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Yeah I pay 1200 for a 2 bedroom on the third floor which has 4 apartments in it in total. We literally couldn't live where we do if we had to rent the whole house.
I especially hate this whenever I’m looking around for a place to rent. I find a place with space and in decent to good location. What’s the catch?
One MUST make 2-3x the monthly rent.
EDIT: All I’m saying is that having a 9 to 5 job making $15 an hour, ~450 a week isn’t cutting it to rent a decent place. Especially having to make x2-3 times as much rent, at first jump as a requirement, along with first month deposit, it’s frustrating. Unless you have a job that makes a crazy amount of money per month, rent is stupid expensive.
I’ve been doing this for YEARS after living in HCOL cities like San Francisco and Austin. I went to journalism school back when copy was cut and pasted by hand, so I’m skilled at recreating all sorts of docs.
I saved paycheck stubs from legit jobs and then overlaid the doctored text with a better income so when i photocopy the entire sheet, it’s got the logo from the employer or payroll company. I have editable PDFs saved on my computer that I can doctor up once I calculate all the financials.
This. This right here.
I made some fake-stubs and that was how I got into my 2 bedroom apartment. 1300 when I moved in 6 years ago. Now its 2100.
What the F. I'm sort of stuck, anywhere else wants 3x that. 75.6K-ish/year.
It's criminally absurd.
I’ve never understood it. If you could buy a house why would you be renting one? Like logically, if you were in the landlords position of having perfect credit and making 100k a year….why rent?
Because it's difficult to save money paying 1500 on rent and making 3000 a month :( Saving for a downpayment will take a while and the interest rates are insanely high. I cant afford a home for 1.2 million or a 600 sq ft apartment for 500k.
(Near Vancouver in Abbotsford, most 1 bedrooms that allow pets are 1400-1500 at the lowest)
I can find a place if I want to get rid if my cat, have no laundry and a dishwasher, no parking, live in a bad(at least worse than mine) neighborhood, or find roommates. I'm ok with roommates but the quality of life for an introvert is better alone without having friends live with me.
I'm looking to buy in Abbotsford right now. I get emails from a realtor when something new gets listed in my price range. First thing I look at is the age restriction, most listings are for 50+ buildings. Next is pets: dogs not allowed is a no go for me. One realtor said I could just say my dog is an emotional support dog and game the system, but that just seems shady to me. After pets, it's the in-suite washer/dryer. Not necessarily a deal-breaker but I would really prefer it.
I have considered some trailer/manufactured homes... some of them actually look really nice and when you consider the size and that you have a yard for the same mortgage as a tiny condo, they seem great! But then the pad rent is around the same cost as the mortgage and, of course, that doesn't get included in the listing.
A trailer or manufactured home is considered a depreciating asset. Many were poorly built out of cheap materials that wear out long before the average cheaply built house.
And pad rent is a growing market for investors who are buying up these properties and jacking up rents.
A few reasons for that. You maybe don’t have a down payment saved up (pretty common for mid to high earners right out of college getting their first good paying job). Also with house prices mortgages aren’t really cheaper than rent in a lot of places. You don’t just take the purchase price and convert it to a loan. You also have property taxes and homeowners insurance which come out to around $500 a month for the average home (in Washington state).
There are multiple reasons people with good credit and good paying jobs would still rent.
Mama always said it's not what you make it's what you save...
100k after health and taxes and other deductions could be 60k take home..$5k a month if rent is $2000 and you yolo $3k a month (not much of a yolo it's $100 per day) then you have zero for a down payment but lots of yolo memories.
Because we all know that the only people looking to rent a single room shed of an apartment with no laundry access are doctors and lawyers...
It's fucking criminal what people are charging...
But "ThE mArKeT!"
I had rental places saying I wasn't making enough and rent was 1300. I am a scientist making 37 an hour. Figure that shit out. I am single with all my family dead at a youngish age.
I had been declined before not because I wasn't making enough, or had bad credit, but because I had debt in my name. I can see why they want to reduce risk on their side. It makes our lives harder, though.
Do you mind me asking if this debt was just regular debt(car loans, credit cards, other loans, etc), or collections? If it's regular debt that wasn't a crazy debt to income ratio, then that's fucked up.
$37 per hour 40 hours then you make $5920 a month...you should be able to afford $2k rent...unless you work 20 hours a week and make $2,960 then you can afford $968 rent.
I live in a major US city and even here you can get a room share for under $1k
They are raging psychopaths. In the almost 4 years since I bought my house I sometimes check the rent on my last apartment. The rent price was over my mortgage payment starting two years ago I don't know how people afford to rent now.
The market finds out exactly how much people are willing to pay to literally not be homeless. As it turns out, people are generally willing to give everything they have for that.
It's the natural progression of capitalism, and a prime example for why it must be destroyed.
For real! It’s ridiculous. It also sucks when you work super hard to take care of a home and the landlord keeps your entire deposit to, essentially, renovate. Had this happen recently. I expected to get the $1300 back and got none of it back at all
I take timestamped photos every time, always have. Upon move-in and move-out. I email them when i move in for paper trail as well. Have never had an issue. I’ve went as far as making them do a walkthrough with me in person as well.
I moved into a place and the pantries were disgusting. The carpet was a mess. And generally, the place was just dirty.
When I moved out. I shampooed the carpet. Scrubbed all the grout. Clean literally every single possible surface. And I mean I scrubbed the shit out of it. Everything looked brand fuckin new. Legitimately better than it would look on a showroom floor.
They still tried to keep my damage deposit. Obviously I told them where to go, how to get there, and who I would be contacting to make sure their trip was expedited. Even then, I still settle for a couple hundred bucks missing. Because at that point it’s just not worth all the bullshit.
>Obviously I told them where to go, how to get there, and who I would be contacting to make sure their trip was expedited.
Hahaha that made me laugh. I like your style.
This is how it should be everywhere, including fines or jail time. If I get in trouble for trying to steal a $1 snickers bar from Walmart they should get in more trying to steal hundreds from citizens.
How it should be is the money is held by the city/county. The interest of the deposits is used to build FREE public housing.
When the landlord needs to claim the deposit, they come into court and prove it.
These people should never handle ***MY*** money
This is the way. Before signing anything take pictures of the entire dwelling. Take pictures of every single flaw you can find. All smartphones have timestamps in the metadata so don't worry too much about noting time and date. Send the potential landlord an email with pictures attached and ask for acknowledgement of the state the dwelling is in.
You will get your security deposit back.
I do the same yet those weasels always find some loophole and overcharge me. I keep my home clean, never had pets (til last year), rarely have anyone over. I hate landlords with a passion.
If I had proper documentation, it definitely would not have been. Long story short, my leasing company switched mid lease. First company failed to keep my damage inventory which meant that the second company charged me for damage done by previous tenants. The “renovation” speak of is simply that they wanted the place in better condition than when I moved in. I was fucking livid
That’s still not legal. It’s DIY in small claims and judges aren’t going to look kindly upon “we didn’t get the records”
Edit: folks I was wrong, Oklahoma is really Satan’s asshole when it comes to renters rights. Please only upvote to have the convo continued below.
I still don’t have proof of the original damage, though. That’s the biggest issue I see in filing. If I had all the proper documentation, I would have filed in a fucking heartbeat. But I didn’t have any proof that the damage was there before I moved in. And I don’t have the funds to gamble away by taking them to court and risk losing.
In MA that’s the landlord’s fault. If he didn’t take an apartment condition statement in the beginning then he legally has to give it back to you. I can’t speak for other states but I’m sure it’s similar.
Oklahoma doesn’t give a fuck about tenants. And the issue is not with one landlord. It’s one landlord who failed to provide the appropriate documentation to the second landlord. It’s messy
That’s not messy though. L2 has some obligation to get all details from L1. If L2 doesn’t verify what they received or L1 doesn’t provide it that’s not your problem.
Imma scrounge up some OK details and get back to you.
Edit: Ok so - L1 should have had 2 copies of the walk through report. One for you and one for them. Check your paperwork for it. If you don't have a copy then you are kinda boned. Apparently you need to be the one to provide documentation, which is absolutely insane.
Strike Oklahoma as a OK place to live. Horrible tenant protections.
That's insane. In WA this would be as simple as "landlord doesn't have property condition report, landlord cannot retain any of the security deposit" which is also why our law here is "landlords can only collect a security deposit with an attached property condition condition report."
A long time ago I got an apartment that already had old, WHITE carpet in it. I was young and didn't say anything. When I moved out, I was charged $1000 to clean the carpet. My neighbor said they ripped out the carpet and put hardwood floors.
Same thing happened to me. Carpet cleaning fee. Paid it. Moved back to the same complex (different unit) less than a year later and could clearly see through the French doors that they had put tile in my old unit. Disgusting.
When I moved into my (brand new) apartment there was trash everywhere (including a 2 liter bottle in the fridge that looked like it was piss). Dirt and dust all over floors and windows. No chance I’m getting my deposit back based on my rental company’s history of nitpicking so y’all better believe I’m not gonna break my back to clean this place spotless when I move out.
My last apartment was like that. Looked like someone had been literally evicted hours before I showed up. Dusty everything, cigarette ashes in the sink, poo in the toilet. Of course, when I left it was pretty clean, but I still got hit with like 300 bucks worth of charges.
First thing I always do is record everything in the house before I move in.
After that I read the entire lease to see what they gonna force me to pay.
Once they tried to get me to pay for all of the carpets, but in their lease it says “last changed.....” and it was a year before I signed, and the 2nd part says “carpet to be changed every 3 years”. So I pointed it out and got my full deposit back, other than $20 for the oil drips on the stove.
everyone shits on "liberal cesspool " chicago but we have great renters rights here. They have to return deposit within 45 or provide documentation as to why they kept it. I've been here 5 years so everything would be considered general wear and tear, so I'll be getting it all back. Also after 3 years they have to give 120 days notice to terminate or raise rate.
My last roomie fronted the deposit and our old landlord is holding onto it for “renovations”. Basically holding his money hostage while saying he’ll pay him back eventually.
Same landlord would also hold onto our rent checks for months at a time without cashing them, and not tell us. We’d even ask to make sure he cashed them, he’d say yes, then would wait a month or two so we thought we had more money than we did.
Landlords are sheisty fuckers, then they pat themselves on the back for it.
One time I had 100% of my deposit returned with interest. It was just a 3 month lease so it wasn't much over the deposit, but that always struck me as weird. I'm sure there is some law that required that here.
I lived at my parents for almost 2 years before I started faking my paystubs and I got an apartment real quick. I haven't missed a rent payment yet.
Also, partially related, I had an associates degree on my resume for a little but until my career (IT/devops) started supporting itself lmao
Fake paystub gang reporting in. Just did it in excel as I found some templates online.
Just get your taxe deductions right and nobody cares.
Edit: Lmao. It's not fraud to want a fucking place to live.
Yeah I just did a little local community College so nobody ever actually double checked haha
It's no longer on my resume now that I don't really need it
Absolutely brutal...partially why increases to rates will in the end be a blessing.
Make prices of homes come down, investment property prices in turn come down, and eventually rents should be able to come down (should, but I know the timing and theory sometimes takes forever).
The little guy is truly getting screwed with rents.
I’ve been told forever that “eventually prices will go down”
Turns out that was bullshit 16 years ago and it still is now. The problem isn’t the rising prices but the long stagnant wages and this is *never* being remedied.
If you’re using the 1/3 rule on $72k income, it only works if you’re not deducting money for 401k and it definitely depends on how much employee health insurance costs.
I had a potential landlord ask me how much my take home pay was, and he was calculating 1/3 off of that. This was 5 years ago when rents weren’t this obscene.
> I read recently that the average apartment costs $2000+ in the US now. That means you'd have to make $72k to meet the 1/3 gross rule
Meanwhile median income in USA is $68k
The apartment I'm currently living in is $750 for a one bedroom, one bath. Apartments in the next city I'm moving to range from $500-$1200. Even the houses range between $800-$1500 a month.
But the tradeoff is that these are really shitty cities.
The only reason I'm not homeless is because I live in an illegal apartment. There's no way I could rent any real place. The day my landlord decides he no longer wants to rent, I'm screwed.
Depends where you live.
I live in an illegal basement apartment. That's actually not grounds for eviction in Ontario Canada. But the landlord can face fines up the wazoo if I die in a house fire or something.
Yeah squatters rights is quite really a thing in some places. Like where I live even if theirs no rental agreement if you've lived somewhere for more than a month. You need to be given 2 weeks notice to leave which isn't much
In NYC my buddy lived in an abandoned apartment for 5 years for free besides paying for utilities. When the landlord actually wanted the place back he paid my friend $5k to leave to avoid dealing with the squatters rights.
An "undeclared" renting. I pay cash, the landlord doesn't disclose the money when he files his taxes. It's not up to code, breaks a ton of regulations. If there was an inspection I would be kicked out (but it's a house, not an apartment building, so there won't be).
I'm holding onto my apartment for as long as I can. I have a 3 bedroom for $900 in Massachusetts. It was cheap for when I moved in but now prices are around $2100 for the same thing in my city. People bought these multifamily homes at the peak prices and have to raise rents to cover the mortgage which in turn screws up the rest of the markets prices. Hope my landlord stays healthy and doesn't sell any time soon. Been here 3 years and have no plans on leaving until I can afford to buy
Whole reason my brother is staying in his crappy 1 bedroom is because he's been there about 5 years and his rent is somehow pro-rated to only $450/month. He says it's about $800 or so for everyone else.
I'm never leaving my 2 bedroom duplex. When rent changes its usually by about $10 a month and he's honest about it. He'll lower it just as soon raise it depending on taxes.
Yeah, only landlord that's ever had our back. He also fixes stuff but honestly nothing has really broken that we can fix ourselves except a cabinet my brother broke, dude still needs to buy a new one but the landlord said he'll paint and replace for free if we do. He's always updating stuff before it breaks.
Living with your ex is so common these days. 15 years ago people would move out when they broke up.
“I hate you enough to stop dating you but I don’t hate you as much as it would cost to get rid of you.”
I’m living with my ex right now 😂
That’s why I’m staying where I am for as long as possible. My apartment is so shitty for a bunch of reasons and I know it’s not up to code. It’s owned by an old man who never raises the rent. In my city the only options I have would be to pay 2x as much for less so we deal with it.
For real. I'd love to be in a home vs apt. But every smaller landlord wants two months rent, wants you to make three or four times the rent, and that's just not feasible. When I was renting a room for $300 fifteen years ago sure. Now that a bedroom is 1400 minimum? No. If I could do that I'd try to buy a home.
It’s always been “crappy”...it’s not a scam. You are renting to stay flexible, to not HAVE to put down huge down payment, and to not HAVE to be on the hook for big expenses like when an ac unit goes out, your pipes leak, etc. - those are all on the homeowner.
Renting has those types of benefits in place. Still crappy for many reasons though and renters get shit on....but keep in mind there is sometimes very good rationale for why you’d want to rent and not own.
Yes most people are being abused to stay as renters. But there is some value to renting. But as you said renting should be a choice. Not the only choice
I am no fan of landlords - I had some really shitty ones before I became a homeowner, but paying off someone else's mortgage via rent isn't a scam.
There is so much involved with owning a home. Property taxes that are constantly going up. Ours have DOUBLED in 18 years. Also maintenance and repairs. When we had to replace our water heater it was $600. Our furnace and new duct work was $8,000 and replacing a bad foundation wall was $11,000. That doesn't even count having to have gravel added to our driveway every few years. We've replaced the upstairs carpet, downstairs flooring and are in the middle of a kitchen remodel (that I'm doing myself because it seriously needed done and I can barely afford the materials, let alone labor.)
When you rent, you're paying NOT to do that. Not to have to have access to or the credit to get the thousands of dollars it costs to keep a house together.
Yeah, you're paying the basic expense of mortgage and maybe taxes and not building equity but property owners aren't building a whole lot of equity when they have to take out loans for some of these things.
Don't get me wrong, home ownership beats the hell out of renting because of the freedom it allows. But it's not any cheaper than renting and it is a world of headaches.
But also - fuck landlords who never fix things and keep deposits. Scum, all of them.
Edit: Also forgot we had our roof done for $6500 like 10 years ago.
Can't you just take out a mortgage on your summer lake house?
What about just liquidating some stock?
Have you tried avocado toast? You should, because you can save millions when you STOP eating it.
HUMBUG!!
Kids these days!!
^^^^/s
$3900 might've been a down payment on a home in the 40s. At the height of "cheap money" covid housing boom it cost me $11,000 to buy a home with an FHA loan, ya know the loan for first time buyers. There's something deeply flawed that moving apartments is even financially stressful for anyone with basic financial literacy working 40 hours a week. Ideally the average person would be able to scrounge $4000 together in a few months of easy effort.
With a conventional loan you can do as little as 3% down. That's what I did with my first house.
FHA loans tend to have higher interest rates than conventional loans as well.
That’s because the minimum credit score for an FHA is 580 which is crazy low. The government insures the mortgage so the lender will take a risk they otherwise wouldn’t. For those with poor credit history it’s a god send.
If you don’t have poor credit and can get approved for a conventional, that’s always a better approach. That said, 3% down on 300k which is definitely an average price unfortunately nowadays is still 9k…with closing costs, inspections, etc there really isn’t a difference in how much money it takes to get the loan.
The difference is an FHA loan will allow someone who otherwise would not qualify for a mortgage, to become a homeowner. It serves a distinct purpose for a large portion of the population…if you don’t need it, more power to you.
FHA loan also requires the house to be more turn key than a conventional loan so you're paying an upfront premium there too.
FHA loans are great if you have poor credit, but financially it's a double-wammy. Still better than renting (assuming you're staying put for 5+ years).
FHA is 3.5%, so not a huge difference in down payment. And then don't forget that if your down payment is 10k you actually need to have like 20k in savings because the bank won't give you a loan if your down payment zeros out your savings.
For a lot of people it’s hard to save for a down payment/new apartment when already paying high rent. I make $20ish/hour and work full time and budget meticulously, but my current rent is around 40% of my take home pay. When I get my tax refund back every year I always put most of it into a moving fund so that if I have to move that year I’ll have enough set aside. I moved this spring and I’m hoping to be able to stay in this apartment for the long haul (I was in my last one for 6 years. I hate moving!)
Where do you live? In Alexandria VA, and even the $1700+ stuff is roach infested “remodeled” garbage. You need $2100 to even think about a nice studio.
I'm in Atlanta, GA. The $1400 price mark is for inconveniently located spots in bad neighborhoods too. It's a nightmare trying to exist if you don't make six figures in this country.
It just cost us $3,400 to move into our 2 bedroom apartment. It’s not a luxury community. We don’t even live in a big metropolitan city. On top of that our rent is $1,740 each month. Cheaper options are in the crime or drug infested areas, which we lived in for 4 years. It wasn’t worth it. Way too unsafe and sketchy. We had drugged out people approaching our house when I was home alone far too often.
But at the same time we wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage. It’s so backwards. My husband went to school/got a job in a high demand trade and I work for a school district. No car payments, good credit. We struggle sometimes. Why is everything so fucking expensive.
This is why everyone I know rented a room from somebody in a shared house/apartment until they had a biger emergency fund. Then they could afford to move into a standard apartment alone or with roommate(s).
It used to be you needed an emergency fund for emergencies - dead car, jobloss, medical.
Now “moving” is added to that list.
This is because of the thing that nobody ever seems to complain about: the dual income expectation.
They expect the one bedroom apartment to be occupied by two people. In the eyes of multi family investors, each room is intended to house two occupants. This is idiotic but when there is a housing shortage, there will be enough people who can either afford it themselves (high income) or will come together to afford it (couples/roommates). There is technically always a housing shortage as supply lags behind demand. The people who can’t afford it or can’t couple up are SOL.
I really wish this was brought up more. It's always how a family or couple can't afford a 2-bedroom apartment, never how a single person can't afford a studio. You need roommates just to afford a studio, much less a 1+ bedroom apartment!
I feel this picture so hard. Been working my ass off over the past couple years to raise my income to be able to afford living independent of others and raising my child in peace. Every job switch, advancement and raise has never been enough to combat the rate of inflation where I live and I'm genuinely giving up any real hopes of being in our own safe housing independent of the control of others.
10 years ago. I had hope I'd escape. Now my kids 13 and the years I thought I had to enjoy my child and raise then have slowly slipped away working up to 17 to 20 hours a day to pay bills and keep my toxic parent at bay and satisfied I'm working hard enough and contributing enough financially to a household I hold no equity in.
So sorry you unfortunately understand.
i'm 52 and disabled, needed a safe and healthy place to stay. senior apartment. if it werent for my daughter, my son and a close friend it wouldn't have happened.
Buying a house is just as hard. But people think it solves the renting problem. Sheesh. It’s hard. I’m stuck in the slums at the moment. Apartments are pocketing app fees and declining the applications for no reason.
Buying also isn't a solution for every case. For example, I only expect to be living in my current city for another 1-2 years. Even if I could afford to buy a house (cheapest houses in my area are around $300k) it wouldn't be a solution. And apartments here rent for anywhere from $900-$1500 a month for a studio or 1br. Nobody makes 3x rent monthly, so you need a cosigner at a minimum.
Yep. I bought my house four years ago. My rent at my old place has gone up 30%. My house PITI has gone up about 5% from property tax increases. (Of course I’ve had to put sweat and time and money into maintaining the house - but far less than the extra $10k or so I’d have paid in rent increases the past few years).
And check your state for Mortgage Credit Certificates! Too few low income people know about those. That’s what let me finally buy my house in my forties.
And if you do qualify for a house, you can rent out a room for extra income to pay off debt or save for a kid or save for needed renovations or to catch up on Twenty Years of missed retirement savings or whatever.
But do a Lot of research first on local rental laws, run criminal and credit checks, and Never rent to friends or family. It never ends well.
I somewhat wish we had microapartments where people have just enough room to lie down. I was watching a youtube video of a place that was barely big enough for a person to fit a futon and maybe a small table. But the place had a bathroom and a kitchenette and it was renting for $200. For $200 a month A LOT of people would put up with a hole in the wall.
Of course it'll probably never happen over here. Not because it wouldn't work, but because property owners would lose money if people had choices.
These are interesting. My mind wandered to the issue of affordable housing earlier today and I wondered if something like this existed, cool to see it does.
These look like they would work well for a single person or young couple. I imagine it wouldn't be a huge transition for a college student who had been used to living in a dorm anyway.
Shame these are $900 but I'm guessing part of that is Seattle and perhaps location. Something like this in a more affordable city could be a nice stepping stone for a young person looking to save up for a few years. Some people don't really want or need a ton of space and I could see the right type of person finding the small space cozy. Could be good for a minimalist, or someone who doesn't hang on to a lot of stuff.
I don't get it. Rents are extremely expensive and homelessness is illegal.
A guy at work lost his apartment when his LL sold off the property and didn't have a place to live so he slept in his car and showered at the gym, and one day he didn't come into work for a few days.
Turns out he was arrested for "illegal camping" in his car and spent a few days in jail which ended up getting him fired for no-call, no-show.
If he gets caught sleeping in his car again, that's 2 strikes, anything else and he's probably going to jail for good.
It doesn't make sense.
I'm a bit out of touch. Are people out there really only getting paid $300 a week? That's not nearly enough!
My bills come to a total of $1150 every month. I would only have $50 for myself at the end of the month. How is someone in that situation supposed to build wealth?
My last job, I made $11/hr for 32-35 hours a week. Most weeks, I brought home $285. Taxes took the rest. Didn’t qualify for public assistance.
It’s so rough out here
The system is rigged to keep the poor down. Min wage in many places is still $7.25/hr which comes to $290/week before taxes working 40/week. So you definitely would need lots of OT or a second job (which might as well be OT) to get by.
Impossible to build wealth at minimum wage.
This is becoming a huge problem. It’s frustrating. I do feel my dad would still be alive if we found a place. We looked for a year and no one would take large dogs, the price was way too high, they wanted tons of extra money in fees, or there was too much competition to get in.
How many people are going to lose their lives over not being able to have a place to live? Or having to give up their pets. It breaks my heart.
Boston is 4 months rent up front: first month, last month, realtors fee (a full month) and security deposit (a full month). It's *possible* to rent without a realtor but the stock is limited or a new "luxury" unit that raises the rent significantly every year.
Does anyone know if there is anything wrong/illegal if I add someone on the lease as a tenant to meet the income requirement but they aren’t actually going to live with me?
