this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
269 points (97.2% liked)

News

23287 readers
4812 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

One in 4 middle-income new homeowners — twice as many as a decade before — are buying into cost-burdened situations.

The share of middle-class Americans who are buying wallet-squeezing homes has more than doubled in the previous 10 years.

Almost 30% of middle-class homeowners bought homes with monthly payments costing more than 30% of their income in 2022, an NBC News analysis of Census Bureau data found. That’s more than twice the share from 2013, with experts warning it leaves many households with less money for groceries and emergencies and less able to get ahead in the future.

That “cost-burdened” benchmark — in which a household devotes over 30% of income to housing costs — is a widely used measure of affordability for both homeownership and renting. The Census Bureau measures housing costs against it, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has used it for decades.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

When the options are rent you can barely afford or a mortgage you can barely afford ,the choice is obvious .

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 33 points 1 month ago

More importantly, can you lock in a mortgage payment that won't change much, vs. a rent that may skyrocket in the next 6 months? And sometimes a mortgage can be less than rent (although there are other costs to be considered). In our situation we were very lucky to be able to leverage money and jump on a house before things got stupid, and if we hadn't taken that jump I'm not sure where we'd be right now since rent prices got crazy while we're now still paying a decent monthly price.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Then there's the unlucky few like myself who are perpetually single and stuck in a state where I spend half my income on renting someone's garage, but a house would be almost 80% of it...

I literally just hit an income level where I could start looking for a house and then fucking COVID ruined everything...

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone -5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Rent, where someone else is held responsible for maintenance and plumbing/electrical work and landscaping? Maintenance ain't cheap.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

My landlord doesn’t fix shit

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It can be, especially if you have steady tenants.

I know ex landlords of mine that barely had to pay out anything over the course of years, while they made 5 figures/year.

Even as a home owner, you can have a string of luck. I have relatives with 20 year old water heaters going strong.

[–] Zikeji@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

My HVAC is 25 years old and going strong. Only quirks it has is the airflow sensor needs to be blown (haha) once in the winter. Only maintenance outside of the usual I've done is replace the fan capacitor.

My water heater is about 10 years old but one of the perks of my gas utility is a water heater warranty so when it comes time to replace or repair part of the cost will be covered.

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Condos are a happy in-between, where the COA handles anything outside of your studs, including the roof and landscaping. My condo even has free water and the pipes and tank are maintained by the COA. Free heat too. All I need to worry about is the electrical.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's no different than paying for home maintenance as you're just paying monthly into a pool of money to be used for repairs which is then handled by the condo board. This can also have drawbacks as that money can be mismanaged or wildly underfunded.

In Miami, they've passed a law saying all condo buildings need a structural inspections and repairs after a building collapsed recently. Many of these condo owners are getting massive 5 or 6 figure bills when structural damage is discovered. This is a really bad spot to be in since you likely can't sell the condo if the new buyer discovers that they'll need to fork over $100k on top of the purchase price and if you don't have the money you can be foreclosed on by the COA.

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

That's a very valid point. It's crucial to do due diligence before buying into a condo, especially in an older building.

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, but don’t kid yourself thinking that shit is free.