9 ms·

You can't afford rent in San Francisco at $50,000 a year, period. The going rate for a single bedroom (usually with no tenant's rights) is somewhere around $1,2

You can't afford rent in San Francisco at $50,000 a year, period. The going rate for a single bedroom (usually with no tenant's rights) is somewhere around $1,200 a month, well over 30% of your monthly take-home at $50,000/year. If you're going to force people to move to the Bay Area to work for you, you need to pay them enough to afford it. Good luck hiring though.

meestaahjoshee 11y ago
just playing devil's advocate here but since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? There are people out there paying 50% or more of their take home on their rent/mortgage I imagine - it's just not really considered to be wise move in most cases. 1200/mo for a 1 bed doesn't even sound that bad for what's supposed to be the most expensive city to live in America. I know people in DC who spend 1800/mo on a studio and that's pretty average. You could easily share a room and cut your rent in half if you were smart/willing.
- beatpanda 11y ago
  > since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? Yeah, that's the same question every scumbag landlord in America started asking themselves a few years ago when demand for rental units started going up. You don't "need" to spend less than 30% of takehome on rent. If you assume you're going to be running in a treadmill your whole life, and you're satisfied working for subsistence only, then sure, go for it, blow half (or more) of your paycheck on rent. Lots of people in San Francisco and other expensive cities do this. If you have life goals that don't involve being stapled to a desk forever, it's probably not such a good idea.
  - Trundle 11y ago
    The discussion is living on entry level job salaries. Life goals shouldn't come in to the equation because one of those life goals should be "don't have an entry level job for your entire life"
- iamdave 11y ago
  just playing devil's advocate here but since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? That seems to be one of the common and very popular requirements to even have your lease application put aside for consideration, that being income must be 3x the ask for rent. At least this was the case in Austin proper (i.e. inside the city limits, and inside the I-35, Mopac, 183 and Hwy 71 box), I saw similar requirements when helping a friend scout for a place in SFO. When I was looking for a place I found a landlord willing to negotiate and haggle on the deposit since my income wasn't 3x the rent ask. They took a larger deposit, I signed a lease, wasn't late once. As with everything, YMMV.
- nemothekid 11y ago
  >since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? While on one side the 3x rent rule might be just "good sense", most places won't consider you if your salary (or the salary of all tenants) isn't 3x your rent.
- chrisbroadfoot 11y ago
  That's $1200 for a bed in a shared house, not a 1 bed apartment, which goes for about $3300.
  - aeze 11y ago
    Wow, that's expensive.
toomanybeersies 11y ago
You can quite comfortably live on $35k a year after rent, if you're a single person supporting just yourself. I managed to spend 3 years at university living on less than that. I've just spent the last 3 months interning for NZ$20 an hour (~$40k a year), much of that was spent paying about $260 a week for rent (paying rent for 2 places due to contracts). I managed to get along just fine. Cost of living-wise, where I am isn't radically different from SF.
- chrisbroadfoot 11y ago
  Christchurch?
beowulfey 11y ago
My rent in Los Angeles for my studio apartment is about 43% of my monthly take-home, and that's sub-$1000. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's definitely liveable. I don't often have to /worry/ about money... I just am also not saving anything.
- mentat 11y ago
  So you're deferring your worry?
Tehnix 11y ago
I really don't see how you can't live for $4160 - $1200 = $2960 a month? Heck, I could live on $500/month easily (after rent and taxes), if I wanted (as far as I'm aware, living costs are a lot cheaper in the US than were I'm from). That would make my yearly salary $20.400 (ignoring taxes, since I don't know what the rate for US is).

meestaahjoshee 11y ago

just playing devil's advocate here but since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? There are people out there paying 50% or more of their take home on their rent/mortgage I imagine - it's just not really considered to be wise move in most cases. 1200/mo for a 1 bed doesn't even sound that bad for what's supposed to be the most expensive city to live in America. I know people in DC who spend 1800/mo on a studio and that's pretty average. You could easily share a room and cut your rent in half if you were smart/willing.

beatpanda 11y ago
> since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? Yeah, that's the same question every scumbag landlord in America started asking themselves a few years ago when demand for rental units started going up. You don't "need" to spend less than 30% of takehome on rent. If you assume you're going to be running in a treadmill your whole life, and you're satisfied working for subsistence only, then sure, go for it, blow half (or more) of your paycheck on rent. Lots of people in San Francisco and other expensive cities do this. If you have life goals that don't involve being stapled to a desk forever, it's probably not such a good idea.
- Trundle 11y ago
  The discussion is living on entry level job salaries. Life goals shouldn't come in to the equation because one of those life goals should be "don't have an entry level job for your entire life"
iamdave 11y ago
just playing devil's advocate here but since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? That seems to be one of the common and very popular requirements to even have your lease application put aside for consideration, that being income must be 3x the ask for rent. At least this was the case in Austin proper (i.e. inside the city limits, and inside the I-35, Mopac, 183 and Hwy 71 box), I saw similar requirements when helping a friend scout for a place in SFO. When I was looking for a place I found a landlord willing to negotiate and haggle on the deposit since my income wasn't 3x the rent ask. They took a larger deposit, I signed a lease, wasn't late once. As with everything, YMMV.
nemothekid 11y ago
>since when do you NEED to spend less than 30% of your take home on rent to survive? While on one side the 3x rent rule might be just "good sense", most places won't consider you if your salary (or the salary of all tenants) isn't 3x your rent.
chrisbroadfoot 11y ago
That's $1200 for a bed in a shared house, not a 1 bed apartment, which goes for about $3300.
- aeze 11y ago
  Wow, that's expensive.

toomanybeersies 11y ago

You can quite comfortably live on $35k a year after rent, if you're a single person supporting just yourself. I managed to spend 3 years at university living on less than that. I've just spent the last 3 months interning for NZ$20 an hour (~$40k a year), much of that was spent paying about $260 a week for rent (paying rent for 2 places due to contracts). I managed to get along just fine. Cost of living-wise, where I am isn't radically different from SF.

chrisbroadfoot 11y ago
Christchurch?

beowulfey 11y ago

My rent in Los Angeles for my studio apartment is about 43% of my monthly take-home, and that's sub-$1000. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's definitely liveable. I don't often have to /worry/ about money... I just am also not saving anything.

mentat 11y ago
So you're deferring your worry?

Tehnix 11y ago

I really don't see how you can't live for $4160 - $1200 = $2960 a month? Heck, I could live on $500/month easily (after rent and taxes), if I wanted (as far as I'm aware, living costs are a lot cheaper in the US than were I'm from). That would make my yearly salary $20.400 (ignoring taxes, since I don't know what the rate for US is).