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renters: what % of your income goes to rent?  

post #1 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:30am
Thread Starter 
I've heard that rent shouldn't be more than 30% of your income--not sure if this is true or not. I'm trying to come up with a budget so that I can move to a big city (NYC, Chicago, Seattle or Portland--wherever I can use only public transit) and trying to evaluate how much I'll need to earn and how much I can afford wrt apartments.

So, renting mamas, how much of your family income (% wise) goes to rent?
post #2 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:36am
About 15%. I lucked out and managed to get a cheap house.
post #3 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:37am
jeez we paid ( we just moved) almost 50% of our income for our apartment. Seriously. It was the cheapest we could find too. We were adviced that you should never pay more than one weeks pay in rent. That just couldn't happen though because rent is really high where we lived before.
post #4 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:43am
We own, but our mortgae is like 55% of our income or something totally outrageous like that. I don't recommend it because its not something necessarily sustainable, but you do what you have to...
post #5 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:51am
Right now, close to 60%. When my husband gets a raise next month, it'll be between 40-50%. And it's never been cheaper for us in Massachusetts. :
post #6 of 65
6/1/08 at 9:51am
19%
post #7 of 65
6/1/08 at 10:04am
19%, but I think when you hear the 30% that is supposed to include heat and electricity. When I add those in, I get 22%.
post #8 of 65
6/1/08 at 10:07am
13%
Rent is still very cheap in our area.
post #9 of 65
6/1/08 at 10:21am
Right now it's just under 50%. After we move to Texas and I get a full time job (dh already has one lined up), I think it'll be closer to 25%, but that is only because we're going to rent a house from my father who is giving us a really good deal. Any other house in that neighborhood would cost us twice as much.
post #10 of 65
6/1/08 at 10:23am
rents here are really high (not in line w/ wages), so it's a little over 50%
post #11 of 65
6/1/08 at 10:58am
We are at about 49%. It's rough. I save 1/4 out of each check so that it's easier to come up with at the beginning of the next month. We are doing Dave Ramsay and trying to get a working budget going. Right now it looks something like this:

265.50 Save for Rent
100.00 Groceries
20.00 Money for DH
50.00 Gas Money
200.00 To whatever bills I have that week
Remaining to BEF (basic emergency fund of $1,000)

Once I'm done with the BEF, I'll start throwing money at the next smallest bill and then so on and so forth.

Hopefully we will be out of this hole before to terribly long!!
post #12 of 65
6/1/08 at 11:04am
When we were renting last year we were paying $350 out of out $2000 take home pay.
post #13 of 65
6/1/08 at 11:12am
W/o utilities it's ~60%, with utilities it's 80%. Last month it was 75% w/o utilities. (I started a new job).

We are very low income and it's impossible to find affordible housing.
post #14 of 65
6/1/08 at 11:13am
About 13%. Our rent is really cheap because my mom owns the house. If she decides to move back in and we have to move our rent will go up by at least $200 a month for a similar sized house.
post #15 of 65
6/1/08 at 11:20am
We lived in Chicago last year (suburbs this year) and we paid $1500 for a 2 br flat in a transitional neighborhood.

We could have stayed in an equal sized but much older flat in a much nicer area for just a bit more, but we decided being walking distance to dh's work and one bus ride from the museums was preferable to the extra driving we'd be doing in the better area.
post #16 of 65
6/1/08 at 12:08pm
well we live outside portland oregon. and our rent is 735 for a 950 sqfoot 2 bedroom 2 bath... its near the bus/max station...

its like 30% of our income- if hubby makes 2400 that month... if he makes less then its more. and if he makes more then is less... funny how his income is never consistant.
post #17 of 65
6/1/08 at 1:15pm
*
post #18 of 65
6/1/08 at 1:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by junipervt View Post
rents here are really high (not in line w/ wages), so it's a little over 50%
same here.
post #19 of 65
6/1/08 at 1:31pm
Approx 3000 a month income and 1200 a month rent, not sure how to figure the percentage
post #20 of 65
6/1/08 at 1:54pm
Ours is 12%. Wow, shockingly low! Of course we live well below our means for now, trying to pay off debt. We still live in the same place we had in college
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