Coming at you with another poll. These seem to be wildly popular and that makes me happy. It’s one less day I have to think about writing and one more day you all get to see how you fare against the masses. Since we’ve done debt and income, figured we could use this poll to explore housing. Likely, the biggest money suck you have.
Only got one rule before we get to it…
- Factor in ALL of your monthly housing costs (PITI/rent, utilities, HOA’s, etc).
[poll id=”5″]
For extra credit, drop a comment reiterating what your ALL IN housing costs are, if you rent or own, what general geographic area you live in (obviously important for perspective), how many people covered under this payment, and what percent of your NET household income this gobbles up. I’ll go first…
- My all in housing costs: $1,175
- Renter
- Just outside of Seattle
- Just me and Girl Ninja
- 19.62% of our take home pay goes to housing
You can see all previous polls here
My all in housing costs for rent, utilities, parking is approximately chf2700 (with phone and internet, it’s more like 2900) which is US$2790.-
I am single, I rent, and my housing costs take up 40% of my after tax income. Welcome to Switzerland! 😉
Own my home. Taxes and insurance are about $200 a month. Electricity ranges from $50 to $180 a month. Gas ranges from $15 to $110 a month. Water is about $25 a month. Garbage is about $13 a month. Sewer is about $18 a month. So on average it costs me and my wife about $450 a month to live in my 1400 sq ft house in Las Vegas, NV. It is very nice that we have a small efficient home with no mortgage. Too bad our neighborhood is less than ideal and want to move to a more expensive one.
Forgot to add in internet since I cannot live without that also, $56/month if I unbundled which I would to get to my bare essential housing costs.
Whenever you guys move do you plan on renting your home out? Vegas seems pretty good for rentals.
I’ve been torn about renting my home here. You are correct that owning rental property in Las Vegas is a popular idea, I know many people who do. The problem with that is that I hear a million nightmare stories about being a landlord, even through a property management company. Just dealing with my scummy renter neighbors is bad enough. It really is a second job being a landlord which I’m not sure I would be up for.
Own my apartment (2 bedroom)
Taxes, insurance, utilities all cost me less than USD200.- (Heating in winter not included)
Single living alone
In a popular (and expensive) part of Istanbul, Turkey
Less than 5-7% of my total income goes to housing (heating not included)
1. Household expenses–$1,105 including cable, water, gas, electric, food this will be going down to 775 because I am moving and my apartment will only be $300 a month
2. Rent
3. Live outside Buffalo, NY but moving to a smaller apartment on the first
4. Me myself and I
5. Do not know how much of my income goes to this but its one paycheck and then like 40 bucks of another.
assuming 26 paychecks
monthly:2307.5
~47%
$1386/month for Piti, Hoa, gas, electric, water, trash. It’s a 15 year mortgage so our payment went up from when we refinanced.
Live in Indiana, a family of two adults, two kids and a baby on the way.
Not a huge percentage of our income, but we do have upkeep and improvements that add to our outgo.
1.My all in housing costs: $3500
2.Own my Home
3. Washington, DC
4.Me, my husband, our almost 2 year old daughter and our dog
5.30% of our income goes towards housing payments (after tax income, 401k, health insurance, etc income)
We have been seriously thinking about renting out our house and moving to somewhere smaller until our family expands. Our neighborhood seems to have rentals go for a lot, a couple hundred more than our housing payments. We don’t need all the extra room right now, but will eventually need it as we continue to have kids (we really want a large family!)
15 yr mortgage – no mort ins – ALL IN: 1465-1580 USD
I am in a voluntary HOA; I pay – it helps with neighborhood upkeep, and keeps me “invested” in it (well, literally!)
San Antonio
2 sons and I
1. The BF and I have approximately $1,015/month in housing costs right now.
2. We rent, and this number also includes electric, gas, Internet, and our cell phones
3. Large Midwestern city
4. Our housing costs for 2013 have averaged at 27% of our monthly income.
We’re looking to more into a slightly large place this summer, so this will likely increase, although we will still be in the $1,000-1,500 bracket.
