On: Tech Jobs Lead to the Middle Class, But Not for the Masses

[aey]

At 60k a year, $1k a month is totally fine for a house. At that salary with a mortgage I would guess that you pay almost no tax.

Areas with cheaper housing typically don’t have $30/hour nannies.

The risks are that the house price and the job are usually super correlated.

[jstewartmobile → aey]

No need to guess. In most states, unless you're retired, the property tax is the property tax.

I sold real estate in Alabama (with some of the lowest property taxes in the country) 15 years ago. Even back then, on $230k, you'd be looking at around $1500/mo at today's rates, ~$1500/yr property tax, ~$2000/yr homeowner's insurance.

Unless a person is 100% OK with being a wage-slave, cracking a $21,500 nut every year--when you've only got $60k/yr pre-tax--is not a good situation.

[harryh → jstewartmobile]

For a 230k loan (which means zero down payment which is unusual) to be $1500/mo you're talking about 6.8% interest. Rates are not that high on a 30 year mortgage.

[jstewartmobile → harryh]

My bad. Used online mortgage calculator. Didn't notice they were including estimate of taxes and homeowners in the monthly.

[wincy → harryh]

If you get a HUD loan and put under 10% down you’re going to get closer to $1500 a month payment due to PMI.