Community Chat

[homedecor1]

Someone miscalculated NJ😮.  The median home is $300-450,000 in our area & taxes are unbelievable.  As for salary, even that seems low compared to the cost of living.

[shoekitty]

The average home in silicon valley and the surrounding bedroom communities  (which I live in) is 700,000 , actually more....I was low balling it.  That doesn't include Bay Area where a 2 bedroom/1 bath older home can run a million to 3 million, depending on area.  No way would a salary of 120,000 make it.  We almost own our home, so I cant imagine buying our home back.  I wouldn't buy it back at that price, to be blunt, lol! I know there are a lot of options, and they juggle payments for homebuyers, but the average mortgage payment if one buy their home now, I hear is at least 3200 after down payment

it costs  at least 3,000 to rent a small home  around here.

i think what they do to get these numbers,is average.  They take all the home sales in say California. Then divide the total by number of homes sold

They come up with average home price.  Then, they figure what you need to buy that home.  The total sales of homes in California would include foreclosures, cabins, mobile homes, and include all those areas that do have very low cost housing.

[Carmie]

How old is that map?

The salary stated on the map for Pennsylvania would not even be enough to buy a used mobile home here.

[shoekitty]

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@september wrote:

It doesn't surprise me to see my state coming in 2nd (Hawaii is no 1), but I was surprised to see CO in  3rd place.  

My son lives there and claims it's so much more affordable than CA!   Maybe by a hair???

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Shoekitty said

before my husband retired the end of last year the company decided to move his dept to Colorado.  If you were within a couple years of retiring, you could stay until retirement,.  Other than that everyone has to relocate.  My husband said those that were transferring said they were excited about home prices!!  They said they could buy two for the price one here.  But you are talking about those who live in and around Silicon Valley.  Even our home would sell for 150-200,000 more just 30 miles north of us.  I don't know how we all do ot!!!   I think back to 1967 when I bought my first home, we bought an older home then.  Lol. 15,000 bucks, and they threw in a house of furniture cause we were young. Lol. 119@ month with insurance, and we could hardly sleep for a few months figuring how we would make it.  Lol. We moved from a furnished apartment that was bleeding us at 99@ month.  

[riley1]

I don't agree with the figures for NJ 

[151949]

Charts like this are ridiculous - it doesn't say anything about the interest rate - a very important factor when getting a mortgage.

I certainly don't have an income anywhere near what it says for Florida but I own a home here.

It also doesn't address living rural vs living in a city - which are vastly different money wise.

[Cumbercookie13]

I live in Maryland, and real estate here is pretty high. Still not as astronomical as California, but this is not the state to come to if you're at the poverty level and barely making it. And there are taxes galore here. The unofficial state motto is "If we can dream it, we can tax it." 

[CelticCrafter]

Neither do I @riley1. 

I'm really out of touch with salaries and home prices but after thinking about it, there's no way someone making that salary would be able to afford anything other than a falling down shack.  

[CAMOGIRL]

Seriously, no.

[Trinity11]

Maybe in 1990 that salary would have been OK but certainly not today. New York ...even if you own your own home and just pay School and General taxes you need a larger salary than $91,000 ...or at least if you want to live comfortably.