My all in housing costs: $1,300
Own
Nebraska
Me and my cute doggie
27% of take home pay goes to housing-related expenses
My all in housing costs: $5,000-7,000 (depends on how much extra we put on our mortgage that month). Mortgage 1: $2,500, HOA: $500, Mortgage 2 (almost paid off): $2-4,000
Owner
Downtown Boston
Husband and I
Anywhere from 30-50% of our take home pay goes to housing, depending on income (commission) and point #1
1.My all in housing costs: $1435
2.Renter
3.Springfield, NJ
4.Me, Hubby, 3 kids (14,6,3)
5. 35% of our take home pay goes to housing
All In Housing: $1800
Rent
Manhattan
Single but live with 2 college friends
About 40% of salary and 25% of total comp
1.My all in housing costs: $1150
2.Renter
3.Outskirts of a university town/industrial hub
4. This is me +fiance. We have a roommate whose rent I didn’t include because it would bump our costs up a bracket in the polling.
5. 45% of takehome pay goes to housing.
What is PITI?
1 all in about $999
2 owner – HELOC of $16,900 but only $6,000 of that is from household repairs and expenses
3 small city in southern Ontario home valued at $205,000
4 just me and 2 kids and a dog. 1 kid away at school, other leaving for school in the fall
5 40% to housing
Principle, interest, taxes, and insurance. They are the components of your mortgage payment.
Principal and interest are the only required mortgage components here in Canada.
Some people do choose to have the bank handle their property tax payments.
You must have property insurance but it generally not offered through the bank.
Mortgage insurance is not a requirement. You should have life insurance to cover the cost of your mortgage but banks overcharge and a lot of people don’t understand they can just add to their basic life insurance.
1. Our all in housing costs are $1130 ($819 mortgage (including taxes and insurance), $86 HOA fees, $25 water (average), $200 electric (average)
2. Home owner
3. Central SC
4. Just hubby and me
5. 18.71% of our take home pay goes to housing
I currently live at home and pay rent to my parents. My Current all in rent is $300 rent $200 rent utilities $50 each. This just covers my part. (Glad to finally be done with graduate school)
When I move this summer my rent will still be in the same category as the little town I am moving to teach in has teacher housing (which has been gaurenteed) so my all in rent there will be $250 rent and around $70 for utilities (from talking with other teachers that live in the duplexes). I will be renting solo 🙂
All information is from the West/Central part of Texas.
Current rent takes 42% of my monthly income. When teaching it will only take 15ish% of income.
1/2/3 $1164/month in (2) rent for 609sq ft in (3) Houston. Another $45-50 per month for electric and $18 for Water/Trash. All told, about $1260 per month.
4. Just myself.
5. 32% of take home pay. Hoping to move out of complex into a smaller, private complex when my lease is up in August to get this down to 25% or so.
1) Our All Housing costs: $2343 CDN ($1504 mortgage, $113 Electric, $58 Gas/Water, $238 Condo Fee, $275 Property Tax, $155 cable/internet – our electric and gas/water bills are set up as Equal Billing so the amount doesn’t change every month until they reconcile our usage and make adjustments once/year. We pay our Property Taxes 10 time/year – set up that way so we don’t pay in Dec and Jan.)
2) Owner – 1500 sq ft. 3 bed/2 bath + 2 *1/2 Bath/Fully Finished Basement townhouse
3) Outskirts of Hamilton, ON Canada
4) Me, Hubby, 2 cats
5) 38-39% of our takehome goes to housing, (depends on how much OT Hubby feels like earning)
Rent $876 + Water, sewage, and trash $40 + Internet $50 + Electricity $60 = $1026
We rent a 690 sq. foot 1 bed 1 bath apartment in a suburb city north of Dallas.
Comprises of 20% of our income after taxes, retirement contributions, and FSA.
Honestly, I wish it was lower!
Rent is $400 and utilities are around $250, so my housing costs are $650 a month for a 3-BR house on an acre in western Kentucky. That’s for me and my son. It’s hard to calculate a percentage since I’m a freelancer and my income varies, but it’s generally around 15-20% of my income after taxes.
