% of net income for housing
 

What are you paying?

This doesn't include utilities. This is just mortgage/rent + taxes.

The check you write every month

$165
3bd/2bath apt with 2 roommates.

mortgage + taxes + insurance = ~$1400/mo
tax = $2400/yr
mortgage amount/purchase price was $156k, House just appraised at $220k :)

Well Im looking for the % of net income, because I want to see what other people are affording. But i assumed people didnt want to share net income and expenses

I appreciate the quick responses though... Thanks for the input cjerigan

I pay about 30% of my net to rent.

I expect that to go way up if I buy a house.

What are you looking to spend when you buy a house? I am at 28% for rent too

Renting a 4 room apartment 10min outside Nürnberg with 2 car garage, balkony and garden: All included (water, heating, snow clearing in winter, garage and bla bla) except electricity: 890€/month. We could live cheaper, but hardly better. Love our place.

$1135.76 For 1st Mortgage. That includes tax and Ins.
Also have a home equity line with a variable rate.
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My broker told me that you should cap out around 35% though I could go all the way to 50%.

not sure on my net, but my % of gross is about 11.5%
so net estimated % is around 17.8%
but a mortgage will change that percentage soon

I just did the math, and my rent comprises 8% of my income. I want to buy, but the market is kinda retarded right now.

24% on my morguage. I got a great deal on my house.

25%

supersayan-dude, this is the time to buy, i just bought investment property for this reason, and looking for one more house to buy withing the next 4-5 months if i can...
your in LA, im not sure what the market is looking like there, but i would assume there are lots of opportunities simply b/c of the economy, not the disaster...

The 35% is the rule of thumb for gross. Was he talking net?

I guess I should have been more specific. The local market is crazy. A couple of years ago, the market got flooded with demand from people who found themselves with a sudden need for a roof over their heads.

Locally, this has driven up prices and you just can't find a decent built home around here. If I were to build, that would be another story, but I don't think I want to build for my first home.

gross

its really not that comlicated, if you are not going to be invloved, just find a semi-local builder and put him under contract, if they do not finish in time, their pay gets cut...i ahve never done this in the past but heared about it...no reason why not to build your home if you have the means...

well, that's just it. i kinda...umm......don't. lol. My percentage of rent to income is so low because i'm paying hella cheap rent right now. A mortgage payment would be 4x what i'm paying in rent right now.

I just whipped up a spreadsheet yesterday that took into account all my monthly bills and income and tax deductions. You enter in basically how much the loan is for and what the interest rate is to get the amoritization schedule and then you also pop in what you pay on your credit cards (minimum payments or 2000 or whatever) as well as your expected utilities. It also had a space for adding a renter (my gf who will eventually get a ring etc etc)

I think the end result was that I could comfortably afford 30-35% of my gross given my current expenses. more if I ask the gf to pay her current rent to me instead of to some guy in Minneapolis.

the easy part is figuring out the "equivalent mortgage" payment based on your interest deduction but the reality is that is probably eaten up / offset by insurance and property tax.

i HATE Bostons my girlfriend and i each pay 875 for a 1 bed room apt we do have daily trash pick up and the street has 2 24 hour security guards dishwasher, washer and dryer. Still I cant wait to move out in sept. that same 1750 will get us a small house (rent or mortgage) in a pretty good area. both sets of parents say we shouldn't get a house till we are married and have steady jobs.

$2200 for about 1280 sq ft.

My house deducts about $4500/yr from my income. Property taxes + Insurance is about $3000. But then I think the property tax can be written off federal income so it comes out a little better. So the delta is at least $1500. But then I get my money back when I sell the house. :)

My mortgage is 9% of my yearly income, but this year I paid 75% of my income. I am trying to get this house paid off, so I cal leave this damn part of the world.:sadwavey:

Mortgage PITI payment is 24% of net here, or ~18% of gross.

House is paid off, but takes are a bit over 4 grand a year.

Practically, %33.33 of my monthly net goes to rent/housing costs. I could find a cheaper place, or a bigger place for the same cost, but I love my location. Since I spent the last two years paying down debt, my revolving debt is minimal, so I can afford a decent lifestyle and still save a buttload each month.

That's what my guy said but even at 35% gross I can't see it being affordable. For some reason my math doesn't add up to being able to buy any turbo I want whenever I want to.

In NJ the property tax for the houses we are looking at average around 10k/year. Meg and I spend about 600 a month on gas too.

I was looking at deducting 22,000 and property tax is about $4000. insurance is yow.

whoops, sorry Matt I was bad with semantics. I meant that the house removes $4500 of my federal tax burden. The actual deduction is more like 12k.

