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What % of your income goes toward housing?

post #1 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 
I think the conventional wisdom is to spend around 25-30% of your take-home pay on housing...

but reading about the rent/mortgage costs in some of the areas y'all live in have me thinking that is not realistic for a lot of families!

So I was just curious - what percentage of your family's take-home do you end up spending on the mortgage or rent? And if it's significantly more than 30%, what other areas are you having to take from in order to afford that?

To answer my own question, my mortgage after taxes and insurance is 25% of my take-home. I am feeling very lucky to live in a city with affordable housing right now but I think that's the exception and not the rule...
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post #2 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:38pm
Just about 50%.
post #3 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:48pm
i'd say about 30% of hubbys take home goes towards our mortgage.
post #4 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:48pm
Our mortgage (not including taxes) is 23% of our take-home pay. We live in a simple 1972 1,900 sq ft - 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. I would say that for a "middle class" family in our neck of the woods we pay less than average - but also have a more modest home than "average".
post #5 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:50pm
About 45% of my (the breadwinner's) income goes to mortgage, prop tax and insurance. If you take into effect the amount less we pay in income tax for the deductions it would be somewhat less, but that calculation is way beyond my math skills

We live in one of the most expensive counties in the country, so that's the way it goes. Fortunately our mortgage is fixed so as long as our income rises gradually, it will become less and less a proportion of our income. Once DH starts working more often when the kids are in school, it will be less also.
post #6 of 138
7/3/07 at 1:50pm
Close to 50%.
post #7 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:32pm
About 1/3 of take home pay goes to mortgage, taxes and insurance .
post #8 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:39pm
Not quite 30% with taxes and insurance.
post #9 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:42pm
About 25%. Soon it will be less because DH got a promotion. We live in a small house in a working class neighborhood in a city with a low cost of living.

We could "afford" a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood, but we have a great quality of life here. We can save money and we just bought a new car. We take trips and see plays and concerts and buy healthy foods. We can eat out when we want. A lot of these things would be sacrificed if we lived in a nicer, more expensive house.
post #10 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:47pm
Ours is about 32%. That's decent, but with the cost of living in our area, including high utilities, we end up spending much more in other bills than I'd like.
post #11 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:47pm
25%, including taxes and insurance (they go into escrow)
post #12 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:52pm
We're paying about 35% of dh's take-home pay for our rent. We keep our entertainment budget low, and lately, we haven't been putting as much in savings as we'd like.

However, we're on easy street, imo. For a long time, I was paying about 50% of my take-home, for a much smaller place. That was when it was me, my ex and ds1...and then just me and ds1. (Oddly, I was better off financially without my ex.)

I was looking at housing prices yesterday. We could maybe buy a one-bedroom apartment for 65% of dh's take-home...not counting property taxes or maintenance. With five of us, and another on the way, that's not going to happen. We'll have to move when baby-under-construction is about two. I'm not going to make my teenager move into the little room, and it's just not big enough for three little ones.
post #13 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:52pm
About %30 of DH's income. For budgeting we don't include my income. But if we did it would be less, obviously, lol.
post #14 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:52pm
Almost 50% with taxes and insurance.

-Angela
post #15 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:52pm
Our mortgage payment (principle, interest and taxes) is a tad under 50% of our take home pay after taxes, health insurance, 401(k) and Christmas Club.
post #16 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:54pm
25%. We live in a high-cost-of-housing area, but DH doesn't make a ton - I'm a SAHM - we just stuck to our budget when we house hunted. We did have to move out a bit, and were lucky to buy before they went really up. If we'd waited another year or two we wouldn't be able to afford the same house.
post #17 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:59pm
32 %. We CAN'T afford a mortgage for this area, that would be around 60 % of our income :
post #18 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:59pm
a little more than 20%
post #19 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:59pm
About 30%, not including taxes and insurance.
post #20 of 138
7/3/07 at 2:59pm
Mine's about 56% of my predictable budget - I'm a single SAHM, so I'm counting my rental income, what I get paid for cleaning our church, and the set amount I am supposed to get for child support. My predictable income is $1,740/month and my mortgage is $975/month. BUT I also do some baby-sitting (summer months average $200 - $300 per month, but hardly anything at all during the school year) and my ex is pretty good about kicking in a bit more when he has a lot of overtime.
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