5 ms·

As a european it seems quite unbeliveable that a house should not cost more than 2x your income.

by chefkoch 10y ago

leadingthenet 10y ago
Yes, I also had a similar reaction. Incomes also seem way above what most people could reasonably achieve in Europe.
- chefkoch 10y ago
  Or houses should be dirt cheap? For douple my ok income i would not get a run down house near a population center in germany.
henrikschroder 10y ago
Also, 3.5% in mortgage interest? That's ridiculously high. Where I'm from you can easily get a mortgage with a variable interest of 1.46%. In completely unrelated news, Stockholm is in a crazy housing bubble as well, and prices are actualy above Silicon Valley levels, yet people sustain that with incomes much lower.
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >Also, 3.5% in mortgage interest? That's ridiculously high. Where I'm from you can easily get a mortgage with a variable interest of 1.46%. I'm not sure where this even came from but: 3.5% isn't "high", historically. And that fact that you can get a variable rate of 1.46% during a period of globally historically low interest rates has little relevance to the 20-30 years it will take to pay down your mortgage. In fact, buying a more expensive house because you can get a super-low rate now, without accounting for future rates, is a classic blunder.
  - henrikschroder 10y ago
    How to buy a home in the US is weird and baffling to me, everything is different from what I'm used to. The interest rate discussion is one thing, I don't understand why everyone here is only talking about a long-term fixed rate mortgage, where I'm from, everyone advertises the lowest variable rate. Coincidentally, Stockholm has a crazy housing bubble, so there's that.
    - forgetsusername 10y ago
      >where I'm from, everyone advertises the lowest variable rate I'm actually Canadian, and that's how it is for here too, for the most part. The longest fixed-term you'll get from a mainstream bank is 10 years. But in the US, I think, you can get 30 year fixed mortgages. Which is...crazy. And also why buying at these low rates is a steal.
Matthias247 10y ago
Thats the same what I thought when I read that comment. Here in germany most hoses go around for 300k-1M€. And still they are bought from families with a COMBINED income of far less then 100k€. It's quite normal for people to pay for a house for 20years, which would make it still cheaper then renting.

As a european it seems quite unbeliveable that a house should not cost more than 2x your income.

leadingthenet 10y ago

Yes, I also had a similar reaction. Incomes also seem way above what most people could reasonably achieve in Europe.

chefkoch 10y ago
Or houses should be dirt cheap? For douple my ok income i would not get a run down house near a population center in germany.

henrikschroder 10y ago

Also, 3.5% in mortgage interest? That's ridiculously high. Where I'm from you can easily get a mortgage with a variable interest of 1.46%. In completely unrelated news, Stockholm is in a crazy housing bubble as well, and prices are actualy above Silicon Valley levels, yet people sustain that with incomes much lower.

forgetsusername 10y ago
>Also, 3.5% in mortgage interest? That's ridiculously high. Where I'm from you can easily get a mortgage with a variable interest of 1.46%. I'm not sure where this even came from but: 3.5% isn't "high", historically. And that fact that you can get a variable rate of 1.46% during a period of globally historically low interest rates has little relevance to the 20-30 years it will take to pay down your mortgage. In fact, buying a more expensive house because you can get a super-low rate now, without accounting for future rates, is a classic blunder.
- henrikschroder 10y ago
  How to buy a home in the US is weird and baffling to me, everything is different from what I'm used to. The interest rate discussion is one thing, I don't understand why everyone here is only talking about a long-term fixed rate mortgage, where I'm from, everyone advertises the lowest variable rate. Coincidentally, Stockholm has a crazy housing bubble, so there's that.
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    >where I'm from, everyone advertises the lowest variable rate I'm actually Canadian, and that's how it is for here too, for the most part. The longest fixed-term you'll get from a mainstream bank is 10 years. But in the US, I think, you can get 30 year fixed mortgages. Which is...crazy. And also why buying at these low rates is a steal.

Matthias247 10y ago

Thats the same what I thought when I read that comment. Here in germany most hoses go around for 300k-1M€. And still they are bought from families with a COMBINED income of far less then 100k€. It's quite normal for people to pay for a house for 20years, which would make it still cheaper then renting.