40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’
fortune.com
“There's this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing,” says Nikki Cimino, a recruiter in Denver.
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lol i'm looking at paying ~4500/mo for a 3br 2ba ~1300sqft.
That is absolutely ridiculous
You must be in an area like SF or NYC. Or this is a luxury space.
Greater boston area, not inside boston. Malden/Medford/Everett/Chelsea area. Everett and Chelsea are NOT desirable.
The smallest of places are 650k+ here for 2br minimum. You can find 1br condos for 500-600k sometimes.
We're talking about 20-100yo+ homes. Not new construction. There's no "luxury" involved. No yard or acreage. Often no parking included.
In order to keep your mortgage at 1/3 your income, you would need to be making $700,000/yr.
You're calculating it based on take home pay or something? because 1/3rd of 700,000 / 12 = $19,250/mo
Household income is about 230k. Mortgage comes out to less than 50% of take home pay. 230k/12 = 19166/mo (gross) 4500 is 23% of gross income.
Afaik every couple around here by 30 with professional experience and a degree is making over 200k (so 100k per person.) I've seen IT support roles for 100k+ (example from the highest paying company i've ever seen, liberty mutual insurance: https://searchjobs.libertymutualgroup.com/careers?location=Boston%2C%20Massachusetts%2C%20United%20States&department=Technology&pid=618496295577&domain=libertymutual.com&sort_by=relevance )
Nah I'm probably just dumb and did the math wrong. Those figures are still dizzying to me, as a BA in the Midwest. $100,000/yr is considered pretty decently middle class, I can't imagine anyone here paying $4,500/mo on rent. Maybe I'm just very lucky.
A room is basically ~1k/mo here if you're renting with roommates, maybe up to 1500 if the place is really nice. 1800 for a studio, give or take.
Entry level roles are usually 60kish+ but everybody hits 100k very quickly in any kind of white collar gig. With the pharma industry being here a huge portion of roles in greater Boston are pharma or pharma adjacent with 200k-400k salaries(+bonus/options) which drive up the cost of housing like crazy. Plus some finance and legal too. There's a few ad agencies, plenty of healthcare companies and some world class hospitals. Plus a significant amount of highly desirable colleges that lure in the rich foreign exchange students. It makes for a really expensive housing situation unfortunately.