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It's expensive to live in the Bay Area. Expect > 2.5k/rent + utilities + car payment in most situations. However at that salary it is completely manageable if
by jonesb6 11y ago
It's expensive to live in the Bay Area. Expect > 2.5k/rent + utilities + car payment in most situations.
However at that salary it is completely manageable if you keep your other expenses down. If you're not coming out of the gate with $80k+ student loans, you don't buy an overly expensive car (as people tend to do when they get a salary spike..), and you don't empty your savings on overpriced clothes and an outlandish night life, you should be able to save a decent amount of money every month.
Then over the next decade or so you continually build your savings, move your career forward, then you can actually afford a nice home in a nice area.
For the majority it's basic financial management. It will not work for everyone, but $130,000 is a lot of money.
- jjtheblunt 11y agoThere's no way that's adequate to, ten years from now, have enough to afford a nice home anywhere in the Bay Area, unless there's some unprecedented adjustment in affordibility vs compensation. My opinion is based on having a high ranking job at (usually) the most valuable company in the world, and having been in California over a decade.
- jonesb6 11y agoWell by afford I mean can afford a 30-year mortgage on a $1.2m home. Assuming this imaginary person spends his decade or so in the $130-200k range (solid career advancement, probably overly optimistic) and shells between $10-$30k a year into savings, that would be maybe 15% down. My opinion is based on having absolutely no experience in home buying while making the greatest attempt possible to be optimistic about my future in the Bay Area.
- jcizzle 11y agoSorry, but a $1.2m house, including mortgage, taxes, insurance and the general cost of owning a home is not affordable to someone making 200k/yr, much less the $180,000 down payment you are suggesting. That isn't to say it is impossible, but the house would own you.
- FireBeyond 11y agoYeah, that math is not going to work, even closely. $200K a year works out at around $11K/month after tax. 15% on a $1.2M home is $180K - even by your estimations that's 6-18 years savings. So a $1.02M loan over 30 years... 1.1% property tax, 0.5% PMI, 4% interest... You're looking at a $6,000 mortgage payment (www.mortgagecalculator.org). Yes, frugal living says you could manage that at 200K. Your mortgage originator is not even remotely, no matter how convincing you are, going to underwrite a loan with a mortgage payment of 55% of your after tax income. At 130K, no. That's 85% of your paycheck going to mortgage.
- joshmn 11y ago> Your mortgage originator is not even remotely, no matter how convincing you are, going to underwrite a loan with a mortgage payment of 55% of your after tax income. Not in 2016 at least.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]