$1,360
own
NJ, near Philly
Just me
this is 44% of my pay, yikes! (looking for a higher paying job!!)
Own a condo:
Me, my wife, a dog, a cat, and in another 2 weeks or so a “minion”:
Mortgage: $750/month
HoA Fee: $160/month
Property Tax: $2400/year = $200/month
Insurance: $360/year = $30/month
Electricity: $150/month (High estimate, but covers the months when the AC is cranked)
Gas: $150/month (High estimate, but covers the heating months)
Water/Sewer/Storm: $180/quarter = $60/month (High estimate, but due to the town not always sending out the bill, can be this high with their late fees and interest)
Total: $1,470 / month (40% of my take home pay, 25% of our combined take home pay).
I did not include our cable or cell phones in the housing cost. Cable is budgeted under entertainment and the cell phones are dependent on my job whether they are in or out of budget. My employer picks up the bill whenever I am away or on call. This could add $100/month for the cells, and $180/month for cable.
Total: $1750/month (47% mine, 29% combined).
Same units rent for $1300/month utilities not included.
My all in housing is around $1,300. Mortgage plus taxes and insurance is $969. Utilities (including gas, electricity, water, trash) is around $300 per month.
1) All-in costs — $2000-2100 depending on the season ($1588/mo for PITI & PMI, principle overpayment of $162/mo, $130-200/mo for gas & electric, $40-60/mo for water & sewer, $18/mo for trash). Soon to be refinancing to drop PMI
2) Owner — 2100 sq ft, 4BR/2BA
3) Eastern suburb of Minneapolis/St Paul area
4) Me & Wife, hopefully 1-2 kids within 5 years
5) 35-40% of take home, depending on overtime
My fiance and I rent a 2 BR townhouse in the Chicago suburbs for 1050 a mo with utilities being around 300ish (usually less). It takes up about 12% of our monthly income.
all in: $2400
mortgage payer
Kansas City
34% of take home pay for a 4br for my husband and two kids.
1. All in costs – approx $1,300
2. own the house (1600 sq ft, 4bd/2ba)
3. Southeastern WI
4. Me , my husband, and dog
5. approx 17% of our tax home pay.
These polls are fun. You’ve got a winning idea in my opinion 🙂
1) All in costs are $1,880, although prior to this month they were $500 less because our in-laws were living with us and paying rent. That includes mortgage just shy of $1,500 which includes PITI and $400 in utilities (water, electric, HOA fees, and cable/internet). That gets us our dream house in a quiet, gated community.
2) Owner
3) SW Florida (Dunk City 😉 )
4) Was 4 people, now 2
5) 21.4% of take home pay
My all in housing costs: about $2300-2650 (just moved to a new house 2 weeks ago! Still figuring it out).
Own a home through a credit union mortgage (put 20% down).
Near Niagara Falls, Ontario (but not in the city of Niagara Falls)
Myself and boyfriend
About 25-37% will go towards housing (we have yet to receive a bill to see what our energy/water/gas consumption is since we moved from an all-inclusive apartment).
1. All in costs – $365.59
2. Renter (but we do not pay rent)
3. SW Michigan
4. Me and my girlfriend, and our small dog
5. Approximately 20.43% of our take home pay
1. Monthly costs (rent and utilities): $3,150
2. Renting
3. NYC – Manhattan
4. Two people, my husband and I
5. Monthly housing costs are 25% of take home monthly income.
My all in housing costs: $2500
Own (owe $22,400 and we will be free and clear homeowners. well…other than insurance, upkeep, and taxes!)
