I make just north of 50k a year and my wife just over half that and we bought a house. Yes it was built in 1962, it’s not large, it’s not in the middle of a large city. But 250k a year? I’d be able to clear my mortgage in under 10 years.
So either the housing market in the US is much more messed up than the one in Europe, or we aren’t taking into account that buying a house with compromise is better than no house at all.
It’s both, the housing market is a disaster here, but they also could easily buy a house in a less popular, less desirable area. Now maybe that $250K combined salary is also only possible because of the very high cost of living area they live in. I have a friend that was making $150K in CA that had to live in small an apartment with a roommate, and that was nearly a decade ago. It still blows my mind, but that salary simply wasn’t a lot in that area.
It amazes me that some folks will just say ‘everything is more expensive, raise the minimum wage’. Salaries are going through the roof everywhere and cost is following suit.
If companies would stop counting 150-200% overhead on goods and services for employees’ salaries we wouldn’t need to all be millionaires in order to get by. If we were to source more stuff locally transport costs would be much lower. If we used our goods longer, tried to get by with less, we could do longer with our cash.
But we all see these hyper rich folks and we want to be like them, live like them, have what they have. It’s not a sustainable situation.
Salaries are not “going through the roof”, that’s ridiculous. Salaries haven’t come close to staying in line with the cost of living, and especially house prices, for decades. It’s been thoroughly shown companies have been lying about employee compensation being the main cause for inflation and high prices. The real reason is corporate greed.
Is that not what I said? My point was that 50 years ago 75k was more than enough money to buy a house. Salaries have increased, but prices have increased much more because companies charge 150-200% for every unit of currency off labour put into goods and services. Increasing the minimum wage would only fortify this effect unless companies are held accountable for this.
I can’t afford a house where i live in a ghetto essentially because they went from $65,000 pre covid to $360,000 post covid.
The houses are old and will need a lot of work which would be fine but I can’t scrounge the $30,000 for a down payment without it being higher than that in a few years when (if cause I keep getting laid off every few years) I have the money and even then the monthly mortgage payments are close to $3,000 a month, and god forbid I live in an HOA area which tacks on an extra $1,000 for them.
I make just over $80,000 but when I lose about 27% to tax that’s only about 58,000 and then I have to pay for healthcare on top of that and a retirement plan that doesn’t matter cause it will never let me retire anyways.
You could pump up your 401k contributions in order to lower your taxes and then take a loan out against your 401k for the down-payment. It’s a little risky in that if you lose your job they might request you to pay off the loan but I’ve had a few coworker do this in order to get a house.
My 401K was completely emptied during covid cause I couldn’t survive otherwise especially on $600 a month in unemployment. And I just now have started back into it as of last month after getting a new contract.
So I could make myself extra poor now and lose any liquidity so I can maybe eventually save up to take a loan I will certainly be fucked by on top of my mortgage I still can’t afford per month?
Look its an honest idea and thank you but hell no.
This is almost exactly my situation (except I’m stuck at 60k and am perpetually single so no dual income for me) houses were 60k+ for real shit holes and now those same shit holes are 250-300k in flood zones and the worst neighborhoods. It’s absolute insanity.
One asshole even had the gall to make a joke, there was a hole in the roof of this glorified shed and they put “airy feel” in the description while asking 295k… It is not in a desirable location whatsoever so it’s nothing but pure greed.
Yeah I can’t wait to figure out dual income cause it really is the only way to scrounge for even the basic of life in the western world.
But the issue seems to be that the “floor” has become a real cemented thing. Where it was once a sorta vague idea of lowest costs for an area the connection of everything has made it real and now there is no “house” that would dare sell lower than the floor because it should sell for that as agreed upon by an algorithm averaging all costs.
But houses are assets and there shouldn’t be such a thing as an asset that goes down in value rich should only get richer cause that’s only natural! /s
In terms of healthcare and retirement I feel for you. The 30k down payment is also rough.
My government (Netherlands) gave starters the option to not pay tax on their first house purchase (2% of the sum).
Also we have collective health insurance at around 150 a month. We have to pay 375 of all costs if we incur any.
Part of our salary is put aside for a retirement premium. At my current employer, we get to decide how aggressively this premium is invested.
So all in all I needed about 6k for the pure costs of buying a house. I live half an hour (bike)/20mins (car) from a city with 200k citizens. The town I live in has about 10k people, three supermarkets, some pet stores, a vet, and some general purpose stores.
I am aware that my situation is actually pretty good, but in my country people my age are also complaining they cannot buy large luxury apartments in downtown Amsterdam or Utrecht with a salary of about 100k a year.
My health insurance is “good” which means I pay $260 a month for the privilege of them getting to do a genetic and full body test on me each year to make sure I won’t cost them any money or the price goes up to $380 and then I still get to pay a couple thousand for actual health care when I need it in copays and premiums.
I currently live near a discount grocery store that sells expired food from other grocery stores. That’s one of 2 grocery stores near me in a suburb that’s also about 30 minutes from the city but also does have way more people in it.
my wife has health issues and we pay max out of pocket each year and we pay about 500 a month for it so medical budgeting is 1k a month for us and im worried its going to crack that to higher levels. Oh and as much as we resist it we end up having to do some out of out of pocket spending. I should be giving lectures in europe to all people buying into any kind of privatization of their healthcare.
Well first off I’m in the Netherlands, which we have established is a different situation.
I bought last year, been on the job market since 2020.
I have no kids, no need for any but I couldn’t afford kids either.
I would suggest folks that would like to buy a house to hold off on having kids until it makes sense financially. I know sometimes it sneaks up on people or whatever but kids are a huge responsibility and they cost a shitload of money and time.
