How much is your rent/mortgage

[humandraydel]

PITI is $670 for a 1500 sq ft house on 0.5 acres. I live in the suburbs of a southeastern city.

[cypher1]

Mortgage with PITI just under 1500. I'd be curious of geography for the cost. I'm in Savage, south suburb from Minneapolis, MN.

Another extreme example was a friend just moved to koreatown in Los Angeles. He's paying 920 for a small studio, but that includes parking and all utilities, super rare.

[tom edward]

I expected the inner city rents to be quite high. We make a modest 40k a year right now but it will keep climbing. Its just interesting to me to see the difference in cost of living to incomes. I could move closer to the twin cities and make more money but im not a city kind of person nor would i like to pay to much to live just because of the area and not because of what it is. Ive grown up on 80 acre plots and 5 bedroom houses so my expectations were not to be in an apartment.

[tom edward]

We are paying 1125 for a 600 sq ft one bedroom. All of the utilities except phone/cable/internet are a flat 95 per month. That is pretty inexpensive for our area (a few blocks from downtown Seattle). I think the lowest I have ever paid in rent was 295 a month for a really horrible single room occupancy hotel. That was over 15 years ago in a smaller city in Alaska. You couldn't even live with roommates for 325 a month here. Roommate ads I have seen are a minimum of 500 and most are much more. I rented a room in a house outside of Seattle for 700 a few years ago. It had a private 3/4 bath and kitchenette. My daughter was 10 at the time. You can also rent a tiny tiny efficiency (like 125 sq feet) for 550-650 a month. You could maybe make that work for two people, but it would be close quarters for sure. We have three people in our apartment, two adults and a teenager. My daughter's room is a walk in closet.

My situation is easy since we have no kids or pets yet so i suspect its a different game for those with a family. What would you do if you needed to upgrade to something for a family of four. Sounds like it would get real expensive really quick. Idk what you make but I am just assuming you wouldnt want to double or triple what you pay now.

[hamchan]

Honestly, it wouldn't even be an option. Under different circumstances, if my husband were not blind and in poor health and were able to drive, then we could move 20 miles outside the city and find an affordable two bedroom. But with the public transportation being like it is that is not even an option right now. He needs to be able to get around on his own, to and from work and many many doctor's appointments. When driving isn't possible you just have to arrange your entire life around it, and it does effect where you are able to live. I do think we could squeeze a fourth person in here if we had to, but our lease doesn't allow it.

At least I am not worried about accidental pregnancy. It is both physically impossible, and I would not be able to safely carry to term anyway, so at least there is that. I have taken in family members before who needed a place to live, but unfortunately it wouldn't be an option now.

Our combined income is 75k. People with kids who make minimum wage, single moms to more than one kid, I honestly have no idea how they survive here. They aren't even accepting new applicants to the housing assistance wait list anymore, and haven't for years. Even as a single mom, living in a studio apartment with my daughter, I made 36k a year. Too much for assistance of any kind, except for something like 15% off at the Boy's and Girl's club, but we were living in a tiny box outside the city, with no car.

[ActYourWage]

Own home. No mortgage. Debt-free.

[marvholly]

Live in metro Chicago.

Rent/mtg = $0 paid off in 2006

Real estate tax & insurance = $900/month

[LivingAlmostLarge]

$2500/month and that's super cheap.

[NetSkyBlue]

$750/month for a 2 bedroom. I had been renting at $725 for 6 years, and they increased my rent last year to $750/mo. I know new renters in the same complex are now (and have been for several years) being charged $800/mo. We're in a nice, if older, complex that's well maintained. We even have a woodburning fireplace!

Similar complexes in good neighborhoods in this part of town are all $800-$900 for 2br, so we know we've got a good thing.

We could go down to a 1br in a bad neighborhood for in the $500's, but it's not worth it. 8 years ago, I visited one place with furnished efficiencies in the $400's, but it really felt to me like it was filled with creepers and drug addicts...not somewhere I'd want to call home.

[dawnwes]

Ours is about 19% of our gross income including PITI.

[tom edward]

$2500/month and that's super cheap.

That would be almost my entire income. Thats crazy to think about for me but if you can afford it more power to ya.

Question though is the place you live in a house or an apartment. You could buy a 300k dollar house for roughly that much a month maybe even more house.

[hamchan]

It would be tough to find a 1 bedroom condo for under 300k here.

[Gailete]

My son pays $325-50 a month an all his utilities for a 1 bedroom apartment in a house that was converted into 4 apartments. This is in northwestern PA.

We live on 3 acres outside of town in a house of over 3000 sq.ft that my husbands built with some help from friends and family over the course of 11 years. We pay $650/month and have about 8-9 years to go. Also have to pay for electric and propane, we have well water and burn our trash. We run 2 businesses out of our home so at least some of the expenses (taxes and electric and propane which are astronomical) are partially deductible. The house I owned before I got married was about 1000 sq feet with 2 bedrooms and ran me a mortgage of about $650 as well for a 15 year mortgage.

The house I purchased was based solely on the frugalness of it. Newer houses in my area of the same square feet run $100K or more in this area and most new construction seems to be $200K or more.

[MJtwelve]

Hello all,

What would you say is an "acceptable" rent to pay for the Minneapolis, Minnesota area? I am going to relocate to the area for a job. Looking for a studio (it's just me, don't need anything bigger) I am seeing prices around 500-600. I was wondering if any members are from the Minneapolis area and have some advice on good cheap studios?

Thanks

[Spiffster]

1360 /month (PITI) mortgage in the Denver area. We are in a neighborhood we could never normally afford but bought a foreclosure in 2009, had 20% to put down, and got REALLY lucky. Our payment was higher originally, but we got it refinanced to save .5 point and put more into principal at that time. Over the last year, we have been throwing an extra $1k at principle every month. Easy sailing for us ATM, got a second child on the way though :/.

The goal is still to have this house paid off by 2020, but Im not sure if that will happen with two kids.