What % of your household income goes toward housing?

[MANN]

I have read many places where people are disputing that gas/food/whatever is too high. I am wondering if it is not more of case of people living above their means.

I am asking what is your monthly cost for your house/appt/etc. This only includes your loan/rent , your property taxes, & your homeowners insurance.

for those of you who are mathematically challenged. Take your total monthly housing cost and divide it by your income that you receive in a month.

[insixdays777]

Yep I agree totally. I am a very young homeowner. I did my homework, bought within my means...and I am pissed that my money is being used to bail out the suckers that failed to do their homework and bought a house that they could not afford. Its not the "bad guy" morgage companies...they offered me the super sucker 3/1 ARM also...I was smart enough to go for the 30yr fixed. Why is there no personal responsibility anymore?

...sorry long rant/nice poll :cheers:

[maniacmechanic]

about 30% goes into my rent payment
I live in S Fla , rents have actually gone down a little , but that doesn't help my lease .
In my opinion , a lot of poeple spend thier income & have very little left anyway , then the price of fuel (gas) doubles & that cost trickles into everything we buy because almost all of it is moved by truck

[Hilltop Customs]

between food, housing and utilities I dont have an extra dollar to put towards paying off school loans.

Its people living above their means that fail.....if you cant afford stuff dont buy it, and if you cant afford something and you put it on a credit card with no intent to pay it off before being hit with interest, your stupid. Ive easily put ~$3.5k in electronics(its my one vice) on credit cards, but I have never once paid a single dollar of interest because I planned purchase, expenditures and waited for 0% interest deals for major purchases...hell I quit playing paintball for over a year to quickly pay off my TV in the no interest period. I realize I could have put that money toward paying loans....but Ive had over 2 solid years of use that has limited my spending elsewhere so it has actually worked to my advantage. I even considered power consumption when selecting my electronics.

Its easy to save money, dont eat out ever, fast food is expensive....the cheapest way to eat is to cook yourself. Spend a few bucks to buy 5 gallon buckets and some soil and grow some food.....doesn't take much time and it is very satisfying. I love tomatoes myself, I eat them like apples sometimes. Turn off lights when your leaving a room, turn off your monitor anytime you get up from your computer, get a self adjusting thermostat and set it up so you conserve your energy. The little things add up as long as you make sure to do them constantly.

We have forgot how to be self sufficient and self sustaining, relying on other people to do work for us is more expensive than doing it ourselves. We have this massive resource of the internet where you can find out how to do ANYTHING, and do it extremely well....but yet not many people utilize it for this purpose.

/rant for now, I'll probably be back

[MANN]

In my opinion , a lot of poeple spend thier income & have very little left anyway , then the price of fuel (gas) doubles & that cost trickles into everything we buy because almost all of it is moved by truck

these people would then be gambling then right? They are wanting to live close to the edge. They want their income & expenses to match. IMO that is living above your means.

I wish I could remember who it was that stated that your monthly % on housing should not be more than 25%. I heard that sometime in high school. I am thinking probably Dave Ramsey, but I cant say that for sure.

I always thought that was a low %, but if you think about it I would dare to say that anyone in that category is "safe" regardless of what the economy does.

It is kinda scary that so many people pay over 40% of their monthly income.

[Hilltop Customs]

Id say they are much safer, but saying they are safe regardless is stretching it....we are all reliant on each other, if people cant aford to live, the services they provide will disappear....without their services even a person who pays 10% of their income toward housing cant live.

A big enough dip in the economy of a nation that is completely co-dependent can be catastrophic for every single person...even the rich, because they still reliant on low and middle classes to provide for them.

I'll stfu now

edit: i pay over 40% because I'm in college and finding hours to work is difficult.
edit 2: you probably should have said to divide the housing cost by the total household income in the first post.

[Spider-TW]

I paid extra for an old house close to work. My real estate agent suggested it would be better to put the money into the house instead of gasoline and car wear. It's paying even better now. I just hope I can keep working in the same area. :argh:

[kosmo]

I pay about 200% of my income on my rent. Good thing I cut back my drinking to a 12 pack every other day, or Id be broke by now.

[robnix]

I'm very happy that we pay 30% of our take home towards our house considering where we live. I do have to live "Not In Seattle" which cuts down on where I can work, but it's worth it to have a better house, a bigger yard, and nice neighbors.

[kevdupuis]

I'm very happy to say that my debt load is 25% which includes both mortgage and car payments. For the first ten years I took every opportunity to increase my mortgage payments and knocked a 25 year amortized mortgage down to 17 years. 5 more years and it's all paid for.
Of course with fuel prices the way they are I find myself riding my bike more often which helps save a few dollars.

[MoeMag]

23% for rent each month.
vs the 41% for my horse!

[trevorjk]

25% gas
65% car, car loan
10% personal loan
10% credit card

yes i know its over 100% :(

[Pneumagger]

1.5 weeks of our salaries goes towards the Mortgage, PMI, Taxes, and Homeowner's Insurance.
Then we have to afford Utilities, Gas, Guns, and Food (in that order).
Seeing as there is about 4.33 weeks/month (on average) we're at about 35%.

Now school loans... those suck.

[SCpoloRicker]

Now school loans... those suck.

You should have rolled the loans into your mortgage...

/5.675 @ 30 fixed, kthxbai

[behemoth]

Ricker is just too damn good.

[Pneumagger]

ehhh... I don't want my school loans in my mortgage.
Plus they are about half the rate as my mortgage.

I just hate them because it feels like I'm paying them and getting zero return - money out of pocket.
Although, once I consolidate them it should reduce payments.

[SCpoloRicker]

Mortgage interest is deductible, don't forget.

As I did my calculations, the difference in rates is more than outweighed by the tax implications.

But hey, your mileage may vary.

[Twistedpsyche]

I live in NH and for me it's around 20 - 25% for our apt. We're also trying to save for a house so with the price of everything going up that is getting more and more difficult. Oh and the wife's car may have come to it's end so yeah... that's always nice too. SIGH. I'm gonna move to ND and work for an oil company or something....