clicky: salary

[jennlin]

according to wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Seattle


The median income for a household in the city was $45,736, and the
median income for a family was $62,195. Males had a median income of
$40,929 versus $35,134 for females. The per capita income for the city was $30,306. 11.8% of the population and 6.9% of families were below the poverty line as were 13.8% were under the age of 18 and 10.2% are 65 or older.


maybe i'm living in a fantasy world..but i find this strangely low. how do you compare?

EDIT: if one of you stays home just go with "we  make more than....." or "we make less than...." no need to select "one makes more, one makes less".

[catbus]

We don't make a ton of money, but we make substantially more than that.

[jennlin]

Apr 11, 2013 9:41:29 GMT -5 catbus said:

We don't make a ton of money, but we make substantially more than that.

Yeah, us too. I know this includes eeevvveerryyoonnnee in Seattle, and has all of the low income neighborhoods, but I thought all the rich people that live in the city would balance it out a bit more. Maybe cause this doesn't include Bellevue/mercer island. Mercer island is a city, right? Not Seattle?

[catbus]

I had to Google to verify that M.I. is its own city, but yes, it is. These numbers seem about right, and we actually fit these to a T about five years ago. Reminds me of how lucky we are to be college educated and have that career mobility (H especially--I'm still not where I want to be, but theoretically I can be .

[jennlin]

In a quick google search, I couldn't find anything that was Seattle-area vs city of Seattle. I'll do a more thorough search later and maybe have clicky #2

[catbus]

Apr 11, 2013 9:51:56 GMT -5 Tiff said:

I agree - those numbers seem really low. Especially looking at the cost of housing in Seattle, that really surprises me.

They're higher than the national average. IIRC, most people don't own their home, and there are still plenty of inexpensive rentals in Seattle. There are a lot of people working minimum-wage jobs.

[niq]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-income_metropolitan_statistical_areas_in_the_United_States#Metropolitan_statistical_areas_ranked_by_median_household_income

Median HH income in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue MSA is about $50K.

[niq]

Apr 11, 2013 10:37:38 GMT -5 @jennuinne said:

I said I/we are above that. But, I am way above the female avg, our household income is above the houshold avg, but my H is a little under the male avg.

It does seem low. Although it looks like it includes people who are retired, as well as college students, who may have money but no income.

ETA:  We probably also have more than avg debt, just from my student loans. 

Also, every time there is a discussion about median income, povertly levels, etc., it baffles me.  I feel like we struggle just to get by each month, figure out how to have one child, cannot fathom how we'll afford two...and we make quite a bit more than "average."  I honestly have a hard to imagining how some people survive.

Young people and old people skew the HH income numbers down. They make less money but also need less money (except seniors who haven't paid off their house, that's a real problem, but they can move into a smaller apartment). It's helpful to look at HHI by age:

www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Household-Incomes-by-Age-Brackets.php

The nationwide average HHI for "midlife" is now about $60-65K. In Seattle metro it's probably about $70K; in Seattle proper it's maybe $80K.

[jennlin]

Apr 11, 2013 10:30:29 GMT -5 niq said:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-income_metropolitan_statistical_areas_in_the_United_States#Metropolitan_statistical_areas_ranked_by_median_household_income

Median HH income in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue MSA is about $50K.

this is still lower than i thought.

Apr 11, 2013 10:47:30 GMT -5 niq said:

Young people and old people skew the HH income numbers down. They make less money but also need less money (except seniors who haven't paid off their house, that's a real problem, but they can move into a smaller apartment). It's helpful to look at HHI by age:

www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Household-Incomes-by-Age-Brackets.php

The nationwide average HHI for "midlife" is now about $60-65K. In Seattle metro it's probably about $70K; in Seattle proper it's maybe $80K.

this is what i was *actually* looking for to begin with, when i found the other chart, was shocked and decided to start a thread..


new clicky. coming soon.

