What's a well paying job?

[Stewie]

What do you consider being "well paid?"

[-King-]

How the hell do you struggle if you're making a quarter mil a year? Unless you're making it rain every night, in no city do you NEED a quarter mil to live.
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[Hydrae]

Originally Posted by shirtsleeve

http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_d...cost_in_the_US

average sale price over $300k. Still think you can buy a house on $50k?

average apt price for ONE bedroom 1600/month.

Thats 400/wk for a ONE bedroom. Thats $20k take home pay just to pay the rent in a one bedroom.

You asked what good pay was. Two income earners in Mass who are not legally married but live like they are, are popular here for financial and tax reasons.

Which just tells us that the average wage earning household in Mass can't afford to buy a house.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by -King-

How the hell do you struggle if you're making a quarter mil a year? Unless you're making it rain every night, in no city do you NEED a quarter mil to live.
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You don't. Either Gonzo or the driver was full of shit.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by -King-

How the hell do you struggle if you're making a quarter mil a year? Unless you're making it rain every night, in no city do you NEED a quarter mil to live.
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Not true. Latrell Sprewell could barely afford to feed his family out on the coast

[shirtsleeve]

Originally Posted by Hydrae

Which just tells us that the average wage earning household in Mass can't afford to buy a house.

No, like I said in an earlier post, many people are living together but are claiming separate households for economic and tax porposes. Like someone else pointed out correctly, taxes can hammer an income badly here.

And to the point the question was what is considered "good pay"? Not what the average person makes. Good pay in Mass is a real collective household income over $100k.

[CrazyPhuD]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

The median family income is $81,136 per year in SF. That's the entire family, so the average person makes significantly less than that.

See let me explain to you how the system works out here. There are two factors in play, first is a good fraction of people rent because they could never afford to buy. Additional if the apartment that you live in was built before 1979(most were), then that apartment is subject to a form of rent control. This form of rent control allows for a landlord to only raise rent a maximum percentage, based upon inflation, per year. For instance for 2011 the maximum rent increase was 0.1%. This rent control only applies when you have been living in a place. If an apartment is empty a landlord can set the price to market rates. So in effect you will have a large number of people that if they have lived in a location for say 10+ years, they will not be able to afford to move any place else because they could not afford the rent increase. You have people that may be paying a couple hundred dollars a month in rent in the same building as people who are paying 2-3K per month for a similar apartment. Rent control sounds nice because it prevents people from being evicted for being unable to pay market rates. BUT it also traps people in their current apartments and reduces available supply driving up the rates for what ever is left.

A similar issue happens in the housing market. In CA when you buy a place you are assessed property tax based upon the sales price + a maximum increase per year of 1-2% in assessed value. The intent is to prevent the little old lady from being forced to sell her house based upon being unable to pay the property taxes because the value of her property has appreciated too much. Again you will have people who are living in houses that are assessed at 100-200K that are actually worth 1million+. If they were to sell those houses they likely could not afford to buy a nearby house even with the proceeds because they could not afford the property taxes. Again you trap people(and families, because a house can be passed to a family member without triggering a reassessment) in their houses. Again all this does is remove potential housing inventory from the market and raises prices for what it left since supply is reduced.

Look these plans are great things if you already live their or already own property because you will pay below market rates for what you have. However if you are a recent transplant you are going to subsidize all of those old residents because you have to pay more for your housing because of artificially reduced supply. All of these policies really punish new residents which is part of the reason that housing/pricing is so high and yes if you are new you need every bit of that 'huge' income to be on an equal footing as someone who's been here 20+ years.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by BCD

I doubt there'd be much difference.

Whoa there. Are you familiar with St Joe or OP?
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[Hootie]

not gonna matter when the world ends in a year and a half

[BIG_DADDY]

I quit a job making 120k a year to risk it all and live on scraps. It looks like it just might be finally coming together too. That being said if I had to go back and work for somebody I would at least want the chance to make a 6 digit income.

[Dunit35]

Here in NW Oklahoma and a majority of OK regions. A married couple with no kids could get buy on $25-30K a year. A single person can get buy on 20-25K a year.

We only pay $400/month in rent for a 2 bedroom CH/A fenced yard, finished basement, garage in a nice neighborhood.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Hydrae

Which just tells us that the average wage earning household in Mass can't afford to buy a house.

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[Jenson71]

I would like an income of at least $63K, and I would consider that well-paying.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Dunit35

Here in NW Oklahoma and a majority of OK regions. A married couple with no kids could get buy on $25-30K a year. A single person can get buy on 20-25K a year.

We only pay $400/month in rent for a 2 bedroom CH/A fenced yard, finished basement, garage in a nice neighborhood.

That's just freaking crazy man, my apartment in KC costs $780/mo + $90 for 2 spots in the garage.

[CrazyPhuD]

Originally Posted by -King-

How the hell do you struggle if you're making a quarter mil a year? Unless you're making it rain every night, in no city do you NEED a quarter mil to live.
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Well while I agree there is no way he should be struggling, I wouldn't have been surprised to see that he was.

First big question is his 250K per year pre or post expenses? I know people who run cab companies and I believe that every cab is leased to the driver so if hat was pre expense, his take home pay could be alot less when you factor in lease costs, fuel costs etc.

Plus if he and his wife work two jobs do they have kids? If they do the child care costs could be extreme. Plus if they send their kids to private school instead of public(because the public schools blow), that would be another huge cost.

But the biggest reason I could see them struggling is if they did something dumb like too many people did. When the housing market was blowing up I knew too many people who felt like, hey I can be a real estate investor how can I lose money. If I buy these properties in the boonies and rent them out I can make crazy money. Well if they still own these properties and have had them foreclosed they could be paying quite a bit of money on worthless land.

So yes he shouldn't be struggling, but I can easily see how people would feel like they would be struggling. They are struggling because they choose to make their life so.

The sad thing is if you live in Manhattan that's a whole different set of insanity.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by CrazyPhuD

Well while I agree there is no way he should be struggling, I wouldn't have been surprised to see that he was.

First big question is his 250K per year pre or post expenses? I know people who run cab companies and I believe that every cab is leased to the driver so if hat was pre expense, his take home pay could be alot less when you factor in lease costs, fuel costs etc.

Plus if he and his wife work two jobs do they have kids? If they do the child care costs could be extreme. Plus if they send their kids to private school instead of public(because the public schools blow), that would be another huge cost.

But the biggest reason I could see them struggling is if they did something dumb like too many people did. When the housing market was blowing up I knew too many people who felt like, hey I can be a real estate investor how can I lose money. If I buy these properties in the boonies and rent them out I can make crazy money. Well if they still own these properties and have had them foreclosed they could be paying quite a bit of money on worthless land.

So yes he shouldn't be struggling, but I can easily see how people would feel like they would be struggling. They are struggling because they choose to make their life so.

The sad thing is if you live in Manhattan that's a whole different set of insanity.

So in other words, you're saying "you don't need $250k to live in SF."