How much is your rent/mortgage

[Gailete]

just imagine life in 8 years without a mortgage!

I can't remember the exact years, but I think our rental property should be paid off in 6-7 years and in 8-10 years our house mortgage should also be paid off. The rental rents for a few dollars more than our mortgage is. We are hoping it will help bring in some steady income as we get older. Just the thought of having those two paid off would make a huge difference in our monthly cash flow except for the costs of things that keep increasing like property taxes and utilities. But better having them paid off, than having to pay them for another 20+ years which would make me well over 75 when our mortgage is paid off! I can't imagine living with that over our head when I'm that old.

I think it is so important to get a mortgage that you can actually afford for the least amount of time and get it paid off as quickly as possible. There was an article in the AARP bulletin that came today about paying off your mortgage early that reasoned credit cards should be paid off first and investing as much as you can into your retirement funds and then paying ahead on your mortgage if possible. Some only look at that as a financial equation, but in reality I think it is also an emotional one. To know your house is paid off and as long as you keep up with the taxes no one can throw you out and if you really need to you can probably sell it and buy something less expensive, would/should give a lot of inner peace to people.

[AggieLife]

I live in northern Utah, in a town where the cost of living is thankfully quite cheap.

I spend $300/month on rent, and that's just average. You could find lower if you would like but $300 is good for the apartment I rent out.

It's ridiculous how the cost of living can vary based on location, but understandable too.

[bigdaddybus]

$1100 Principal and Interest (3.675% loan)
$1200 a yr homeowners insurance
$575 a month in property taxes

So I pay $1775 per month for a 5 bedroom 3.5 bath ranch. Thats between 15-17% of our gross monthly income.

[TBH]

Our mortgage is $1200 a month, including taxes and insurance. That's about 27% of our take-home pay. I know that's high for a frugal group like this, but it's better than it used to be! We did buy too much house. We lowered the payments by doing a cash-in refi and we've managed to inch our income up a bit.

Here you could probably find a bedroom in a shared house for $325, but it would be unusual to find that. A friend of mine rents a 1BR apartment for $700. The rental property we just bought is 3BR and we're renting it out for $1100 a month.

I'm in a large city on the east coast, in the mid-atlantic region.

[edited to say I just did the math and $1200 payments are about 17% of our gross, which sounds better than 27% of our take-home for some reason. ]

[rigz]

mortgage 1550
piti 2200

[97guns]

i have a mortgage for $306 that generates $1150/mo. and another loan for $410 with an income of $1200

[Ima saver]

I bought my first house at age 20, with a payment of $98 a month. (brand new) I paid it off at age 32 and have not had a mortgage since then. We have owned two new houses since then. (hubby is a builder) This one is about 3000 sq. feet, on a creek with 2 acres. It is so nice to have no house (or rent) payments.

[riverwed070707]

Can't hardly believe what some of you pay! But then I suppose that if you lived in a part of the country where rents and mortgages weren't as expensive, your pay wouldn't be as high either.

This is kind of true but its def not proportionate. Lower COL areas in cities that still have professional jobs seem to me to have much better flexibility financially because it is so much cheaper to live and you can still have a nice professional salary. I've wanted to leave the midwest for a long time but the cost to go elsewhere is really restricting! For example, I could move to a city on the coast and may 10-15% more doing my job but the COL is 30-50% higher. The downside of staying here is I spend all my disposable income trying to get away


To answer the OP, we pay $1000 PITI which is about 17% of our gross income; however, we also rent our 900 sq ft basement apartment hubby built for $600/mo (soon to be $700) so taking that into account our housing is approx. 7% of our income.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I agree 100% with riverwed. Salaries aren't proportionately high i think because people want to live in those popular HCOLA.

[WISEWOMAN]

Housing is ridiculously expensive in my state. Children in their 30's living with parent because they can't afford a place of their own and the parents are having a hard time housing their grown children. In a country so rich, it should be a crime.

[jackmiller]

27% of our gross pay but we also pay $350 extra a month on our 15 yr fixed.

[UnknownXV]

Rent will always vary depending on location. In rural Texas, $300 gets you a comfortable apartment.

In NYC - Manhattan, anything under $1,500 gets you a rat infested closet.

I live in Canada, Montreal Suburb, I pay $750 a month + utilities for a 2 bedroom apartment. It's nice. I feel it's worth it though I'd love to rent a house next year. For that it's at least $1,100 for a decent one.

[dawnwes]

We moved out of SoCal and to an area that was far more affordable for our family.

It wasn't that we couldn't afford LA, but it was that we were tired of both of us working full time, having the kids have a very small place to play, and a tiny house.

I don't think it has anything to do with nerves, it has to do with people offering suggestions as to how to make your life better if you truly don't like what you are paying. If you like where you are and don't mind it, why do you care what they suggest?

However, $1,450 for a 3 bedroom sounds very low to me.

Dawn

I live in a 3 bedroom townhouse on the outskirts of Los Angeles County and pay a whopping $1450/month in rent and that DOES NOT include utilities, trash, etc. We would love to move to something cheaper, but trust me when I say that the only thing cheaper is an apartment with a heck of a lot less space, no garage and they're not cheaper enough in comparison to even be worth thinking about. Plus, unless one has moved recently, no one understands how expensive moving is. You not only have to find a way to cart all of your stuff from one place to the next which at the least usually involves some sort of van rental, let alone movers, but then you have the first, last, security deposits and the list goes on and on. People who give the advice of "Just move!" have a lot of nerve in my opinion....

[elessar78]

$1071/month or 18% of monthly net income. 4BR/2.5BA in a rural area.

[dawnwes]

Mortgage is around $1,600. Taxes and insurance add about $300.