What % of your monthly income goes to housing?

[meganew]

I know we’ve done this before, but humor me please. We are still in the middle of the same city vs suburb argument we’ve been having for 8 GODDAMN YEARS. We thought the decision was pretty much made for us because we couldn’t find anything in our neighborhood we could afford, but a house just hit the market two blocks from us and it’s perfect. We went to see it today expecting to find a bunch of stuff we didn’t like, but it was even better than the pictures and the listing agent is our agent from when we previously bought/sold.

Anyway, I crunched the numbers and the best I can figure is with everything (taxes, insurance, pmi) it would bring us to 33-35% of our monthly take home pay after retirement and everything. We currently pay a little over 20%. We’d pay less in the suburbs, a lot less, and the taxes would be about the same, but here we don’t have to get another car or buy lawn care stuff and the house maintenance would be less. For instance, a new city roof is like a thousand bucks if that. Lol.

But, the amount is making me want to puke. It’s SO MUCH MONEY. And I’m not sure how much more we’d make, so I don’t know how much more breathing room we’d ever get. H does do a lot of freelance which I didn’t factor in to my monthly take home, but I’d hate for him to feel stressed to keep that level of work up all the time.

So, where do you feel comfortable? What do you put towards what- savings, vacations, etc.

And I swear, one day, I will stop posting about this. Either because we’ve finally moved and made our choice or because we were so frozen by our inability to make a decision we just stayed in our 2 bedroom rental forever.

[silvercrayon]

Ours is 25%.

[jezebel]

Like 45%, but I’m on one income.

[W.T.Faulkner]

You really have been doing this for 8 years! lol

About 25% of our take-home income goes to our mortgage and taxes. We spent a ton of money the first year on lawn care stuff and additional furniture, etc., since we moved from a 2 BR in the city to a 3 BR with a dining room and a real kitchen.

I’d answer the questions about savings and vacations and other stuff, but our finances are so jacked from the baby that our last year of expenses it not an accurate representation of what we’re normally able to save. lol

I’d also like to add the following: you hate the suburbs. You tried this already and you were sad! But, I was sad when we left the city and I love where we live now.

[chimera]

Excluding bonuses and just using base ~16% of take home
We are in suburbs not the city. We prioritize our travel budget over housing.

ETA
We both work in the burbs - DH is about 15 mins on mainly backroads. I’m 25-30 depending on how I hit the lights. We picked a location central to DH’s current position and (20mins) the other large employers in our field. (I found a position at a smaller company that is another direction) We have a fairly easy trip into the city if we want to go to something specific. Driving isn’t too bad but I hate parking downtown. We have multiple train stations within 5-10 mins

[melmel48]

About 40 percent for my mortgage and condo fee. However, my mortgage is WAY lower than what I would pay for rent around here. I am expecting a sizeable salary increase in the next few months, so the percentage will be much lower. I am just not sure what percentage yet since I don't know my new salary yet.

[waverly]

Ours is 20%. We do have other debts we need to put money too though like student loans that would make the total debt repayment category higher.

[flex]

26% of my net income.

[wanderingback]

Right now carrying a mortgage and rent in 2 different cities, one of them being in HCOL (rent is $800 more than mortgage for a 1 bedroom), so we’re close to 50% at times(my partners income varies). Hence why we’re not going on our usual 3-4 international vacations this year

This will change within the next year and I’m fine with 30% going forward as a base. You couldn’t pay me to move to the suburbs! 30% sounds completely reasonable to me. Good luck with your house search.

[Velar Fricative]

Just under 25% for mortgage, PMI, taxes and insurance. For the right house, I wouldn’t hesitate to go higher since we are in a VHCOL area, but as of now we still have a decent amount of SL debt so we’re not willing to go higher. However, we were making less money when we bought so it was higher at one point, but various expenses have also changed since we bought.

[sunnysally]

We spend about 12%, but we intentionally planned that because we spend at least an equivalent amount on travel each year. We live in a non-trendy suburb in a modest home in MCOL and we have no kids.

[lessel]

PITI is 24% of monthly take home. With one in FT daycare and one kid in after care, that is stretching it for us. And indeed the ‘burbs are shaping up to be more costly than our previous house (more in town—just moved over the summer) in terms of regular maintenance. Larger house = higher utilities costs, larger yard = higher lawn service costs, etc.

[meganew]

Oct 6, 2019 18:14:46 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

You really have been doing this for 8 years! lol

About 25% of our take-home income goes to our mortgage and taxes. We spent a ton of money the first year on lawn care stuff and additional furniture, etc., since we moved from a 2 BR in the city to a 3 BR with a dining room and a real kitchen.

I’d answer the questions about savings and vacations and other stuff, but our finances are so jacked from the baby that our last year of expenses it not an accurate representation of what we’re normally able to save. lol

I’d also like to add the following: you hate the suburbs. You tried this already and you were sad! But, I was sad when we left the city and I love where we live now.

