But I think no matter how I spin it, it is the housing cost that has always been a burden, not the food.
For our age, we really do not want to live with a roommate. But as long as I live in a high cost area, I feel that a huge chunk of my earnings just go to the landlord when I do not own the place we live. Someone I know who is mortgage free still complains about the property tax.
Wherever there could be a job, it is usually the case that the housing cost is high. There is just no way to get around it (until you are either rich enough or retired and do not live in a high COL area.)
Do you feel the same way? (No wonder the young generation are not inclined to buy a house.)
I think a lot depends on the kind of house you want and where you live. Houses by us are very affordable. You can get a nice 3 bedroom house with an acre for $140,000. There are jobs here but you have to be willing to live in the Midwest and out of the city. I like it here as living is pretty easy.
No. We bought our house 27 years ago. Paid it off 10 years ago. Only pay property taxes and insurance now. Way, way less than renting. We live comfortably on my husband’s retirement income and my small salary from a part time job.
One option is to buy a two family home and rent half out. This avoids the roommate issue. It may take more capital to get into than a single family home, depending where you are.
If you were able to buy for cash, and the property held its value, and you rented out half - possibly you have zero housing costs if the rent covers taxes and upkeep.
This won’t be an option available to many people.
I have had friends with duplexes, covering their mortgages with rental income. And they had an appreciating asset back in the olden days. Who knows now?
We live in an expensive area. But we bought small and never “moved up”. So we did okay…paid it off 2 years ago cutting a few years off the original mortgage length.
We live in a high cost of living area. We bought our house close to ten years ago, and it’s probably worth 100K less than we paid. Frustrating, but we are happy where we live, and our kids went to great public schools. We can afford out home, but it is expensive. If we didn’t have to fairly high salary earners, we might be in trouble.
We live out in the desert of California (not a place that the average person finds desirable - but we do). Cost of living here is very low, and average income is quite high.
The downside is that its a bit of a drive to the nearest major city, and the weather gets hot in summer. The upsides are that its cheap, the air is clean, and traffic is non-existent. In our case, the pros outweigh the cons by a large margin… I would much rather be here than in some crowded metro area, fighting traffic day in and day out, AND paying more to do so!
Bottom line is that you need to be creative when looking for a place to live affordably. If you’re like most people, you will want to live where everyone else wants to live, and you will end up paying a premium for it.
^^^ same with us. We are in a high-cost area, but have been here for 20+ years. We didn’t move up and didn’t refinance or take out a second to borrow more on our equity. Our mortgage is almost payed off and is about 35% of what this would rent for. Calif Prop. 13 stabilized our property taxes, so we are set. One of our DD’s and her husband was able to buy a house nearby a few years ago when prices were down- they got very lucky and got a foreclosure during a very small window of lower prices. Our DS1 was able to buy a fixer-upper in Denver by himself. He is doing all of the work himself and rents out one room to a friend, so is not paying a lot more than when he rented. He would probably not be able to move back to So. Calif.
The cost of housing is a medium burden in my life. Property taxes are approximately $6,500; heat and electricity probably average $175 per month; home maintenance has been relatively low but only because we’ve put off major and minor upgrades. Just spent $24,000 on a new roof and new chimney and a tree removal. One bathroom will have to be redone because of water damage from the leaky roof. Also needed are paint and some new windows. Despite the “flaws,” the assessment went up almost $40,000 this year, presumably because of the prices people in the area have received when selling their houses recently. Rental costs in this metropolitan area are also high, however, so I wouldn’t save much, if anything, by selling and moving to an apartment.
We live in an expensive part of the country too. The key was not to overbuy. We bought our first house…and used the profit from that to fund building the one we live in now. That was 21 years ago. House is fully paid for…and we really like it.
Mcat was thinking of housing cost around $400 per month. Sorry it’s not going to happen. I know of a house that was purchase in 1976 for $70K and the property tax is about $200 per month , even with the mortgage paid off.
I’m very grateful to own a home (whose mortgage, in our flush days, we were able to pay off in 7 years). But it is costly, although not when compared to most people in the world.
Buying a house gives one an edge on inflation because your mortgage stays the same while your income increases. If we had rented for the past 25 years instead, then the increased rental would have continually eaten into our budget.
Today is a special day for us. We made our very last mortgage payment. Now think of all the extra money we’ll have to play with from now on! Yippee!
After years of renting, we bought at the bottom of the market (yay!!) and enjoyed our cute townhouse for almost 3 years before a job change moved us half-way across the country. Every month when I pay our very cheap rent here and the mortgage on a very nearly empty place there, I feel a twinge of irritation. Yes, we can afford both bills (because the rent here is remarkably cheap), but gee it would be nice if Happykid (who is there several nights each month because of travel for her work) were a bit quicker at lining up a couple of paying housemates.