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: