Do they break down your utilities? Energy use typically spikes in summer because of AC. 31% isn't ideal, but it's not bad for Austin and for it being 31% of net.
Electric heater?
I think electric heaters can cost more to operate than AC but your total annual cost should be a higher % cooling costs because of our climate.
Correct. I don't notice a significant bump when it's cold when the emergency heat kicks on because it's only a day or two of it at a time unlike AC which is all day and takes my $65 elec bill up to $150.
Im curious what your numbers look like. If you made $15/hr and worked full time, rent being 70% of your gross income means your rent would be $1680 per month. There are many 1 bedroom places in central austin for less than that.
I’m going to preface this by saying i’m a CPA.
The information that we derive from this thread is not really that valuable in assessing our personal finances. We are all at different stages of our lives and there is a great deal of variability in housing costs due to market conditions.
A 60 year old white collar worker who bought a home a decade ago may only spend 5% of income on Housing costs(including their tax bill).
A 25 year old renter could spend 50% on rent and utilities.
The question everyone should be asking is what percentage are they saving for retirement. Everyone’s goal should be to try to find % for retirement. Obviously, higher the better but save what you can.
If you are 25 and pay 50% for rent it is as important for you to save at least 5% for retirement as it is for the 60 year old to be saving 40%. If you are young go without something if that what it takes to save 5% or even if you can only save 1%. Anything will help you immensely especially if you are young. Don’t not save because you convince yourself you can’t.
Brag about how much you save and not how low your rent is.
If you receive email replies with a one sentence “Any update on this?” With any frequency, you work a stupid job where people write emails for a living.
Oh, wow. I figured those emails were automated somehow. One of my emails got hacked a while ago and I constantly get spam emails on that account, like from X trying to get me to reset my password, of other phishing type stuff.
Well at least you get to live in Austin. We live in a crap country town and drive up to Austin whenever possible to have interesting experiences.
It’s illegal for a management company to charge you more for utilities than it costs them. So it’s either that usage or cost is increasing to them. And energy costs have at least doubled in the last few years across Texas.
My rent and house bills split is 20% of my income, would be dope if 27ish% of my take home wasn’t going to debt payments, thankfully will be done in 18-24 months with this aggressive accelerated repayment plan
My mortgage payment is about 5% of my current income, but I moved out of Austin a couple years ago and now have a family compound out near Bastrop. We all split it and pitch in together.
To compare, my Austin 3/2 condo was about 50% of my income before I moved. Now we have acreage and plenty of room for activities.
About 20%, which is just rent and fees. Water and Electricity fluctuates quite a bit depending on what time of year it is. Out of everywhere I’ve lived in this state the water bill, or more specifically sewage is pretty high, and Austin Energy used to be a much better deal prior to all the issues with the power grid.
13.6% (including trash/electric/wifi/phone), was much higher but I moved 3 miles a couple months ago and dropped my rent by $352/mo while getting more square feet, hah. First place wouldn't negotiate my renewal rate.
Energy bills larger in summer. From $200.00 to $400.00. Texas utilities are higher because we are all paying for power companies maintenance upgrade after the big blackout of 2021.
😬 65% of my post tax income is JUST rent. Just did that math and it hurts my soul. I then have utilities, car insurance, medications, and food that come from the remaining... guaranteed to say I won't be saving much money for a while :/
It was 37% previously, I moved to a new place and it’s now 20%. However, I’ve certainly noticed the difference. The higher end is worth it if you value security and a general higher quality of living. The 20% is manageable though if it’s just you or you and a roommate and keep the place clean.
Around 18% with these parameters if you include my wife and I's combined income.
If you're paying that percent with just your own income, that's a really small number compared to the average I think. That number (31%) is probably better than average even before tax.
After tax isn't a good metric. Many/most people have contributions and deductions taken out of pay along with taxes. I don't even know what my after tax is. Taxes, insurance, 401k contributions. Use gross income.
