General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Salary Needed To Afford Rent in 10 of the Largest US Cities ---Good grief!!!!!!
Dallas, Texas
Income needed to pay rent: $62,700
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $1,463
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Income needed to pay rent: $65,100
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $1,519
Chicago, Illinois
Income needed to pay rent: $76,071
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $1,775
Miami, Florida
Income needed to pay rent: $90,300
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $2,107
Seattle, Washington
Income needed to pay rent: $98,271
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $2,293
Washington, D.C.
Income needed to pay rent: $119,271
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $2,783
Boston, Massachusetts
Income needed to pay rent: $120,900
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $2,821
Los Angeles, California
Income needed to pay rent: $145,629
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $3,398
New York, New York
Income needed to pay rent: $158,229
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $3,692
San Francisco, California
Income needed to pay rent: $216,129
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $5,043
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/15/the-salary-you-need-to-afford-rent-in-10-of-the-largest-us-cities.html?_source=twitter
This is just ridiculous!!!! This is also why I'm moving. I just refuse to pay as much as I'm paying for a mortgage any longer. I don't even live in Washington DC but in the surrounding area and housing prices are just ridiculous. So my fiance and I just sold our home to move further up north in Maryland. We are getting more than twice the square footage of our recently sold house and we paid half as much for it. I will deal with a longer commute and taking the train into work. My fiance can work remotely most of the time (lucky). Granted these article figures are for 2 bedroom rentals, but if you are a single person you still need to make a somewhat decent income to afford rent in a decent area in those cities, and my fiance and I both make 6 figure incomes. But we want more disposable income and additional money to save and invest.
The disparity and inequality in housing costs is just ridiculous and is the reason fueling the great migration south to areas that have much lower housing costs and the overall cost of living is much cheaper. You are basically driving out anyone who isn't of a certain status and who can't take advantage of all that these cities have to offer socially and culturally. The gentrification of these areas means that they have lost so much of their diversity and its a real shame.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Philly-Union-Man
(79 posts)$65k isn't a whole lot of money. Average rent in my neighborhood is around $1000 for a three bedroom house. San Fran is ludicrous.
name not needed
(11,665 posts)Hell, it's cheaper than most of Jersey at this point.
BumRushDaShow
(169,761 posts)if you live in the city and work in the city and PA has the highest gasoline tax in the country. Can't win.
kimbutgar
(27,248 posts)I could not afford to buy it now. In 1987 I was making $30,000 a year and lived in a 1 bedroom apartment paying $500 a month. It was an old apartment, spacious with ghastly mustard colored rugs in a good neighborhood. I imagine that apartment would go easily for $5,000 a month now.
Nictuku
(4,658 posts)... so I have a 2 hour commute! It is hell, but I live in a rural area with trees and birds, so that kind of makes it worth it.
But damn... Who can afford to live in SF any more?
San Francisco, California
Income needed to pay rent: $216,129 I fall very short of that. Very.
Average cost of renting a two-bedroom in 2016: $5,043 (Yikes! That is double what I pay for my mortgage)
I guess the 1% can afford to live there.
And there is so much construction going on in San Francisco right now, it is unbelievable. Who are they building for? What is going to happen when service industry workers can no longer afford the commute? Even with the higher minimum wage, it is impossible.
And for those not familiar with the city, the growing homeless problem is just getting worse. There are no public bathrooms, when doors open at Civic Center station of BART, I can smell the urine. I hold my breath when walking (fast) up the escalator.
I just don't understand how civic leaders don't come to grips with the hard fast reality that human beings need to defecate. Why are there no public restrooms?
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)What the heck is driving this crap?
Paka
(2,760 posts)They delight in driving up prices to push the unwanted lesser beings from "their" city.
I lived in SF throughout the '60's and '70's and left in the '80's when prices started exploding. When I first moved there I earned $93.50/week and paid $70/month in a lovely studio downtown where I could walk to work. I never paid more than $150/month over the course of the two decades I lived there.
