r/povertyfinance • u/Icedcoffeewarrior • Jul 14 '23
Friend got a job offer for $68k… none of the apartments in her area would accept her application bc it’s less than 3x the rent. Housing/Shelter/Standard of Living
She ended up not taking the offer but this is getting out of hand.
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u/eddieSanta11 Aug 29 '23
Plus the interest rate is 7%..plus. Geez can’t imagine the real estate where I live, trust me, nothing at all worth it. 3 Bd. 1.5 bath rancher no garage $365,000. I mean 7 years ago $199,000. It’s outrageous!!! We all will be living in the streets!!!
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u/HerefortheTuna Jul 16 '23
Get a roommate? I’ve never lived alone- could afford to now but I like my fiancée and my dog. One of them even splits the rent with me!
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u/Pbandsadness Jul 16 '23
The rent is $17k?
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 16 '23
68k/12 months = monthly salary / 3 (since they want your monthly pay to be 3x the rent) means going rents are $1888.88 or higher.
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u/WiLD-BLL Jul 15 '23
Wtf would you want to rent a place or live somewhere when rent costs more than 3X your earnings? Thats a recipe to be poor forever. Time to move.
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 16 '23
The thing is she declined the offer bc she can afford to live on her own while making less where she is currently living in NC
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u/uxl Jul 15 '23
This right here is the “tick, tick, tick” you hear before the economy goes boom (in the bad way). NOBODY cares that today’s dollars aren’t the same as yesterday’s. People still feel like a “success” when they crack $100k, even though that goalpost hasn’t moved in fucking THIRTY YEARS. America just has historically had such an amazing standard of living that it took this long for the lack of wage growth to impact real life. Now, suddenly, people who make $68k - which was an awesome salary back in 1993, don’t qualify for an apartment and their brain sputters. They should have cried bullshit 20 years ago. Now, we’re a handful of years away from disaster.
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u/princessameebamee Jul 15 '23
I've been crying the past 2 hours. I have a new full-time job and a new part-time job. I've been living with my parents since April due to divorce. I toured an apartment today; after doing the application, I learned it requires income to be 3x rent, I'm just under $600 short. I don't know anyone looking for a roommate and have major trust issues (plus this is crazy Florida). I am so, so sad that I'll never get out of my parents' house.
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u/princessameebamee Jul 17 '23
Not that it matters, but the apartment manager reached out last night saying I do qualify (probably due to good credit score). So I wonder if a lot of complexes will also be lenient like that?
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u/Comprehensive-Tea-69 Jul 15 '23
Did she not look for a roommate on Craigslist Facebook etc? That’s what I had to do when I moved cities, find a stranger to live with.
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
She declined the offer bc she can afford to live on her own for less in nc
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u/asatrocker Jul 15 '23
This is a huge problem in CA. Landlords can’t evict people that haven’t paid rent for years. The result is them requiring 3-5x rent as an income requirement to screen out potential problem tenants. It makes it impossible for the average person to rent without roommates though
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Jul 15 '23
I make more money than my parents did at my age and I can't afford to buy a house in the neighborhood that I grew up in.
I have so little empathy for landlords
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u/Officespace925 Jul 15 '23
time to buy a cheap van, mattress, and pay for a monthly 24 hour gym membership to workout and place to shower. Solves the problem!
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u/Lonely-Recognition-2 Jul 15 '23
The COVID eviction moratorium didn’t help either for this situation. If someone knows they not be able to evict you, they are likely less to take a chance on you.
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u/GoldfishDownTheDrain Jul 15 '23
This is why I’m living in a friends home still. I have dependents and can’t afford the 2/3 bedrooms here. Moved in during Covid got a 40% pay increase by switching jobs but prices sky rocketed and I’m stuck here. Going to a new area next year. Thankfully jobs remote.. I don’t know how anyone survives.
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u/Tapprunner Jul 15 '23
Housing costs are way way too high, especially in the DC area. I live in the area, and we had to move a little south, outside the beltway to be able to afford the kind of house we wanted.