I knoooowwwwwwwww. Lol. H and I start to talk about it and I swear I can have the whole conversation one sided. I know exactly what each of us will say. We’re stuck on repeat and driving each other nuts. Haha

[steph96]

I’m currently spending 33% of my take home (after retirement) on housing. I’m hoping to lower it because I would rather prioritize other things.

[W.T.Faulkner]

Oct 6, 2019 18:26:27 GMT -5 meganew said:

Oct 6, 2019 18:14:46 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

You really have been doing this for 8 years! lol

About 25% of our take-home income goes to our mortgage and taxes. We spent a ton of money the first year on lawn care stuff and additional furniture, etc., since we moved from a 2 BR in the city to a 3 BR with a dining room and a real kitchen.

I’d answer the questions about savings and vacations and other stuff, but our finances are so jacked from the baby that our last year of expenses it not an accurate representation of what we’re normally able to save. lol

I’d also like to add the following: you hate the suburbs. You tried this already and you were sad! But, I was sad when we left the city and I love where we live now.

I knoooowwwwwwwww. Lol. H and I start to talk about it and I swear I can have the whole conversation one sided. I know exactly what each of us will say. We’re stuck on repeat and driving each other nuts. Haha

I feel for you guys. It’s a hard decision because the city, especially where you guys live, is awesome. I made it for us because my family was in the suburbs, and for that reason, especially now that we have DS, I’m so glad we’re here. H is too. We’re also happy to have more space now; blah blah blah. However, you know where we are, which is in the inner ring suburbs, and we wouldn’t be happy if we were further out.

[revolution]

18% of net and that's mortgage, property tax, and insurance.

We put towards savings, retirement, kids breaking bones (lol, dd's broken arm in July is costing us $5k+ ugh), having fun. We just got in a situation where we have no car payments and our only debt is our mortgage and broken bones. So we are enjoying being frivolous a little.

[scm1011]

21% now, but it was like 40-45% when we bought the house 10 years ago. Since we didn't have child care costs then (eta: or student loan debt) it was actually still pretty manageable. HCOL.

[wambam]

6.4%

we live in a VLCOL and my H just got a considerable raise

[Jalapeñomel]

25% VHCOL, PMI, taxes, and insurance (taxes are outlandish, more than our mortgage, I think, or at least equal). I miss the city. I’m also displeased with the school district and are considering selling and renting again to be closer to the city.

We have lots of SL debt, so I’m sure we wouldn’t qualify for anything more anyway.

[namasteak]

Before DHs raise we were at 40% of take home pay if we don’t count his bonuses. Now it is 30%.

This includes mortgage, taxes and insurance. It does not include utilities and the $330/month we save for house maintenance.

It’s higher than we are “supposed to” and we would like more fun money but this is pretty comfortable for us.

[VillainV]

We spend about 25% of our take home pay after retirement is deducted. Probably closer to 35% after utilities, HOA, etc. We live in a rural area of NW FL, MCOL.

[TR]

About 37% now that I’m not working. It was closer to 30% when I was. I think a lot depends on the actual numbers.

If you bring home $2,000/mo, then even 25% leaves you with only $1500 for everything else. Whereas if you bring home $10,000/mo, paying 50% still leaves you with $5,000/mo, you know? I’d take a look at your budget and the actual numbers and see if you feel comfortable with it, percentage aside.

[pumpkin]

~34% of my monthly, but that includes PMI, taxes, and insurance

I'm in a HCOL and it's just me so no one else to contribute.

[brooke77]

20% of take home. We could certainly afford more, but having a lower housing payment allows us to max out on our retirement, afford costly daycare, and make extra payments on my SL.

I would be comfortable going from 20% to 33% if we didn’t have daycare.

[lacey]

We recently refinanced to a 12 year mortgage and our payment is increasing to 25-28% from something under 20%. I would say back when we first bought the house we were closer to that 30-35%. I agree to take a look at your actual budget and see if the increase is still comfortable.

[sproctopus]

24%, which seems like a steal since daycare is 27%. I wish I had known we could've afforded a vacation home mortgage before having a kid.

I hate being a grown-up.

[notsopicky]

About 40% of net.

[pandora89]

33% net with taxes and insurance. We live in a VHCOL city.

[brooklyn]

About 40%, but I’m a SAHM and we live in Manhattan. And we get a lot of financial assistance from family who benefits from me living near to them.

[isabel]

We spend 27% on mortgage/insurance/taxes of our net income (gross less taxes, insurance, retirement, etc.).

Were it not for the fact that we spend about 30% more than that figure on childcare (35% of net goes to child care), we would be feeling really good about our finances.

Truly though, when we were buying this past spring, my upper limit was lower than what we ended up spending. I’d prefer to be under 25%. This is fine, but not my preference. I’m not sure I’d be comfortable spending more than 30% unless there just really wasn’t an alternative.

We’re in Denver. I’m not even sure what people consider our cost of living to be. Maybe between medium and high?