Personal Finance

This is just not realistic.

Using the median home price is severely underestimating the cost of a decent home in an okay neighborhood.

With these salaries, you can afford a house that needs severe repairs or in either an unsafe or really inconvenient area.

I bought a house in one of these cities in 2017 with slightly more than what they say is the required salary. It was 195k with 4.5%. The school district reassessed the house from the sale, my taxes skyrocketed, and my mortgage increased $600 a month. I ended up selling the house after 3 years to move in my parents with 25k in credit card debt.

Today, that house would cost at least 300k and interest rates are around 8%. I’ve almost tripled my salary since then and my budget is probably max 330k.

At current interest rates, 5% down, and an 800 credit score, you're monthly piti is still like 2,700. Assuming you make that 92k/yr, and are traded at 22%, you're monthly take home is 5900. That's 45 percent of your monthly income. "Affordability" is for dinner heavy lifting here

required salary for fucking 30 years

They should have also included some rural areas' home buying prices for perspective against the absurd cost of living in a large city.

Here's my data to add to the list: bought my house last decade in a rural area, while I was making about $45000 annually, mortgage cost per month is literally off the chart at under $800/mo.

The sadistic choice of the US:

Barely scrape by in "luxury cities" where non-millionaires are an afterthought. But at least you'll have an easier time meeting fellow "undesirables".

Have slightly more money that will mostly just go to paying for a car to traverse car-dependent hell...but you have to have vapid neo-nazis for neighbors.