this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 105 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I finally got a job that broke six figures.

Housing boom made houses twice as expensive in five years. Monthly grocery bill doubled. Renting doubled. Cost of cars doubled. Every day expenses doubled.

[–] tider06@lemmy.world 62 points 1 year ago (24 children)

Now consider the majority of people who do not have 6 figure incomes.

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[–] dill@lemmy.one 30 points 1 year ago

I knew we were fucked when the same happened to me and I still can't afford a home.

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have a house that was bought back when I made around 35K in 2006 and they where giving out loans to everyone, so nothing great by any means. Had someone come by and ask to buy it earlier this year now that I've gotten to a decent career class job and I had to tell them no. Like, have you looked at the price of things lately? My payment is less than most single bedroom appartments these days, no way I'm giving that up to someone. It's an ugly mess, but at least it's my ugly mess.

[–] aircooledJenkins@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I tell those companies I'll accept their offer if I have 3x the home's value in my pocket at the end of the process.

They don't call back.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is essentially where I’m at, too, except bought in 2013 so probably slightly less good price.

I can’t afford to do the fix up work on it properly, so it’s slowly crumbling, but I can’t really afford to move either because this place was on the low end when I bought it and hasn’t improved 😜. I literally can’t find housing for myself and 3 cats for the $550/mth I pay now. Even with my place being worth 3x what I paid for it, I’d end up in a worse or (at best) equivalent place for the same price. May as well just stick with the skeletons I know.

[–] kaitco@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Honestly, you need to make 6 figures to just not be “poor” these days. Very annoying, considering how quickly things changed over the last decade.

[–] June@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Yep, pulling in 110k this year after bonus at my job and I’m having to DoorDash to get just a bit of breathing room.

$3350 mortgage eats more than half my take home. The rest goes to debt (took out a loan to fix a couple things on the house last year, and student loans coming back now), caring for my aging dog, food, bills, maxed 401k that I’m considering dropping for a while, and a little bit for free spending so I can go on a date or two or out with friends. Even with this mortgage payment this would have been easy on just my salary even 3 years ago (it was easy af with dual income at the time). But the way costs have increased are making me feel broke in a way I haven’t felt in a long-ass time. I always thought that if I could make it to six figures I’d be properly wealthy, but I’m not. I’m barely comfortable.

[–] Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Where the fuck do you live with a $3350 mortgage? I pay 1/3 of that for rent and I think that's too high.

[–] June@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Puget Sound area, a bit north of Seattle.

For a home purchased in the last 3 years, I got a pretty good deal. The floor on rent for a shitty one bed apartment in my city is $1200/month.

It’s also worth noting that the $3350 is my PITI. My strict mortgage is $2875, the rest is property tax to escrow and mortgage insurance.

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[–] A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Jeez. I can't fathom what kind of home you must be in to be paying $3350 in a mortgage. Genuine question, have you ever been like, actually poor? I do find it hard to believe anyone willing or even able to pay a mortgage like that could possibly live a life anyone would call barely comfortable.

[–] June@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

1000 sq ft starter home rambler in the seattle region. It’s nothing special and it was downright cheap at $560k. Was still dual income and mostly comfortable when we bought the house. We broke up and I had the income to keep the house, so I am. The equity isn’t there yet so I’m making a play to keep it for 10-15 years before I sell and we split the sale based on an agreement we signed when we broke up (very amicable breakup).

Yea, I grew up dirt poor with many dinners being noodles with butter, I never once had to pay for lunch at school because assistance programs, I never did extra curriculars because we couldn’t afford the materials, every Christmas was nothing or donations, I lived in houses where I could literally see outside through gaps in the walls, and the only reason I experienced a vacation before I was 30 was because my step-dad was negligently killed by a rich guy and we got a settlement that my mom blew on a 6 week vacation to Orlando when I was 14 and then put some money down on a house when she could have bought it outright instead. But I clawed my way out by going to college and getting pretty lucky along the way. 10 years ago I got my first job out of college making $13.75/hour, and have doubled my income twice since then, largely by the luck of knowing some good people, and my current job by the luck of being found on LinkedIn due to having a weird confluence of experience.

