Rent questions

I guess that means I've never been out from under the poverty line in my life. I spend well over half, possibly almost two thirds of my check on rent. :-( Which is good considering that the first flat I had in the UK, I spent over three quarters of my paycheck on rent. Gah, this is depressing me.

nonetheless, after bills (esp. bad when you live alone), this is k-high and unacceptable. i gave notice on my apt. last night.

If I move into that place in Brooklyn, it will jump to approximately 32.5%.

i cant even begin to imagine all the cool shit i'd have if my rent was 25% of my paycheque

i think i'm paying too much for what ive got though, its not worth the money

Really?!

*Then again, I am a wuss, and freaked out last week when I found two empty cans of Tennant's Super on the windowsill looking out into our back garden.

i'm paying the equivalent of $750 right now for a big room in a reasonably sought after area (though condition of room is sub-trifean at best), which is kind of high for a shared house maybe. what would that get you in nyc?

and NOWHERE is more expensive than London to live surely

I pay $650 a month which is not really a reasonable approximation of NYC at all.

I pay 1/6th of my paycheck in rent if you assume that my boyfriend and I split the rent, but what usually happens is that we split the rent and then he runs out of money and I float him about that much anyway (note: he's not using me because he's a year away from being a high-paid lawyer plus he's good in bed and generally awesome so I'm getting paid fo sho).

seriously, American's got $249 fares from JFK to Heathrow for next weekend.

I'm thinking of buying but I doubt I'd get a mortgage. What with my, um, like $10k debt.

no_ good record shopping in New Orleans

I like Rock n' Roll Collectibles on Decatur, but yeah it's expensive. Last time I was there the guy cut me a deal, tho.

I've been terribly tempted to buy in the past three or so years and was on the verge of getting a place at one point. I decided it was best to just knock out the debt first and rebuild up the money in the savings account (which is still there and still reasonably good enough to do something). Price is certainly an issue on the one hand, on the other I really do love southern California and don't immediately want to move...we'll see, though.

If you like relative peace and quiet and don't care about the big city per se, then definitely both Santa Barbara (and possibly Ventura to the south) and Monterey should be on your hit list. Heck, maybe even San Luis Obispo and the Pismo Beach area or something. Sun isn't a year round thing necessarily -- we just had a pretty lengthy rainfall around here, for instance -- but there's definitely a distinction between some rain and no rain in the seasons. ;-) On the coast and near it might often get you the marine layer being pulled in by the heat inland, so there's another thing to note. San Diego might be another option for you but it's gotten fairly expensive -- Matt Maxwell is the one to ask there. On the completely opposite end of the state is Eureka and Crescent City, but that's verging into Oregon and permanent rain territory. ;-)

You could also consider the Central Valley if you really wanted -- Sacramento et al. But personally I like temperature moderating sea breezes.

But alas alack although I am broke as a joke, my life has actually exploded with all kinds of crazy stuff and I can't even say yes to a FREE TICKET TO NYC! WAAAHHHH!!

What am I talking about? Yay! But Wah! But... shit, I don't have a passport anyway.

In 24 hours I'm going to be in Manchester soundchecking at the biggest venue I've played in my life. My brane hurts. If my life is so exciting, WHY DON'T I GET MORE MONEY OUT OF IT?!?!?

At least in my case, while I work from home, I write off half of it for taxes.

gareth, you could find a great place in brooklyn for $750, easy. best bets: cobble hill & park slope -- both quiet neighborhoods with loads of bars and a 20-minute commute to manhattan. i dunno queens well at all, but i'm sure that the same holds true there as well.

oh, and my rent = 50% of my income, which says more about how poor i am (i am) than how expensive my place is (it isn't)

As for Calfornia - Santa Barbara and Monterey are away from the big city, but they're also king hell expensive. San Luis Obispo isn't much better and you're in the position of having to drive four hours for the occasion when you do want to go to the big city.

As for the LA area, there are less expensive places that aren't the Inland Empire. Long Beach is good choice (it's where I'm at). Montrose (just N of Glendale) is an excellent area - very quiet, relatively inexpensive, but you're only 20 minutes from downtown LA/Hollywood/Pasadena.