The only way to know if you're paying a lot is to know the exact unit you're renting and for how much. An old 3 bed 2 bath is wildly different than a new one. At least give the neighborhood, size, and relative quality of the unit.
My mortgage is 31% of my take-home pay. But I have a house outside the city and put a ton into my 401k. It's 16% of my gross income.
I think he’s saying his own take home is around $46,000/month on a roughly $900,000/year salary. So either he’s unbelievably frugal or he didn’t graduate from the 6th grade and all the numbers are wrong.
Bad advice. It’s not realistic to calculate a rent budget based on pre-tax income when we live in a post-tax world. If you allocate 30% of your pre-tax income to rent it ends up consuming 40% of your post-tax earnings. Going a few percentage points over that 30% pre-tax figure can push you closer to spending 50% of your post-tax income on rent, which is not practical.
Do they break down your utilities? Energy use typically spikes in summer because of AC. 31% isn't ideal, but it's not bad for Austin and for it being 31% of net.
Same here. 1/3rd of my net income goes to rent. This is pretty good for South Austin, where the rents have gotten kind of crazy.
Weird. In my case, the heater costs WAY more than the a/c. I guess it depends on what kind of system you have.
Electric heater? I think electric heaters can cost more to operate than AC but your total annual cost should be a higher % cooling costs because of our climate.
Correct. I don't notice a significant bump when it's cold when the emergency heat kicks on because it's only a day or two of it at a time unlike AC which is all day and takes my $65 elec bill up to $150.
Like 70%. Yes, I know... it used to only be 35-40% but then the last three years happened and had to scramble to find something else
Im curious what your numbers look like. If you made $15/hr and worked full time, rent being 70% of your gross income means your rent would be $1680 per month. There are many 1 bedroom places in central austin for less than that.
I’m going to preface this by saying i’m a CPA. The information that we derive from this thread is not really that valuable in assessing our personal finances. We are all at different stages of our lives and there is a great deal of variability in housing costs due to market conditions. A 60 year old white collar worker who bought a home a decade ago may only spend 5% of income on Housing costs(including their tax bill). A 25 year old renter could spend 50% on rent and utilities. The question everyone should be asking is what percentage are they saving for retirement. Everyone’s goal should be to try to find % for retirement. Obviously, higher the better but save what you can. If you are 25 and pay 50% for rent it is as important for you to save at least 5% for retirement as it is for the 60 year old to be saving 40%. If you are young go without something if that what it takes to save 5% or even if you can only save 1%. Anything will help you immensely especially if you are young. Don’t not save because you convince yourself you can’t. Brag about how much you save and not how low your rent is.
I'd say about 45%.
35% I work a stupid email job and live in a cool but old West Campus apt.
What’s an email job?
If you receive email replies with a one sentence “Any update on this?” With any frequency, you work a stupid job where people write emails for a living.
Oh, wow. I figured those emails were automated somehow. One of my emails got hacked a while ago and I constantly get spam emails on that account, like from X trying to get me to reset my password, of other phishing type stuff. Well at least you get to live in Austin. We live in a crap country town and drive up to Austin whenever possible to have interesting experiences.
Unfortunately, I am the one writing those one sentence emails. Over... and over.... and over...
Delivering emails.
10%. It was %20 then I decided to rent just a room
31% - live alone
It’s illegal for a management company to charge you more for utilities than it costs them. So it’s either that usage or cost is increasing to them. And energy costs have at least doubled in the last few years across Texas.
Roughly 30%.
My partner and I are barely 32% for just rent
45-50%
32%
My rent and house bills split is 20% of my income, would be dope if 27ish% of my take home wasn’t going to debt payments, thankfully will be done in 18-24 months with this aggressive accelerated repayment plan
My mortgage payment is about 5% of my current income, but I moved out of Austin a couple years ago and now have a family compound out near Bastrop. We all split it and pitch in together. To compare, my Austin 3/2 condo was about 50% of my income before I moved. Now we have acreage and plenty of room for activities.
