How much of your income do you spend on rent?

[eLiu]

Hi folks,
For those of you who rent (esp students), how much of your income do you spend on rent? A percentage would probably be the best basis for comparison. I'm going to be a grad student in the fall and I'm trying to get a feel for what's reasonable.

I mean I don't plan on owning a car, there's a school medical plan, and I have a fellowship. So some of the huge expenses aren't issues. So my expenses should really amount to food + school stuff (e.g. books) + housing + savings.

But I'm curious as to how most people balance these costs in their lives.

Edit: I guess I'd like to hear about it if you have a mortgage too. My original thinking was that owning is somewhat different, since your house/condo/whatever will hopefully be worth something whereas money spent on rent is just gone.

 

[jlee]

money spent on rent is just gone.

Yes and no - you're not building equity, but you're also not paying property taxes, interest on a mortgage, maintenance / repair of the property, etc. It's not always a bad deal, especially if you're not looking to stay somewhere long-term.

 

[njmodi]

So when I was a grad student, I used to spend ~40% on rent... now I'm working, own a house, I spend < 25% on my mortgage payments... (all %s relative to monthly income).

 

[legoman666]

I have no income at the moment and I spend $425 on rent.

 

[mykol1010]

14% of combined take-home household income goes towards paying the rent.

 

[HyTekJosh]

Most people I know in NYC spend approx 1/2 of their pay.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Living by myself - about 20%

 

[JoeKing]

~25% with wife

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: njmodi
So when I was a grad student, I used to spend ~40% on rent... now I'm working, own a house, I spend < 25% on my mortgage payments... (all %s relative to monthly income).

This is pretty close to what I estimated...

But some other folks here seem to manage with a lot less. Is that a function of where you live? I'm not sure I can find a reasonable apartment in the Boston/Cambridge area for <25% of my monthly income, lol.

(reasonable = close to the T, not too crappy neighborhood, nearby supermarket doesn't hurt)

 

[yllus]

24.8% of my monthly take-home goes to rent. This is in Toronto, Canada.

 

[Sink41]

30%. However a lot of my income is student loan which will need to be paid back at some point in time

 

[nageov3t]

I just hit that magic 33% of my take-home...

so, after taxes, health care, and my 401K, I'm spending about a third of my real income on rent.

it's something like 20% of my gross pay

 

[shocksyde]

23%

 

[Mr Pickles]

20 percent. 60 percent to Beer. The rest to toys.

 

[bobsmith1492]

15.8% - not that I make that much money, it's just that this apartment is dirt cheap.

 

[Pepsi90919]

0%

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Considering I pay about $260/mo and have no income, the % doesn't really pan out, but my rent is preeeeeetty low.

 

[Mungla]

$100k 30yr mortgage and I spend about 18% of my take home income on it. Not bad for a 24 y/o.

 

[ElFenix]

~6%

i'm working on getting that down to ~5%

 

[Penth]

6%

 

[GiggleGirl]

i pay about 34% of my income i guess.... then again, i dont make a shit ton of money.

and guy, i have some friends who had to live in cambridge/boston for school, ill ask if they know of any places you might look into

 

[dennilfloss]

~70%.

 

[FDF12389]

<----- Full time student.

I rent for 500 a month, and my monthly income in about 2200 after taxes. if i didnt have to pay for school I would probably spend more.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
~70%.

McDonalds?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

25% of my income goes to rent. 15% if you go by my family income (my wife and I).