Are they? I wasn't specifically suggesting Carmel for a reason. ;-)

Chris, while maybe the Pacific NW isn't necessarily "sunny", the temperatures are reasonable if not slightly chillier than California's, and you could find plenty of affordable options and be near the Puget Sound or the Willamette River (if you were fancying Seattle or Portland, respectively).

I mean, in '97 I subletted a 1 BR on 4th Ave. for $750, but I was so poor at the time I had to share it with a friend. I slept on a futon in the living room.

what's less than a roommate? like, you have to live with some pirate's leg or something?

Oh my god, stop tempting me! Where can I get this deal?

Currently I pay 40% of my salary for rent. It's not worth it. My complex has a lot of crime (my car's been broken into twice and there have been two resident shootings/robberies since I've lived here). On the upside I'm dowtown which means I have access to all the parts of Dallas which count with minimal driving. And I'm stumbling distance from my home-away-from-home bar. On the downside, I can't even afford a haircut - never mind clothes or records.

is greenpoint still as cheap as craigslist says it is? are there really $1200 2-bedroom apartments within 20 minutes walking of the bedford L? Gareth if u want want mo electroclash then greenpoint might be the place to check out, as Williamsburg itself is $$$. my personal list of places to look for myself also includes bushwick (a few more stops on the L from W'burg) east harlem and astoria/LIC, which has MOMA for now.

I live just off 30th Avenue now, in a 3 BR for $650.

OKAY THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR! SORRY ILX!

(kate maybe we should flirt via email so as to stop annoying our internet friendz?)

What's the fun in doing anything if it doesn't annoy people? ;-)

in LA you're only 20 minutes from anywhere...

yes...yes you were...:(

i lived in ventura (30 mins. south of SB) about 7 years ago before moving to SF ($650 1BR), but this was before kinko's moved to dallas and patagonia moved to reno. so get this, the two biggest employers in town (let's take the hell's angels and the crystal/speed trade out of the equations) relocate due to rising operating costs and housing prices DOUBLE in the past 6 years. my friend bought a 2Br/1BA condo in 1998 for $100k sold it a year later for $200k. he bought a 3 BR/2BA house in 1999 for $300k and now it's appraised at $550k. this is 90 minutes outside of LA... WITH NO TRAFFIC... so bear in mind, there are no public transport options here, only sitting in yucky yucky traffic. he sits in 60 mins. (30 miles) traffic a day to/fro SB... (A REVERSE COMMUTE!!!! ie, going away from LA) and there is literally nothing in between the two cities (coastline, farmtowns).

what was my point: oh yeah, santa barbara is one of the most expensive cities to live in california. ventura was brought up because it is considered the white trash/redheaded stepchild of santa barbara.

Anyway, I'm paying about 1/4 my take-home income in rent. Even that feels like a bit more than I want to pay... but it's a nice place.

Lord, that is bad. I better adjust my scale here!

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/08/images/shipone.jpg

No, that sounds about right for now, actually.

Like the one in this movie?

most people pay 1/3.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/roo/

when i was looking at shares three years ago they ranged from $700 to $1000 to live downtown

if you live in jersey your rent will be considerably cheaper, or it won't be cheaper but you'll get a lot bigger space for your $

It's not about love, it's about ass.

i got a chance to look at a couple in the last week or so, and it seems some of them are cheaper again now, and i'm hoping i might be able to save a £100 a month. i wish i had a bit more time to look, thats the only thing, but im pretty positive about this

25.5 percent of New York renters spent more than 50 percent of their income on rent according to the Housing Preservation and Development’s 2002 report—-the national standard is 30

My rent is 29% of my income.

I got three wage raises since my last post, so I'd say that I'm spending about 30% of my take home on rent. I'm looking to move into a two-bedroom (yes, for myself) so I guess it's back to 50% for me.

I used to pay about 75-100 % and over, now I pay 0. My car payments though, are my new rent.

I live in a bungalow just south of downtown Berkeley. Nob Hill is nice.

I have car payments too!