Baltimore County, MD
Me, Husband, and two silly dogs
31% of our take home pay goes to housing
1. Monthly costs ($810 mortgage, utilities range from 140-240)
2. Own
3. Right outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
4. Me, my two children
5. Monthly housing costs are 35% of my take home pay. (YIKES!!)
1. All in – $1,614 (mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities and putting money aside into a home repair fund)
2. Owner (more like borrower right now though)
3. Manitoba, Canada
4. Me and my husband
5. About 30%
1. All in – $1650 (rent, utilities) soon to be adding renters insurance
2. Renter
3. San Diego, CA
4. My wife and I
5. 30%
1. All in – $1900 – although this varies by $100 depending on the season for utilities
2. Own
3. Further outside Seattle (North Bend)
4. Fiance and I
5. 28%
1. Roughly 2970 – (P&I (15 year), Property Taxes, Utilities, Driveway maintenance (shared among 4 homes), garbage, insurance)
2. Owner
3. Redmond Area, WA
4. 6 people (wife and soon to be 4 kids)
5. About 40% (15% of that is everything else)
All in, I guessed at $5,000+. We just bought so we haven’t had a real month of bills yet and I am hoping that we can keep in under that, even down to $4,999.99 would be nice 😉
Owner
Orange County, CA
2 adults and 3.75 kids
I’m definitely an outlier here as I’m in a unique situation. I have a house with a mortgage in a Detroit suburb but it is being rented out and the rent more than covers the mortgage payment with taxes and insurance. For my current housing:
Beijing, China
All-in is ~$225/mo (total rent is $1000/mo and my bf pays $800 of it)
1) $903 per month! $780 in rent, approx. $110 for utilities, and $13 for renter’s insurance.
2) Renter
3) Suburb of Cleveland, OH
4) 2 adults
5) Husband is a car dealer, so commission is different each month. However, based on my income and his base pay — about 22% pretending he doesn’t make commission and I don’t make money freelancing.
1) $1255 rent, appx. $250/month for utilities – depends on the season and $30 renter’s insurance. I don’t have cable, home phone and cell phone bills are @ $285
2) Renter
3) house in a decent neighborhood in Sacramento, CA
4) 4 adults, 3 are early 20’s kids in college plus 6 cats and 1 dog..
5) 34%
1. All in housing: $3056 ($1414 Mortgage, $1000 extra mortgage payment, $417 property tax, $75 gardener, $150 utilities). I have absolutely no idea how much my husband paid for home insurance or utilities. so the $150/month utilities is wild guess.
2. Own
3. Northern CA. Just outside of San Jose, CA
4. Just me and my husband
5. 36% (first time I’m counting this! I never thought it was that much.)
I like this poll Ninja, I always thought I’m good with finances but apparently I’m very ignorant about housing cost. Now I have to hunt for home insurance paper to make sure we have and paid for one.
1. All in housing: just under 1500, but I chose the 1500-2000 range because I also included car insurance, internet/phone/tv, cell phone, and the repayment on a personal loan toward the down payment to capture all my monthly obligations. All THOSE thrown in = ~1650 or so per month. (some bills are quarterly)
2. Pay a mortgage (will own in another 350 or so months)
3. Portland OR
4. One-person household
5. 40-45% of take-home depending on the numbers I run.
Thank you for asking for the geographic and household info!
I put someone else covers my housing costs, but that might be misleading. I’ve set up my housing situation so it is covered by the renters I have in different properties. My mortgage, my taxes, utilities and all my costs are covered by the rent paid plus a nice margin. It’s a great way to go if you can put it together properly.
Our housing costs:
1. PITI – $425/mo
2. utilities – (water = $55, power = $140)
—————-
$620/mo
We have a 3 person household (2 adults, 1 1yr old).
We own our home. – 1150 sqft.
Our take home pay is about $7200/mo.
These figures put our housing cost at 8.61% of our take home pay.
We live in the gulf south.
Thanks for the poll! Very interesting.
1. My all in housing costs: $2,270
2. Owner
3. SF Bay Area (North Bay to be more specific)
4. My mom, auntie, brother, and me 🙂
5. 51.74% of my take home pay goes to housing – YIKES!
My all in housing costs: $1,685 (includes mortgage payment, property taxes, HOA dues, internet, condo insurance, and electricity, which I averaged the electricity between summer and winter)
Own a condo, about 27 years left on the mortgage right now
In a major city
Just me
Between 20-25% of my net pay goes to housing (net pay = direct deposit with HSA and 401(k) contributions added back in)
We own our home, $780 mortgage, insurance fees. Including extra principal payment of $50, more once other debts are paid off, $195 HOA, $75 utilities. This is 29% of our take home pay.
