What % of take-home for rent?

[minniecarousel]

The cost of living here in the SF Bay Area is very high. I'd be interested in knowing what people (especially single people living alone) pay for rent. DS needs to move out of our home (it's time!) but none of his friends are looking for a roommate, so he wants to get an apt on his own. He thinks that just under half of his take home pay is just fine (he has no car payment). That seems like a lot to us, but he's going to do it in a few months (lots of apts available right now)
Can anyone offer any info?

 

[BedKnobbery2]

I don't rent, but pay a mortgage, property taxes and insurance, and that totals about 50% of my income. I don't live alone, but am the only adult in the house (2 kids & 3 cats).

I'm ammending this to say that my mortgage, alone, is approximately 33% of my income; when you add in my property taxes, it bumps it up to the 50% mark. The cost of insurance is practically negligible in comparison (the cost for 1 year's insurance is approximately 1/3 of one month's mortgage payment.)

 

[helenabear]

I am married, but for a short while I was paying rent for an apartment before I got married... I was paying about 28% of my take home salary for it. Now married and in a how we pay about 30% of take home for the house. I could afford the house on my own and it would be just a hair over 50% of my take home. I wouldn't have much money for much other than my house, car, student loan, utilities and food though.

 

[Kermit]

I listen to Dave Ramsey, a financial advisor, on the radio, and he recommends that your mortgage be no more than 25% of your take-home pay. I don't know how that varies for rent. I'd guess it would be okay to spend a little more on rent, since you don't have to pay property taxes and renting is just more expensive anyway. 50% sounds really high to me. You'll probably have to cosign for him to get approved.

 

[CarolA]

Dave Ramsey lives in NASHVILLE! It would be very easy here to get rent in the 25% of most peoples incomes. Lots of rental property at lots of rates.

That is NOT true in San Francisco which has one of the HIGHEST housing costs in the country. I personally would not spend 50% on rent, but your son may not have a choice.

 

[CBRorBust]

That is NOT true in San Francisco which has one of the HIGHEST housing costs in the country.

WOW!!!!

You weren't kidding, I looked on apartments.com to see what the going rate for a 1 bedroom/ 1 bathroom in San Fran would be...YIKES!

 

[katerkat]

I spent about 35% of my take home on a 1-bed, 1-bath apt, first job and apartment out of college. And I had no car payment. I didn't save all that much that year!

 

[Beauty]

We spend about 30% on our mortgage....but of course we are married and have a child...

I can tell you though that here in hell...uh-sorry I mean Mississippi one bedroom apartments in DECENT neighborhoods can go from anywhere near the $400 range (and thats if you are SUPER lucky) and up with a good avg. being around $550-$600.

 

[DMickey28]

I spent 43% of my income in MA right out of college..... Now in Indiana we spend 16% on rent

 

[nativetxn]

My son pays about 25% of his take home pay for rent but I think that Houston has much lower rents than SF

 

[Lisa F]

Houston definately has lower housing costs than SF. We used to live in Houston (actually outside of houston but less than a half hour to downtown) and we bought a 2600 sq ft, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house for exactly half of what we are looking to spend on a 3 bedroom, 1.1 bath house of around 1800 sq ft in a town that is 1.5 hours by car, 1:15 by train from NYC. It seems that equivalent houses in SF cost 1.5-2 times what they cost in the metro NYC area. Of course that's for buying a house, not renting, but I think the two are somewhat related.

 

[DocRafiki]

Just did the math... last year I spent 19% of take-home pay on rent, and I'm single w/4 pets (3/2/1 house). I also had no car payment, but have a large student loan debt. Even I have thought about getting a roommate. I would definitely want a roommate if I had to pay 50% of my pay to live alone.

I would show him some tables showing how much money he could have by retirement if he started saving just a little now. That might encourage him to find a roommate.

I also think that more important than knowing the %age is making a detailed budget. He might think twice when he sees he has $10 left over each month to spend on leisure.

 

[tiggerlover]

Not single here, but wanted to chime in. Up until 3 months ago we lived only on DH's income (2 adults, 1 child) and our rent was 20% of DH's income. We rent a 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 4-level townhouse. Add another 7% to that and that covers our insurance.

50% does seem like a lot of money, however, I know California is VERY expensive and that may be the route he has to go.

 

[TIGGERSMOM]

SF is probably more like Boston - outrageaous rents and they keep going up.

50% is a bit high - could he find a smaller space for less. Or maybe try a roommate matching service.

 

[aprilgail2]

I don't know if I would go as high as 50 percent but even here on Long Island apartmetns are expensive, unless you want to live in a nillegal one or someones basement. My brother just rented in a complex a one bedroom and it was 1200 a month.

 

[Serena]

I don't know about rent, but my mortgage is 25%.

 

[my3kids]

There was a person who posted this on biddingfortravel.com. He has actually lived through Priceline in hotels for 2 years in San Francisco. He gets Marriotts, Hyatts, etc. for some really low price, and it comes out cheaper than renting an apartment! Sometimes places he stays include a free breakfast, and I think he said he'd be eating dinner out anyway. No need to purchase tolietries, has maid service. I found it amazing. I'll see if I can find his story.

 

[my3kids]

http://pub210.ezboard.com/fpricelin...erannouncements.showMessage?topicID=673.topic

This is the Priceline guy. It has been one year, not 2 years as listed above. Sorry about that.

 

[ead79]

My DH and I spend about 50% of our take-home pay on rent. Unfortunately, it's pretty costly to live around here. At least we save money on gas (I have a 5 mile commute to work, WOO HOO).

 

[dcgrumpy]

With me on maternity leave our rent is about 36% of our take home pay. Once I go back full time it will be 20%. BTW we have 2 kids