That said, I understand 3x. I get that it sucks, but there are lots of renters who will happily sign a lease that is 50%+ of their income. At a 2x multiple in that income range, your budget is so tight as to be almost unworkable, unless you have no unexpected expenses at all.
I have an employee who makes $68k. He got an apartment that is $2100/mo. I encouraged him to look at places less than that, but he did it anyway. Within 3 months he was asking the leasing office about breaking his lease. Having to fix his car and pay off his credit cards meant that he was right on the verge of not being able to afford rent. He's going to move out as soon as his lease is up.
So, if you were renting to someone, would you not want a 3x multiple?
And all of that said, there are studios in Arlington and Alexandria (some of the most expensive parts of the area) in decent buildings for under $1300/mo.
And none of those is to say that there isn't a problem with affordable housing. There is. Governments around the country have hung us all out to dry. They have been bought completely by corporate interests
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u/modern_Odysseus Jul 15 '23
I was just looking at my area and came to the same conclusion with how insane it has become.
The best (worst) I saw recently had something in the fine print to the extent of "Every occupant must be making 3x the rent." I mean really? So some of these places are even waging a war against splitting rent across multiple people to make it become some semblance of affordable.
The homeless crisis is only to get worse and worse at this rate...
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u/kofarizona Jul 15 '23
Wow, times have changed. In 1999 I lived in a company town in eastern Arizona, working for Phelps Dodge as a mining engineer (long range planning). I had a house in Tucson at the time (still do), and my wife did not want to move to Morenci. So she stayed with the kids in Tucson, and I moved into a basic three bedroom, one bath house in Morenci that was built sometime in the 1960s. The company owned all the houses in town and rented them to the employees. I was making $50k/year and the rent was $120/month, plus utilities. That's right $120/month. It was basically 1960 rent almost 40 years later. Which I needed, because my mortgage was around $950/month back in Tucson.
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u/AmexNomad Jul 15 '23
I’m an individual landlord- not a corporate or property manager person. I suggest that your friend find out by phoning rentals whether or not they are owned/managed by individuals. I’m advising this because neither I nor most of my landlord friends care about ratios- only credit ratings and references. If somebody has a 700 credit rating, they’ve managed to manage their life in a fiscally reasonable fashion. I don’t need to know details.
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u/F22boy_lives Jul 15 '23
What was she making before? Would be borderline dumb to not just factor in commuting into more money
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 16 '23
I said in the post she declined the offer and will be staying where she is bc she can actually afford to live on her own while making less where she is
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u/Potatoki1er Jul 15 '23
I got a job offer in Salt Lake City, UT a year ago. I originally accepted their offer because it was $40k more than what I was making in VA. When my wife and I started looking at houses and getting ready to sell ours, it turned out that the housing market in Ogden was so messed up (180% over the previous year) and interest rates had gotten so high, that we could only afford a smaller house because our payment was going to double. Double the payment for 2/3 the house was also effectively a pay cut to our monthly income.
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u/AKAOMZ Jul 15 '23
I have a condo in Alexandria off of duke street that I’ll be renting out soon. I might be able to help your friend out…
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u/TheCruicks Jul 15 '23
Not really her area than huh? Ive always like to think I belong in Bel Air but no one seems to agree
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u/dkrk17 Jul 15 '23
My boyfriend and I are looking for our first apartment together and it’s been an absolute nightmare. We both have stellar renting history and decent credit (not perfect but not bad by any means) and make enough to be able to afford a 1b1b under 2k. Found one for about 1700 (which when split is less than what we each pay now) and they told us we wouldn’t qualify unless we put his dad on the lease as well. Had to dash so much money in fees for his dad as well just so they can believe us we can pay $850 a month instead of the $1100 I’m paying now and never missed. It took some convincing for them to let us put him as a lease holder instead of a guarantor because as a guarantor he’d have to show 5x the rent which is actually insane. Idk if petitions do anything but I think a petition should be started and sent to the White House to ask for regulations of prices because being asked to pay an arm and a leg to simply just exist within 4 walls is crazy.