[jennlin]

actually, no. no new clicky coming soon. our age group on this board is mostly 25-34 with a few outliers in either direction...but i would say we are mostly 25-34, correct? the median outcome for this one is 51-ish k. and the original question was 45-62...so it's pretty close.

niq. do you have resources for your 70k and 80k guesses? or are they pure guesses?

[sarack]

we both make more than the averages. however, we haven't always been that smart with money, and as most of you know, we've been trying and getting better within the past few years. it seems like the more money we make, the more we spend. which isn't good. i assign a job for every dollar that we make, and there isn't much left for fun.. so in terms of that, we just get by.. and i don't know how because we make a lot more than we actually need to spend each month (i'm budget crazy... but obviously not with the follow through.. considering our fast food budget is $50 and h surpasses at least 2fold each month. )

speaking of which, i recently started giving h cash, so he would stop using our debit card. he uses it like 10x a day at different locations for less than $5 transactions, i hate seeing them. so now he is on a better 'budget'. hopefully this will help with the misc spending.

[catbus]

Apr 11, 2013 11:43:53 GMT -5 spunbutterfly said:

Apr 11, 2013 10:05:01 GMT -5 catbus said:

They're higher than the national average. IIRC, most people don't own their home, and there are still plenty of inexpensive rentals in Seattle. There are a lot of people working minimum-wage jobs.

Looking at the finances of everyone who applied for our rental home? It surprises me some of them don't own instead of rent, but they seemed pretty adamant about renting only.

FWIW, the median household income of all our applicants was 110k.

Sounds about right--that's our HHI and our PITI is ~$1800. Some people just prefer to rent, but also maybe they want to be able to relocate easily for a job, or maybe they have less than amazing credit? Also, the current market for buyers is brutal. Houses are getting snapped up incredibly quickly, and often selling for well over asking. It is insane, and makes me grateful that we bought at apparently the perfect time (under contract June 2011, when prices were almost at their lowest and it was still mostly a buyer's market). I would be so stressed trying to buy now, and would probably give up and find a good rental. 

[niq]

Apr 11, 2013 11:18:20 GMT -5 jennlin said:

actually, no. no new clicky coming soon. our age group on this board is mostly 25-34 with a few outliers in either direction...but i would say we are mostly 25-34, correct? the median outcome for this one is 51-ish k. and the original question was 45-62...so it's pretty close.

niq. do you have resources for your 70k and 80k guesses? or are they pure guesses?

I'm just taking the difference between Seattle median HHI and nationwide median HHI and applying it to median HHI by age, and then rounding to the nearest $5k. So, call it a semi educated guess

I blame all wring words on Swype

[jennlin]

Apr 11, 2013 11:58:18 GMT -5 niq said:

Apr 11, 2013 11:18:20 GMT -5 jennlin said:

actually, no. no new clicky coming soon. our age group on this board is mostly 25-34 with a few outliers in either direction...but i would say we are mostly 25-34, correct? the median outcome for this one is 51-ish k. and the original question was 45-62...so it's pretty close.

niq. do you have resources for your 70k and 80k guesses? or are they pure guesses?

I'm just taking the difference between Seattle median HHI and nationwide median HHI and applying it to median HHI by age, and then rounding to the nearest $5k. So, call it a semi educated guess

I blame all wring words on Swype

i'll take it, that's close enough.


catbus and spunbutterfly. the real estate market is insane right now...but for the budget of spuns potential tenants..i would imagine that *that* market isn't as "hot" as the lower market right now?  i bought/negotiated a 500k house in january (closed in march)... a house that was on the market for a few months and was able to buy for less than asking....the hot-hot-hot market seems to be in the 250-400 range (i have a few friends shopping in this range right now).....but then again, i'm also suburbs of seattle versus city of seattle. i am unfamiliar with that market.