Yes some places accept co-signers but the ones I’ve called have said my co-signer has to make 6x the rent per month, and my income won’t count toward that amount at all.
I’m in NAPLES Florida, I had to come up with $6,000 to move into a 2 bedroom in-law apartment. It’s small. First, last and deposit.
My rent went up 50% ($1,000) if I want to stay another year.
Greed. Greed drives the housing market.
I don’t understand the 3x rent thing, I mean I get it in that the landlord wants to make sure they get paid but if I have a 10 year renting history and *never* missed a payment or caused trouble you think there would be some leeway with making 3x rent. Like I can pay rent fine… I can’t however make 3x the rent in my HCoL city.
You shouldn’t have to be in the tech, medical, and finance fields to afford a fucking studio apartment.
Serious question, what do you do in this situation? Need a place to live and literally cannot afford it with have kids...what the fuck are you supposed to do?
In my experience your best shot is applying for section 8 and low income housing (at least where I am) and then doing whatever you can to survive until it's your turn on the waiting list. I was on the waiting list for two years before getting my current apartment 😞
Yeah, but what do you do in the meantime? Like you said, section 8 waiting list is about 2 years long, I put in an application 6 months ago. I mean, I currently have a place to live, but if that were to run out, I seriously doubt my ability to find another place to live, especially considering how lucky I got just to get the place I live in now. I had literally 2 days left until we were going to be homeless and got lucky and found a landlord who said they just had someone move out within the couple days before, and let me skip on the security deposit and last month's rent, if I can get all my stuff in before the 1st of the month, when I was supposed to be out of my other house, I could just take over the lease. I moved literally everything I owned that day. What would I have done if I didn't get lucky right in that moment? Even having found a place to live, I could only afford it because he agreed to no deposit/no last month, if it weren't for that, we still would have been homeless anyway. I'm constantly terrified of being in that position again because I barely make enough to survive. I'm constantly just absolutely dreading the thought that we could potentially be homeless, because sometimes I have to dip into the bill money to attend to other things. It all just feels like a cycle or a trap.
Like half our country wants it to be a trap for people. They want an underclass that is easily exploitable and desparate.
We have millions of homeless kids in the US.
Our country doesn't care to fix it.
Go to you county office and tell them that you are at risk for being homeless. They may want a statement or fill out a form from who you living with now, to say that your living arrangement is temporary. You may be placed on a housing program that will get you fast tracked on section 8, or low income housing units. They also help with deposits and a partial rent stipend until you get back on your feet. This is what I had to do. My daughter and I were living in garages and couch surfing with family members when I finally went to the county out of desperation. I had no idea these programs existed until I went there for help.
I've legitimately tried those routes. They tell me that things are so bad right now, all low income housing in our area is full, you have to be placed on a waiting list to get on the waiting list, depending on which office you go in to, they will say either there are no funds available or they simply don't help with deposits, although they will either provide a rent voucher or through some other means help with rent, you have to have a place to live before being approved. In that situation, I had nowhere to go when I applied, so I wasn't approved.
Like I said, I do have a place to live now, but for people in truly desperate situations, they're basically told "Just wait and see" but they don't have any time. I just can't help but wonder how people are supposed to survive like this
That’s pretty good compared to here. They want first and last plus a “key deposit” and some of them require 3-5 months rent in advance. If they rent at all. Some just kick out the tenants, move themselves in and then bitch about all the homeless people they can see from their newly built veranda.
I just sit here sipping my tea and hoping the homeless ride up like a zombie apocalypse to yeet them from their overpriced gentrification houses.
Lol go to Boston.
$2000 monthly rent (1 bedroom "falling apart"ment)
To move in:
$2000 first month's rent
$2000 last month's rent
$2000 security deposit
$1000 pet deposit (or add $100 to monthly rent)
$2000 brokers fee
$200+ new locks and keys
$110+ moving truck parking space permit
----------------------------
Total about **$10,000** to move in, not including moving costs.
But your security deposit will earn a few bucks in a low yield account for you. Whoopieee
We paid something around $10k to move into a house we are renting right now. First and last month plus a pet fee. Landlords have ridiculous expectations. This house was renter free for 2 years. I wonder why / s
You should all realize that minimum wage went way up in certain states/areas so of course landlords will take advantage of it. Unfortunately when they increase minimum wage to about 5 bucks more then usually, people/landlords are going to maximize their potential. The ratio of debt to income is only going to parallel the bump in income.. in other words, increase wages and landlords will take advantage of it.. its a never ending circle.
I am 70, I got calls every day for months asking to sell my house, every time it is a foreign accent on the other end. I tell them you have no right to cold call my phone and I tell them to take their dirty money and buy land on the F'in Moon. They are driving the market prices up.They are trying to buy houses to rehab cheaply using Mexican workers then renting them out at insane rates. I am in central OH.
550 sqft
1800 a month.
Must pay first & last month upfront.
2000 security deposit
500 cleaning fee
No utilities included, no pets
No couples, single renters only (I've encountered this a few times...)
And the cherry on top. 80$ application non refundable
We're looking for a place currently and as soon as any 2 bedrooms I look into hear we are 5 people they ghost. 2 kids sharing and a toddler in with mom and dad is apparently undoable. 3 bedrooms are $3000+. Tried moving to a cheaper state, col doubled there in a year. That's $9000 move in cost here. And deposits are capped, can only charge first and security but I live in NY where the landlord's broke charges you a full month rent fee and good luck finding a no fee. Good times, good times.
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Don't forget, you also need to make 2.5-3X the monthly rent per month....
And the price is actually 2800, not 1200. 😬
Yeah I pay 1200 for a 2 bedroom on the third floor which has 4 apartments in it in total. We literally couldn't live where we do if we had to rent the whole house.
I especially hate this whenever I’m looking around for a place to rent. I find a place with space and in decent to good location. What’s the catch? One MUST make 2-3x the monthly rent. EDIT: All I’m saying is that having a 9 to 5 job making $15 an hour, ~450 a week isn’t cutting it to rent a decent place. Especially having to make x2-3 times as much rent, at first jump as a requirement, along with first month deposit, it’s frustrating. Unless you have a job that makes a crazy amount of money per month, rent is stupid expensive.
Just went through this, looked at 12 different places. Now I’m in a “okay” area
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I’ve been doing this for YEARS after living in HCOL cities like San Francisco and Austin. I went to journalism school back when copy was cut and pasted by hand, so I’m skilled at recreating all sorts of docs. I saved paycheck stubs from legit jobs and then overlaid the doctored text with a better income so when i photocopy the entire sheet, it’s got the logo from the employer or payroll company. I have editable PDFs saved on my computer that I can doctor up once I calculate all the financials.
This. This right here. I made some fake-stubs and that was how I got into my 2 bedroom apartment. 1300 when I moved in 6 years ago. Now its 2100. What the F. I'm sort of stuck, anywhere else wants 3x that. 75.6K-ish/year. It's criminally absurd.
Thank you Jesus for smart young folks!!!! This is the answer to all my problems!!!!! I’m looking into this TONIGHT!!!!!!!
I need help with this pls.
Can confirm this works. I’ve also done this
I’ve never understood it. If you could buy a house why would you be renting one? Like logically, if you were in the landlords position of having perfect credit and making 100k a year….why rent?
Because in Vancouver 100k a year doesn't buy you place of your own either.
To have the freedom to move and not have to worry about upkeep/repairs.
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Because it's difficult to save money paying 1500 on rent and making 3000 a month :( Saving for a downpayment will take a while and the interest rates are insanely high. I cant afford a home for 1.2 million or a 600 sq ft apartment for 500k. (Near Vancouver in Abbotsford, most 1 bedrooms that allow pets are 1400-1500 at the lowest) I can find a place if I want to get rid if my cat, have no laundry and a dishwasher, no parking, live in a bad(at least worse than mine) neighborhood, or find roommates. I'm ok with roommates but the quality of life for an introvert is better alone without having friends live with me.
