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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?

#41

Post by vlasev »

axitanull wrote: post #21
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?

- Single-parent families, with a parent living on minimum wage. - Students. - People are expected to leave their parents house at age 18. But without a proper trade skills, they can only earn minimum wage. - etc. But we may be missing the point here. Since this article doesn't seem to take into the consideration of other living expenses, even if we're talking about a family with two parents and kid instead of a singl…

While I agree about the single-parent families, I disagree about students. No way a student needs a two bedroom accommodation.

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

#42

Post by gizi »

Expensive urban areas suffer from an excess of demand for housing, while the stock of houses is naturally limited, pushing the rental rates through the roof. A good example would be London, UK. New York and San Francisco in the US are other good examples. People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs. The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there? Because their customers are there? I doubt it. The economies of SF or NY obviously feed on the rest of the country. Because labour is cheaper there? Also not. With communication channels pretty much of equivalent quality across the country, there is no rational, justifiable reason for an employer to set up his offices in an expensive urban area. He is just pushing down the standards of living for the lower salary rungs of his staff.

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

#43

Post by santaclaus »

gizi wrote: post #42

Expensive urban areas suffer from an excess of demand for housing, while the stock of houses is naturally limited, pushing the rental rates through the roof. A good example would be London, UK. New York and San Francisco in the US are other good examples. People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs. The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there? Because their customers are…

> People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs.

I think there is more to it than that: people like functional public transit systems, people like the concentration of others with similar interests, people like diversity, people like living arounds lots of restaurants, bars, entertainment...

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

#44

Post by BinaryIdiot »

gizi wrote: post #42

Expensive urban areas suffer from an excess of demand for housing, while the stock of houses is naturally limited, pushing the rental rates through the roof. A good example would be London, UK. New York and San Francisco in the US are other good examples. People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs. The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there? Because their customers are…

> The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there?

Everytime I go to NYC I wonder this very thing. Looking at the tiny, tiny offices and how expensive EVERYTHING is I don't really understand why there are so many companies there. I guess it's a bit of PR / marketing but surely having offices there (especially in Manhattan) doesn't make sense otherwise, right?

Though I could be missing something. I just feel like it has to be mostly PR / marketing.

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

#45

Post by dragonwriter »

gizi wrote: post #42

Expensive urban areas suffer from an excess of demand for housing, while the stock of houses is naturally limited, pushing the rental rates through the roof. A good example would be London, UK. New York and San Francisco in the US are other good examples. People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs. The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there? Because their customers are…

> The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there?

Because those places are very good places for rich people -- because they have enough of them close enough together to support services catering specifically to them -- and because employers (at least, the executives making decisions for them) are rich people.

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

#47

Post by mozumder »

vinceguidry wrote: post #2

Just get a roommate? When did a two-bedroom apartment become a human right? Housing costs are high, undeniably, but the real issue is the shit job market.

You're not going to get a family of 4 into a one-bedroom.

This story is about families.

Single-people don't even need to pay for their own place. They can live with their parents.

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

#48

Post by jseliger »

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.

I've posted this before, but it's germane here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/dlknowles/britains-dysfunctional-pro... . The UK and London in particular has essentially decided to make increasing the supply of housing through building more of it extremely, extremely hard. Econ 101 suggests that holding supply constant as demand increases will raise prices.

The solution is intellectually easy but politically difficult. The UK can, if it so chooses, make housing much less expensive by simply letting markets function.

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

#49

Post by jseliger »

gizi wrote: post #42

Expensive urban areas suffer from an excess of demand for housing, while the stock of houses is naturally limited, pushing the rental rates through the roof. A good example would be London, UK. New York and San Francisco in the US are other good examples. People want to move there, because they are attracted by the jobs. The question is now, of course, why do employers want to move there? Because their customers are…

while the stock of houses is naturally limited

Actually, housing stock is not "naturally" limited; it is quite artificially limited: see e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Rent-Too-Damn-High-Matters-ebook/dp/B0...

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

#50

Post by lucaspiller »

koralatov wrote: post #40
lucaspiller wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)…

I'm not there anymore, but this is West Dorset. It's a nice place to raise a young family, but the job prospects are few and far between. It's a bit too far to commute to major cities unless you want a 3+ hour drive or train journey each day. Unless you are happy working in Tesco or being an office administrator, all young people will gravitate towards London. The biggest industry is tourism, but that of course is very seasonal.

There is a lot of new development going on (around 60/40 split between green and brown field) most of it being retirement apartments. They are a great idea as they create jobs and relieve housing demand, but at ~£300k they are well out of the price range of most local people.

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