I don't know about buying, I found mine on craigslist. It's beautiful and I love it!

our rent is roughly 1/4 our household income but other ridiculous debts make it still seem too high considering that before we moved, rent was only 1/10

I just looked over at Craigslist bay area. There are some beautiful apartments out there, for relatively cheap prices. No, not cheap. But not extortionary.

rents in the bay area have come down. they're still too high.

I'm still confused about this rent should be 30% (or less) of salary rule. Should this be before or after taxes?

Also, how do I learn how to budget? Helpful links, counselors, people who will put the fear of god into me, etc.

And, is expecting 30% to be taken out of salary for taxes a good general rule (U.S.)?

My new flatmate doesnt move in til November so I am once again stuck with my 1150 a month rent til then grargh. I am running out of money real fast because I havent adjusted my spending one bit. I need to stop buying lunch every day and quit smoking.

xpost after taxes, as far as i recall.

xxpost I think the rule of thumb is up to 1/3 of your gross(pre-tax) income, though 25% is closer to what you want to pay if you're renting(obviously).

I like this dude:

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/

he gets into some stuff that's beyond me at the moment but he says a lot of common sense stuff and links to more common sense stuff

to be clearer, 1/3 is really pushing it and only makes sense if you're owning, not renting

If it's based on gross income I do pay about 30% of my salary in rent. 43% of net salary. It's too much, I'm skint all the time and keep getting near my overdraft limit. But that's London for you. When you add on council tax I'm over 50% of net income.

Yeah, I own and I'm spending just under half my salary (post tax) on my mortgage.

:-(

Just 18% of my gross income goes on rent, I win. Blimey, I am never buying a house. Or moving.

Things would be a lot easier if I had a housemate. But damn, I hate people. I'm willing to pay for my peace of mind.

Now I live in one of the cheapest places north of the river so at least I have a decent place now for the ludicrous amount of money I'm paying. When I lived in Muswell Hill I was paying even more for a crap 1 bedroom flat. Now I have an extra little box room, a big kitchen and a little yard out the back. And the place is looking quite nice now I went and bought a load of picture frames yesterday. I'd like to buy a flat like the one we've got now. There's no way that's going to happen though.

Currently 8% of my gross salary = half our mortgage.

Next week when we move, that'll go up to just under 25%.

I'm paying close to half salary :/ But when flatmate moves in obviously that'll halve, thank christ.

I win. Blimey, I am never buying a house.

That doesn't read right. :-) (I'm speaking as a typical Belgian person, who is born with a "brick in her/his stomach" as we say here.) I know I cut only part of that one sentence.

To answer the question: 0 procent as I live in a house my parents bought. Crossing my fingers my mum will do as promised: donate the house to me. Weee. IF not, I'm seriously fucked of course cause then I'll be too old to buy a house (and pay it off). I am in conflict: at times I want to buy a house (and rent it out) but hearing all these horror stories, I'm not sure I should do it. On top of that, if my parents do indeed *give* the house, then I don't need another house. On top of that the house prices in this city have gone up about 30 procent. I could of course buy one outside the city, but... should I really? ARGH! The house we live in now is just perfect (no garden though, which sort of sux but then we are lazy with gardening anyway). Actually maybe a little too big but all in all I prefer that over too small.

spend 1/8 of my small salary on rent, which buys the box room in the family home which my parents don't live in any more and i share with two brothers.

I pay just under a quarter per month. DC OTM :)

I spend about 18 per cent on my mortgage. I was talking today to somebody whose daughter has just bought in London and spends about two thirds of her salary on mortgage (on a one-bedroom flat in Brixton).

Bloody hell. Well, at least she'll be able to appreciate the flat what with never being able to afford to go out ever.

pretty much the option for anyone trying to get on the property ladder in ireland the last ten years.

Good lord! My PIL and I were talking about a couple spending half of their (combined wages) on a property and it being such a gamble. I realize I'm spoiled rotten as my parents don't ask me for rent (nor do I have to pay water/electricity).

If she's older, going out all the time isn't really as important as it was when you are in your 20s. If she's younger, well, she's going to earn more money as her career improves, so that what is 2/3 now may well be 1/3 in 10 years - at which point she'll be laughing and you'll be crying at how you wasted all your income on beer.

