I'm personally sick and tired of paying rent. I'm fortunate enough that I'm only paying $685/mo. for a one bedroom with a patio and a semi attached garage (access from front patio). I've lived here since 1998 while going to school and I have graduated since. It is a ghetto-fabulous neighborhood but I'm lucky to live in a quiet block. I have a friend who is looking for a place around Laguna Beach, California right now and all he finds are $800-900 single, roommate needed, or a room in a house. With the end of school loans not nearly in sight, how do you all afford your rent, or mortgage? How much do you pay for rent and in what city? Any imaginative alternative other than living in the NYU library?
$425/mo in savannah with 1 roommate
not in the nicest area of the historic district, but what's a girl to do?
how do i afford it? take out more student loans!!
personally, i would live in the NYU library. i've thought about abandoning my hopes for an apartment and just living permanently in the architecture building at SCAD, but i think that my friends would eventually get tired of me using their showers...
$688 for a dump in Detroit. with all the new lofts going up hopefully i can sneak into one for a good price. Detroit might not be the best city in the world, but it has alot to offer in urban renuwal and it beats gehry indiana.
Straight out of school, with loans due, I was paying 1/3 of a $500 rental house in waaaay south Philly. A crappy neighborhood, but straight out of school what else can you afford? Now I'm paying half of a $1000 mortgage in a nice neighborhood that 5 years ago when I bought the house was borderline crack dens. A friend just bought on my same neighborhood, she paid 3x what I paid for my place. Investing in a place that's sure to come up is a good idea.
i don't know how other people do it so i'm talking strickly from personal experience + i'm a little maticulous in my record keeping.
when i was looking for a house, it seemed impossible. my car was falling apart so i needed a new one and i wanted to buy a house (for more reasons than one). what i did was track EVERY PENNY i earned and spent for several months so i could get an accurate cross section of where i spent my money and what bills were necessary. before this though i STOPPED using credit cards. those things are pure evil.
as i was collecting this data, i was putting them in different catagories. after i had enough data, i allocated budgets for each (groceries, eating out, entertainment, each bill, misc., clothing, savings, gas, travel, gifts and events, etc.). this is done each month. it's amazing to look at what i spent my money on: tons of eating out and useless crap like cd's and magazines. i enter data at mid month and end-of month (when i get paid, i pay bills once a month).
once i looked at the numbers and cut back on certain things, stopped using credit cards and saved a little, i found that i could afford something and all of a sudden the task of buying a house didn't seem so daunting.
the moral of the story: track your spending and allocate budgets. run your house like you'd run a business. after all, it has to stay solvent and in the black just like a business, otherwise it goes out of business(in a domestic model, that means in bad debt). disposable income is huge when you analyse the data.
i found out that i was able to buy a new truck and then about 6 months later, i bought a house. it was a struggle at first, but much easier now. it helps that i live in a relatively cheap city (portland, or) and make a reasonable wage (due to experience and a good firm).
several of the younger (and single) staff at my office own houses or townhomes.
it's harder to own when you're single, but still doable in certain cities.
Take a look at Interest Only loans. You pay only the interest on the loan for a set number of years before actually paying down the prinicipal of the loan. You don't build up much equity, but if the house appreciates, you take that gain. The trick is to sell before the principal payments kick in - then your mortgage skyrockets.
L.A. suburbs - $2,250/mo for my guest house. It's a killer to have to write that check every month, but on the upside the guest house is great, so no complaints.. Downside, I drive at least an hour to and from work - ugh.
RENT.....NOT the musical
I'm personally sick and tired of paying rent. I'm fortunate enough that I'm only paying $685/mo. for a one bedroom with a patio and a semi attached garage (access from front patio). I've lived here since 1998 while going to school and I have graduated since. It is a ghetto-fabulous neighborhood but I'm lucky to live in a quiet block. I have a friend who is looking for a place around Laguna Beach, California right now and all he finds are $800-900 single, roommate needed, or a room in a house. With the end of school loans not nearly in sight, how do you all afford your rent, or mortgage? How much do you pay for rent and in what city? Any imaginative alternative other than living in the NYU library?
I am redesigning my mom's kitchen in exchange for some spare change to pay the rent.
$425/mo in savannah with 1 roommate
not in the nicest area of the historic district, but what's a girl to do?
how do i afford it? take out more student loans!!
personally, i would live in the NYU library. i've thought about abandoning my hopes for an apartment and just living permanently in the architecture building at SCAD, but i think that my friends would eventually get tired of me using their showers...
$688 for a dump in Detroit. with all the new lofts going up hopefully i can sneak into one for a good price. Detroit might not be the best city in the world, but it has alot to offer in urban renuwal and it beats gehry indiana.
Straight out of school, with loans due, I was paying 1/3 of a $500 rental house in waaaay south Philly. A crappy neighborhood, but straight out of school what else can you afford? Now I'm paying half of a $1000 mortgage in a nice neighborhood that 5 years ago when I bought the house was borderline crack dens. A friend just bought on my same neighborhood, she paid 3x what I paid for my place. Investing in a place that's sure to come up is a good idea.
1250/mo. 1000sf with parking warehouse district new orleans
i don't know how other people do it so i'm talking strickly from personal experience + i'm a little maticulous in my record keeping.
when i was looking for a house, it seemed impossible. my car was falling apart so i needed a new one and i wanted to buy a house (for more reasons than one). what i did was track EVERY PENNY i earned and spent for several months so i could get an accurate cross section of where i spent my money and what bills were necessary. before this though i STOPPED using credit cards. those things are pure evil.
as i was collecting this data, i was putting them in different catagories. after i had enough data, i allocated budgets for each (groceries, eating out, entertainment, each bill, misc., clothing, savings, gas, travel, gifts and events, etc.). this is done each month. it's amazing to look at what i spent my money on: tons of eating out and useless crap like cd's and magazines. i enter data at mid month and end-of month (when i get paid, i pay bills once a month).
once i looked at the numbers and cut back on certain things, stopped using credit cards and saved a little, i found that i could afford something and all of a sudden the task of buying a house didn't seem so daunting.
the moral of the story: track your spending and allocate budgets. run your house like you'd run a business. after all, it has to stay solvent and in the black just like a business, otherwise it goes out of business(in a domestic model, that means in bad debt). disposable income is huge when you analyse the data.
i found out that i was able to buy a new truck and then about 6 months later, i bought a house. it was a struggle at first, but much easier now. it helps that i live in a relatively cheap city (portland, or) and make a reasonable wage (due to experience and a good firm).
several of the younger (and single) staff at my office own houses or townhomes.
it's harder to own when you're single, but still doable in certain cities.
Take a look at Interest Only loans. You pay only the interest on the loan for a set number of years before actually paying down the prinicipal of the loan. You don't build up much equity, but if the house appreciates, you take that gain. The trick is to sell before the principal payments kick in - then your mortgage skyrockets.
L.A. suburbs - $2,250/mo for my guest house. It's a killer to have to write that check every month, but on the upside the guest house is great, so no complaints.. Downside, I drive at least an hour to and from work - ugh.
$220 a month with 3 roommates. best part of boise to live in...but who would want to be in idaho?
I would pay $220 to NOT be in IDAHO!!! I'm just kiddin' .....NOT!!!
I have an extra room in my apt. so I decided to rent it in order to lower my living expenses by half. (up until last year I used it as a big closet).
In addition, my girlfriend has her own place as well which allows us more possibilities as of where to crash at the end of the day.
uptown vs.downtown kind of thing!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.