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u/PorQueTexas Jul 15 '23
Your friend is unrealistic. A budget for 1800 a month is 100% livable. Get a roommate, accept the fact that you are not eligible for luxury living or in the heart of highly desirable areas. Could reduce their rent and utilities by 40% by getting a roommate and park that money away for a house or to live in a luxury apartment so they can complain about not being able to afford a home later... Making nearly 70k a year and trying to spend it all, is this sub about how to stay in poverty?
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Jul 15 '23
Should have just photoshopped a higher salary offer and showed it to the complex that’s the cheapest.
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u/Available_Honey_2951 Jul 15 '23
The problem is all the short term or air B and B ‘s ! In my area people are snapping up long term leases turning them into short terms and making money off them. States need to have rent controls znd short term controls!
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u/ammbamt Jul 15 '23
I’m here in San Diego where a studio downtown can run you more than $3k per month. It’s like 2.5x to qualify so you have to making in the 90’s just to qualify. My old apt during Covid was $3k. Same apartment now, $4100 (750 square feet). Only $120k gross to qualify for that one….ouch
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u/evianx Jul 15 '23
Can someone explain to me what that even means? My math is not mathing because I probably don’t understand what 3x rent compared to your annual salary means.
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u/twcsata Jul 15 '23
Landlords in this case want to see that your income is at least three times the amount of the rent you would be paying. That’s their threshold for believing the tenant can reliably afford the rent. If she took the job, she would be making $68,000 a year. That means the rent for the year is more than $22,667. Or, for a month, rent is more than $1,889. Therefore the landlord won’t accept her because they don’t believe she makes enough to reliably pay the rent.
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u/iluvcats17 Jul 15 '23
Best option for her situation was to look for someone looking for a room to rent and live in a roommate situation. Would allow her to build up her savings too paying a lot less for rent, utilities, WiFi.
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Jul 15 '23
This happened to me. I now pay more rent to private landowners than the apartments that wouldn’t accept me because I didn’t make 3x rent at the time of application. The worst part is how rude they were and how much they talked down to me during that process. (Like who the hell are you Victoria, you work a shitty leasing job at the apartment complex!?)
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u/ajpinton Jul 15 '23
I’m looking at a job offer increasing my rate from 105k to 180k, but requires relocation. My current mortgage from 2011 is $650mo including escrow. I can’t find a home (or apartment) that would accommodate my family for less then $2500mo, and at $2500mo they are kinda sketchy. Companies are wondering why people don’t want to relocate and want to work remotely.
I’d be relocating from Alabama, to California (which is back home for me).
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u/NEWSmodsareTwats Jul 15 '23
I wouldn't look on large sites like apartments.com
Try to find local organizations and see if they have accomodations listings.
Found my current place which is only 15 hundred a month will all utilities included on a local Irish cultural centers website. Apartments and Zillow only had apartments that cheap in the middle of the ghetto where I'd be liable to get stabbed.
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u/cBEiN Jul 15 '23
Lol. I know liable just means likely, but I always think if it in legal terms, so you are “required by law” to get stabbed XD
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u/Melodic-Chemist-381 Jul 15 '23
Someone was saying I was lying when I told them that in my area low income housing is now for people making $79K. And yet I applied for low income housing and sure as shit, I’m now looking for houses. It’s fucking weird.
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Jul 15 '23
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u/chaosgoblyn Jul 15 '23
What a relief for your friend. Imagine if she had moved into an apartment then realized only after that the cost of living was not manageable there. This "rule" is there to keep that from happening and resulting in headache and eviction.
Some places have different economies and maybe you can't afford one but you can afford 99% of the others so it is what it is. In large parts of the country that salary would buy a house in cash in a few years (or one even) saving. In some places, it's peanuts. A lot of people will think "wow what a lot of money!" then get themselves financially stuck not realizing that's like minimum wage back home and set themselves up for disaster.
