Good salary

[jsmith]

we live in the rocky mountain west-and its moderately costly-more than the south but less than the coasts-average 3bd/2ba 2500sf house will run about 275K here-50K is not adequate for a mortgage and car payments here unless you are in the military and recieving housing allowance.

 

[Colleen27]

Well, I was going to say 50K is good money here, but now I'm just at the previous poster's description of an average house. 50K certainly won't get you 2500+ sq ft home in a good area comfortably, but there aren't many houses that size around to begin with since our town is older without space for new subs. 50K is plenty to have a more modest 1500-1800 sq ft 3/2 home, a decent car, some savings, and some extras.

 

[Anne34]

I'm in one of those "high cost of living areas" . I'm 9 miles outside of Philly in NJ so I think a family of 4 making 150-175K is pretty middle class.

We live in the Chicago suburbs and I would agree with this. It would be hard to have a nice house (not huge) in a good area without a salary in this range.

Again, it is all relative....my family lives a few hours away and this would make us really rich in that area!

 

[flying_babyb]

14400 a year here.

 

[cats mom]

The most recent numbers I could find show the median household income in our zip code at $112,998

And the median priced home is still hovering right around 1/2 million dollars.

I'd say if you want to buy anything other than a condo, you'd better be making well over that median number.

 

[pianoronni37]

DH and I live in Upstate NY. I guess it's a fairly low-to-mid-income area.

I make about $30k (sales = if commissions are where they should be) and DH makes about $32k (retail management). We do fine (if it weren't for the horrible credit card debt!) - we're only in a 1 br apartment at the moment, but the average for homes in nice neighborhoods around here are $100k for a 3br 2bath with some land.

I will be getting a teaching gig in a few years, once school is finished, and at that point I'll be making anywhere from $32k-$42k as a starting teacher.

I'd say anywhere from $50k-$75k would be fine living in the Upstate NY area.

 

[Cruise]

I picked High cost - > $200K


We don't make nearly that combined! I think we are poor, though. We can't afford to buy a house within an hour's drive of our work location.

But, I would LOVE to make what I make (me alone) in some of you areas! I'd be rich, rich I tell you!

Same...we're also in SoCal and even though DH makes more money than most of his friends, it still takes a second full-time salary to even start considering buying a house around here.

For comparison's sake - we own two properties back east (a 3BR and a 2BR) that we rent out. Paying the mortgage on both of those combined is less per month than what we pay here to rent a 2 BR apartment per month.

 

[Tweevil]

I am a poor single chick living in NJ - even though what I make would seem to be ok, it is just enough to pay mortgage and insurance. That' all....

 

[Mommy2JulietJocelyn]

we live about 30 minutes out from Philly in South Jersey. I am a nurse and DH is in the concrete business, last year we made about 96k combined - 2/3 was me, this year I have no idea what we will be - he has been on unemployment since February. Plus I always feel like we are doing fine. My parents on the other hand own their own business and for the most part had their house paid off until they borrowed a little to add on - my dad told me they only cleared 13k last year.

 

[1PrincessMomma1]

We're tri State area and the average income in our town is 96,000 anything under 150,000 and you're struggling. COL is very high. the national COL index is 100 we're at 136 last I checked.

 

[cltk78]

We live in NC. The median household income is around $70K for our town, and the median house value is around $194K. I'm a SAHM, and DH makes $73K. We bought our 3br 2ba house in 2007 for $166K.

 

[Mililani Mouser]

The average home costs here is $500k (average 1200-1500 sq foot house with 3000-4000 sq foot lot). We make over $100k combined, but we have a mortgage and kids in private school because the public school system here is one of the worst in the nation. We don't have much left at the end of the month.

 

[dvcgirl]

We're tri State area and the average income in our town is 96,000 anything under 150,000 and you're struggling. COL is very high. the national COL index is 100 we're at 136 last I checked.

Yep, we're in eastern Monmouth County NJ.....100K is okay if you're older and own your home outright, but otherwise you're solidly middle class making 100K, and possibly struggling if you have a mortgage.

My 25 year old cousin and his 22 year old girlfriend make about 50-60K combined....they rent, and they're barely making it. Of course, they each have a car payment...and so that certainly doesn't help. In my little town, even to rent, a decent one bedroom is $1,200, a two bedroom $1,800 and a house is over 2K a month....easy.

 

[wall*e2008]

Interesting map

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA_highest_income_counties_median.PNG

 

[Ava]

I live in Brooklyn, and voted "high cost - > 200K."

I'm not sure what the average salary is here, but I feel like we could be very comfortable with 200K.

 

[RadioFanatic]

DH and I live in Upstate NY. I guess it's a fairly low-to-mid-income area.

I make about $30k (sales = if commissions are where they should be) and DH makes about $32k (retail management). We do fine (if it weren't for the horrible credit card debt!) - we're only in a 1 br apartment at the moment, but the average for homes in nice neighborhoods around here are $100k for a 3br 2bath with some land.

I will be getting a teaching gig in a few years, once school is finished, and at that point I'll be making anywhere from $32k-$42k as a starting teacher.

I'd say anywhere from $50k-$75k would be fine living in the Upstate NY area.

Depends on where you live in Upstate NY. I live in Upstate NY and the homes here are $200,000+ for the same amount of home. So for us, I think you need to earn at least $150,000 as a family to get by.

 

[Chicago526]

I'm in the Chicago area. DH and I make $100k combined and I think for around here that's solid middle class. Modest home, modest cars, occasional vacation and splurge, retirement savings, charitable donations. We aren't living the high life but we have absolutely nothing to complain about, either.

 

[TiredX2]

We're tri State area and the average income in our town is 96,000 anything under 150,000 and you're struggling. COL is very high. the national COL index is 100 we're at 136 last I checked.

This really makes me wonder what people define as good/struggling. Our COL is 147 and we make well, well, well under $150K but I don't think we are "struggling." Our housing is at 225, in fact, and we even own a home. We are under the median income of our area, though, and our house is well, well, well under the average though.

 

[kilee]

We are making mid $50's and I say we are smack dab middle income for our area. This side of NY state, in my town, you can still get a really nice house for $100-120,000. Next town over even large, new builds are only in the upper $100,000's.

We still live almost paycheck to paycheck though. So, another $1200 a yr- in this area and we'd be doing fantastic. I make good money at my job- dh not so much so-- he's had to switch careers in the last 3 yrs and he's making 1/4th of what he used to.

 

[carj]

Where did you find the COL index. I googled but I am not finding it for our area. We live outside of Fort Worth, Texas. I think that we are in a fairly low COL.

I am just curious how to figure that out. Thanks!