"wasted"

just under a quarter. Which is okay, considering it's a nice place and there is a housing shortage at the moment. If I ever wanted to live on my own though... Would be well over half, and then get shafted on paying all the bills alone.

I am paying pretty much 1/3 on the nose! It is a super nice house but when the East London Line stops running I am thinking of MOVING ON to somewhere with a real actual tube station :) I sort of want to live by myself for a bit because I never have - but then again I think that could drive me INSANE.

But then again, finding random house shares is difficult, and they could all be insane too.

The thing is that I am used to overgrounds now and don't really WANT the tube every day, but I am close to spitting blood each time I have to shove through people at London Bridge every rush hour every day and a nice "get on tube sit get off HOORAY at work" journey is sounding very appealing. And hey, I'm not locked into a house so I can move whenever I want! HAR!

i get up at nine and start work at quarter to ten or so. i have decided that this is by far the most important thing i'm looking for in a job from now on.

i'm paying about 1/2 now, but i get to live alone in an awesome apartment.

39%. Which would be manageable, were it not for (a) we're a family of four and my income is only augmented by another 30% or so by Pam's freelancing (which is slowly killing us; she looks after the kids for 12 hours then works into the night), child benefit and child tax credits and (b) debts & bills gobbling up practically all the rest.

(This is a mortgage on a 3-bed semi-d house in surburban SE London).

these are post-tax figures, right?

Should utilities be included in this magic figure?

I've not included utilities or council tax. It'd be too depressing if I did. Hah!

Oh crap, Michael, that must be hard. Will your wife be going back to work (as in fulltime employment). Then again if she did, you'd need to pay for childcare and that's so expensive (as I know from experience).

I sort of want to live by myself for a bit because I never have

WTF. Most here live on their own at some point in time. I rarely hear of sharing a flat/house, having roommates. It's practically unheard of here. Maybe because of the fact rent is pretty cheap here? Dunno.

Between 20-25% of take-home pay.

Our mortgage is about $100 more than the rent at our last house was. Halved that's about 16% of our monthly gross salary (for each of us). Not bad.

Last apartmened I rented solo was about $100 more than my current half of mortgage.

Virgina, taxes taken out of your salary really depends on where you live. Some places have state income taxes, others also have a city income tax. Luckily where I live (Austin) we have neither and the taxes I pay are about 18% of my check.

I just did the math for this fall, it'll be 27% for a room in a shared apartment. I have no idea how much taxes are going to be though.

outta here oct. 1st.

(39% of gross, btw.)

We'll never be able to afford childcare (Pam would need something like a £35k job for us just to be in the same precarious position we're in now), so I guess Pam won't be going back to work until they're both at school or (free) pre-school. "Back" not really being the appropriate term because, after five years away, I guess she'll be starting from scratch.

It's tough but remortgaging offers a partial solution. Same debt, just over 25 years - yay! Or flee to the US and neglect to give our creditors any forwarding address...

> Things would be a lot easier if I had a housemate. But damn, I hate people.

I have two housemates and am seriously considering (as in, all but decided in favor of) getting a new place solo, and thereby increasing my housing costs probably by no less than 50%. Because I hate people.

Move to Manor.

There's also the no car thing to contend with. But hopefully that'll change soon, too.

I was joking.

It is the lament of Austin these days. You want affordable housing? Leave.

Just under 20% of our monthly take home. We don't pay a lot in utes, but do in cable/phone. We're homebodies, though, and could be paying less if we didn't want to have a second bedroom for folks to come visit and sleep in.

If you intend going overseas for 5 weeks, is it imperative to inform your landlord/real estate?

refusing to pay rent for september, can't wait to see the look on landlord's face when we tell him.

WE ON STRIKE

right now abt 37% of my take home pay goes to rent. (all utilities included, except internets). DC is absurd.. my place is a really small studio.. in one of the most expensive neighborhoods, granted. at least i can take a shuttle to work for free.

Right now 30% of my take-home pay (although it feels much worse). However, I'm a temp/contractor and there's no guarantee that my current rate will continue.

35% for my new swank place.