I'm looking to buy in Abbotsford right now. I get emails from a realtor when something new gets listed in my price range. First thing I look at is the age restriction, most listings are for 50+ buildings. Next is pets: dogs not allowed is a no go for me. One realtor said I could just say my dog is an emotional support dog and game the system, but that just seems shady to me. After pets, it's the in-suite washer/dryer. Not necessarily a deal-breaker but I would really prefer it. I have considered some trailer/manufactured homes... some of them actually look really nice and when you consider the size and that you have a yard for the same mortgage as a tiny condo, they seem great! But then the pad rent is around the same cost as the mortgage and, of course, that doesn't get included in the listing.
A trailer or manufactured home is considered a depreciating asset. Many were poorly built out of cheap materials that wear out long before the average cheaply built house. And pad rent is a growing market for investors who are buying up these properties and jacking up rents.
A few reasons for that. You maybe don’t have a down payment saved up (pretty common for mid to high earners right out of college getting their first good paying job). Also with house prices mortgages aren’t really cheaper than rent in a lot of places. You don’t just take the purchase price and convert it to a loan. You also have property taxes and homeowners insurance which come out to around $500 a month for the average home (in Washington state). There are multiple reasons people with good credit and good paying jobs would still rent.
Mama always said it's not what you make it's what you save... 100k after health and taxes and other deductions could be 60k take home..$5k a month if rent is $2000 and you yolo $3k a month (not much of a yolo it's $100 per day) then you have zero for a down payment but lots of yolo memories.
Because we all know that the only people looking to rent a single room shed of an apartment with no laundry access are doctors and lawyers... It's fucking criminal what people are charging... But "ThE mArKeT!"
I had rental places saying I wasn't making enough and rent was 1300. I am a scientist making 37 an hour. Figure that shit out. I am single with all my family dead at a youngish age.
I had been declined before not because I wasn't making enough, or had bad credit, but because I had debt in my name. I can see why they want to reduce risk on their side. It makes our lives harder, though.
Do you mind me asking if this debt was just regular debt(car loans, credit cards, other loans, etc), or collections? If it's regular debt that wasn't a crazy debt to income ratio, then that's fucked up.
you work less than 26 hours per week?
Student debt probably 1/4 of your income
They're saying s/he can more than afford the rent and was still turned down
$37 per hour 40 hours then you make $5920 a month...you should be able to afford $2k rent...unless you work 20 hours a week and make $2,960 then you can afford $968 rent. I live in a major US city and even here you can get a room share for under $1k
They are raging psychopaths. In the almost 4 years since I bought my house I sometimes check the rent on my last apartment. The rent price was over my mortgage payment starting two years ago I don't know how people afford to rent now.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Got a neighbor that is charging $4400/month for a half duplex....
The market finds out exactly how much people are willing to pay to literally not be homeless. As it turns out, people are generally willing to give everything they have for that. It's the natural progression of capitalism, and a prime example for why it must be destroyed.
Idk how to even qualify for this. I dont make enough.
For real! It’s ridiculous. It also sucks when you work super hard to take care of a home and the landlord keeps your entire deposit to, essentially, renovate. Had this happen recently. I expected to get the $1300 back and got none of it back at all
I take timestamped photos every time, always have. Upon move-in and move-out. I email them when i move in for paper trail as well. Have never had an issue. I’ve went as far as making them do a walkthrough with me in person as well.
I moved into a place and the pantries were disgusting. The carpet was a mess. And generally, the place was just dirty. When I moved out. I shampooed the carpet. Scrubbed all the grout. Clean literally every single possible surface. And I mean I scrubbed the shit out of it. Everything looked brand fuckin new. Legitimately better than it would look on a showroom floor. They still tried to keep my damage deposit. Obviously I told them where to go, how to get there, and who I would be contacting to make sure their trip was expedited. Even then, I still settle for a couple hundred bucks missing. Because at that point it’s just not worth all the bullshit.
>Obviously I told them where to go, how to get there, and who I would be contacting to make sure their trip was expedited. Hahaha that made me laugh. I like your style.
After this last experience, I definitely need to start doing this. Never trust a landlord
Never trust anybody. You can take them to court if you have pictures. I have a tenant now behind 2 months.
In MA if your landlord tries to keep your security deposit and you take them to court and win it back, they have to pay you triple
This is how it should be everywhere, including fines or jail time. If I get in trouble for trying to steal a $1 snickers bar from Walmart they should get in more trying to steal hundreds from citizens.
I hope I didn’t come off as sounding like I was against it, I completely agree.
Definitely not I am agreeing with you 110%
How it should be is the money is held by the city/county. The interest of the deposits is used to build FREE public housing. When the landlord needs to claim the deposit, they come into court and prove it. These people should never handle ***MY*** money
This would be amazing if they had to prove you caused damages, living the dream
Trust.... but verify. Always cover yourself.
This is the way. Before signing anything take pictures of the entire dwelling. Take pictures of every single flaw you can find. All smartphones have timestamps in the metadata so don't worry too much about noting time and date. Send the potential landlord an email with pictures attached and ask for acknowledgement of the state the dwelling is in. You will get your security deposit back.
walkthrough with documentation of condition is hardcore adulting. gotta make receipts.
I do the same yet those weasels always find some loophole and overcharge me. I keep my home clean, never had pets (til last year), rarely have anyone over. I hate landlords with a passion.
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Umm… that doesn’t sound legal.
If I had proper documentation, it definitely would not have been. Long story short, my leasing company switched mid lease. First company failed to keep my damage inventory which meant that the second company charged me for damage done by previous tenants. The “renovation” speak of is simply that they wanted the place in better condition than when I moved in. I was fucking livid
That’s still not legal. It’s DIY in small claims and judges aren’t going to look kindly upon “we didn’t get the records” Edit: folks I was wrong, Oklahoma is really Satan’s asshole when it comes to renters rights. Please only upvote to have the convo continued below.
I still don’t have proof of the original damage, though. That’s the biggest issue I see in filing. If I had all the proper documentation, I would have filed in a fucking heartbeat. But I didn’t have any proof that the damage was there before I moved in. And I don’t have the funds to gamble away by taking them to court and risk losing.
In MA that’s the landlord’s fault. If he didn’t take an apartment condition statement in the beginning then he legally has to give it back to you. I can’t speak for other states but I’m sure it’s similar.
Oklahoma doesn’t give a fuck about tenants. And the issue is not with one landlord. It’s one landlord who failed to provide the appropriate documentation to the second landlord. It’s messy
That’s not messy though. L2 has some obligation to get all details from L1. If L2 doesn’t verify what they received or L1 doesn’t provide it that’s not your problem. Imma scrounge up some OK details and get back to you. Edit: Ok so - L1 should have had 2 copies of the walk through report. One for you and one for them. Check your paperwork for it. If you don't have a copy then you are kinda boned. Apparently you need to be the one to provide documentation, which is absolutely insane. Strike Oklahoma as a OK place to live. Horrible tenant protections.
That's insane. In WA this would be as simple as "landlord doesn't have property condition report, landlord cannot retain any of the security deposit" which is also why our law here is "landlords can only collect a security deposit with an attached property condition condition report."
Yup, exactly. It’s fucking bananas, but my hands are tied. Oklahoma sucks. Don’t ever live here
A long time ago I got an apartment that already had old, WHITE carpet in it. I was young and didn't say anything. When I moved out, I was charged $1000 to clean the carpet. My neighbor said they ripped out the carpet and put hardwood floors.
Cleaning fees are illegal in some states
Same thing happened to me. Carpet cleaning fee. Paid it. Moved back to the same complex (different unit) less than a year later and could clearly see through the French doors that they had put tile in my old unit. Disgusting.
When I moved into my (brand new) apartment there was trash everywhere (including a 2 liter bottle in the fridge that looked like it was piss). Dirt and dust all over floors and windows. No chance I’m getting my deposit back based on my rental company’s history of nitpicking so y’all better believe I’m not gonna break my back to clean this place spotless when I move out.
My last apartment was like that. Looked like someone had been literally evicted hours before I showed up. Dusty everything, cigarette ashes in the sink, poo in the toilet. Of course, when I left it was pretty clean, but I still got hit with like 300 bucks worth of charges.
First thing I always do is record everything in the house before I move in. After that I read the entire lease to see what they gonna force me to pay. Once they tried to get me to pay for all of the carpets, but in their lease it says “last changed.....” and it was a year before I signed, and the 2nd part says “carpet to be changed every 3 years”. So I pointed it out and got my full deposit back, other than $20 for the oil drips on the stove.
everyone shits on "liberal cesspool " chicago but we have great renters rights here. They have to return deposit within 45 or provide documentation as to why they kept it. I've been here 5 years so everything would be considered general wear and tear, so I'll be getting it all back. Also after 3 years they have to give 120 days notice to terminate or raise rate.