2 adults, 900 sq ft home in Wine Country, California.
1. $994 including rent, renter’s ins, water, electric, and cable/internet
2. Renter
3. NC
4. 2 adults
5. 18.65%
I love these polls and looking at other people’s numbers.
I put us in the 1500 to 2000 group but we sit at about 1500 mostly.
Mortgage is 1240, includes garbage, sewer, prop taxes and homeowners ins
Water is 100 every other month
Utilities, gas and elec are about 160 to 180 a month
We live near Madison, WI
Our home is 1200 sq ft for a family of 5, 3 bedrm, 1 bath
Our living costs take up almost 50% of my husbands take home pay after taxes and health ins.
But, before we bought our home, our apartment of lesser size and much less desirable area cost us 1140 a month, so our home is worth it.
1. My all in housing costs: $600
2. Renter
3. Southeastern CT
4. Me, hubby, a dog, and three cats
5. 15% of take-home pay
Currently living in basement apartment at mother’s and paying rent, but going to purchase a home soon (still looking) and roughly…with all housing expenses included will be $1500 monthly, or almost 38% of take home pay). The taxes and insurance are expensive in CT.
1. Around $600 for everything ( PITI, after subtracting the rent we get for the other side of our duplex and splitting it between my boyfriend and myself, is $350. We pay Heat and Hot Water for the rental half as well as our own, and have been stashing a bit to pay for potential repairs as well so I’m rounding it up.)
2. Owner and landlord
3. Northern New England
4. Myself and my boyfriend and our dog and two cats, plus some of the utilities for our tenant
5. Roughly 21% of my take home goes to living expenses
1. Our house is paid off but we pay almost $1000 a month in property taxes and insurance.
Gas/electric is usually between 200-300 per month.
Cable/internet/phone is 170 a month.
Water is 30 a month.
Total–1500
2. Owner
3. Outside of Cleveland, Ohio
4. Me and my husband and 17 month old daughter. 1 dog/1 cat
5. 32% of take home pay.
Property taxes are crazy expensive where we live. We pay roughly 9000 a year here!
1. 2055 total including mortgage, tax/ins, hoa, water, gas/electric and cable/phone/internet bundle
2. Own
3. Suburb north of Dallas.. DFW metroplex is basically one huge group of suburbs
4. Me, hubby, 2 kids, 1 fat black lab
5 . 22.64 of net income, 15% of gross
1) Rent, hydro, cable/internet: $915
2) Rent
3) Vancouver, BC
4) Just me
5) 33.33% of net pay goes to housing
1. Under $1500 per month because I downsized 15+ years ago.
2. Owner
3. Los Angeles
4. Wife and I
5. Under 15%
$983 PITI + ~$200/mo for utilities
Western Wisconsin, Twin Cities suburb
In the process of refinancing to 15 year mortgage. New numbers will be
~$1,200 PITI + ~$200/mo for utilities
1. Our all in expenses are $2340- 2185 for PITI, 40 for garbage, 40 for water, 75 for gas and electric (admittedly, utilities go up in winter since we like to keep our house WARM after our last freezing rental)
2. Own
3. SF Bay Area (east bay)
4. Just the hubby and myself- though we bought a house large enough to accommodate a family should we decide to have children in the future
5. Yikes- 43% of our take home. This will go down at the end of summer, when we are refinancing to get into a conventional mortgage (bought FHA) and will be saving almost 300 a month in PMI.
Wish we could have bought with 20% down, but at these housing prices (and rental prices) it wasn’t happening. Luckily, the house appraised for 25k more than the purchase price when we bought it in December and we are just about at the 20% LTV now.
1. My all in housing costs: $816 per month
2. Renter
3. Suburb in Wisconsin
4. Me and my husband + 2 cats
5. 8% of our take home pay goes to housing (this was the 2012 figure, but we moved into a cheaper place and got raises in 2013 so the % should go down)
Currently paying @2600 for PITI plus tax and insurance — tax is about $1000/month of that. We are overpaying our mortgage some, but I didn’t count utilities and upkeep.