I'm paying around 25% of my gross right now, and it's working out fine, but I want my own place. (It's around 36% of net, if I calculated correctly.) Thank god for Queens. Scary how much NYC rents have risen since this thread was started, when they were already statospheric. Can I afford to bump it up, or am I doomed to roommate living?

My mortgage is 30% of gross, 50% of take-home. 6 years ago, my rent was 6% of gross, slightly smaller salary.

The costs of marriage.

I'm at like 45% of take-home.

80%

25% of take home which isn't bad except another 25% goes to childcare so i'm back at that post-collegiate just barely breaking even level. shit gets old.

how tough will it be for me to absorb a $150/month rent increase? have you ever? did you learn to cook or give up drinking?

About 50% but my rent also includes food, house hold items, utilities and maintenance because I live in a coop.

Like a chicken?

Our mortgage comes to just over 1/3 of our combined monthly take-home pay, but we actually pay double that (i.e. 2/3s) into the joint account to also pay for food, bills, etc too. I think we budget pretty generously for food (£300pm for two people). I sense another thread. Which leaves approx 1/3 of my salary for "me", plus whatever extras I make writing (after putting some aside for tax).

The joint account also covers stuff like car insurance, MOT, and extra to offset service / repairs should we need any, plus a tenner a month put aside for potential vet bills for Bob should he ever get ill.

Wow. Organized. We're paying about 50% of our combined on three mortgages and its making me hyperventilate daily.

Em does ALL the organising. I just pay a few hundred quid into the joint account every payday.

I think we're actually paying less than 1/4 of our combined take-home in rent. No rent control, just nicest landlord ever.

morbs - can you ask your boss for a cost of living wage increase or something?

i absorbed about a $400 increase last time i moved and it wasn't too hard to adjust.

My mortgage is less than a quarter of my take home.

Sunny, I would hyperventilate as well.

Rent is about 60% of net. Live in Brooklyn.

yeah my rent is exactly half my take home. brooklyn as well.

Jersey City makes a big difference, although our rent is cheap even for our neighborhood.

Actually at this point I don't know if my neighborhood is much cheaper than most of the neighborhoods bordering Williamsburg.

my neighborhood is one of the cheapest in brooklyn - crown heights. if i were willing to live with roomates i could pay much less than half, but it's worth it to me now.

Jersey is getting expensive as hell. Rents for a 1br in East Rutherford close to the train are pretty much what they are for a 1br in Greenpoint.

labs, I get that COLA raise once a year. maybe just pray I get Midwood instead of Ocean Pkwy doorman bldg.

Xmas payrise means I'm now down to 39% of take home! Assuming my wife gets taken on permanent at her job I won't be the only one paying for it soon as well.

Jersey is getting expensive as hell. Rents for a 1br in East Rutherford close to the train are pretty much what they are for a 1br in Greenpoint.

-- burt_stanton, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 11:26 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

lol @ hipstercentric worldview

Suburban North NJ BEEN expensive. It's not like most commuters prioritize record stores and the availability of Zywiec in local convenience stores.

Oddly enough East Rutherford has a huge Polish-speaking community. It's only been in the past 10-15 years these parts of New Jersey have gentrified ... they used to be mega working class like North Brooklyn.

Yeah, admittedly I don't know E. Rutherford. Just that in general the suburbs have been expensive. It's the rents in cities that are the surprise.

Still, it's funny to use Greenpoint as a standard. Like a lot of New Jerseyans who left Brooklyn a generation ago would probably be more shocked at Greenpoint rents.

Looking at getting a house with a friend who moved back from NYC, trying to figure on a fair split. Her take-home after 401k/insurance is about 3.5x mine, which is irrelevant to the split itself, but she leans toward nicer areas than I'm used to living in.

House is $930 for a 3/1/1 - she'd get the master and use of the garage (I'm not even sure my truck would fit in this garage, tbh). We'd split the third bedroom - she wants a futon for people to crash on, I want a desk for school/work. Yard work split. She's talking $515/415, 50/50 on the cable/internet/electric.

Sound fair? We haven't seen the interior yet, so I'm not entirely sure how much better the master is. Use of the garage is a question for me. I don't want to park in it, but I feel like if she's got it for parking, her share should go up a bit.