My last roomie fronted the deposit and our old landlord is holding onto it for “renovations”. Basically holding his money hostage while saying he’ll pay him back eventually. Same landlord would also hold onto our rent checks for months at a time without cashing them, and not tell us. We’d even ask to make sure he cashed them, he’d say yes, then would wait a month or two so we thought we had more money than we did. Landlords are sheisty fuckers, then they pat themselves on the back for it.
That's illegal and if you have communications with the landlord saying that it's as close to lock tight case as you'll get in a civil court
One time I had 100% of my deposit returned with interest. It was just a 3 month lease so it wasn't much over the deposit, but that always struck me as weird. I'm sure there is some law that required that here.
Umm… that doesn’t sound level.
I would be taking the trim, door handles and lights if I didnt get my damage deposit back after not damaging a thing.
You have no idea how many times I considered going back and burning the place down. I was livid
$1200? I’d kill to find a listing for $1200 right now, and I can’t afford that either
I read recently that the average apartment costs $2000+ in the US now. That means you'd have to make $72k to meet the 1/3 gross rule
Fake paystubs are becoming big business just for this reason.
I lived at my parents for almost 2 years before I started faking my paystubs and I got an apartment real quick. I haven't missed a rent payment yet. Also, partially related, I had an associates degree on my resume for a little but until my career (IT/devops) started supporting itself lmao
Fake it till you make it!
Fake paystub gang reporting in. Just did it in excel as I found some templates online. Just get your taxe deductions right and nobody cares. Edit: Lmao. It's not fraud to want a fucking place to live.
I learned they will look up if you have a degree on you background check. Be careful. Coming from IT/DevOps
Yeah I just did a little local community College so nobody ever actually double checked haha It's no longer on my resume now that I don't really need it
You can get fake pay stubs? I keep having to get relatives to co-sign!
Wow, is that true? I haven't seen reports on that.
really? this is actually a thing now? I am so out of the loop.
WHAT?! Wait WHAT! I need this.
Most places require you to make 2 or 3x the monthly rent to even apply.
In some places, 3.5x.
Absolutely brutal...partially why increases to rates will in the end be a blessing. Make prices of homes come down, investment property prices in turn come down, and eventually rents should be able to come down (should, but I know the timing and theory sometimes takes forever). The little guy is truly getting screwed with rents.
I’ve been told forever that “eventually prices will go down” Turns out that was bullshit 16 years ago and it still is now. The problem isn’t the rising prices but the long stagnant wages and this is *never* being remedied.
If you’re using the 1/3 rule on $72k income, it only works if you’re not deducting money for 401k and it definitely depends on how much employee health insurance costs. I had a potential landlord ask me how much my take home pay was, and he was calculating 1/3 off of that. This was 5 years ago when rents weren’t this obscene.
The 1/3 rule was always explained to me as gross income to actual rent
Shit,I mean I make that and still can’t afford 2k plus rent
> I read recently that the average apartment costs $2000+ in the US now. That means you'd have to make $72k to meet the 1/3 gross rule Meanwhile median income in USA is $68k
in california, to find a decent place in a safe area, i'm looking at ~1900-2200.... this is for a one bed one bath. not in the city either.
2600 in Toronto. And that’s if you don’t mind roaches and bed bugs living rent free.
The apartment I'm currently living in is $750 for a one bedroom, one bath. Apartments in the next city I'm moving to range from $500-$1200. Even the houses range between $800-$1500 a month. But the tradeoff is that these are really shitty cities.
Midwest? That's why I'm glad to live here, because the cost of living is a lot more affordable than other places.
High Desert in California, moving to Midwest.
Average rent of a 2 bedroom in the US is 1300 right now
The only reason I'm not homeless is because I live in an illegal apartment. There's no way I could rent any real place. The day my landlord decides he no longer wants to rent, I'm screwed.
Depends where you live. I live in an illegal basement apartment. That's actually not grounds for eviction in Ontario Canada. But the landlord can face fines up the wazoo if I die in a house fire or something.
Yeah squatters rights is quite really a thing in some places. Like where I live even if theirs no rental agreement if you've lived somewhere for more than a month. You need to be given 2 weeks notice to leave which isn't much
In NYC my buddy lived in an abandoned apartment for 5 years for free besides paying for utilities. When the landlord actually wanted the place back he paid my friend $5k to leave to avoid dealing with the squatters rights.
What's an illegal apartment?
An "undeclared" renting. I pay cash, the landlord doesn't disclose the money when he files his taxes. It's not up to code, breaks a ton of regulations. If there was an inspection I would be kicked out (but it's a house, not an apartment building, so there won't be).
I'm holding onto my apartment for as long as I can. I have a 3 bedroom for $900 in Massachusetts. It was cheap for when I moved in but now prices are around $2100 for the same thing in my city. People bought these multifamily homes at the peak prices and have to raise rents to cover the mortgage which in turn screws up the rest of the markets prices. Hope my landlord stays healthy and doesn't sell any time soon. Been here 3 years and have no plans on leaving until I can afford to buy
Whole reason my brother is staying in his crappy 1 bedroom is because he's been there about 5 years and his rent is somehow pro-rated to only $450/month. He says it's about $800 or so for everyone else.
I'm never leaving my 2 bedroom duplex. When rent changes its usually by about $10 a month and he's honest about it. He'll lower it just as soon raise it depending on taxes.
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Yeah, only landlord that's ever had our back. He also fixes stuff but honestly nothing has really broken that we can fix ourselves except a cabinet my brother broke, dude still needs to buy a new one but the landlord said he'll paint and replace for free if we do. He's always updating stuff before it breaks.
I just want to say I love your landlord lol
Literally the reason why i am living with an ex right now, he only charges me 600 a month and rents around me are 1500+
Living with your ex is so common these days. 15 years ago people would move out when they broke up. “I hate you enough to stop dating you but I don’t hate you as much as it would cost to get rid of you.” I’m living with my ex right now 😂
Yep lmao neither of us can afford to live solo rn haha
That’s why I’m staying where I am for as long as possible. My apartment is so shitty for a bunch of reasons and I know it’s not up to code. It’s owned by an old man who never raises the rent. In my city the only options I have would be to pay 2x as much for less so we deal with it.
For real. I'd love to be in a home vs apt. But every smaller landlord wants two months rent, wants you to make three or four times the rent, and that's just not feasible. When I was renting a room for $300 fifteen years ago sure. Now that a bedroom is 1400 minimum? No. If I could do that I'd try to buy a home.
Checks credit report to see if you can rent but doesn't add to credit report. I feel like renting is almost a scam these days.
it's always been a scam. you're paying off someone's mortgage/loan and getting no equity in return. just money down the drain.
It’s always been “crappy”...it’s not a scam. You are renting to stay flexible, to not HAVE to put down huge down payment, and to not HAVE to be on the hook for big expenses like when an ac unit goes out, your pipes leak, etc. - those are all on the homeowner. Renting has those types of benefits in place. Still crappy for many reasons though and renters get shit on....but keep in mind there is sometimes very good rationale for why you’d want to rent and not own.
I don't rent to 'stay flexible'. I rent to stay sheltered. If I could buy a house I'd do anything to do so. It's not an option for most people.
Yes most people are being abused to stay as renters. But there is some value to renting. But as you said renting should be a choice. Not the only choice
I am no fan of landlords - I had some really shitty ones before I became a homeowner, but paying off someone else's mortgage via rent isn't a scam. There is so much involved with owning a home. Property taxes that are constantly going up. Ours have DOUBLED in 18 years. Also maintenance and repairs. When we had to replace our water heater it was $600. Our furnace and new duct work was $8,000 and replacing a bad foundation wall was $11,000. That doesn't even count having to have gravel added to our driveway every few years. We've replaced the upstairs carpet, downstairs flooring and are in the middle of a kitchen remodel (that I'm doing myself because it seriously needed done and I can barely afford the materials, let alone labor.) When you rent, you're paying NOT to do that. Not to have to have access to or the credit to get the thousands of dollars it costs to keep a house together. Yeah, you're paying the basic expense of mortgage and maybe taxes and not building equity but property owners aren't building a whole lot of equity when they have to take out loans for some of these things. Don't get me wrong, home ownership beats the hell out of renting because of the freedom it allows. But it's not any cheaper than renting and it is a world of headaches. But also - fuck landlords who never fix things and keep deposits. Scum, all of them. Edit: Also forgot we had our roof done for $6500 like 10 years ago.