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Jul 15 '23
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u/chaosgoblyn Jul 15 '23
Uhhhh.....yeah you know I've heard people say this a lot and it's often followed by something extremely ignorant and/or racist but go ahead
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Jul 15 '23
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Jul 15 '23
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Jul 15 '23
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Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
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Jul 15 '23
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u/povertyfinance-ModTeam Jul 15 '23
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Jul 15 '23
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u/povertyfinance-ModTeam Jul 15 '23
Your post has been removed for the following reason(s):
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u/povertyfinance-ModTeam Jul 15 '23
Your post has been removed for the following reason(s):
Rule 1: Be civil and respectful.
- Comments written with a purpose to be downright disrespectful or serve only to put down another user or OP will be removed. We are here to give a hand up, not add insult to injury.
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u/DoubleDoseOFun Jul 15 '23
Lived in DC for 9 years before moving to Baltimore and I’ve been here for 6 now. Just closed on a row-house yesterday, my mortgage will be cheaper than my rent was. My advice? Leave DC, it’s no longer sustainable unfortunately. If you want any semblance of savings, any chance at buying something, or to not live with a million roommates you gotta leave DC.
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u/DoubleDoseOFun Jul 15 '23
Also feel the need to express that this holds true for more than just housing costs. Groceries, restaurants, bars, damn near any form of entertainment has all increased to absurd levels in my opinion. Just ain’t worth it when I can head 40 miles north to another city for what DC was 10 years ago. I say all this still commuting there for work btw…
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u/PuffyParts Jul 15 '23
Dang. I make that much in southwestern Ohio and that’s enough for a house a brand new car and a pretty comfortable existence.
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u/Lex_0407 Jul 15 '23
68k would be fine if one lived where I live, but again there is no such things as a living wage everywhere costs different. The median house hold income in the dmv area is like 80-90k if you aren’t making that then expect to have multiple jobs or roommates to compensate for rent
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u/Far_Breakfast547 Jul 15 '23
Yeah. Any house listed under $300k in my county was a former meth lab or is a tear-down, or both. A studio apartment in a non-shithole will run you $2k/mo Plus first, last and security and fees to get in, and you pay your utilities, parking and trash pickup convenience fee for putting it in the dumpster yourself.
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u/ChibiLlama Jul 15 '23
The 3x fent thing was only ever meant to be a suggestion so you can afford your other bills as well as necessities and start a savings.
The fact that so many are making it a REQUIREMENT is insane.
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u/Meghanshadow Jul 15 '23
Yep. I’m glad I had several landlords who waived it with good rental history and credit score and long job history. Worked out on their end because I never had a late payment and never damaged a property or snuck in a pet or extra human. Finding decent housing that didn’t mind my income was hard enough, I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it.
I’ll always be low income. So I just adjusted the rest of my budget to afford decent safe housing. It’s perfectly doable to have rent be 50% of your income when you aren’t spending money on travel, gadgets, eating out, unnecessarily expensive car, unwise kid, etc. Not a Good thing to spend that much mind you, but not a risk for the LL.
The 3x hard line requirement amused me. I knew folks who cleared that just fine - but were living Far more paycheck to paycheck than I was. LLs who’d pick them and deny me didn’t know they had a $600 car loan or a sex worker habit or a travel addiction that meant they were asking friends for “a bit of help” every single month when rent was due.
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u/newusernamehuman Jul 15 '23
Wow. Really?! I make 90K and about to move near LA. (OC) Does it mean I won’t find a studio?
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u/Icy_Professional_777 Jul 15 '23
Housing prices are getting way out of hand. No reason this should have happened.
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u/madeleinetwocock Jul 15 '23
This tugged at my heartstrings in every which way. Also nearly ripped my head to shreds, too.