Now friends of mine who lived in SF all their lives have had to move away. What the high prices means is that all the artists, writers, musicians, etc. who made The City what is was, are long gone. It is a pale imitation of The City I knew and very sad for those of us who loved it. The 1% now own it.
kimbutgar
(27,248 posts)I can't stand the techies who get on those buses that drive down to Silcon Valley. Most of my friends have been driven out of the city. I just inherited my family home and plan on converting it to a duplex but I want to rent it out to people who are natives. I am fortunate I brought my house in 1993. My parents brought their house for $12,000 in 1955. They saved for 8 years to but that house. I get calls from realtors now to buy it.
Paka
(2,760 posts)It is indeed the "creative funky citizens" that made SF so great. I don't visit often anymore as it makes me sad to see the changes.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)It's not "greedy tech bastards" any more than it is anything else, namely fairly obvious market forces- a highly desirable, small chunk of real estate- a peninsula, actually, so it is about as geographically contained as it possibly could be- combined with locals - including a lot of the supposedly lesser arty creative old-timers, who refuse to authorize new development.
It's like Marin- look, I love Marin, Marin is beautiful, like you in SF I lived in Marin decades ago when it was still relatively cheap and funky and doable; but I saw the writing on the wall even then. No one in Marin wanted to develop the headlands, thank God, but there is still a balance between protecting the character of a place and cutting it off entirely from the sort of thing which allows moderate income working people to live there, namely, increasing the supply of affordable housing.
If the Bay Area had behaved sensibly and with foresight, BART would have been run all the way up to Sonoma County, it could have been done on the unused lower deck of the GGB in an aesthetically acceptable fashion even, but the NIMBYs in Marin would have none of it.
So you're stuck with a situation where a highly lucrative bunch of multi-billion dollar industries which contribute mightily to the fact that California has the 6th biggest economy in the world- well, they hire people who need a place to live. And those people, understandably, have figured out that a million dollars for a condo in Santa Clara or San Jose with a view of a parking lot isn't the most inspiring thing to get up in the morning for.
San Francisco can either continue to become a tiny, ever-more-exclusive playground or it can (unlikely) change decades of antipathy to development, but one thing that isn't going to happen is the return of all the funky Tales of the City 1970s arty people.
They've all moved to places like Seattle or Portland, which soon enough will have something like the same problem. But one difference is, the attitude towards development within the urban growth boundary is different.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)the new trend in shopping centers- the Walt Disney version of Main Street America.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,161 posts)is the rich bastards globally who wanted to park some of their money in an "investment", so they bought apts and condos, in major markets, and let the places literally sit empty.. But meantime, since real estate is based on "comparable prices" they drove the cost of housing up for everyone.
Investment firms are also involved, they buy or build apt/co-op units with an eye towards a steady stream of rents.
I was delighted to read a couple years ago that some formerly rich guys were having hell of a time selling their piggy bank apts in New York.
Yukari Yakumo
(3,013 posts)I think it's a bubble waiting to burst. Not a matter of if, but when.
Dorian Gray
(13,850 posts)last year. We were in mostly touristy areas. Stayed near Union Sq. But the city had the stench of urine all around it. (Where we were.)
That is a marker of extreme homelessness.
Very sad.
(And NYC is no stranger to homelessness, itself. But I only smell that extreme smell when I'm in Penn Station. by the bathrooms.)
I had a one-bedroom in San Diego, 1976, for $160/mo. Even allowing for inflation, yikes!
duncang
(3,767 posts)They keep upping our taxes and value by the max allowable each year. Tried fighting it but haven't had any luck except the very first year. They said the value of my house had gone up by 60,000$ over 1 month's time from my purchase price. I was only able to get that knocked down by $30,000.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)I want a house I like better on a non-acreage lot (we took what we could get in a hot 1999 market), but what with its being acceptable, anyway, and our taxes being locked in at senior rates, I think it's a pipe dream. Sigh.... Well, first world problem.
Texasgal
(17,240 posts)It's horrid here.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)I considered moving there and said "nope."
Plus it's not as cool as the boosters would have you believe, if it ever was, which it may have been, once.
Texasgal
(17,240 posts)for the worst in my opinion.
