S/O West Coast COL, how much money do you need to make?

[rupertpenny]

Sept 20, 2017 22:19:13 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Sept 20, 2017 21:29:05 GMT -5 connie0000 said:

I see the lord is testing me again.

Lol. I'm sorry!

Maybe this stuff is obvious when you already live in a very hcol place. Having never done that, hearing rent averaging in the several thousands per month sounds impossible. I want it to be possible!

Of course it is possible. When you do live in HCOL it can get old to see people here constantly express shock over housing prices (and sizes, but that is less common). Of course with the HHI range I listed above I can now live pretty comfortably pretty much anywhere in the world, but I have lived in HCOL places, including where I am now, on much less money. If you have to do it (or even just want to do it!) you figure it out. Mostly you figure out what you really need an what is just nice to have.

Disclaimer: I'm only talking about middle class people with average wages. Not people actually living in poverty.

[pantsparty]

Sept 20, 2017 22:19:13 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Sept 20, 2017 21:29:05 GMT -5 connie0000 said:

I see the lord is testing me again.

Lol. I'm sorry!

Maybe this stuff is obvious when you already live in a very hcol place. Having never done that, hearing rent averaging in the several thousands per month sounds impossible. I want it to be possible!

It's just not easy to answer this question. Surely where you live right now, there are pockets of expensive and inexpensive houses? Even if you told me a city, I couldn't help you with costs, because I don't know what size house you want, how close you want to be to the city center, etc. The price range for houses in San Diego, for instance, are all over the freaking place depending on how close you are to downtown, if you're in Point Loma, North County, etc.

We moved out here for my H's job and that came with paid moving costs and an increase in his salary. Fortunately mine has also increased as well, but we still live below our means, which has worked out well when my H got laid off. If we had purchased a house at the pre-approved mortgage amount, we would be beyond fucked right now. LOL. If you're considering moving to a HCOL area, I would plan on keeping all other expenses steady, find out a mortgage in an area you'd like for the approximate house size, and see what that looks like. I love where we live, but it's not like it's so awesomely magical it makes me forget our mortgage, or our state taxes, or our state income tax. We also spend more money traveling because our family is based in the midwest, and we have prioritized getting back for family events and weddings.

Things have worked out but that's our situation. I would not move to a HCOL area just for the heck of it.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Sept 20, 2017 22:36:09 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

Sept 20, 2017 22:19:13 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Lol. I'm sorry!

Maybe this stuff is obvious when you already live in a very hcol place. Having never done that, hearing rent averaging in the several thousands per month sounds impossible. I want it to be possible!

It's just not easy to answer this question. Surely where you live right now, there are pockets of expensive and inexpensive houses? Even if you told me a city, I couldn't help you with costs, because I don't know what size house you want, how close you want to be to the city center, etc. The price range for houses in San Diego, for instance, are all over the freaking place depending on how close you are to downtown, if you're in Point Loma, North County, etc.

We moved out here for my H's job and that came with paid moving costs and an increase in his salary. Fortunately mine has also increased as well, but we still live below our means, which has worked out well when my H got laid off. If we had purchased a house at the pre-approved mortgage amount, we would be beyond fucked right now. LOL. If you're considering moving to a HCOL area, I would plan on keeping all other expenses steady, find out a mortgage in an area you'd like for the approximate house size, and see what that looks like. I love where we live, but it's not like it's so awesomely magical it makes me forget our mortgage, or our state taxes, or our state income tax. We also spend more money traveling because our family is based in the midwest, and we have prioritized getting back for family events and weddings.

Things have worked out but that's our situation. I would not move to a HCOL area just for the heck of it.

no such animal in metro west coast as an 'inexpensive' house bc even inexpensive homes aka condos are in the 350-400k range PLUS $400/monthly HOA fees ... that's a lot of $$$$ for 1000-1200 sf 2/2 condo

[miso]

Sept 20, 2017 20:27:41 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

I recently applied for a job in LA and have done some looking into COL stuff in case anything actually comes of it. Our HHI would be in the $200-250k range and we would try to live in Westwood to minimize commutes. We will soon have two kids, one in public school. I'm not worried about not having enough money for that lifestyle. We could probably do it for a lot less. I don't mind living in a tiny apartment though.

If you move here, please please please let me know!

You will live near where I currently work!