True. There are sacrifices to be made. My house probably appreciates at $1000/month, or essentially at a rate that negates the interest I pay monthly. But now I have to save up to make a non-essential $1000 purchase. And no more $750 Friday nights at the strip club. That's the trade off to gain long term wealth. My house keeps appreciating, and when I sell it, it's like I lived there for free. I'm sitting on 65k equity, and only been there a year and a half. Pretty soon I'll have amassed an estate, then an empire, followed by the world. :squint:

You've played it well. I like to think I did similar, although I haven't had to spent nearly as much as you to make it livable (granted, that means less equity). I've been in the house less than 2 months, and have about $30k equity in this lousy market. A similar house to mine, more dated and on a worse lot, was just put on the market for $40k more than I paid for mine :bang:

Help a brotha out. all I need is some state no one wants like Utah. That can become Jordan's State o Ass. Nothing but booty as far as the eye can see.

Monthly mortgage payment (note + tax + insurance) is just under 35% of NET income. Pre-kids, that left plenty of dough for max'ing out co. sponsored retirement funds/IRAs, paying bills and play money. Confirm property taxes (state and county) before you buy!

South Florida is so fucked up right now. In two years I lost about $170k in equity because the market here is flodded with people who want to get out. Luckily I still have about 130k in equity left and thats if I dont use all of my line of credit.
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Hmm- living outside of Boston, 27% of monthly net...

but I also get an additional 60%-70% income in December from bonus/dividends, so that 27% falls to something like 15%-17% of annual net income. I budget to live on my monthly income and then get the bonus at the end of the year to play around with.

Just less than 25% with my income alone. If you factor in my wife's income that comes down to about 15%. Kid's, that's were the big money sucker is. They cost you an arm and a leg and you never really build any equity in them.

Buy a house with in your means, make sure you can ride it out long term if needed to get your $$$ out of it.

I pay $505/month (mortage, property tax, insurance)

I make 2800/month

Net or Gross?

Rent on my 1 bedroom apt is $1,750. That's about 23% of gross. If I were to buy a house in the neighborhood and make a 20% downpayment, the mortgage would be about $4,000 a month, plus ~$700 / month in property tax, $100 - $200 in HOA fees, plus insurance. That would be close to 100% of net. :td:

I pay about ~10% of gross income I bought really smart 12 years ago and my income as gone up 10 fold since then so I don't think I’m a good example. I also bought a Tri-Plex so the renters pay a huge portion of my mortgage.

I'm 37 and I only have 8 more years until retirement according to my financial plan. Of course this is very dependent on the economy as the performance of investments play a big roll on retirement.

Edit:No i'm not REPO4SALE

28% on the low side 33% on the high side, generally you want to be in that range.

Sorry, net.

Thats the rule of thumb for gross income. I was seeing what people were paying in reality.

I pay about 10% of household income toward the mortgage/taxes (1700sq ft). Could afford way more-just don't need anything bigger. I would rather see the extra money go into investments other than a house (although many would consider a house an investment), but that's just me.

I hate you people...

Yeah same here. The condo looks better every day I try to find something else affordable.

I pay 20% for rent in a 3 bedroom house with one roommate. However, all utilities are included, plus internet and premium cable. Can't be that deal around here.

Loki, have you looked at the FHA mortgages?

No havent even thought/looked into it. Is that the route your going?

If you're not putting 20% down, ask about LPMI; regular PMI is only tax deductible if the household income is less than $100k. Plus, if your credit score is excellent, you might even end up paying less per month with LPMI. I ended up saving $65/month plus extra tax benefits goign this route. Of course, this is a dumb idea if you plan to stay in the same house forever.

I'm not trying to be rude but if you have to pay PMI then you need to save longer or buy a less expensive house.

FHA is how I could afford to buy my place. It's a great resource for the first time buyer. There is A LOT more paper work involved and few more inspection if memory serves me correctly however the interest rate was a full point and half lower. If a person is handy at all you really might want to consider buying a small apartment building like I did. If the place has people already on lease you can count 75% of that as income to qualify for the mortgage. Downside are there for sure but like anything you have to weigh them and decide if it's something you can live with.

you can also get around PMI by having 2 loans.

I'm only about 18% of net and I own. Maybee its time to get a place with a bigger garage.

I am most likely doing 5% down and pulling a separate loan, but LPMI wont work because of the household income. :vash:

Yeah...I think that was a better idea when you were buying than when I did. I looked into it, and it would have been WAY more expensive than what I ended up with.

Perhaps you misunderstood me; normal PMI is only tax deductible if the income is less than $100k. LPMI is deductible regardless of income, because it manifests itself as a slightly higher interest rate.

Point taken. However, if you can buy a place where the PITI payment is roughly equivalent to the rent you pay anyway, it doesn't make any sense to continue to rent.

yes, good point to me renting is like throwing $$ in the trash. although for some folks it makes sense.

I'm also going to disagree. 20% down is a tough/impossible for most people, and considering the financial benefits of ownership, it can be advantageous to buy instead of rent.

In my particular situation, it worked out better for me to buy the house at 0 down with 80/20 loans. Even though I had been saving to put 20% down, and at the time was able to do so. But as Ben said, times they are a changin.