My parents still live in the house that I grew up in just a mile from downtown, they are both retired and the taxes are killing them! I worry that our old house will have to be sold... it's awful.
I live way south of downtown because it's all I can afford. My commute is and hour and a half to and from everyday. Austin has become a very shitty place to be anymore..and yes, it used to be an awesome city.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)Although I'm a Texas native, I don't really want to be here. Moved back from CA - MISTAKE!
I really think Houston's the best of what's here.
mythology
(9,527 posts)minimum 800 square feet, 1.5+ bathrooms, pets allowed and in unit laundry. Austin may have gotten relatively more expensive, but it's hardly expensive. I did a comparable search for what I paid for my 650 square foot condo in Boston suburbs and there are 121 places for sale in Austin for the same or less than I paid that are also larger than my place. Texas is just too large and have low population density to get really expensive rents.
white_wolf
(6,257 posts)There was a lot of variance in rates, but I found some decent ones for about 2,200. Even some in the 1,600 range. The OP's list is an average so it's easily affected by outliers.
lucca18
(1,465 posts)$525 a month.
It is not renting for $2,800 a month!
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)
TheBlackAdder
(29,981 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)or San Fran. A 200K income in NYC or San Fran is solidly middle class. Between Taxes and rent/mortgage $100K of your annual income is gone and all you have is a dwelling for that. Daycare in both places is $2000-$3000 a month so if you have a kid, another $24K-$36K is gone leaving you $64K-$76K. All you have for that $124K-$136K that is gone is a dwelling and childcare.
I think the poverty line in the NYC and SF metro area should be anything less than $50K/yr.
1939
(1,683 posts)Thresholds
Top 1% $428,712
Top 5% $179,759
Top 10% $127,694
Top 25% $74,954
Top 50% $36,840
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)And I mean the apartments are nice but the ones they want $2000-3000 for aren't SPECTACULAR!!! Tiny ass kitchens and tiny ass closets and tiny ass bathrooms. No ma'am!!! You can kiss the Blackest part of my ass for those prices.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)No rent, no mortgage, just property taxes. And now that I'm retired and living on SS, I'd be homeless if it weren't for that. And that's not hyperbole. Frankly, I don't understand how anybody can afford rents these days. I know I couldn't possibly afford them.
mnhtnbb
(33,349 posts)that generates enough income to pay about 80% of our property taxes. Although my husband is still working part-time,
he's not far off from having to fully retire, at which point we'll be living off SS, his retirement annuity from the Feds, and
IRA withdrawals. Yes, and we built intending to 'age in place' which means no assisted living move. Places like that
are outrageously expensive.
Beaverhausen
(24,699 posts)It won't come with a lot of amenities and it's probably pretty run down and crappy but you can do it.
Thst said it is getting ridiculous out there -- there's very few of those $1500 ones to be found.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)buy my current home at current prices here in Pasadena, CA, I'd be ass out !
Many of my Midwest relatives have made snide remarks as to why my 2 single millennial sons still live at home, but they get a shock when they realize what it cost to live in this area. We call it "sunshine tax " 
I'd love to take the money and run, but I can't bring myself to try and relocate to another place....even w/ a nice chunk of change. AND, both my wife and I own property in other States. Just too old and lazy I guess.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)over in west Pasadena, by the arroyo. My favorite part of town. I can dream, lol.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)More San Marino.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)in South Pasadena 40 years now. Love it here!
white_wolf
(6,257 posts)I HATE living in the country. I know some people love it and that's fine, but it's not for me. I'm just not sure I can afford to live in a city despite wanting to. I was considering New York, but I'm not sure I can afford the rent. I make decent money now and have no kids, but still it's absurd.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)I'm telling you...even Brooklyn is expensive as hell. Forget about anything just over the bridge thinking "oh its not IN Manhattan". Its expensive. Jersey will be cheaper but not much. Taxes in Jersey are outrageous. You could do the Connecticut to NYC commute if you don't mind a long commute. Yeah...I had a dream of living in Manhattan but unless I hit the lottery its not happening. Not sure what other city you were considering. I had a job offer within this past year in Seattle, Washington. I love Seattle. Its breathtaking. I love the people (although there's not many brown people there), but its very liberal. But Seattle is also on this list. Housing there is ridiculously high. Ultimately, I decided it was not worth the move.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)That is my advice. You'll never have to shovel sunshine. 70 degree weather year round and walking distance to beaches. The downtown area is more affordable than everything on that list. Amazing food options in the gaslamp district, the baseball stadium is in walking distance, football stadium is a $2.50 trolley ride away, horse race track is a 20min drive.
white_wolf
(6,257 posts)San Francisco was on the list, but written off due to cost. I'll check out San Diego. Thanks!
