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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

#271

I know millennials with combined household incomes in excess of $200k who can't afford to buy, because huge student loans are required to get that kind of income if mommy and daddy aren't rich in the first place.

They could have joined the Air Force, gotten some tech-related work experience, and then used the GI Bill to pay for their university education (I used mine to pay for my Masters).

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

#272

120 range in KS, 15 year mortgage on a 2,600ft^2 house is $2k on the nose. Commute is 15 minutes. KS isn't all that bad folks :)

Looking at some similar stats here right outside Atlanta. 30 year mortgage with 3,800ft^2 for $2.1k. Commute is 30m-40m.

Seconding KS, though. I've only been a handful of times and I really like it.

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

#273
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

20% down on $348k is $70k

At $1,500/mo savings rate, it would take 46 months (3.83 years) to save up for your down payment (before closing costs/lending fees, but I'm not sure if those are rolled into your mortgage)

This would leave you with a rough monthly payment (mortgage + interest + takes + insurance + HOA fees) of $1.8k-$2k (assuming 30 year mortgage at 4% interest rate)

$100k gross is roughly $76k net (before any 401k/IRA contributions)

$1.8k/mo for your mortgage * 12 months = $21.6k before any cable/water/electric/lawn/pool bills/repairs

$4.5k/mo net income remaining after your house for food, cars, insurance, etc.

You said $1.5k/mo savings which means $3k/mo for food, cars, insurance, travel, 401k contributions, repairs, going out, etc.

I guess it is do-able. $3k/mo for 2 people does not sound terrible in the slightest.

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

#274
Inflation and the obsession with powers of 10. Back when I was starting out in 1990 a $100K job would have to be a $200K job today. Yes, housing has inflated as well but what I'm trying to say is that our perception of using $100K as some kind of benchmark hasn't.

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

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for places that other people don't want to live. There are plenty of midwestern cities with senior developer jobs paying $100k+ and a low cost of living. My two bedroom condo 20 minutes from the downtown of a major metro area was $80k.

Do tell; which midwestern cities?

Can’t speak for others, but Indianapolis is one

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

#276
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

20% down on $348k is $70k At $1,500/mo savings rate, it would take 46 months (3.83 years) to save up for your down payment (before closing costs/lending fees, but I'm not sure if those are rolled into your mortgage) This would leave you with a rough monthly payment (mortgage + interest + takes + insurance + HOA fees) of $1.8k-$2k (assuming 30 year mortgage at 4% interest rate) $100k gross is roughly $76k net (before…

the rest of that budget can disappear quicker than you'd think though when you start putting in insurances, cars, fuel, groceries, etc.

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

#277
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, a good chunk of urban housing in Canada, Australia and NZ are priced completely out of line with what median salaries in those areas could afford. These are likely houses marketed towards "investors", aka rich people who don't need a mortgage or have a network of private lenders who specialize in providing credit for the house-flipping industry.

I live in the Bay Area now, but I grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand. I'm back home with greencard stuff at the moment. On my parents relatively modest street houses are now selling for $850k. These were houses that cost $400-500k ten years ago. People simply do not make the incomes necessary to make these prices sustainable. I have one friend, of everyone I grew up with and went to University who's making north of $10…

This is scarcity. It's caused by growing demand in population, and dwindling supply with less people building homes. The equitable solution is probably to split up land more, and let people convert houses to condos and the like.

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

#278
A more accurate summary would be “People with $100K/yr may be able to rent homes in sufficiently more desirable neighborhoods than they could buy as to choose the former over the latter while being able to do either”, but it's too long and not hyperbolic enough for a headline.

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

#279
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would one contribute to this?

Agreed, I want to contribute. So I can direct people away from where I live, so the prices don't skyrocket.

Where I live, there is a concerted effort to do the same thing. For a long time people in the area have been trying to convince the world that our region is the best. Best beaches, best food, best beer, best outdoor activities, best mix of weather, best music, best quality of life.

And then we all saw what happened to Portland, Seattle, and Austin once the word got out and everyone knew about these "secret" cool cities. So now we keep our mouths shut and enjoy our beer and beaches without all the tourists and transplants.

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

#280

$100,000 still a lot of money. You can buy a beer in Vietnam for 20 cents. The problem in the Bay Area, where I live, is we artificially limit the amount of housing. So prices move to infinity.

> The problem in the Bay Area, where I live, is we artificially limit the amount of housing. So prices move to infinity.

The article doesn't talk about people not being able to afford housing, it talks about them renting in desirable areas rather than buying elsewhere. If anything, it's about a rent/buy price spread resulting from housing inventory being taken up by investors who prefer to own and rent out rather than sell, driving up purchase prices to a greater multiple of rent prices than would otherwise be the case. Which, if viewed as problematic, is not a problem that building more housing solves. You'd have to also make it less attractive to be a landlord.

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