How much do you spend on housing (rent/mortgage) each month?

[sjh722]

$820 PITI and PMI.

I am about to order the appraisal to drop PMI which will drop it to $770.

2000 sq ft 3/2.5 + full basement, 2 car garage, extra 2 car detached garage, 0.5 acre lot.

[cobber06]

Our payment is about $1100 per month for 4 bdrm 2 bath. This includes taxes and special assessments on a 30 year mortgage with 20% down.

We plan on aggressively paying our specials this year (they have 5-6% interest) so that will lower our payment by about $100/mo.

We purchased what is most likely our forever home with an unfinished basement at age 23. We did most of the work ourselves which helped us build quite a bit of equity. Friends bought a nearly identical house a block away recently and paid about $80k more than we did 7 years ago.

[WinterWine]

Popping over from mm bc I'm intrigued. $3,250/mo - just refinanced to a 20 yr fixed at 3.75%. Before that $450 of this same amount went to PMI as I put 15% down. Seattle suburb, top schools. The payment seems crazy to me sometimes but it's value has grown tremendously so it's worth it.

[rbp]

We are about average on this board for housing expenses, but above average for HHI. So why do I feel like we have no money? We really ought to get a handle on our spending, sigh. 

[Queen Mamadala]

$245 for HOA. No mortgage; paid in full. We have a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath 1200 sq ft condon in Sacramento, CA. We'll need something considerably bigger in a few years (well, we do now, but we want to wait a little while).

[kellytaylor]

$3100 for a 15 year mortgage @ 2.5%. This includes $600/month for prop taxes (thanks WI!)

4500 sq foot house, built in 2008. 5 br, 3.5 baths, includes a finished basement. I'd say MCOL.

Great school district, we have no plans to move. We love our neighborhood and our house, both of our commutes are less than 10 minutes.

[matildasun]

Short Answer-- My house was a major MM win. It is not indicative of what other people pay in my neighborhood. $700 a month including taxes and insurance. It is about to go up to $730.

Long Answer-- I bought my house through the H.U.D. Teacher Next Door program in January of 2002. I took out a mortgage for half of the list price (List price was $84,00). There was another lien for the other half that was forgiven after I lived in the house for three years. I saw my house, decided I liked it, put my name in for the weekly lottery, and won. There was no bidding involved.

There were two other houses in about the same shape as mine, remodeled but not fancy, on the market at the same time that were listed for $40,000 more than my list price. Two months later a house in the same condition went for double my list price and the market only went up from there. After the crash, I would still make out like a bandit if I sold.

I was able to move in with little work. I have since needed a water heater and a new dryer. As the house ages it needs work, we also would need to add a bathroom and expand the room A is in if we are to stay long term.

[bowies]

My H bought the house before we were married - he said the monthly payment is around $1600/mo. and we don't pay PMI.

MCOL 4 bed 2.5 bath, 2350 sq. ft., older neighborhood, money pit

[qubit]

We've lived in 3 cities in the past 3 years. In LA, we rented a 500 square foot studio, two blocks from the beach for $1,700. In Santa Barbara we rented a craptastic 2-bedroom apartment, 3 miles from the beach for $1,850. We bought our first house in a Dallas suburb (3,000 square feet, great neighborhood) and have a $1,700 30-yr mortgage. I miss the beach and CA weather, but I love my house.

[jade]

House is paid off so we only pay insurance and taxes which works out to about 3000 a year.

[kershnic]

1700 for a crumbling 2 bedroom 3rd floor walk up with hour+ commute. I think this place might be held together by duct tape. (Our apartment is the attic floor of a 100+ year old house.)

Commute mentioned because we live out here because we can't afford a space we can tolerate any closer to work.

[niq]

$1617 P+I + $430 T + $43 I = $2096 P

2050 sq ft in a walkable but not super trendy neighborhood with a good elementary & middle but shitty high school.

[kate1482]

We pay $3,287 a month for a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house. 2,600 SF built in 2009. I consider Seattle area HCOLish.

[thecatinthehat]

3k, 1400sqft our lot is about 0.2ac, Hawaii (BI)

[kershnic]

Jan 20, 2015 12:27:00 GMT -5 @cookiemonster03 said:

Jan 20, 2015 12:01:09 GMT -5 @choco said:

Either I live in a bubble or you people complaining about payments in HCOL really don't have payments that seem that high to me. I've been waiting for someone from HCOL to post a $10K/mo payment or more. I know that's possible based on my friends who own brownstones in Park Slope types. THAT is HCOL to me.

1%ers can't compare to us poor middle class slobs in the HCOL 'burbs

Also, most in HCOL who don't have crazy high payments live in tiny spaces, walk ups, don't have cars, onsite laundry, yards, or other things people other places take for granted.

My monthly payment isn't high but the quality of the space I would have elsewhere for the same price is so ridiculously different.