[catbus]

Apr 11, 2013 12:15:07 GMT -5 jennlin said:

Apr 11, 2013 11:58:18 GMT -5 niq said:

I'm just taking the difference between Seattle median HHI and nationwide median HHI and applying it to median HHI by age, and then rounding to the nearest $5k. So, call it a semi educated guess

I blame all wring words on Swype

i'll take it, that's close enough.


catbus and spunbutterfly. the real estate market is insane right now...but for the budget of spuns potential tenants..i would imagine that *that* market isn't as "hot" as the lower market right now?  i bought/negotiated a 500k house in january (closed in march)... a house that was on the market for a few months and was able to buy for less than asking....the hot-hot-hot market seems to be in the 250-400 range (i have a few friends shopping in this range right now).....but then again, i'm also suburbs of seattle versus city of seattle. i am unfamiliar with that market.

And see, we were shopping in the under-$350k market two years ago and probably still would be today, because we have to account for high daycare costs, savings, etc., so I'm assuming the potential tenants would be looking to buy in the same price range, but obviously don't know. Oh, and also we kind of got thrown into homebuying (longish story, but basically we didn't plan to buy until about a year later), so we didn't have a 20% down payment. DINKs with at least 20% down and low expenses could definitely afford more!

[InBetweenDays]

Apr 11, 2013 12:15:07 GMT -5 jennlin said:

Apr 11, 2013 11:58:18 GMT -5 niq said:

I'm just taking the difference between Seattle median HHI and nationwide median HHI and applying it to median HHI by age, and then rounding to the nearest $5k. So, call it a semi educated guess

I blame all wring words on Swype

i'll take it, that's close enough.


catbus and spunbutterfly. the real estate market is insane right now...but for the budget of spuns potential tenants..i would imagine that *that* market isn't as "hot" as the lower market right now?  i bought/negotiated a 500k house in january (closed in march)... a house that was on the market for a few months and was able to buy for less than asking....the hot-hot-hot market seems to be in the 250-400 range (i have a few friends shopping in this range right now).....but then again, i'm also suburbs of seattle versus city of seattle. i am unfamiliar with that market.

We've actually seen numerous houses in the $600-$1M range go in a week and either for or above asking. It's crazy. When we rented out our old house 4 years ago (still have the same tenants) the people we ended up with got it because they paid us a years rent up front. I couldn't imagine wanting to lay out that much money at once for a rental, but some people definitely prefer to rent. Our current neighbors have rented their house for 30+ years. They have two kids in college and just aren't interested in buying.

[jennlin]

Apr 11, 2013 12:32:49 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

Apr 11, 2013 12:15:07 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i'll take it, that's close enough.


catbus and spunbutterfly. the real estate market is insane right now...but for the budget of spuns potential tenants..i would imagine that *that* market isn't as "hot" as the lower market right now?  i bought/negotiated a 500k house in january (closed in march)... a house that was on the market for a few months and was able to buy for less than asking....the hot-hot-hot market seems to be in the 250-400 range (i have a few friends shopping in this range right now).....but then again, i'm also suburbs of seattle versus city of seattle. i am unfamiliar with that market.

We've actually seen numerous houses in the $600-$1M range go in a week and either for or above asking. It's crazy. When we rented out our old house 4 years ago (still have the same tenants) the people we ended up with got it because they paid us a years rent up front. I couldn't imagine wanting to lay out that much money at once for a rental, but some people definitely prefer to rent. Our current neighbors have rented their house for 30+ years. They have two kids in college and just aren't interested in buying.

that's insane!

IL's have a home/rental property in socal, and their first/only tenants were there for 13 years. once the kids went to college, they decided to downsize, finally, and move out. FIL is so lost on how to get new tenants now...he's only done it once, 13 years ago. way before craigslist time!

and 30 years renting...that's insane. that's the life of the mortgage right there. lucky owners!

we weren't looking in the 600k+ range (we were shopping in 450-575 range)...the houses there all seemed to be less than 3-ish months, but not less than a week usually. we did notice a few houses *after* we reached mutual agreement on ours that were sold in a week though...

[Deleted]

We made just about $1,000 more than the average family. Next year will be different though since I took a $4.20 an hour pay cut at work with my new position.