A big part of how I got into the house is that my ex-wife has rich family and they gifted us a pretty big chunk of change that got us to our downpayment. Still had to take $520k out on the mortgage, and another $20k to make some needed repairs once we were in (debt I’m taking on too).

I couldn tighten the belt in a few areas, namely my free spending which I limit to $400/month. But that already goes fast if I want to actually do anything and keep myself from falling into a pit by never leaving the house. I also use that money for helping my partner out. Otherwise I’ve cancelled all my streaming services save for Disney plus which is still a good deal, I’ve dumped my insurance to the lowest I can go, I pay $15/month for my cellphone, I’ve stopped buying name brand for nearly everything, and I’ve had to stop any real charitable giving. There is some saving that goes on in there like putting $50/month aside for my car expenses, so as long as nothing major comes up I’m covered, and $100/month toward ‘medical’ which really just pays for my therapy.

None of this is to garner pity, I know I’m in a better position than most people, not to mention much better off than I ever dreamed I could achieve as a kid growing up, and I’m extremely grateful for that. i don’t have any bills I have to choose between, and I never have to wonder if I have food to eat tonight. And I have enough saved (from my bonus) that I’ve got a few months to figure things out if I lost my job today or if a big repair comes up (like my water main breaking back in January), but not enough to replace my fence that fell down last winter. I just always thought that making it to six figures would mean a lot more than it does. I make ends meet and anything extra I make from here is gravy.

[–] greensage@lib.lgbt 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My mortgage is around that for Austin, TX (barely in the city for a tiny home) and that is when the rates were good. So, they probably just live somewhere that's a bit popular.

[–] June@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

25-90 minutes north of Seattle depending on traffic. So yea, it’s an expensive area to live in.

[–] greensage@lib.lgbt 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OH, that COL is wayyyy higher than my area. Hopefully you got a good deal on it then!

[–] June@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Yep. But this area is home, so as long as I can make it work, I will.

[–] Tenthrow@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

It all depends on where you live, but the prices are insane everywhere now. I bought my house 5 years ago and the estimates indicate that is now worth double what I paid for it. DOUBLE. And it's not because I live in some super hot area, the prices have gone up like that almost everywhere in the entire area in and around the city. I could not have afforded this house If I were buying today, and that is with a significantly higher income than when I bought it.

[–] SeducingCamel@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Trailers are 300k here in Colorado, at least where I'm at with jobs. If you want an actual house it's 450-600k

My childhood home with 3 bedrooms and a finished basement was like 130k and that was purchases in the 2000s

[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social 1 points 1 year ago

@SeducingCamel @A_Toasty_Strudel

In the early 2000's a mobile home in oil sands territory (Alberta) was $450k.

Canada's been working a long time on our housing bubble ... which is about to crash.

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[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Same here. Feels like I'm making the same, but my mortgage is huge now. Sucks.

[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My partner and I make over $300k, and we're struggling to buy a 4-bedroom house on the outskirts of Orlando, FL.

[–] glomag@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As someone who lives in Florida I've got to ask, how? When thinking about finances and investments I often feel like I'm in my own bubble and I don't understand other peoples' situations, motivations, etc. So I'm genuinely curious. 4-bedroom houses near Orlando can be found in the mid 300s. With your income you should be able to pay in cash after saving for just one or two years (depending on how much savings you're starting out with). Even if you wanted something more expensive, are mortgages that difficult to get approved even for someone with such a high income?

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

holy crap. 300k for 4 bedrooms. no wonder people risk the storms.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

You probably don’t want to buy a house there, anyway, what with all the insurance companies pulling out of the state.

Your rates are going to be sky high, assuming you can even get insured, which isn’t remotely a guarantee anymore.

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[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its nice to see someone else mention the doubling. There are news things about gas being expensive but its cheap relative to everything else. People better be ready for eight bucks a gallone once it rights itself. Inflation would suggest 30% odd increase but for what you have to buy its 100% over 2020 prices.

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