Cost of Living/Salary
Jan 10th 2013, 9:46 am
#61
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,591
Re: Cost of Living/Salary
to you too.How can you possibly think you need $500,000 pa to live in LA?
My husband earns a LOT less than that, we have a big mortgage, one child in college and the other a teenager, I don't work and we can still fulfil his criteria, I could even shop in Whole Foods if I wanted to.
* More information about the cost of housing in your area, along with some description of the size and age of the houses and the type of neighborhood would be useful, because everything I have read over the past few years is that modern 4 bed, double garage, houses have commonly been selling for upto $1million in the greater LA area, and that buying in the $200-$300k range meant significant compromises on location (which I specifically referred to, citing SoS's earlier post), size, age, quality, or neighborhood.
Jan 10th 2013, 10:16 am
#62
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: Cost of Living/Salary
Thank you, no offence was intended but now you have at least given a partial rebuttal*. Dismissing the earlier post which appeared well thought out and presented as "ridiculous" was, .... er, ...... ridiculous!
* More information about the cost of housing in your area, along with some description of the size and age of the houses and the type of neighborhood would be useful, because everything I have read over the past few years is that modern 4 bed, double garage, houses have commonly been selling for upto $1million in the greater LA area, and that buying in the $200-$300k range meant significant compromises on location (which I specifically referred to, citing SoS's earlier post), size, age, quality, or neighborhood.
* More information about the cost of housing in your area, along with some description of the size and age of the houses and the type of neighborhood would be useful, because everything I have read over the past few years is that modern 4 bed, double garage, houses have commonly been selling for upto $1million in the greater LA area, and that buying in the $200-$300k range meant significant compromises on location (which I specifically referred to, citing SoS's earlier post), size, age, quality, or neighborhood.
Say you go for a house around $1 million and put 20% down, your mortgage will be about $3,600 per month, then you add property taxes and insurance, it's not cheap but you can do it on a lot less than a $500,000 salary. This is for the picket-fence type location Hiro mentioned. Places like Bel-Air, Westwood or Santa Monica come in higher.
Jan 10th 2013, 10:30 am
#63
Forum Regular
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 131
Re: Cost of Living/Salary
As a broad brush summary I'd agree. I'm sure some would agree about some of your line items, and as SultanofSwing noted if you can live and work in the outer suburbs you can live comfortably on a lot less, and especially if you've owned you home for 15 years or more (or owned previous homes and rolled a lot of equity in your home). And in some cities you could argue about $10k-$20k in annual income, but overall a reasonable summary if you only have a couple of hundred words.
And dismissing it as "ridiculous" is unwarranted. Anyone who doesn't agree be more specific about how, and/ or by how much, they disagree.
And dismissing it as "ridiculous" is unwarranted. Anyone who doesn't agree be more specific about how, and/ or by how much, they disagree.
Jan 10th 2013, 10:52 am
#64
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Location: Temecula, CA
Posts: 4,759
Re: Cost of Living/Salary
LA is way out of proportion. It should really swap places with SF (the rest of the Bay Area could probably stay where it is). It is easy to get those type of places in the SoCal area in the $600-$700K range. Groceries are also significantly cheaper (than NYC and SF) in SoCal.
(Cue unsubtle comments about Victorville...)
Jan 10th 2013, 10:55 am
#65
I have a comma problem
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)
Posts: 49,598
Re: Cost of Living/Salary
For what it's worth, I didn't compromise on location. We chose to live here, near where my wife few up and where we had local jobs and we benefit from the lower cost of living this allows.
I don't feel an attraction to live in the big city (unless it's London
) and I don't really care for Chicago anyway. We have the benefit of owning a newish (2000) build house in an older, established neighbourhood, so we won't have the encroachment of the McMansions that one find in some suburban areas.
It does help to be tight like me, though
I don't feel an attraction to live in the big city (unless it's London
) and I don't really care for Chicago anyway. We have the benefit of owning a newish (2000) build house in an older, established neighbourhood, so we won't have the encroachment of the McMansions that one find in some suburban areas.It does help to be tight like me, though