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)I'd suggest east village as a place that is just starting on the upswing. Walking distance to everything downtown. When I get off work friday I park the car and it doesn't move until monday morning. Little italy is nicer as it is more developed, but also more pricey.
mucifer
(25,667 posts)It must just be for the nicer neighborhoods not an average of the entire city.
white_wolf
(6,257 posts)It simply CAN'T be all rich people living in those cities. Certain areas probably cost that much or more, but it seems incredibly high if it was an average for the entire city.
Straw Man
(6,947 posts)If Chicago is anything like NY, there are people who are paying much, much more.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)Its an average. I just came from Chicago after not having been in awhile. It was for my cousin's wedding. They both live in Streeterville section of the city while her mother lives in Hyde Park. I heard there were decent places for affordable rents in Uptown, but you're not getting into the Loop or River North or West Town for $1775/month.
Straw Man
(6,947 posts)... and left in 2001. Before that, I spent eight years in Tokyo, so I thought I knew about high housing prices. That was nothing compared to what I faced in NYC. By the time I left, I was paying $1500 for a studio. And that was 15+ years ago -- it has only gotten worse.
I have friends with middle-class salaries who desperately tried to hold on. But even with two-income households, they finally had to pack it in. One friend put it this way: "They just don't want me here anymore." He was right: "they" didn't.
And who are "they"? People with lots of money and a shitty value system; people who will pay anything to live where it's "cool" but don't realize that they are not ones that create the coolness; people who are willing to spend lavishly in a vain attempt to sustain an outsized self-image. F. Scott Fitzgerald would recognize them in a heartbeat.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)SDS=Second Dwelling Syndrome.
Wealthy people from all over the world like to own a place in NYC to be able to spend time here. So they own a second home here when their first home is in Omaha, or Salt Lake City, or London, Paris, Moscow, etc.
Their apartments/condos stay vacant 8-10 months out of the year, but by golly when they come here they don't need a hotel.
This lowers the availability of apartments, driving up the price on the rest of them from demand and from the premium that wealthy folks from all over are willing to pay to live here.
I live in Harlem, which now is the area of the city with the fastest growing rents percentage wise. The average apartment in Harlem is now around $3000 a month.
dflprincess
(29,346 posts)You can bet any new construction is way out of anyone's reach.
I've been in the same apartment in a Minneapolis suburb for 40 years. The building is about 55 years old, no amenities but I stay because the building is maintained fairly well and I've been here so long I get a break on the rent and I pay $110 less a month than if I was moving into the place today.
But I"m not getting any younger and the two flights of stairs down to the laundry room are beginning to annoy me. So I've been looking just to see what's out there.
Some new apartments are about to open near where I work so I looked at those (same 'burb I live in now). Lots of amenities and things I'd love to have but the 1 bedroom is maybe 20 square bigger than where I am and it's more than twice the rent (just over $1,500). Plus the tenant is responsible for heat and water (not so where I am), a parking space in the garage $75, I pay $35 for my very own private garage, another $65 for a storage room (included in the rent where I am).
Theoretically I could afford it. But I'd like to do more with my money than pay rent so it looks like I'll be staying where I am for a while.
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)NYC population will grow by the equivalent of the City of San Francisco in the next 20 years. That continual demand for housing is what drives prices up.