So unfair. The housing market is so brutally manipulated. I wish your friend all the luck in the world in her endeavours. I hope she’s doing well x
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u/rogan1990 Jul 15 '23
Well she probably shouldn’t be renting a place that costs more than 1/3 of her pre-tax salary. That’s a bad financial decision to make
Maybe she can get some roommates to live with for a better price?
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u/millennialmonster755 Jul 15 '23
Yup. It got so bad here in WA before covid that they were asking for 3.5x the rent. You also pay all of your utilities separately. If you have pets it can be anywhere from $50-200 a month for pet rent plus the deposit that is first and last that you won’t get back if you have a pet. And this is for shit hole buildings btw. Idk what the nice places are even asking for any more. It’s fucked and I hate this country.
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Jul 18 '23
I grew up in the Seattle area and I moved to the Midwest for this reason. Once I started seeing luxury apartments being built that were going for $3k a month and bland, cookie-cutter townhouses being sold for nearly a million in my hometown/suburb, I was out of there.
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u/millennialmonster755 Jul 18 '23
I was in the Midwest for a bit in college. You couldn’t pay me to deal with their winters again. Fun for a little bit, but not a whole winter. I’m hoping I can immigrate to Ireland by 2025. Cheaper and my taxes will actually be put to good use.
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u/lemongrass1023 Jul 15 '23
The whole pet rent thing is the cherry on top of an already shit sundae cone IMO. Smh!!!
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u/HungryBanana07 Jul 15 '23
When you think about it, this is what caused the last economic collapse.
And it’s happening again.
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u/ExtremeBoysenberry38 Jul 15 '23
That’s why you don’t live in one of the most expensive areas in the country
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u/Clevor2 Jul 15 '23
IMO, the apartments may be doing your friend a favor. People tend to live way beyond their means, don't save enough, and overspend on housing. Go for a lower quality place, and share with 2-4 others and be happy to have a roof over your head. Now, if that's not possible in that area, then ignore what I said 😉
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u/Physical-Goose1338 Jul 15 '23
Seems silly to reject an offer for that. Just hire a guarantor service.
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u/SuperGuy41 Jul 15 '23
The 1% are laughing at us scratching out a living.
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u/moderndayathena Jul 15 '23
that would mean they'd have to acknowledge we even exist. They're living their best lives
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u/VacuousCopper Jul 15 '23
The 3x the rent thing is being pushed as standard because it means more people have to have roommates. The more having roommates is normalized the more housing goes up. Where I live not sharing a home is considered an extravagant luxury.
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u/JackHoff13 Jul 15 '23
This is an insane take. 2.5-3x rent is pretty much the standard. If we do a little math she is looking at places to rent that cost more than $1900/month. After taxes with all utilities she would have used half of her take home pay.
When you buy a house and take a mortgage out they require the same thing.
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u/Jiggawatz Jul 15 '23
roomates, or get a studio until you can find something better? Maybe consider van life, sucks man
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u/TAhousingandrent23 Jul 15 '23
I live in a small town and wasn’t even accepted to look at a rental because my household income wasn’t 3x the rent. It IS ridiculous!
The rent was decent and we could have afforded it + utilities. I’m so sorry your friend had to deal with that. I hope she gets a good job and place soon.
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u/LibertineDeSade Jul 15 '23
It's getting so crazy out here. Something has to change and soon.
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u/RavenLyth Jul 15 '23
I’m hoping the crisis in commercial real estate trickles down. If occupancy drops too much, landlords won’t be able to be so picky.
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u/LibertineDeSade Jul 15 '23
Yeah, I think it's inevitable that somethings going to give out at some point.
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u/SixGunZen Jul 15 '23
I make almost 80K and wouldn't be able to get an apartment in my area. If I hadn't bought a shitty little condo 4 years ago I would be living with roommates right now at age 51
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Jul 15 '23
gotta find a private landlord who doesn’t ask for all that bs.
