Hey everyone! I'm in currently in New Orleans, but I wanted to bring back my Friday “Ask the Readers” post. Housing has been on my mind lately. As if you all couldn't tell.
I look at real estate listings nearly every single day, in hopes that my dream house will be for sale. That has yet to happen though.
W and I have been searching like crazy, but we haven't found one that fits what we are wanting. Maybe this means that we love our current house, or maybe this means that we are too demanding… I just don't know. But, I do know that we are not going to move until we find the perfect one.
I am making the switch to self employment soon, so if our dream house doesn't come up before my switch date, I do realize that buying our next house will have to be put on hold since most banks won't want to give us a loan since I will have just left my job. I am fine with that as well. Our second home purchase would just have to wait until my online income is reliable enough for a bank to lend us money. Whatever happens, will happen, and I will still be happy.
So, since housing has been on my mind a lot lately, I have also been paying attention to other personal finance bloggers and readers’ budgets. There are a bunch of resources out there about the home buying process, budgeting and just knowing when you're ready. With some people, housing consists of 15% of their budget. For others, it might be 50%.
Of course it all depends on where you live since some places like Vancouver and New York City have insane housing costs, and places like St. Louis have ridiculously low housing costs, but it is an interesting topic.
Right now, our housing costs (mortgage, insurance, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) total a very low percentage of our monthly after-tax income. It is less than 10%, which is a great feeling. When we first bought our house, our housing costs were around 30% to 35% of our monthly after-tax income, and it was very hard at that time to deal with our high budget and low-income.
What percentage of your budget goes to housing?
And if you don't mind saying, tell us how much your mortgage, insurance, maintenance and so on is in an actual dollar amount. I'm sure I'm not the only nosey person, right?
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Tara @ Streets Ahead Living says
August 24, 2013 at 5:42 pmOurs is around 25% of take home pay, but neither of us is currently in a 401(k)/403(b) so once we both start one, our percentage of income out of our paychecks going to rent will be higher. But retirement is uber important.
Lindsey @ Sense & Sensibility says
August 24, 2013 at 11:55 pmAbout 20% of our income goes toward housing right now. Once we get rid of some debt, we can look at throwing some of that at our mortgage.
Alexandra @ Real Simple Finances says
August 25, 2013 at 7:32 amI hadn’t ever determined the percentage of my money going to housing; my husband bought our home before we were married, so the mortgage has just always been what it is. He also had two other people living here at the time. Now that it’s just us, the mortgage and insurance is about 30% of our income. That makes me unhappy. 🙁
Kris says
August 25, 2013 at 8:32 amOur mortgage is $1170 which includes taxes and insurance. It’s stupid low for Seattle proper, but we bought it in 2005. It’s about 20% of our income.
nicoleandmaggie says
August 25, 2013 at 10:08 am1/3 of our spending, give or take (a smaller % of our income). That includes the part going to principal and some pre-payment. (Family of 4, own our home.) Our escrow is a little under 1/3 of that payment, so it will have to be paid even if we pay off the mortgage.
Michael | The Student Loan Sherpa says
August 25, 2013 at 8:49 pmWe are at just over 20% I would love to get that number lower.
ericka says
August 25, 2013 at 9:01 pmmy house payment is 350 a mo. it covers my house, ins, and my taxes. this is about 20% of my income. My house, a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home built in 1950 with a utility room and outside building in my home town was a total of $40000 when I got it last year. I love my house. I live in small town illinois
Retired By 40! says
August 26, 2013 at 12:17 pmI commented earlier, but loved this post so much that it made my Favorite post Roundup!
http://retiredby40.weebly.com/1/post/2013/08/favorite-posts-roundup.html
Eva @ Girl Counting Pennies says
August 26, 2013 at 1:18 pmCurrently, my rent (including all utility bills) takes 42% of my main income after tax. I’m moving out in mid-September and will be looking at cheaper places. Realistically, I’m looking to rent something that will not exceed 30-33% of my take home income. Great job on keeping your housing expense at less than 10%!
Julien @cashsnail says
September 4, 2013 at 6:51 amWe are renting a condo (built in 2008) and our total housing budget (with all utilities/insurance/taxes) is 17%
It could be cheaper if we were living in a 30/50/70 years old building but with a bit less comfort (more noise/maintenance or further from public transport)