With all due respect to your situation, I'm guess a lot of sexual, ethnic or religious minorities might not feel as comfortable in rural Maryland, and I'm willing to bet that the food, cultural and entertainment options aren't quite the same.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)I live in the suburbs now and I'll be living in the suburbs in my new neighborhood in Maryland. So its not much of a change for me. I am disappointed that I will be much further from DC but this is a sacrifice I want to make now at 38 while I'm still young as opposed to this happening at 48 or 58. I'm trying to be retired by 55, spend 6 months of the year in Puerto Rico, and the other 6 in a nice place in or near to some place like DC or Philly or NY. So the point is sacrificing to invest more and save more now so that it will pay off later.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)I noticed quite a difference from when I purchased my home before the market crashed to now. You need a lot more up front money. The mistakes these assholes made putting people into houses they should've known and I believe did know in many cases these folks couldn't afford is making it very difficult for first time home buyers to purchase a home now. FHA loans are probably your best bet because you only need 3.5% but there are downsides to that as well. In addition, if you have significant student loans, FHA just made changes to their criteria that is going to make it difficult for those with high student loan payments to get approved. That is partly the reason why so many kids are doing the roommate thing or living with their parents still. Its why multigenerational housing is back on the rise. Why have two mortgages and two sets of bills when you can go in on one bigger house but still make out better in the end. Its just too damn much.
So millenials have thousands upon thousands of dollars in student loan debt and now many of them can't even get into a home. Something somewhere has to give. That there isn't some sort of control on these prices is ridiculous. It surely seems criminal.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)and the development going on is honestly unbelievable. Even just a year ago, streets running adjacent to the river looked borderline (potholes, stray cats, deserted streets, empty lots), although the neighborhood has been gentrified for quite some time.
But now, 4, 5, 6 10, I don't know how many steel/glass skyscrapers they're building, but these monstrosities are going to either drive rents that are already too high to even higher heights, or will result in a glut, but obviously a lot of people in real estate locally here are sold on Brooklyn's popularity. I used to chuckle about it, but after seeing all this stuff going on, I've sobered up.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I feel that for my education and salary level I should at least be able to afford a 1 bedroom, but I would have to live way outside the city to afford that and the commute isn't worth it to me.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)My college friend is married with 3 children. They just bought a 5 bedroom home thats a little over 3000 square feet in the Chestnut Hill area of Boston. They paid over $2 million. I'm sorry. That just doesn't make sense to me. That seems like too little of a house for that much money. Hell, in Baltimore's priciest neighborhood I just saw an 8000 square foot home for sale for $2.795 million. Thats way more reasonable than not even 3500 square feet.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Like NYC, you get very little for your money. Basically a roof over your head and not much else.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)lower class. Things are only going to get more expensive. It's not some conspiracy to consider that there is a mood in the upper echelons of society and the corporate world that the earth would be better off if "lesser people" could be controlled or convinced that all their needs would be met by the more sophisticated wealthy. And the "lessers" would be better in a subservient role. I've even heard it stated out loud, by very rich folks, at informal functions. I was appalled to hear it but what could I say or do or who could I tell? And it did not sound like conjecture. I had a pit in my stomach at even the thought. Most of us would be dead and gone because it was spoken as a goal for the future.
For example. What if we had to leave this planet because it was doomed. No way could billions of humans be transported. Only the few powerful and rich would even be allowed or considered to be intelligent enough to do such a thing.
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)A zombie apocalypse type hits and all the people with money lived in a secure, bordered environment protected by many armed guards to keep not only the zombies out, but the riff raff. If you didn't have the money to get into the area you were shit out of luck and had to survive out there amongst the zombies. Kind of a crazy comparison but thats kind of whats happening. Its definitely getting to the point where they are making it so expensive in certain areas to only cater to those of a certain income to the point where the folks they are driving out have no chance of coming back. The stores that they are building in these areas also are such that they are too expensive for folks who don't make a certain income to even bother coming to that area of town to shop in. Its very much by design.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)for anyone making less than $60,000 a year. And that's conservative. Historic homes and places are being bulldozed daily.
DFW
(60,189 posts)My wife and I would probably want to live in or near Boston. She is European and hates living someplace where you need a car to get anywhere. Here in our little suburb of Düsseldorf, we can easily walk to the center of town, to the local hospitals, to trains and buses, and to a huge park with a 1000 year old castle and miles of walking trails. Plus, it is a 15-20 car ride to an intercontinental airport with nonstops to NYC, Boston, SFO, LAX, Chicago and a few Florida airports, as well as all of Europe and North Africa, Japan, the Middle East, HK and China.