I make just north of 50k a year and my wife just over half that and we bought a house. Yes it was built in 1962, it’s not large, it’s not in the middle of a large city. But 250k a year? I’d be able to clear my mortgage in under 10 years.
So either the housing market in the US is much more messed up than the one in Europe, or we aren’t taking into account that buying a house with compromise is better than no house at all.
It’s both, the housing market is a disaster here, but they also could easily buy a house in a less popular, less desirable area. Now maybe that $250K combined salary is also only possible because of the very high cost of living area they live in. I have a friend that was making $150K in CA that had to live in small an apartment with a roommate, and that was nearly a decade ago. It still blows my mind, but that salary simply wasn’t a lot in that area.
It amazes me that some folks will just say ‘everything is more expensive, raise the minimum wage’. Salaries are going through the roof everywhere and cost is following suit.
If companies would stop counting 150-200% overhead on goods and services for employees’ salaries we wouldn’t need to all be millionaires in order to get by. If we were to source more stuff locally transport costs would be much lower. If we used our goods longer, tried to get by with less, we could do longer with our cash.
But we all see these hyper rich folks and we want to be like them, live like them, have what they have. It’s not a sustainable situation.
Salaries are not “going through the roof”, that’s ridiculous. Salaries haven’t come close to staying in line with the cost of living, and especially house prices, for decades. It’s been thoroughly shown companies have been lying about employee compensation being the main cause for inflation and high prices. The real reason is corporate greed.
Is that not what I said? My point was that 50 years ago 75k was more than enough money to buy a house. Salaries have increased, but prices have increased much more because companies charge 150-200% for every unit of currency off labour put into goods and services. Increasing the minimum wage would only fortify this effect unless companies are held accountable for this.
I can’t afford a house where i live in a ghetto essentially because they went from $65,000 pre covid to $360,000 post covid.
The houses are old and will need a lot of work which would be fine but I can’t scrounge the $30,000 for a down payment without it being higher than that in a few years when (if cause I keep getting laid off every few years) I have the money and even then the monthly mortgage payments are close to $3,000 a month, and god forbid I live in an HOA area which tacks on an extra $1,000 for them.
I make just over $80,000 but when I lose about 27% to tax that’s only about 58,000 and then I have to pay for healthcare on top of that and a retirement plan that doesn’t matter cause it will never let me retire anyways.
You could pump up your 401k contributions in order to lower your taxes and then take a loan out against your 401k for the down-payment. It’s a little risky in that if you lose your job they might request you to pay off the loan but I’ve had a few coworker do this in order to get a house.
My 401K was completely emptied during covid cause I couldn’t survive otherwise especially on $600 a month in unemployment. And I just now have started back into it as of last month after getting a new contract.
So I could make myself extra poor now and lose any liquidity so I can maybe eventually save up to take a loan I will certainly be fucked by on top of my mortgage I still can’t afford per month?
Look its an honest idea and thank you but hell no.
This is almost exactly my situation (except I’m stuck at 60k and am perpetually single so no dual income for me) houses were 60k+ for real shit holes and now those same shit holes are 250-300k in flood zones and the worst neighborhoods. It’s absolute insanity.
One asshole even had the gall to make a joke, there was a hole in the roof of this glorified shed and they put “airy feel” in the description while asking 295k… It is not in a desirable location whatsoever so it’s nothing but pure greed.
Yeah I can’t wait to figure out dual income cause it really is the only way to scrounge for even the basic of life in the western world.
But the issue seems to be that the “floor” has become a real cemented thing. Where it was once a sorta vague idea of lowest costs for an area the connection of everything has made it real and now there is no “house” that would dare sell lower than the floor because it should sell for that as agreed upon by an algorithm averaging all costs.
But houses are assets and there shouldn’t be such a thing as an asset that goes down in value rich should only get richer cause that’s only natural! /s
In terms of healthcare and retirement I feel for you. The 30k down payment is also rough.
My government (Netherlands) gave starters the option to not pay tax on their first house purchase (2% of the sum). Also we have collective health insurance at around 150 a month. We have to pay 375 of all costs if we incur any. Part of our salary is put aside for a retirement premium. At my current employer, we get to decide how aggressively this premium is invested.
So all in all I needed about 6k for the pure costs of buying a house. I live half an hour (bike)/20mins (car) from a city with 200k citizens. The town I live in has about 10k people, three supermarkets, some pet stores, a vet, and some general purpose stores.
I am aware that my situation is actually pretty good, but in my country people my age are also complaining they cannot buy large luxury apartments in downtown Amsterdam or Utrecht with a salary of about 100k a year.
My health insurance is “good” which means I pay $260 a month for the privilege of them getting to do a genetic and full body test on me each year to make sure I won’t cost them any money or the price goes up to $380 and then I still get to pay a couple thousand for actual health care when I need it in copays and premiums.
I currently live near a discount grocery store that sells expired food from other grocery stores. That’s one of 2 grocery stores near me in a suburb that’s also about 30 minutes from the city but also does have way more people in it.
Yeah your situation is great.
my wife has health issues and we pay max out of pocket each year and we pay about 500 a month for it so medical budgeting is 1k a month for us and im worried its going to crack that to higher levels. Oh and as much as we resist it we end up having to do some out of out of pocket spending. I should be giving lectures in europe to all people buying into any kind of privatization of their healthcare.
what year did you buy. I can’t imagine even affording a house in the middle of iowa on 75k a year from what I have seen. You have a few kids yeah?
Well first off I’m in the Netherlands, which we have established is a different situation. I bought last year, been on the job market since 2020. I have no kids, no need for any but I couldn’t afford kids either. I would suggest folks that would like to buy a house to hold off on having kids until it makes sense financially. I know sometimes it sneaks up on people or whatever but kids are a huge responsibility and they cost a shitload of money and time.