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What percent of your income do you spend on rent/mortgage?
We are moving this summer as DH starts a fellowship. We already have a hold on a townhouse (no lease signed yet) but new years eve we went to visit family in the area and just spend 2 hrs driving around looking at condos..eeek! We were too excited about the new job/move (we really do not like the city where we live now, and we cannot want to move!). So ofcourse everything was closed we just basically looked at the outside and the neighborhoods of places we saw online.
We fell in love with a couple and would likely see them next weekend, some looked a lot of more that they are asking for (like luxury condos, etc). But they are about $200-$300 more than the one we currently have a hold on. This would put us 29% of out take home pays in rent. We want to buy but we will only be staying there for 3 years (maybe more but DH wont find out until the end of fellowship, and it really not a good area for job development for my field), so it is not really a good idea. Hence we will rent.
Is 29% reasonable? How much do you spend? It just seems too much for me I lived in a low cost of living area for the last 5 years and I think I am getting sticker shock!
Re: What percent of your income do you spend on rent/mortgage?
I think that general rule of thumb is that you shouldn't spend more than a 1/3 of your income on household expenses (rent w/ utilities) I think we spend right about that.
I can totally relate to your sticker shock. When I moved to Boston from Oregon I almost died when I saw how much the cost of living was out here. Its crazy to think that $1200 is reasonable for a tiny 2 bedroom when back in Oregon that got you an acre and a house for the same amount.
I've heard this too. We maybe spend a litle less then a third of our incomes with rent/utilities. We live super close to NYC (like <10 minutes), so things by us are SUPER expensive. It sucks because if we moved 30 minutes more out west, we could have like triple the space for the same price. But we need to stay where we are because of DHs job (police officer so its in his contract). Weigh all pros and cons before deciding. See where you'd be happiest.
Tara & Jose 10.17.10
Maureen & Jonathan - Married 10-9-10 | Expecting our first child 05-04-13
MARRIED 10.10.10 !!
October 2010 Siggy Challenge - walking down the aisle!
We spend 25% on our mortgage...you have to remember water, bill, electric, property taxes...plus cable, phone, food, etc...
I plan on working a little bit more than part time when we start a family, so I guess that number is going to be a bit higher soon
But I think you're ok with 29%. It will still give you wiggle room and to be able to go away, save, etc...
good luck!
40/112
Oh, and our 50% was just based on Jon's income, since for the past 2 years I've just been working part time. My money all went towards the wedding fund and fun money.
Starting next week though, I'll finally be working full time! So our % probably goes back down to 30%. We're still gonna use Jon's income for bills, and funnel my income into savings/debt, since we want to save up for a house and kids.
Maureen & Jonathan - Married 10-9-10 | Expecting our first child 05-04-13
we have 2 houses right now. i pay about 45% for mine (1 bedroom cottage), and DH pays abour 33% of his income for his (2bd apt).
this is clearly not ideal. but for me, living without roommates (im 31!!) and in a safe neighborhood (since im alone) was far more important than having cable, eating out, etc.
so we just shifted. we barely ever eat out (maybe once every 3 months) and we dont spend on things like cable, home phone, fancy internet, etc. we have also paid off all of our debt
ill say this -- its uncomfortable, but its doable.
October '10 Siggy: The Aisle
We spend 36% of our income on rent alone.
But like PP's said, it's all relative to where you live. We live in Chicago, in the city, and love it. We can't imagine living in a suburb at this point.
We've looked at condo's in the city, and for what a 2-bed,2ba 1300 SF condo gets us in the city...we could get a 5bed, 4ba, 4000 SF new house in our hometown.
Life's just all about decisions.
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