[miso]

Sept 20, 2017 19:17:00 GMT -5 runwny said:

Here is what our 'stats' would be: 2 adults, 1 cat, no kids (ever), no current loans/debt

Would like: SFH, 2 beds would be fine, probably could/would rent (we currently do)

Right now our HH income is $______. LCOL area. I work PT so DH makes wayyyy more than I do currently.

Providing stats is a good start!

But we don't know where you want to live, how you generally spend money, etc., etc.

Housing will be your biggest cost. Everything else is not likely to be significantly different from what it already costs. (Yes, sure, everything may generally be more expensive, but looking at the increase in housing cost will probably be the easiest way to gauge what neighborhoods you can afford.)

Really, it's not "how much money you need to make." You're going to make what you make. It's really difficult to go out and simply find a higher paying job.

The question is "What can you afford with what you make?"

I recommend looking into average rents in the cities that interest you. I read Curbed for fun, and there is a segment called "What $____ Rents You Right Now." (Here's an example of what $2,800 gets you in Los Angeles right now.) Perusing stuff like this for different places may provide you a better lay of the land.

[rupertpenny]

Sept 21, 2017 11:32:22 GMT -5 miso said:

Sept 20, 2017 20:27:41 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

I recently applied for a job in LA and have done some looking into COL stuff in case anything actually comes of it. Our HHI would be in the $200-250k range and we would try to live in Westwood to minimize commutes. We will soon have two kids, one in public school. I'm not worried about not having enough money for that lifestyle. We could probably do it for a lot less. I don't mind living in a tiny apartment though.

If you move here, please please please let me know!

You will live near where I currently work!

It probably wont happen, there are a lot of obstacles including the fact my H isn't a member of the CA bar. But part of my hypothetical LA life is B and Misotiny being BFF so I will definitely let you know if we actually move!

[runwny]

Sept 21, 2017 20:22:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Is your question really whether you can make it work in a HCOL area on $162k/year with no debt and no children? Seriously??

Yes, you can. Literally anywhere in the country. Your money will go further in some places certainly but there is no where you "can't afford" to live.

You do know poor people live in everywhere, right?

Yes. However, when we recently told family and several close friends that DH applied for a job in Los Angeles, everyone was all "Seriously? You'd need to make like $500k to survive there or afford a house." And they are being dead serious. So, of course I get it that poor people live everywhere, I'm wondering what an accurate comparable salary would be...and whether it's realistic to get that comparable salary. OR if we could afford to live there on our current income if we wouldn't get a raise based on location differences.

[fryjack2]

Try this calculator. We used an online one similar to it when we contemplated moving from one VHCOL city to another.

www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/

[miso]

I don't make $500k, but I own a house and lead a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.

[wildrice]

Sept 21, 2017 20:30:21 GMT -5 runwny said:

Sept 21, 2017 20:22:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Is your question really whether you can make it work in a HCOL area on $162k/year with no debt and no children? Seriously??

Yes, you can. Literally anywhere in the country. Your money will go further in some places certainly but there is no where you "can't afford" to live.

You do know poor people live in everywhere, right?

Yes. However, when we recently told family and several close friends that DH applied for a job in Los Angeles, everyone was all "Seriously? You'd need to make like $500k to survive there or afford a house." And they are being dead serious. So, of course I get it that poor people live everywhere, I'm wondering what an accurate comparable salary would be...and whether it's realistic to get that comparable salary. OR if we could afford to live there on our current income if we wouldn't get a raise based on location differences.

Well, this is a bit silly. Of course you don't need to make 500k to survive anywhere. You may need that to buy a nice house in some areas, but that's certainly not a typical salary anywhere in the US and still millions of people live in HCOL cities. If you make 162k a year I would assume you could live a nice lifestyle anywhere, though you may have to watch your spending/housing choices more closely in a HCOL area than a LCOL area.

The calculator fryjack2 posted is interesting, and helpful!

I don't know how to feel about the fact that Seattle is 74% more expensive than where I live right now, though, lol. 

[goldengirlz]

I've been drinking so I'll play. The whole idea of a "lifestyle downgrade" is very subjective.

When we lived in a MCOL city, we had the HGTV life: beautiful 3500 sq ft house, lots of land, best school district in our state.

Now even though our salaries increased by 50%, our house cost 3x as much, we have half the square footage and 1/8 the lot size. Our schools are ... suffice it to say, not the best in the state.

On paper, major downgrade, right? But we didn't move here to replicate our old town. I hated it there. I love that DD is now in a diverse school; I love that I can walk places and take public transportation; I love that we can be in Napa or Sonoma in 90 minutes. I love the food, the scenery, the fact that you can use whatever bathroom you damn well please regardless of what sex it says on your birth certificate.

