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$100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

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Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#161

Post by taborj »

ed312 wrote: post #23
Tehchops wrote: post #10

There's very few places where there is an overlap of "jobs that pay $100k" and "homes that can be afforded at $100k salary".

If you find one, please share :) Less sarcastically: is there an index for this kind of thing? E.g. cost of living for an equivalent neighborhood plotted against median salaries for tech jobs?

There are numerous cost of living calculators[0] online, but they basically just tell you how much more or less you need to earn to maintain your standards if you move to another city (not neighborhood level). Still, they're interesting.

[0] Here's one: https://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#162

Post by throwing838383 »

Tehchops wrote: post #10

There's very few places where there is an overlap of "jobs that pay $100k" and "homes that can be afforded at $100k salary".

If you're looking for the best ROI where there are the highest SE salaries per living cost, check out: https://skilldime.com/blog/see-which-cities-pay-the-highest-...

There's many places that have great ROIs but Palo Alto isn't one of them: they're dead last.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#163

Post by jandrese »

gg2488 wrote: post #131

I'm behind the paywall but I'm wondering if this is because, just maybe, younger people understand finances better. When I wanted to buy a house, I waited until I save up the 20%. I know plenty of friends in their late 20s and early 30s who have the same attitude. Me and my wife also paid for our wedding in cash, we waited until we could afford it. You have the millennial generation looking at their parents still wor…

The downside of saving a lot before you buy is that you still have to pay the rent while trying to save that money. Putting 20% down has advantages when making the loan (better rates mostly) so it makes sense, but saving beyond that is making your life more difficult.

I think Student Loan debt is a huge factor in buying houses later. It's really hard to save if you're paying down debt as well as paying rent. It could easily delay their entry into the housing market for a decade.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#164

Post by jriot »

bumby wrote: post #134
jriot wrote: post #98

I am 34 years old working remotely as data scientist, making $107k TC. My wife who I've been married to for 13 years is a stay-at-home mother as we have two children in grade school. Since they are in the school she is turning in our half-acre into a sustainable garden with chickens. We own our home, are financially comfortable while saving $1500 a month, and travel. We were planning a 2-month trip to Japan this upco…

You touched on the education without student loans is a major benefit to the military. Another is the ability to buy a home with no money down and not have to pay mortgage insurance. It's easy for those in the military to feel like life is passing them by as they witness cohorts graduating earlier etc. but those benefits can make a big difference in the long run (not to mention the intangibles you brought up).

That is true, but my wife and I were also separated for half of our first three years of marriage. As I deployed and shortly after I returned she deployed. We were also stationed in Turkey where at 4 months pregnant we learned the military would not allow her to give birth there anymore. She had to fly to the US with our older daughter at 7 months pregnant by herself and stay there until she gave birth. There are many pros to the military which have benefited us, but also many stresses those outside the military never deal with.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#165

Post by jriot »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #103
jriot wrote: post #98

I am 34 years old working remotely as data scientist, making $107k TC. My wife who I've been married to for 13 years is a stay-at-home mother as we have two children in grade school. Since they are in the school she is turning in our half-acre into a sustainable garden with chickens. We own our home, are financially comfortable while saving $1500 a month, and travel. We were planning a 2-month trip to Japan this upco…

How much did you pay for your home? $100k/yr gross household income would make it rough to own a 3/2 single family home in South Florida.

Our home was $348k - 4 bedrooms, 2 baths in Louisiana.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#166

Post by tathougies »

notadoc wrote: post #24

This is mostly a west coast problem, where housing is hugely inflated in every west coast state and city. And NYC too of course, but that's less surprising given its NYC. Sometimes I think these articles are written as clickbait for people in the midwest, southeast, northeast, where housing is still very cheap and jobs pay well.

> but that's less surprising given its NYC

There's almost certainly as much (if not more) money on Sand Hill Rd than Wall St.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#167

Post by g2ah5z »

itsbenweeks wrote: post #97
g2ah5z wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only need 3.5% down with an FHA loan. To put that in perspective, a $300,000 home would only require $10,500 down.

Sort of. You'd be left paying the difference of 3.5% to 20% (16.5% or $49,500) in a FHA Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP). This means another loan that you need a 1.75% down payment for (making your downpayment ≈ 3.8% or $11,400) that adds another payment (≈ $400) in addition to the mortgage. MIPs last the entire life of the FHA loan, too.

Yes, it's effectively a higher interest rate on the entire loan, but my point was that you don't need a massive amount of cash up front to close the deal.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#168

Post by dragontamer »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #126
dragontamer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median household income in USA is $59,039. That's both the mother AND father working to bring home $59,039 on the average (before taxes and other costs). Its clear you live in a rich area where $100k isn't much. But that's also why a large chunk of Americans think that "city-folk" are disconnected from reality. $100k is a lot for many people. My sister lives in an area (in USA) where a 2-bedroom apartment is just $50…

> My sister lives in an area (in USA) where a 2-bedroom apartment is just $500/month, low crime good living conditions. Presumably, this is because the risk of losing income is higher (lack of job security) and or not as much opportunity to increase income.

She's the only medical doctor for miles. Good luck replacing her. (Hypothetically anyway. Its an option, but my Sister is more realistically looking to live closer to friends / family and is probably going to turn down such offers)

Overall, small town doctor is a pretty good position to be in. There's lot of other ways of living rather than FANG-style tech. High-quality doctors and/or nurse practitioners make big money in small-towns.

If you're the only doctor (or one of ~5ish nurse practitioners trained for emergency care) in a 10-mile area, you're going to be a highly-valued member of that town. Period. Its not even to "cure" all diseases, but you need a highly-trained medical professional to know if the ~2-hour journey to the big city hospital 100 miles away is worthwhile.

Ex: You may have to travel 100+ miles to get to the nearest MRI or CAT-scan machine. The local doctor will provide medical advice for whether or not the trip is worthwhile based on the diagnosis of less-sophisticated tools.

--------

The main problem with becoming "THE Doctor" of a small town is that you have to move away from your social networks. IE: My sister would have to live very far away from the rest of her brothers / sisters / parents, and that's a tough sell from a social standpoint.

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#169

Post by arebop »

paxys wrote: post #116
sjdb77 wrote: post #15

I'm in a mini-retirement right now and living in SF. It was surprising to learn that below like $50k you basically pay 0 in income tax in California. As a single person I can very comfortably live off $40k/year in investment income and pay no taxes right now.

Unless you get very lucky with housing living off $40k/year is pretty difficult in San Francisco. Even if you manage I would definitely not call it comfortable.

Just Obamacare will cost you $20k.

Of course, on $40k/year I suppose one would be taking subsidies or medicaid instead of paying full freight. But, then I guess it could be said you can make it in SF on $0/year...

Re: $100k/year still might not be enough to buy a home

#170

Post by wil421 »

filoleg wrote: post #107
uwuhn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's their occupation? You don't need huge student loans to get that kind of salary as a software engineer.

It depends a lot on the school you went to and what kind of financial aid you were able to get. Back when I was picking a college for my CS undergrad, the choice boiled down to (numbers are rough estimates, because I don't remember the exact ones, but they are close enough and should relay the point I am trying to make): * UCLA out of state: some financial aid for the first year, bringing the costs down to around $25…

Just to add you could’ve done TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee) to both GaTech and UGA from Georgia Perimeter (community college) and saved a bunch on tuition or get in via transferring to a difficult school. I went to KSU to be with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and did Information Systems. Had I known I would love software engineering I might have done CS elsewhere.

Are you still in Atlanta? If so what kind of tech do you work on?

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