school, one with potential to move up if you work hard and hustle. They'd start from the bottom, of course, but would steadily move up the ranks. In the same 10-15 years after college, instead of being in significant debt, still on the lower end of the totem pole, with not as much to show for it, had the kid opted to go straight to work out of high school, he'd likely be a homeowner, with no student loan debt, making a middle to upper-middle class income.
I think each kid needs to be assessed individually, taking into account a variety of things about him/her, in order to honestly determine what the kid would likely get out of college and weigh that against the projected cost, to determine if it's worth it for that particular individual. For some, it may be wiser to spend 1-2 years at a good community college, as part of a transfer articulation agreement program into a good 4-year university where they'd finish their last 2 years.
Blindly going or sending kids off to college because "it's the thing to do" is a mistake, IMO.
They're still there. Where do you think they went?
But white Americans don't seem to want them. They want this:
not this.
(These are a few blocks apart in an upscale suburb of Chicago. Three-to-one price difference.)
So immigrants live in them.
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