Max "safe" rent?

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Where do you work, and where in nova are you looking? There are some lower rent places, but from what it sounds, you want to live right by the metro. Those are the prices you're quoting, anyway.

Yeah, I want to live on the orange line metro. I work in Rosslyn, looking at apartments nearby. Basically I see apartments in Rosslyn for $1600-$1800. With these apartments I wouldn't even need a car, I have even been thinking about selling it to save a little more on insurance, plus it would give me a big head start on savings.

Apartments further away, but still in Arlington, maybe as cheap as $1400- but then I absolutely have to keep my car, which is an extra $100/month for insurance and gas.

While apartments yet even further out in the suburbs, like Reston or Fairfax or Anandale or Woodbridge, I see places as cheap as $1200/month, but the extra commute time would cost me some $200~ in gas- so it seems like ultimately the more expensive places that are close would cost pretty close to the same after I add in car costs.



I don't really see whats so bad about spending half my take-home pay on rent. My other expenses are very minimal, my car will be paid off in two months so I won't even have a car payment, basically I'll just have rent and food, and the rest of my money can go to entertainment or savings.

If you want to live on the orange line, check out Ballston Commons near the mall, it's about a 10 min walk to the metro. $1250/mo or so for a 1br. Some of it is subsidized housing, but my buddy lived there and they're pretty spacious. EDIT: Err, I meant Ballston Park.

If not, rent a room in someone's house out by East Falls Church. Renting a room is cheap enough in the area (usually under $1k even in a ballston townhouse) if you can deal with random roommates.

 

[cherrytwist]

The wife and I are going from paying just over 1/4th of our net monthly income to paying just over half that (roughly 1/8th).

We plan on buying within the next couple of years.

Our mortgage will likely be somewhere in between.

While we didn't move for financial reasons, it sure will be nice writing the checks for half of what we were paying monthly.

 

[Legendary]

I make 3k a month - $750 for rent in NYC is difficult (or unsafe) so screw you Dave Ramsey!

 

[AMDZen]

My mortgage (with insurance, property taxes and everything else) is just over half, about 52% of my monthly take home and I do fine. I don't have to push pennies or live paycheck to paycheck or anything.

 

[ravana]

Also, if you wanna live on the orange line, I forget what the complex is (it's managed by Bozzuto) South of the Vienna Metro (west end of the Orange line).
A single bedroom is ~$1200 over there.

Vienna to Rosslyn is about 20 mins in the morning, walk from the apt to the station is about 10 mins.

Buddy of mine lived there for about a year before he moved and it was quite a nice place. PM me if you are interested in the name of the complex, I can check it out on my way to the gym tonight.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: AMDZen
My mortgage (with insurance, property taxes and everything else) is just over half, about 52% of my monthly take home and I do fine. I don't have to push pennies or live paycheck to paycheck or anything.

When calculating the percentage, are you suppose to include or exclude insurance, property tax, etc.?

MotionMan

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
If you want to live on the orange line, check out Ballston Commons near the mall, it's about a 10 min walk to the metro. $1250/mo or so for a 1br. Some of it is subsidized housing, but my buddy lived there and they're pretty spacious. EDIT: Err, I meant Ballston Park.

If not, rent a room in someone's house out by East Falls Church. Renting a room is cheap enough in the area (usually under $1k even in a ballston townhouse) if you can deal with random roommates.

Thanks for the suggestion, I found Ballston Park. They show around $1300-1400 for a one bedroom, about $300/month cheaper than anything decent in Rosslyn. Metro to work and back from there would be $66/month, sounds like it is worth checking out at least.

 

[Injury]

The less you can get away with paying and still feel comfortable in your living situation the better off you are. Unless you plan on renting for life, throwing lots of money into a rental situation just to have a nicer place is a complete waste.

 

[SunnyD]

The answer is "however much you feel comfortable paying". Unfortunately, I'm paying about 30% of my paycheck, but that does include heat and water.

 

[Tobolo]

Originally posted by: jaqie
The rule is an overgeneralization.

I live on disability which is $657 a month. The cheapest stable place I could find so far has been $400/mo utilities included. If you do the math, that leaves me with $257 for food, medicine disability doesn't cover, other needs. When everything is said and done I can barely keep everything paid, but it is possible provided there are no big surprises. It depends more on the financial lifestyle you need and your other expenses then anything else... by force of situation I have a very, very frugal lifestyle... using the bus to get everywhere I need, buying very inexpensive food and off-brand meds from out of country, et cetera.

I take it your disability is also guaranteed. Part of the 25% rule is that you should be able to manage in unforeseen circumstance. So if he lost his job and was at 75% he would be up the creek. You have more flexibility when its a sure thing.

 

[Ns1]

I'm running @ a whopping ~36% in LA

The wifey helps with household bills though.

 

[jaqie]

Originally posted by: Tobolo
I take it your disability is also guaranteed. Part of the 25% rule is that you should be able to manage in unforeseen circumstance. So if he lost his job and was at 75% he would be up the creek. You have more flexibility when its a sure thing.

It seems that not only did you miss my point, you missed my response to this above. I suggest actually reading my response to someone else saying the exact same thing several posts up.