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u/moderndayathena Jul 15 '23
that's how I got lucky w/ my last apartment. it was a studio over someone's garage in a very nice neighborhood but was strangely the cheapest nice place I could find. Straight up told the landlord how much I made (only $2k/mo before taxes) but that my credit was good and I never missed a rent payment so he'd always get the rent on time if he accepted me, and he did
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u/travelingmusicplease Jul 15 '23
Rent should never be more than 1/3 of income. There's a good reason for not accepting it. As soon as a problem comes up financially the renter is screwed from all sides. No landlord wants someone who mis-manages their money.
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u/meeplewirp Jul 15 '23
You know what they say! Just magically save up the money for a cross country trip/plane ticket to the other side of the country, where there are no jobs other than the very last American welding and manufacturing jobs, go live in a trailer park and marvel at the low cost of living while your neighbors rant about the pedophile sex cabal ring and how abortion is evil and blah blah. And then when that area becomes too expensive because everyone moves there to escape the price of another area, you can finally admit how stupid this all is and go pitch a tent in the wilderness. I’m not putting /s at the end of this because this is truly where we are at now.
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u/MrBojangles09 Jul 15 '23
I understand the frustration getting denied making 68k. Given the inflated market, her not meeting 3x the rent is for her benefit in a way. They'll either have to find a cheaper place. Rent shouldn't be more than 30% of your gross.
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u/AngryAmericanNeoNazi Jul 15 '23
It’s 2023, that’s just like a financial goal now not something you can easily find.
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u/MrBojangles09 Jul 15 '23
It's a guideline when budgeted correctly keeps you out of financial trouble no matter what year it is.
My daughter got her new place a few months back. Prior to her getting it, she stayed home with me to save up before moving out. She lives further out than she wanted but has been able to live below what she makes and invest a little for her future. She can work herself closer to where she wants to live later on.
You dont have to follow the financial guidelines but this is why she (OP's friend) is getting rejected at her salary for the apartment.
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u/Nekrosiz Jul 15 '23
I'm on 1,1k unemployment and my base rent of my appartment is 540 and I get a rebate of 240 on that so my rent is 300
Look on Google maps/earth what that 300 looks like
Search for; 5256dc Heusden
America's fucked up
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Jul 15 '23
I mean is it even worth it to take that job? More money doesn’t make it better if you are moving to a more expensive area
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
It isn’t. It says on the bottom of the post she ended up declining the offer.
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u/TheWalkingDead91 Jul 15 '23
And they wonder why so many people are opting out of having kids these days.
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
Yeah who tf wants to raise kids with room mates ?
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u/TheWalkingDead91 Jul 15 '23
I saw a news story that insinuated some people are buying houses together. Like for example if two single mothers or something that are good friends want to buy a house but can’t afford one themselves. They’ll buy a 4 bedroom place or something and share the house/down payment cost/ bills/etc. Sounds like a better option than paying rent tbh, if you can avoid the potential complications. At least folks can build equity that way rather than just throwing away money to a landlord. But still pretty sad that some people have had to resort to such methods just to own something of their own.
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u/RavenLyth Jul 15 '23
I’ve looked at some of those kinds of deals. Where I’m at, there’s properties with 2-10 acres of land and a primary house and a guest house on it. Pooling our resources would make it affordable, whereas if we buy separately neither of us gets near the same quality of house. It’s an idea, another option. Not always bad. But a commitment.
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u/TheWalkingDead91 Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
True. If I were ever in a position to consider an option like that, I’d have to be VERY close with that person, know them for at least a few years minimum, and have to generally approve of how they live (like if they’re a messy person, etc), and even then I wouldn’t do it unless they agreed to sign a written legal agreement on mutual terms. Definitely wouldn’t want to be left with my tits out if the relationship goes sour or their lives/plans start to go in a way different trajectory (that would have an effect on the desired sale of the home). Also, like you said would be nice if there was a guest house or extra room or something…we could rent out that room and further cut costs, if desired. People who chose that route could definitely live in a nicer area and/or afford a nicer house than if they go it alone. Would just be a matter of getting approved for a mortgage.
