How much do you pay for housing?

[redstone]

Housing is usually one of the biggest expenses in everyone's life. But there is so much variation between regions that I'm curious about how much everyone here pays for housing.

This is somewhat personal data, so you can share one of the following:

• The exact amount you pay, or
• Your housing cost as a percentage of your gross income

Also, it would be cool if you can share details like what city you live in and how big of a house/apartment you're paying for as well.

I live in Irvine California and my one bedroom apartment's monthly rent is $1,540.

[Xin Lu]

I live in San Mateo, CA. My hubby and I rent a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo for about 1600 a month excluding the utilities. We use one of the bedrooms as an office (both of our computers are in here). It is about 12% of our gross income and 20% of our take home. The utilities are about 100 to 200 a month, depending on how cold it is. Our place is a bit over 1000 square feet, and it's a good size for us I think.

Irvine might be extra expensive because it is a college town. When I lived in Berkeley a similar 2 bedroom place is 2200 or so a month (and this was six years ago). Palo Alto is also pretty expensive because of Stanford University.

[Looby]

I live in Vancouver BC, my SO and I rent a one bed apartment for $900/month, utilities are between $40-50/month, I have no concept of square footage, but 2 computer areas and a crafting corner all fit in without taking over, but I wish my kitchen was a little bigger!
I think we have a good deal for the area we live, we're pretty central.

[Kathryn]

We live in the Wash. DC area and are closing this week on a refi that is dropping our interest rate and rolling in the home equity loan we used to buy a little vacation cabin in PA. So, our mortgage for both properties will be about $1680, plus another ~$400/mo for taxes and insurance. If we bought the place today, we probably couldn't afford it--the mortgage on our 3-br, 1300 sq ft house alone would be about $3000/mo. Not as bad as the Bay area, but pretty bad. The 3 br apartment I used to live in in a different part of the area is now renting for $1350, but a similar sized apartment near where I live now would rent for $2000 or so, houses rent from $2,000-2,500 around here.

I'm from downstate (non-Chicago) Illinois, and when I moved out to DC, the prices were a real shock to the system! My sister's 3-br is a touch smaller than ours, but her mortgage is less than $500!

[Lynnae]

I live in Southern Oregon, and I rent an older 3 bedroom 1000 sq ft duplex for $670 a month. We have a really good deal though. Rent prices are rising quickly, and it's hard to find a 3 bedroom for less than $1000 a month anymore.

[Gootsy]

I'm in the low end of 20-40 percent. Renting a 3 bedroom house with 2 other people.

Location I'm in, as far as crime goes, is not terrible, but not the best either. So the costs are low even though it's very central. I don't really mind it since as long as I'm not stoopid, should be ok .

[purplefdu]

Maine-technically two bedroom top of a house. Rather small as its designed to be a summer house so you're not supposed to do much other than sleep and stay inside if its raining. We pay $550 because its owned by a family friend. About $40 in electric a month, propane can be between $50-200 a month depending on time of year (both heat and stove are propane). We have a decent sized yard, but no access t the attic or garage for storage and only part of the second bedroom. Its not a bad rate as its down a private road in a nice area, at least until the landlord's son moved in downstairs and has more than doubled the consumption and the landlord's father who technically owns he house let the kid move back in after he came up for vacation this summer. We're looking to renegotiate our lease to force split utility bills (instead of splitting one bill) and maybe paying more for usage of the entire spare bedroom.

My parents rent a one bedroom 20mins inland with more square feet but an old building for $720 including water/sewer, electric is about $40-50, not sure about heat as they have propane and oil for fuel between hot water heater/heater. They do have a good sized yard and a huge barn along with yard keeping responsibility for the building.

[rstlne]

I'm actually a bit surprised that the poll results peak in the 20-40% range. I pay 16% of gross income (less than 16% if I include investment income) for a 2-bedroom condo in northern New Jersey and I thought my rent was too high already.

[Jeremy]

If I count mortgage, insurance, and property taxes, it comes out to about 10% of our gross income. It is a 1,400 sq ft home and we live in a very rural area so the housing prices are relatively low to begin with.

[khorrell]

We live outside Annapolis, Maryland, and in between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland. Our mortgage payment (PITI) is about 20% of our gross income, but when you add in utilities and the home equity loan (used to renovate the kitchen) we are closer to 35%. Of course, we amortized the HEL over the shortest possible amount of time so the payments are huge! I would rather we hadn't gone the HEL route but the interest rate is quite low and the kitchen was rapidly becoming unusable. Besides, we are definitely saving money when I LOVE to cook in my kitchen and have no desire to go out. We went fairly economy on the renovation as well...it isn't as beautiful as some of my friends', but I won't be paying for it into my retirement either.