 

[Mxylplyx]

If your paying 50% of your pay on an apartment, what is the point of even working? I would relocate. If I wanted to spend almost all my paycheck just to keep a roof over my had, I'd move to Mexico.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: sjwaste
If you want to live on the orange line, check out Ballston Commons near the mall, it's about a 10 min walk to the metro. $1250/mo or so for a 1br. Some of it is subsidized housing, but my buddy lived there and they're pretty spacious. EDIT: Err, I meant Ballston Park.

If not, rent a room in someone's house out by East Falls Church. Renting a room is cheap enough in the area (usually under $1k even in a ballston townhouse) if you can deal with random roommates.

Thanks for the suggestion, I found Ballston Park. They show around $1300-1400 for a one bedroom, about $300/month cheaper than anything decent in Rosslyn. Metro to work and back from there would be $66/month, sounds like it is worth checking out at least.

Like I said, it's not a bad place for the price. The 1br's are pretty large, just get one w/ a W/D in the unit. Some don't have it. Also, try to live as close to the corner of Quincy and Glebe as possible. The complex extends down Glebe past Pershing, and that strip mall there across from the CVS is always sort of crazy. The side by Quincy is quieter, closer to the metro, and I think the units on that end aren't the subsidized housing. My buddy lived there for almost 2 years and never had any problems, and I never felt unsafe when visiting.

I'm a bit closer to the ballston metro now in a midrise, but 1br's are closer to 1500+. Luckily I live w/ my fiancee, so it's not too expensive.

PM me if you need more info on the area.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Legendary
I make 3k a month - $750 for rent in NYC is difficult (or unsafe) so screw you Dave Ramsey!

Yeah... Dave Ramesy's advice simply doesn't work in areas like NYC, LA, or San Francisco where even the "cheap" apartments have four digit monthly rental bills. Maybe if you made $150K a year, but most folks aren't that lucky even in those high wage areas.

Then again, people who live in NYC or LA aren't really Dave Ramesy's core demographic. I see him being more popular with conservative churchgoing families living in Iowa than with single metrosexual bar-hoppers living in Manhattan

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
Live at home, save your money...

Your firends and co-worlers will laugh at you.

But when you move out to buy your own place, invite them to your opening home party and just play it cool.

Uh huh... except for the fact that I'm working on the west coast while my parents are on the east coast.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
If your paying 50% of your pay on an apartment, what is the point of even working? I would relocate. If I wanted to spend almost all my paycheck just to keep a roof over my had, I'd move to Mexico.

Whats a bigger benefit of working than having a nice place to live? What else would I spend my money on, junk I don't need?

 

[alkemyst]

really had nothing to do with rent as rent is short term.

In general, healthy financial living has no more than 48% of your gross locked up in debts though, the best is 38% and under.

The old style models were 28/36% for ratios (housing/total debt), these have been revised due to inflated markets and deflated paychecks.

 

[Turkish]

This is why DC/NoVA sucks. I was netting $4200/mo and sending a check worth almost half that to some smart lady who invested her money wisely some 30 years ago. The flat I rented was on 25th and M near Georgetown and was just a 20 minute walk from work so it was worth it: http://pics.bbzzdd.com/search.php?q=dc_home

Anyways, have you checked Alexandria/Crystal and Pentagon City? I used to live in Alexandria on Duke st. and paid about $1000 for a pretty spacious one bedroom flat in a 5 year old building.

 

[alkemyst]

also the "MAX" safe rent is a person by person determination anyway...there is only ratios for mortgage because you are playing with other's money.

 

[Jumpem]

My mortgage is 17% of net, 11% of gross.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: Turkish

Anyways, have you checked Alexandria/Crystal and Pentagon City? I used to live in Alexandria on Duke st. and paid about $1000 for a pretty spacious one bedroom flat in a 5 year old building.

Yeah I've looked, same story pretty much everywhere: you get what you pay for. I can save $300 buy going for a crappier place, or smaller place, or living 40 miles away.

Basically my options are:

A) live where I want with the quality I want and pay almost 50% of my paycheck for it

B) live some place "almost" as good, pay 40% of my paycheck on it, pay another 5% on gas/metro fare

C) live someplace cheap and far away, pay 35% of my paycheck, pay another 10% on gasoline

D) try to find a roommate where I want, pay 30%, deal with roommate issues


I think I'm going with "A", but I still have about a month to figure it out. If could find the perfect roommate who I could trust and didn't have any annoying habits "D" would be the best option, but I'm not counting on that.

 

[Phokus]

Are you guys talking about pre-tax or after-tax dollars when you use those 1/2, 1/3, 1/4th figures?

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: Legendary
I make 3k a month - $750 for rent in NYC is difficult (or unsafe) so screw you Dave Ramsey!

Yeah... Dave Ramesy's advice simply doesn't work in areas like NYC, LA, or San Francisco where even the "cheap" apartments have four digit monthly rental bills. Maybe if you made $150K a year, but most folks aren't that lucky even in those high wage areas.

Then again, people who live in NYC or LA aren't really Dave Ramesy's core demographic. I see him being more popular with conservative churchgoing families living in Iowa than with single metrosexual bar-hoppers living in Manhattan

It does work. You just need to get 2nd job or move to a cheaper place.

 

[Bignate603]

I've heard 30% including utilities at the very most.