I see what houses go for Stateside, but the value of our house here would cover a big chunk of that if we ever sell it. The Düsseldorf area has for years had ads in the Saturday real estate section saying "Japanese firm looking for houses in the Düsseldorf area for its executives, price no object (we feel SF's pain)." We still contend with the problems of any urban area in the West these days--high taxes that hit their max rate starting around €100,000 gross income (just over 50%, all in, here in Germany plus a 19% tax on everything you buy) inefficient, uncaring bureaucracy, official tolerance of petty and organized crime, corrupt officials, and creeping environmental damage.
Our elder daughter decided to settle in Manhattan in NYC, where she finished her education and found a decent job, although it's more like slave wages for NYC. For the longest time, she was sharing the rent with two other young women her age in a modest 3 room apartment that rented out for about $3600 a month. We finally scraped together enough money to buy her an apartment there, though it's more like a hole in the wall, but she saves a fortune on rent, and used to walk to work (her employer just moved downtown). Her younger sister moved back here to Germany when the job market in her field sucked upon her graduation from law school in the USA (2010). She lucked into an amazing job with the Frankfurt arm of an American law firm, and now makes more than I do. She's all set. They needed someone who was fully bilingual in English and German, had an EU work permit (they are both dual citizens due to their parents' different nationalities), and had a US bar exam. She said, "here I am," and hasn't looked back. She would have preferred to stay in New York, but making a fortune in Frankfurt with instant financial security appealed more to her than waiting on tables (and a decent job) in New York.
The USA, (as with parts of Germany to a far lesser extent) seems blessed/cursed with having a large number of attractive urban areas that appeal to big money from outside. However, here in Germany, we read about Russian gazillionaires buying up penthouse condos in Manhattan for $40 million and upward that they only use part-time. FORTY fucking million? The only billionaire with a place in Manhattan I know (Peter Norton) lives in a place nowhere near that kind of price range, and he can afford whatever the hell he wants to. But he's not out to impress anyone, and doesn't NEED to. I mean we see articles about insane villas and estates bought and sold by entertainment stars for a quarter of that and still marvel at the sums bantered around.
One thing I have to question, though. The AVERAGE rent? Does this mean they took in the places that rent for $12000 a month and averaged them in with dilapidated places in need of fixing holes in the roof? I have visited a few U.S. cities this past summer, and there certainly seemed to be as much diversity as ever there. They would be boring, dull places indeed if they were populated only by white yuppies, and from coast to coast, from Boston to San Francisco, we saw no such city.
At this point, I wouldn't want to go hunting for a place to rent in ANY desirable urban area, and I come from a generation prior to the one dealing with crushing student debt. For that matter, nor would I want to be the owner of a big apartment building on any of those areas trying to collect the rent from any resident falling on financial hard times. I'm sure the costs of maintenance and property taxes would swamp anyone who couldn't collect the rent from their tenants. If you play your cards right, it has to be a game you can get rich with, but I'm not sure I'd want the stress and the additional white hair necessary to get there.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)... but I was used to houses out in the West where 300,000 will get you a mansion.
DFW
(60,189 posts)300,000 Euros will get you a closet with a toilet. A leaky toilet at that.
Housing here is off the charts (arigato, Nihon). However, out in the boonies, where my mom-in-law lives, €300,000 will buy you the PLayboy Mansion. The trouble is, she lives in one of these "you-can't-get-there-from-here" towns that aren't even on most maps, and have the honor of being some of the few places in Germany with no public transportation whatsoever (outside of expensive taxis). My wife has a typical German expression for her mom's town--"da möchte ich nicht tot über dem Zaun hängen (I wouldn't want to be dead hanging over a fence there)."
pansypoo53219
(23,034 posts)inanna
(3,547 posts)I almost feel blessed when it comes to my current rental situation - even though it's caused my expenses to rise by $145.00/mo. and has me living much further from work. But by comparison to what I'm reading here and others I know personally, I'm still a bit fortunate.