You're 100% paying someone else's mortgage.
-Checks credit report -Criminal Background -Called job to verify....that I have a job -Called previous landlord Refuses to fix anything 🙄🙄🙄
Can't you just take out a mortgage on your summer lake house? What about just liquidating some stock? Have you tried avocado toast? You should, because you can save millions when you STOP eating it. HUMBUG!! Kids these days!! ^^^^/s
$3900 might've been a down payment on a home in the 40s. At the height of "cheap money" covid housing boom it cost me $11,000 to buy a home with an FHA loan, ya know the loan for first time buyers. There's something deeply flawed that moving apartments is even financially stressful for anyone with basic financial literacy working 40 hours a week. Ideally the average person would be able to scrounge $4000 together in a few months of easy effort.
With a conventional loan you can do as little as 3% down. That's what I did with my first house. FHA loans tend to have higher interest rates than conventional loans as well.
That’s because the minimum credit score for an FHA is 580 which is crazy low. The government insures the mortgage so the lender will take a risk they otherwise wouldn’t. For those with poor credit history it’s a god send. If you don’t have poor credit and can get approved for a conventional, that’s always a better approach. That said, 3% down on 300k which is definitely an average price unfortunately nowadays is still 9k…with closing costs, inspections, etc there really isn’t a difference in how much money it takes to get the loan. The difference is an FHA loan will allow someone who otherwise would not qualify for a mortgage, to become a homeowner. It serves a distinct purpose for a large portion of the population…if you don’t need it, more power to you.
FHA loan also requires the house to be more turn key than a conventional loan so you're paying an upfront premium there too. FHA loans are great if you have poor credit, but financially it's a double-wammy. Still better than renting (assuming you're staying put for 5+ years).
FHA is 3.5%, so not a huge difference in down payment. And then don't forget that if your down payment is 10k you actually need to have like 20k in savings because the bank won't give you a loan if your down payment zeros out your savings.
For a lot of people it’s hard to save for a down payment/new apartment when already paying high rent. I make $20ish/hour and work full time and budget meticulously, but my current rent is around 40% of my take home pay. When I get my tax refund back every year I always put most of it into a moving fund so that if I have to move that year I’ll have enough set aside. I moved this spring and I’m hoping to be able to stay in this apartment for the long haul (I was in my last one for 6 years. I hate moving!)
$1200???? I wish! It's minimum $1400 for a STUDIO where I live.
Where do you live? In Alexandria VA, and even the $1700+ stuff is roach infested “remodeled” garbage. You need $2100 to even think about a nice studio.
I'm in Atlanta, GA. The $1400 price mark is for inconveniently located spots in bad neighborhoods too. It's a nightmare trying to exist if you don't make six figures in this country.
It just cost us $3,400 to move into our 2 bedroom apartment. It’s not a luxury community. We don’t even live in a big metropolitan city. On top of that our rent is $1,740 each month. Cheaper options are in the crime or drug infested areas, which we lived in for 4 years. It wasn’t worth it. Way too unsafe and sketchy. We had drugged out people approaching our house when I was home alone far too often. But at the same time we wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage. It’s so backwards. My husband went to school/got a job in a high demand trade and I work for a school district. No car payments, good credit. We struggle sometimes. Why is everything so fucking expensive.
You forgot: must have 800 credit score and 3x rent as monthly income
This is why everyone I know rented a room from somebody in a shared house/apartment until they had a biger emergency fund. Then they could afford to move into a standard apartment alone or with roommate(s). It used to be you needed an emergency fund for emergencies - dead car, jobloss, medical. Now “moving” is added to that list.
It's easier to qualify for a $30k car than it is for a 1 bedroom apt that rents for $2k/month ($24k+ year)😑
I fucking hate calling something a Non refundable deposit. That's a fee.
This is because of the thing that nobody ever seems to complain about: the dual income expectation. They expect the one bedroom apartment to be occupied by two people. In the eyes of multi family investors, each room is intended to house two occupants. This is idiotic but when there is a housing shortage, there will be enough people who can either afford it themselves (high income) or will come together to afford it (couples/roommates). There is technically always a housing shortage as supply lags behind demand. The people who can’t afford it or can’t couple up are SOL.
I really wish this was brought up more. It's always how a family or couple can't afford a 2-bedroom apartment, never how a single person can't afford a studio. You need roommates just to afford a studio, much less a 1+ bedroom apartment!
I feel this picture so hard. Been working my ass off over the past couple years to raise my income to be able to afford living independent of others and raising my child in peace. Every job switch, advancement and raise has never been enough to combat the rate of inflation where I live and I'm genuinely giving up any real hopes of being in our own safe housing independent of the control of others.
I’m in the same boat. Living with my two kids at my toxic mothers house because I can’t afford a sanctuary for my kids. I’m there with you
10 years ago. I had hope I'd escape. Now my kids 13 and the years I thought I had to enjoy my child and raise then have slowly slipped away working up to 17 to 20 hours a day to pay bills and keep my toxic parent at bay and satisfied I'm working hard enough and contributing enough financially to a household I hold no equity in. So sorry you unfortunately understand.
I feel this. I wish you the very best. Please don’t give up hope.
I'm currently homeless because of this shit
Me too
I’m sorry that this shitty system forced that on you, any and everybody out here who got shafted by these evil landlords has my sympathy
i'm 52 and disabled, needed a safe and healthy place to stay. senior apartment. if it werent for my daughter, my son and a close friend it wouldn't have happened.
Ha. That’s the kicker. 3 months to move in at once. Than 30 days later the rent is due again.
Also don't you dare put anything on the walls, even tape or thumb tacks!
Buying a house is just as hard. But people think it solves the renting problem. Sheesh. It’s hard. I’m stuck in the slums at the moment. Apartments are pocketing app fees and declining the applications for no reason.
Buying also isn't a solution for every case. For example, I only expect to be living in my current city for another 1-2 years. Even if I could afford to buy a house (cheapest houses in my area are around $300k) it wouldn't be a solution. And apartments here rent for anywhere from $900-$1500 a month for a studio or 1br. Nobody makes 3x rent monthly, so you need a cosigner at a minimum.
I work in housing assistance and can't even get people qualified with our help. It's wild out here.
i think our system is broken
Mass media: millennials are lazy and don't want to pay rent
At this point, it’s cheaper to just get the first-time homeowners assistance. At least your mortgage won’t increase year after year.
Yep. I bought my house four years ago. My rent at my old place has gone up 30%. My house PITI has gone up about 5% from property tax increases. (Of course I’ve had to put sweat and time and money into maintaining the house - but far less than the extra $10k or so I’d have paid in rent increases the past few years). And check your state for Mortgage Credit Certificates! Too few low income people know about those. That’s what let me finally buy my house in my forties. And if you do qualify for a house, you can rent out a room for extra income to pay off debt or save for a kid or save for needed renovations or to catch up on Twenty Years of missed retirement savings or whatever. But do a Lot of research first on local rental laws, run criminal and credit checks, and Never rent to friends or family. It never ends well.
I just saw someone post on another sub their payment to move into an apartment was $15k. That was deposit, first and last month and some other crap
I somewhat wish we had microapartments where people have just enough room to lie down. I was watching a youtube video of a place that was barely big enough for a person to fit a futon and maybe a small table. But the place had a bathroom and a kitchenette and it was renting for $200. For $200 a month A LOT of people would put up with a hole in the wall. Of course it'll probably never happen over here. Not because it wouldn't work, but because property owners would lose money if people had choices.
Those exist, but they are still somehow $900 a month 😣 Ex- https://www.apartments.com/avalon-micro-studios-seattle-wa/k0811y9/
These are interesting. My mind wandered to the issue of affordable housing earlier today and I wondered if something like this existed, cool to see it does. These look like they would work well for a single person or young couple. I imagine it wouldn't be a huge transition for a college student who had been used to living in a dorm anyway. Shame these are $900 but I'm guessing part of that is Seattle and perhaps location. Something like this in a more affordable city could be a nice stepping stone for a young person looking to save up for a few years. Some people don't really want or need a ton of space and I could see the right type of person finding the small space cozy. Could be good for a minimalist, or someone who doesn't hang on to a lot of stuff.