Ha, I'm now paying the same as what I was upthread for HALF of the rent here, this place is a ripoff. I earn a bit more now but not much. We're moving when the lease is up because fuck $2,200 a month in rent.

http://www.splittherent.org/

Apologies if this is the wrong thread, I searched...

I rent out a house back in the UK, via a letting agent, to students. Some new tenants want to take it from September 2012 - the new academic year. Apparently students have to provide names/signatures of guarantors. The letting agent has let me know that one of them has suggested a guarantor who is not a homeowner and is not employed, and has told me it's my decision whether to accept this. The agents don't have/won't ask for info on savings. Apparently the student can offer no other guarantor.

Chances of something going wrong are minimal, but last lot of tenants were very difficult (house was burgled after they left the key in the lock inside a door with a glass panel; they insisted on moving out as they 'didn't feel safe'), and there's always the risk.

I'd feel like a total arse saying no - some people just don't have anyone in their lives who can be a guarantor. On the other hand there's a long time to go before Sept. and there will be other takers for the house. WWYD?

dnftt

Gotcha. Thanks. I forgot we had an actual expert.

If the non-guarantor student makes off without paying or steals the carpet or chops up the sofa for firewood, is it your responsibility or the letting agent's? And does that responsibility change if the student did have a guarantor?

You could ask for a credit check on the guarantor?

well i'm assuming when the agent refers it to you, that it's going to come back on you- those are fair questions otherwise.

Deposit in place etc?

dmftt=do not effing touch that? Urban dictionary says it's do not feed the trolls! Ljub!* If there are trolls living under this house, do not feed them!

*I should start calling you R as in my head, Ljub is pronounced 'lube'

heh sorry i've always had it as the other thing

it's cool, I had never seen it, either way! I will keep my eye out for this acronym so I can question whether the person using it is concerned about trolls, or touching.

do not fuck the trolls

do not touch the fuckers

aw I always feel terrible when I see prompt answers, I neglect ILX during working hours, I may change this.

'do not touch the fuckers' possibly otm here.

Darragh, yes, any problems (trashing, falling behind on rent etc.) would be my ultimate responsibility if the agent can't get the tenants to pay up. Now the agent is asking whether I'd accept rent upfront. Minded to say no as that doesn't preclude trashing, but still feel like an arse. But - there's a long way to go before the current tenants move out: I'm in no rush and there's no reason for me to accept these particular tenants, if I'm being selfish.

Also, the agency (and I think most agencies are like this) is crap, so don't trust them to resolve any given situation as it arises.

xp to FFM: you got to add that little 'y' sound (which is the 'j') and then it's all ok and distinguished from...other scenarios...

Hah! Yes, this I can do. Good call!

i mean it's really your call based on the info only you have re: what's the value of what's in the property, any deposit you can get out of them, what you think yr odds are of getting someone who'll have a guarantor if you turn em down, all common-sense stuff really

References and meeting them first to get a read on them are, unfortunately, not much good to you ime- i know you can feel arsehole-y, consider it an occupational hazard if that makes you feel better about it, but the concepts of deposits/guarantors didn't spring up overnight for no reason- they might be the most wonderful bunch ever lived, in which case any deposit gets returned and any guarantor is taking no risk.

just reading again- can the rest of them provide guarantors, is it just one that can't? Changes the odds a wee bit tbf....

there's my infamous attn to detail at work

We assumed that was your infamous heartlessness at work

Got back to the agents to say I would not go with it, even though only one of the tenants has the issue, because of the whole 'these concepts did not spring up for nothing' thing, and the fact that I think most potential tenants *would* have a guarantor. Agents asked if I'd accept rent upfront instead, I said no - firstly because it's a furnished place (not beautifully, but still) and secondly because if rent default were to be a problem it would likely be a problem over more than one month. Agents then got back to me and said 'ok, we'll go back to ask for a different guarantor' - hmmm, they originally told me they'd already done that and there was no-one available...

dunno if that's a serious zing or just a zing tom, but yeah, maybe....?

Just a zing tom

the zing tom, microsoft's new navigational device