The building I live in is not very attractive (at all) and has no "curb appeal" whatsoever from the outside. However, my unit is just amazing. Large, ample storage, lots of sunlight, high ceilings, hard flooring, neat layout, etc. The utilities are included in the rent, and I'm allowed to pay bi-weekly, which makes budgeting my limited income a lot easier.
I'm still paying more than I'd like to, but with strict budgeting, I'm doing okay. I wouldn't be if I had to pay any of the rents listed in the OP. Hell, I'd be homeless....
mnhtnbb
(33,349 posts)are growing so fast. Concentrated area of good jobs, multiple universities, lower rent and much lower cost of living
than Boston/NY/Philly/DC.
My oldest son is a senior software developer for a company in the Triangle and bought a small 2 BR townhouse when he was 22--for $154,000 in 2007--so he could
stabilize his rent situation (which was just under $1000/mo at the time for a really nice 2 BR close to his work). Between a small inheritance from his grandmother
and some help from us-- with money we didn't spend on him going to college--he was able to qualify for a mortgage of about $650/mo all on his own income.
Now he's at the point where he and his partner would like a third bedroom and a garage. He's been out looking, and to stay close to his work it's going to cost
him about double what he spent 9 years ago just to get that 3rd bedroom and garage. Fortunately, the value of his place has appreciated, so his equity should
be sufficient for him to make a higher down and his salary is high enough they should be able to qualify for the larger mortgage including a second salary from
his partner.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)
ProfessorGAC
(76,706 posts)So, that means the assumption is that everything else is proportional. Gas is more expensive in some cities than others, but not 3x. Same with utilities. Food isn't 3.5x as much in SF as in Dallas.
I question the methodology.
BumRushDaShow
(169,761 posts)Alot of assumptions made and things left out in order to justify their per-determined argument. Plus they skip over a bunch of larger cities (like Baltimore & Denver) to toss in smaller ones like Atlanta and Riverside, CA, but claim their collection is "Top 10" metro areas (from the OP link) or "Top 15" metro areas in the original survey link.
Igel
(37,535 posts)Meaning that if you're alone, it's less.
If you're not at average, it's more or less. Don't know what the standard deviation or skew is, but averages by themselves don't really say much. "My students' average grade is 80." And yet that might mean they all got Bs or that most of them failed but the rest got 100 or that most got really good grades but a handful pulled in 20s. There's a pretty big difference between those three, and you need to say more to distinguish between them. (Yet my students think that when I say their class average was 80 it's meaningful at the individual level).
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)right on. If you don't mind living in the cheapest part of the outer boroughs in NYC, you can bring the numbers down quite a bit. I am not sure that is as true of San Fran.
Renew Deal
(85,169 posts)
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Interesting point of view.
Renew Deal
(85,169 posts)If you need space, the city limits and suburbs are more affordable
leftyladyfrommo
(20,005 posts)My house is 750 sq. feet and I use 3 rooms: the bedroom, the kitchen and the living room. The second bedroom is really small and it is all the storage I have except for 3 pretty small closets. I don't have a basement or a garage.
meaculpa2011
(918 posts)and my house costs nearly $3,000 per month.
Taxes, insurance and utilities are more than double here on Long Island (and other NYC suburbs) than most regions of the country.
Where we are looking to relocate the property taxes on a comparable home are 10% of what I'm paying here.
Initech
(108,783 posts)
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)WestCoastLib
(442 posts)The "average" price is being inflated by the large number of high price areas in these places where the wealthy are paying exorbitant amounts for rent. I have recently lived in both Seattle and Los Angeles, and you can rent good houses for much cheaper than that.
My wife, daughter and I were renting a nice two-bedroom home, with a good sized yard for our dog in an LA suburb for around 1,600 just a few years ago. Sure, we know people paying ridiculous amounts to live in Brentwood, or to live in one of the beach towns, like Manhattan/Hermosa, but these are people who know they are paying a premium for luxury.
The LA sprawl is huge. There are tons of affordable places to live (that are nice).
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)to each other.