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How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

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Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#31

Post by Spooky23 »

sytelus wrote: post #10

Given the explosion of interest in real estate from investors, I think situation going to get much much worse. I'm seeing houses going for 20% prices above asking prices, aggressive bidding wars, all cash deals - mostly from buyers who have no intent to actually live in those houses. If you search Zillow you will find tons of houses getting sold in 1 week and then immediately put back in market as rental properties.…

Never draw long term conclusions from real estate. It is the most cyclical of cyclical markets. Money is historically cheap, when that changes... Boom.

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#32

Post by bane »

larzang wrote: post #27
bane wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, this would be much more meaningful if it was calculated on county or district or some other fine granular area. States are far too diverse for this to be interesting.

It is, click on a state.

I just get a pop-up that blocks out the entire state with a "more info" button and definitely not a map by county, but I can fuss around and choose specific counties.

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#35

Post by USAnum1 »

alexbecker wrote: post #28

That map sure looks nice. On the other hand, it's nearly impossible to actually get the stats for Kansas, because it decides I want Colorado or Iowa and the resulting popup covers Kansas. But it's the design the really matters, not the data, right?

In case you are still interested in those stats, it looks like following a link in this format: " rel="nofollow">http://nlihc.org/oor/ can get you them.

Eg: http://nlihc.org/oor/kansas or http://nlihc.org/oor/michigan

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#36

Post by ghshephard »

xname wrote: post #15

A two bedroom unit is for a family (a couple with a kid or two kids), not for a single person. Why would a minimum wage employee lives in a two bedroom unit?

I'd go one further and say that in some regions, a single-bedroom unit is for someone making pretty good wages. I've never known anybody on minimum wage in California not to live in shared accommodation (mostly because it's impossible).

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#37

Post by [deleted] »

atap wrote: post #25
[deleted] wrote: post #4

[deleted]

So, an individual buys a one family home, at a convenient location, with the intent of renting it out as an income-producing property. The person pays extra money, since a more desirable piece of property is more likely to stay occupied and produce rent. The owner gets it ready for rental, and selects a rental price. The rental price covers the costs of buying the property, improving the home, paying taxes, and a per…

[deleted]

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#38

Post by ChuckMcM »

jeorgun wrote: post #33

Without looking too closely at it, the infographic looks suspiciously similar to this one: http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/04/lies-damned-lies-and-fa... . Does that same rebuttal apply, or are these numbers more accurate?

Thanks, I was going to post the same link.

Basically the more interesting stat, is that Union membership in this country is in danger of dropping into single digits[1] and that has two effects, one it increases the ability of companies to keep wages low, and perhaps more importantly to unions it disempowers them from the political scene. From as far back as early 2014 there have been a large PR campaign to push for unionization, from trying to demonize companies like Uber or Instacart which pay a minimum amount to the people that make the companies work, to stuff like this which tries to position the world as unaffordable as the "rich" race away with the money.

But submarine PR or not, its important to put stories you see in the context of who benefits and how. Critical thinking and reading is key here.

[1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Re: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?

#40

Post by koralatov »

lucaspiller wrote: post #24
sytelus wrote: post #10

Given the explosion of interest in real estate from investors, I think situation going to get much much worse. I'm seeing houses going for 20% prices above asking prices, aggressive bidding wars, all cash deals - mostly from buyers who have no intent to actually live in those houses. If you search Zillow you will find tons of houses getting sold in 1 week and then immediately put back in market as rental properties.…

This is pretty much the situation in the UK for the last few years, although the rents are closer to 10% the property value. Where I'm from, a nice area but pretty limited job prospects in any industry, a 2 bedroom apartment sells for £150k ($220k) and rents for £800 ($1200) a month.

Which part of the UK are you in? I knew there was a growing housing problem nationwide, but it's always interesting/depressing to hear specifics.

I'm in Aberdeen, and I've noticed the same kind of issue, except here renting a two-bed in a not-crappy part of town is £1,000+ per month. A crappier area, like where I live, is between £700 and £800. A nice area is in the region of £1,500.

Here, the (currently stuttering) oil industry has had a huge intensifying effect on price rises, both by putting more well-paid people into the rental market and by creating a larger than average pool of Buy-to-Let landlords looking to invest their oil earnings in property "for their retirement".

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