If all you want to do is transport your McMansion from one state to another because you heard the weather is good or whatnot, then yeah, you're going to be sorely disappointed by what your money can buy here. But if you're moving here for the lifestyle, then "downgrade" this is anything but.

[fryjack2]

wildrice- there are much better ones calculators that compare a huge list of expenses in different areas. I just googled and posted one of the first ones that popped up.

[jenny1980]

Huh. I just did that calculator and LA is 6% cheaper than Seattle.

Maybe I am a lot more poor than I suspected.

[gretchenindisguise]

We live in SoCal, with student loans and 2 kids and have survived. And H was on postdoc until about 2 months ago.

People live here below the poverty line.

You will be fine.

[bronxgirl]

Sept 21, 2017 21:55:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Huh. I just did that calculator and LA is 6% cheaper than Seattle.

Maybe I am a lot more poor than I suspected.

Maybe you should sell your 800k Seattle mansion and live a life that's 6% fancier in LA.

[mryrcn]

Sept 22, 2017 0:41:24 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Sept 21, 2017 21:55:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Huh. I just did that calculator and LA is 6% cheaper than Seattle.

Maybe I am a lot more poor than I suspected.

Maybe you should sell your 800k Seattle mansion and live a life that's 6% fancier in LA.

I'm laughing at the 800k Seattle mansion.  I'm guessing it's a 3 bdr. 1 bath bungalow style house.  

I have a friend that lives in HB area in SoCal.  She's a single mom and makes $30k a year.  She's struggling but they are living okay.  Her kids don't do extracurriculars but they actually get out in their area and go to the beach or play with friends.  She is from that area and didn't move there.  You have to make it work for you.  

[jigsy]

I can't believe this is a serious question.

Let me guess, you think you aren't quite middle class either, right?

[jenny1980]

Sept 22, 2017 10:02:19 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

Sept 22, 2017 0:41:24 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Maybe you should sell your 800k Seattle mansion and live a life that's 6% fancier in LA.

I'm laughing at the 800k Seattle mansion.  I'm guessing it's a 3 bdr. 1 bath bungalow style house.  

I have a friend that lives in HB area in SoCal.  She's a single mom and makes $30k a year.  She's struggling but they are living okay.  Her kids don't do extracurriculars but they actually get out in their area and go to the beach or play with friends.  She is from that area and didn't move there.  You have to make it work for you.  

Bronxgirl is joking about it being a mansion lol. Yes, it's most def not a fancy house. And we most definitely could not afford it if we had to buy now. Even to get it at $500k, people on MM would have DIED at the amount of debt we took on compared to our salaries. 

[halfpint]

I hire people for a living. This is a not uncommon question, and I think people often think, welp, I Googled, and houses cost roughly double in LA what they do in Little Rock, so I'm going to need to make $200k to take your job, even though I currently make $100k. They don't always see that this isn't how it works. Even many of the COL calculators will tell you that you need to make a much higher salary than what is realistic when you plug in the numbers.

Salary.com is far from perfect, but you can plug in zip codes to see what average salaries may look like at your level of experience and industry in a given market. I would expect to see a moderate increase in salary levels, but it's never going to be commensurate with cost of living. It just isn't. Maaaaybe 20-30% higher for some industries/jobs if you're going from VLCOL/LCOL to HCOL/VHCOL.

For example - average base salary for my current job title in my current city is $77k. Average for my current job title in LA is $90k. A COL calculator says I need to increase my salary to $120k+ to maintain my current standard of living in LA. Ain't gonna happen.

[miso]

Sept 21, 2017 21:55:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Huh. I just did that calculator and LA is 6% cheaper than Seattle.

Maybe I am a lot more poor than I suspected.

You probably wouldn't have to live next to the freeway. LOL.

[miso]

Sept 22, 2017 10:02:19 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

Sept 22, 2017 0:41:24 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Maybe you should sell your 800k Seattle mansion and live a life that's 6% fancier in LA.

I'm laughing at the 800k Seattle mansion.  I'm guessing it's a 3 bdr. 1 bath bungalow style house.  

I'm laughing that you're laughing.

[jenny1980]

Sept 22, 2017 11:02:40 GMT -5 miso said:

Sept 21, 2017 21:55:25 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Huh. I just did that calculator and LA is 6% cheaper than Seattle.