We own (obviously). Me, my husband, and 2 kids (plus one elderly cat.) Upstate NY, where costs aren’t bad but homeowners’ taxes are absurdly high.
Works out to be ~28% of take-home pay, but would be less if we weren’t accelerating payments.
1. All in costs – $300ish/month (utilities, taxes and insurance)
2. Owner
3. Central Michigan
4. Me, my wife, and two cats
5. Under 5% of our take home pay
1. All in costs – about 1650 for mortgage, taxes, HOA, utilities and insurance – plus an addition $720/month in additional mortgage principal, so about $2370.
2. owner
3. northern california, South Bay Area
4. me
5. 31.5% of net, not including additional principal. With additional principal, I’m up at 45% of net, which I’m okay with, because my plan is to pay my mortgage off in 11 years instead of 30, and save ridiculous amounts of interest
$575 a month PITI for a 4-bd; 2-ba farm house 25 miles “from town” in Tennessee. 3 people, 3 dogs, 4 cats and a rabbit live here. It’s about 15% of our income, I think.
$542, which is 14.5% of take home.
I own my home, and my sister rents a room from me. Her rent and her half of utilities are subtracted from my total monthly costs, which results in $542/mth. I live in rural Maryland.
My all in housing costs: $1,435 ($1293 rent for 1BR w/Den apartment, which is low in this area)
Virginia side of DC Metropolitan area
Me and my 6-year-old
50.556% of my take home pay goes to housing
I posted my reply and then read everyone else’s answers. My housing is by far the highest compared to everyone else except one person!
Extremely high cost of housing area combined with only one income (no child support) is killing me! I’m jealous of everyone with a less than 40% housing cost.
$3200
30% of after tax income
Own our home in downtown Toronto
Hi
I rent and the price is $1030 which includes rent, electric, heat and underground parking.
This is 29% of my net income. It is just me and I live in the West Hills of Portland. Towards the end of June, I will be moving to a less expensive apartment of $759 which will include everything and will be around 21% so that I can start paying OFF my student loans rather than just paying them
Forgot renters insurance which I pay twice a year @ $225 every 6 months. Bith are veryppopular areas and considered great steals.
1. $1,883
2. Rent
3. CT (close to NY border)
4. 2 adults, 2 kids
5. 21%
1. Housing costs are $900 for mortgage and about $600 for water and electric. Old house, big family, costs add up fast!
2. Own
3. Central SC
4. 7 people- I know, crazy! 2 adults- still madly in lerv, 5 FREAKING KIDS- I have no idea how to make it stop!
5. Roughly 25%
1. $450 (rent a furnished room out of someone’s house)
2. Rent
3. Greater Seattle area
4. just me
5. 19. 5% of take home pay
1) I live with a roommate, but I am listing what I personally pay.
Rent: $690.50, Utility Fees: $11, Cable & Internet: $40, Electricity: between $35-100
Total: $776.50-$841.50
2) Renter
3) Milwaukee, WI – great city & cost of living
4) Just me 🙂
5) 30.63%-33.19% of my takehome pay
I’d love to reduce that percentage, so my goals this year are to get a raise and increase my side income. Admittedly my housing costs could be significantly cheaper for my area, however, I live VERY close to work (<5 min walking distance) and therefore, do not own a car. I consider higher rent a positive tradeoff for not having car payments or monthly parking payments (which would be approx. $100/a month). I used to have cheaper rent living alone in a VERY small studio, but my quality of life is definitely much better where I'm living now. (Read: I was miserable.)
Love these polls – please keep them up. It's fun to read about other people 🙂
1. My all in housing costs: 2100NT / month (about 70 USD/month plus 10 USD for utilities every 2 months)**
2. Renter
3. Hsinchu County, Taiwan
4. Just me
5. about 12%
** The actual rent is higher, but it’s subsidized by my employer and I receive a monthly housing bonus. The housing bonus is 5000NT but I’m not sure what amount is subsidized. Similar apartments in the area go for any where from 8,000 – 10,000NT