[cinco]

About 1500, 4BR/3BA 2400 sq feet. Nice sized yard plus pool. In MD, but not a DC or Baltimore suburb. Our rental property in the DC area is a couple hundred more for 1k less sq. feet TH and a tiny yard that would barely fit the 5 of us standing. Hah. We don't make anything off it, just didn't want to pay/lose $ to sell. Both houses were built in 1999.

[bronxgirl]

We pay $1819/mo for a BR/2 BA apt and one garage spot.

[Saudade]

$1000: PITI+PMI
30 years, 4%
1300sqft main floor, 1000 finished basement, 4 car garage.
3b2ba
L(ish)COL

We just bought and have to remodel. When we're finished we'll refinance to drop the PMI.

[AlpineSlide]

$500 rent. SFH 2 br/1 ba that is ~1500 sf. I'm in middle of nowhere IL. It is a temporary housing situation, we've been here a little over 1 year and will be here maybe 2 more years at most.

[auberge]

$3100 PITI
30 year fixed 3.75%
SFH 2360 sq. ft, 4 bed/2 bath

[Alyssa]

$2,200 rent for a 2/3 duplex.  Single car garage, 2 parking spots outside and a strip of side yard.

[pinkdutchtulips]

$1600 /month gets me a 2bdrm 1 bath 800 sf apt an hr east of San Francisco (included is pet rent + water, garbage, sewer and pest control)

My siblings in the Midwest pay HALF this amount for mortgages on their significantly bigger houses :*(

[holly116]

$1,200ish but we pay extra on the interest only second mortgage. We did an 80/10/10 to avoid PMI.

2,200 sq ft, 30 year old, 4bd/2.5ba two story. I love our home and we plan to stay here a good long while. Great community in the suburbs, 12 minutes from downtown. Schools are just alright so we're doing parochial which are much better. 1% property taxes.

[212]

Jan 20, 2015 12:01:09 GMT -5 @choco said:

Either I live in a bubble or you people complaining about payments in HCOL really don't have payments that seem that high to me. I've been waiting for someone from HCOL to post a $10K/mo payment or more. I know that's possible based on my friends who own brownstones in Park Slope types. THAT is HCOL to me.

All in (mortgage, maintenance, taxes) we spend 14-15k/month and put 25% down. No complaints (just some real estate envy), eyes wide open. It's our choice to stay here and spend the money. We're lucky we can afford to do so. Except a brownstone sounds pretty enticing...

ETA: 3 bed, 3.5 bath, 2,000 sq ft

[212]

Jan 20, 2015 14:26:28 GMT -5 @choco said:

Jan 20, 2015 14:20:40 GMT -5 212 said:

All in (mortgage, maintenance, taxes) we spend 14-15k/month and put 25% down. No complaints (just some real estate envy), eyes wide open. It's our choice to stay here and spend the money. We're lucky we can afford to do so. Except a brownstone sounds pretty enticing...

Aw see I didn't mean for you to post your number if you didn't want to. I was just stating my opinion given what *I* pay in MCOL suburbia that the people posting their numbers from HCOL weren't that much higher. FWIW, I know how insane Manhattan can be and I know many who pay $4K/mo for a 1BR rental. Our co-op in a shitty town in Westchester County costs $2,200 per month to maintain, and that's a 2/1 in a small building. But at least it was a 25 minute ride to Grand Central .

My friend bought her brownstone ten years ago with her H, whom she is now divorcing. They plunked down 50% in cash and put in over $400K in renovations  and still have that $10K/mo payment and I am prett sure they don't escrow for taxes. 

It's ok! I know you know how it is up here. I've shared before (and the Internet never forgets), so whatevs. I will now spend naptime googling brooklyn town homes, as the dream of owning one of those suckers in Manhattan is simply that!

[212]

Jan 20, 2015 14:25:42 GMT -5 @pnkybrwstr said:

Jan 20, 2015 14:20:40 GMT -5 212 said:

All in (mortgage, maintenance, taxes) we spend 14-15k/month and put 25% down. No complaints (just some real estate envy), eyes wide open. It's our choice to stay here and spend the money. We're lucky we can afford to do so. Except a brownstone sounds pretty enticing...

It's my secret dream for you to move to my hood and let me live in your (redone and fabulous) basement.  Think it over.

Off to google...

[tigress]

$1650 mortgage total. We are in Iowa so LOC but we have a 15 year mortgage (12 years left) and we didn't put much down.

[Deleted]

$3100 is PITI plus PMI.  Our property taxes are $1k a month, which is crazy. 5(?) bedrooms, 3.5 baths plus basement apartment.
- $900 in rental income for basement apartment.

I'm not counting our condo which we rent out but we take a $200 a month loss on it so add $200.

[KaraOrNot]

PITI is $760 for a small 2/3 bedrooms and 1 bath), older home in a LCOL.

[turtletop90]

$3,200 PITI. 1400 sq. foot house. About 1 hour north of SF (1.5 - 2 hour commute in rush hour). 

And believe it or not, this is sorta low for our area.