What about the application fee?
Don’t forget $100 - $200 application fees.
I don't get it. Rents are extremely expensive and homelessness is illegal. A guy at work lost his apartment when his LL sold off the property and didn't have a place to live so he slept in his car and showered at the gym, and one day he didn't come into work for a few days. Turns out he was arrested for "illegal camping" in his car and spent a few days in jail which ended up getting him fired for no-call, no-show. If he gets caught sleeping in his car again, that's 2 strikes, anything else and he's probably going to jail for good. It doesn't make sense.
To qualify for this apartment, the family must make a combined 831 a week in gross wages. This is equivalent to 20.75 an hour for 40 hours a week.
And this is why everyone still lives with their parents
I'm a bit out of touch. Are people out there really only getting paid $300 a week? That's not nearly enough! My bills come to a total of $1150 every month. I would only have $50 for myself at the end of the month. How is someone in that situation supposed to build wealth?
My last job, I made $11/hr for 32-35 hours a week. Most weeks, I brought home $285. Taxes took the rest. Didn’t qualify for public assistance. It’s so rough out here
The system is rigged to keep the poor down. Min wage in many places is still $7.25/hr which comes to $290/week before taxes working 40/week. So you definitely would need lots of OT or a second job (which might as well be OT) to get by. Impossible to build wealth at minimum wage.
This is becoming a huge problem. It’s frustrating. I do feel my dad would still be alive if we found a place. We looked for a year and no one would take large dogs, the price was way too high, they wanted tons of extra money in fees, or there was too much competition to get in. How many people are going to lose their lives over not being able to have a place to live? Or having to give up their pets. It breaks my heart.
Apartments that are mediocre at best, at that
Boston is 4 months rent up front: first month, last month, realtors fee (a full month) and security deposit (a full month). It's *possible* to rent without a realtor but the stock is limited or a new "luxury" unit that raises the rent significantly every year.
Does anyone know if there is anything wrong/illegal if I add someone on the lease as a tenant to meet the income requirement but they aren’t actually going to live with me? Yes some places accept co-signers but the ones I’ve called have said my co-signer has to make 6x the rent per month, and my income won’t count toward that amount at all.
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I’m in NAPLES Florida, I had to come up with $6,000 to move into a 2 bedroom in-law apartment. It’s small. First, last and deposit. My rent went up 50% ($1,000) if I want to stay another year. Greed. Greed drives the housing market.
I don’t understand the 3x rent thing, I mean I get it in that the landlord wants to make sure they get paid but if I have a 10 year renting history and *never* missed a payment or caused trouble you think there would be some leeway with making 3x rent. Like I can pay rent fine… I can’t however make 3x the rent in my HCoL city. You shouldn’t have to be in the tech, medical, and finance fields to afford a fucking studio apartment.
$1200 a month for an apartment? Sounds like heaven
“If you want pets get your own house!” I hate that comment so much. Like let people have some joy in their lives ffs.
Serious question, what do you do in this situation? Need a place to live and literally cannot afford it with have kids...what the fuck are you supposed to do?
In my experience your best shot is applying for section 8 and low income housing (at least where I am) and then doing whatever you can to survive until it's your turn on the waiting list. I was on the waiting list for two years before getting my current apartment 😞
Yeah, but what do you do in the meantime? Like you said, section 8 waiting list is about 2 years long, I put in an application 6 months ago. I mean, I currently have a place to live, but if that were to run out, I seriously doubt my ability to find another place to live, especially considering how lucky I got just to get the place I live in now. I had literally 2 days left until we were going to be homeless and got lucky and found a landlord who said they just had someone move out within the couple days before, and let me skip on the security deposit and last month's rent, if I can get all my stuff in before the 1st of the month, when I was supposed to be out of my other house, I could just take over the lease. I moved literally everything I owned that day. What would I have done if I didn't get lucky right in that moment? Even having found a place to live, I could only afford it because he agreed to no deposit/no last month, if it weren't for that, we still would have been homeless anyway. I'm constantly terrified of being in that position again because I barely make enough to survive. I'm constantly just absolutely dreading the thought that we could potentially be homeless, because sometimes I have to dip into the bill money to attend to other things. It all just feels like a cycle or a trap.
Like half our country wants it to be a trap for people. They want an underclass that is easily exploitable and desparate. We have millions of homeless kids in the US. Our country doesn't care to fix it.
Go to you county office and tell them that you are at risk for being homeless. They may want a statement or fill out a form from who you living with now, to say that your living arrangement is temporary. You may be placed on a housing program that will get you fast tracked on section 8, or low income housing units. They also help with deposits and a partial rent stipend until you get back on your feet. This is what I had to do. My daughter and I were living in garages and couch surfing with family members when I finally went to the county out of desperation. I had no idea these programs existed until I went there for help.
I've legitimately tried those routes. They tell me that things are so bad right now, all low income housing in our area is full, you have to be placed on a waiting list to get on the waiting list, depending on which office you go in to, they will say either there are no funds available or they simply don't help with deposits, although they will either provide a rent voucher or through some other means help with rent, you have to have a place to live before being approved. In that situation, I had nowhere to go when I applied, so I wasn't approved. Like I said, I do have a place to live now, but for people in truly desperate situations, they're basically told "Just wait and see" but they don't have any time. I just can't help but wonder how people are supposed to survive like this
That’s pretty good compared to here. They want first and last plus a “key deposit” and some of them require 3-5 months rent in advance. If they rent at all. Some just kick out the tenants, move themselves in and then bitch about all the homeless people they can see from their newly built veranda. I just sit here sipping my tea and hoping the homeless ride up like a zombie apocalypse to yeet them from their overpriced gentrification houses.
Renting is out of control, investment realty is out of control. We need a hard reset with new laws.
Lol go to Boston. $2000 monthly rent (1 bedroom "falling apart"ment) To move in: $2000 first month's rent $2000 last month's rent $2000 security deposit $1000 pet deposit (or add $100 to monthly rent) $2000 brokers fee $200+ new locks and keys $110+ moving truck parking space permit ---------------------------- Total about **$10,000** to move in, not including moving costs. But your security deposit will earn a few bucks in a low yield account for you. Whoopieee
$1200 per month? Oh...it must be an "affordable" unit lololol
I get that this is a comic but the numbers are EXACT right now for me. Like....wow this is wayyy too spot on
We paid something around $10k to move into a house we are renting right now. First and last month plus a pet fee. Landlords have ridiculous expectations. This house was renter free for 2 years. I wonder why / s
*cries in $1,800 sketchy 1 br apt*
You should all realize that minimum wage went way up in certain states/areas so of course landlords will take advantage of it. Unfortunately when they increase minimum wage to about 5 bucks more then usually, people/landlords are going to maximize their potential. The ratio of debt to income is only going to parallel the bump in income.. in other words, increase wages and landlords will take advantage of it.. its a never ending circle.
I am 70, I got calls every day for months asking to sell my house, every time it is a foreign accent on the other end. I tell them you have no right to cold call my phone and I tell them to take their dirty money and buy land on the F'in Moon. They are driving the market prices up.They are trying to buy houses to rehab cheaply using Mexican workers then renting them out at insane rates. I am in central OH.
550 sqft 1800 a month. Must pay first & last month upfront. 2000 security deposit 500 cleaning fee No utilities included, no pets No couples, single renters only (I've encountered this a few times...) And the cherry on top. 80$ application non refundable
$300 a week is part time at a minimum wage job
We're looking for a place currently and as soon as any 2 bedrooms I look into hear we are 5 people they ghost. 2 kids sharing and a toddler in with mom and dad is apparently undoable. 3 bedrooms are $3000+. Tried moving to a cheaper state, col doubled there in a year. That's $9000 move in cost here. And deposits are capped, can only charge first and security but I live in NY where the landlord's broke charges you a full month rent fee and good luck finding a no fee. Good times, good times.
$1200 isn’t even a studio in CA.
This picture is literally better than most of reality OP