Maybe I am a lot more poor than I suspected.

You probably wouldn't have to live next to the freeway. LOL.

I live on a bus line right now! 

We did actually look at a number of homes close to the freeway and got outbid lol. 

[mryrcn]

Sept 22, 2017 10:35:28 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Sept 22, 2017 10:02:19 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

I'm laughing at the 800k Seattle mansion.  I'm guessing it's a 3 bdr. 1 bath bungalow style house.  

I have a friend that lives in HB area in SoCal.  She's a single mom and makes $30k a year.  She's struggling but they are living okay.  Her kids don't do extracurriculars but they actually get out in their area and go to the beach or play with friends.  She is from that area and didn't move there.  You have to make it work for you.  

Bronxgirl is joking about it being a mansion lol. Yes, it's most def not a fancy house. And we most definitely could not afford it if we had to buy now. Even to get it at $500k, people on MM would have DIED at the amount of debt we took on compared to our salaries. 

Oh I know.  That's why I was laughing.  Nothing over here is selling for under $800k and that's a 2 bdr. 1 bath condo.  But I live near Laurelhurst so...

We've looked up in Edmonds because we like that area a lot.  DH is going to be working downtown soon and I think we will just stay here for a while until the market goes down some.  I can tell that it has already tapered off compared to a year ago.  

[mryrcn]

Sept 22, 2017 11:03:35 GMT -5 miso said:

Sept 22, 2017 10:02:19 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

I'm laughing at the 800k Seattle mansion.  I'm guessing it's a 3 bdr. 1 bath bungalow style house.  

I'm laughing that you're laughing.

Not in a bad way though.  I knew she was joking.  We have to laugh in order to endure this real estate market.  

[jenny1980]

Sept 22, 2017 11:18:02 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

Sept 22, 2017 10:35:28 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Bronxgirl is joking about it being a mansion lol. Yes, it's most def not a fancy house. And we most definitely could not afford it if we had to buy now. Even to get it at $500k, people on MM would have DIED at the amount of debt we took on compared to our salaries. 

Oh I know.  That's why I was laughing.  Nothing over here is selling for under $800k and that's a 2 bdr. 1 bath condo.  But I live near Laurelhurst so...

We've looked up in Edmonds because we like that area a lot.  DH is going to be working downtown soon and I think we will just stay here for a while until the market goes down some.  I can tell that it has already tapered off compared to a year ago.  

I LOVE Edmonds! It's $$$ too, though. 

[mryrcn]

Sept 22, 2017 11:22:56 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Sept 22, 2017 11:18:02 GMT -5 mryrcn said:

Oh I know.  That's why I was laughing.  Nothing over here is selling for under $800k and that's a 2 bdr. 1 bath condo.  But I live near Laurelhurst so...

We've looked up in Edmonds because we like that area a lot.  DH is going to be working downtown soon and I think we will just stay here for a while until the market goes down some.  I can tell that it has already tapered off compared to a year ago.  

I LOVE Edmonds! It's $$$ too, though. 

I have found it to be a a better value than my neighborhood.  But I doubt that we are moving any time soon.  

[captainobvious]

H and I have no kids, no pets, and make significantly less than $500k combined. We own a condo in San Diego. We live what I think is a very "spendy" lifestyle (eat out often, members of clubs, etc.) and are very comfortable.

That being said, we bought our condo in North County (inland) rather than North Park or some other trendy area because we could afford the house and still have the ability to have our fun.

Our family members in NJ all think it's "so expensive" here and they "could never afford it" until we point out that we are able to do it. And the only cost that's different is housing. Food is about the same (we don't have Wegmans though, sadness) from the store, and restaurants were more expensive there. It balances.

[alleinesein]

captainobvious Are you in the SM/SEH area? Or do you live in the 'scary part of the county' (aka Esco?)

[captainobvious]

alleinesein, neither, although I'm fairly close to the mall in Escondido.

Why is it scary? It seems like a pretty regular place to me (and I've lived here for my entire life). I haven't found it scary except for during fire season...

[alleinesein]

Sept 22, 2017 15:50:34 GMT -5 captainobvious said:

alleinesein, neither, although I'm fairly close to the mall in Escondido.

Why is it scary? It seems like a pretty regular place to me (and I've lived here for my entire life). I haven't found it scary except for during fire season...

You are just down the road from me. Esco just gets a bad rap from some of the SD people on here they said some pretty negative things about it in the past.