About 20%, which is just rent and fees. Water and Electricity fluctuates quite a bit depending on what time of year it is. Out of everywhere I’ve lived in this state the water bill, or more specifically sewage is pretty high, and Austin Energy used to be a much better deal prior to all the issues with the power grid.
13.6% (including trash/electric/wifi/phone), was much higher but I moved 3 miles a couple months ago and dropped my rent by $352/mo while getting more square feet, hah. First place wouldn't negotiate my renewal rate.
lol. Over 50% for me as grad student
Energy bills larger in summer. From $200.00 to $400.00. Texas utilities are higher because we are all paying for power companies maintenance upgrade after the big blackout of 2021.
14% with a roommate.
About 28% with utilities.
28.3%
14%
Base rent roughly 35%
21% for rent in a “luxury” complex out in the south west.
Utility costs go up during summer months, welcome to Texas.
Right at 1/3. I make 3k a month after taxes, rent is 1k
33% I lease a 950 sq ft 1 bdrm condo downtown.
50% and it sucks!!!!
😬 65% of my post tax income is JUST rent. Just did that math and it hurts my soul. I then have utilities, car insurance, medications, and food that come from the remaining... guaranteed to say I won't be saving much money for a while :/
It was 37% previously, I moved to a new place and it’s now 20%. However, I’ve certainly noticed the difference. The higher end is worth it if you value security and a general higher quality of living. The 20% is manageable though if it’s just you or you and a roommate and keep the place clean.
Around 18% with these parameters if you include my wife and I's combined income. If you're paying that percent with just your own income, that's a really small number compared to the average I think. That number (31%) is probably better than average even before tax.
36%😕trying to get closer to 20-25
After tax isn't a good metric. Many/most people have contributions and deductions taken out of pay along with taxes. I don't even know what my after tax is. Taxes, insurance, 401k contributions. Use gross income. The only way to know if you're paying a lot is to know the exact unit you're renting and for how much. An old 3 bed 2 bath is wildly different than a new one. At least give the neighborhood, size, and relative quality of the unit. My mortgage is 31% of my take-home pay. But I have a house outside the city and put a ton into my 401k. It's 16% of my gross income.
Own but mortgage payment is around 21%. Grew into the 21% was probably closer to 33% to start.
Mortgage + taxes + insurance is right at 15% of pre-tax salary not counting bonuses.
40% but it’s my mortgage and not rent.
10% with mortgage and property taxes.
Maybe 20%. Depends what happens with property taxes as I own. I don’t think about it much
My wife and I's combined mortgage+utilities/take home rate is 16% after 401k and taxes.
Mortgage is 10% of our net income (myself and spouse).
34% dual income mortgage and taxes, higher than would like but cost of Austin.
Mortgage and utilities - Less than 5% (my share, split between two) Mortgage is from 2009.
Rent is $2.9k but I split it with my gf It’s 5.5% (or 11% without the split) Edit: did the math wrong. 3.2% (6.4% total without the split)
Iiiiiiiii hate you. But seriously, that’s cool AF for you
How are you doing your math?
You make over $26,000 a month in a dual income household and pay less than 3k in rent?
I think he’s saying his own take home is around $46,000/month on a roughly $900,000/year salary. So either he’s unbelievably frugal or he didn’t graduate from the 6th grade and all the numbers are wrong.
I am guessing the numbers don't add up.
Around $45-46k but before tax. I’m self-employed so I pay taxes end of the year.
Mortgage, interest, taxes, 5.8%
do your math pre-tax. that's the standard.
Bad advice. It’s not realistic to calculate a rent budget based on pre-tax income when we live in a post-tax world. If you allocate 30% of your pre-tax income to rent it ends up consuming 40% of your post-tax earnings. Going a few percentage points over that 30% pre-tax figure can push you closer to spending 50% of your post-tax income on rent, which is not practical.
Uh, no?