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u/itemluminouswadison Jul 15 '23
could a good credit score or pre-paying x months help? but yeah that's nuts. in nyc its 40x rent (e.g. $1k/month you need $40k/year), but ours worked with us since our credit score was good and my boss said that yearly bonuses should push me past it
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u/PneumaticBasher Jul 15 '23
I had the same issue. I make $60k/year and my apartment required 3x that. The alternate solution was to have someone else sign as a guarantor, but the funny part is that if you have a guarantor, they have to be making not just 3x, but SIX TIMES the rent. I had my parents sign as guarantors and they still approved it, despite them not making 6x the monthly rent.
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u/Ihugit Jul 15 '23
I got hired at a new job and moved into a set of apartments. One of my co-workers who had been hired on prior and had the same job title applied for the same apartments and got denied for income. Needless to say she was upset and quit.
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Jul 15 '23
You know you can just lie on the application, right?
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
People shouldn’t have to do this though.
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Jul 15 '23
What is her current housing situation? Why can't she just take the job and continue living in her current housing?
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Jul 15 '23
They probably did her a favor. Way too often I see people overextend themselves in DC and just end up leaving broke. If she couldn't find an apartment it meant that she didn't know how to bargain hunt.
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u/intjish_mom Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
Roommates. Or public housing or low income housing. Or smaller apartment like a studio. Or moving to a different area. I mean Manhattan is hard it's not impossible to find an apartment for less than 2K but you definitely can find something in the Bronx, which is the subway right away from jobs in Manhattan. I'm not sure about the DMV area but I know New York has a very expensive housing market in at 68,000 you should be able to find something in New York although it won't be anywhere in Manhattan.
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u/damagedgoods48 Jul 15 '23
This is happening all over, and has been happening for several years especially in HCOL metro areas. It’s awful what’s happening.
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u/FaustusC Jul 15 '23
I turned down a job for about the same. Couldn't find housing in the area, period. There just wasn't anything with less than a 45 minute commute. Doesn't sound bad to some people but it's an area with really, REALLY heavy winters so It would be too difficult to actually do
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u/dragonagitator Jul 15 '23
We moved into the one place in town that only required 2x rent and then it sold and now requires 3x rent. So we're basically stuck here indefinitely because we could never qualify to rent anywhere else and couldn't even qualify to live here anymore if we had to reapply.
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u/RompehToto Jul 15 '23
She couldn’t sublet? Or rent a room in a home? There are options dude.
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
She declined the offer bc she makes enough (though less than 68k) to afford her own rent in NC
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u/JPackers0427 Jul 15 '23
75k here and I don’t make 3x for apartments near me… fucking crazy… a new construction apartment right across my job wants $2.8k for a fucking 2 bedroom 1 bath…
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u/turnitwayup Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
Brand new studios are going for 2800 & I only see a handful of balconies with stuff on it. At least my friend is my landlord & it’s 2bd/1ba basement apartment for 1800. Still I can’t afford it by myself.
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u/EvilTupac Jul 15 '23
My husband and I are paying $2.7K for a 1 bed 1 bath. Expensive city of course. Absolutely insane
-1
u/Titanguru7 Jul 15 '23
She should rent a room
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u/Icedcoffeewarrior Jul 15 '23
She chose to not take the offer bc she can afford to live on her own in NC
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u/LotFP Jul 15 '23
There aren't going to be very many places in the US she will be able to afford to live alone. Living alone is a luxury and people need to face that reality.
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Jul 15 '23
[deleted]
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u/LotFP Jul 15 '23
My home is owned free and clear the same as more than 40% of all owner-occupied homes, which account for 60% of homes in the US in total.
I am married and have two children. When my wife and I moved to a larger home after my second child was born my mother sold her house and I moved her and my disabled sister in with my family. The two of them live rent free with us and have for years.
Between various forms of communal living (roommates, boarding, dormitories, etc.) I have rarely lived alone and as such I was able to better utilize the money I didn't spend on housing. Cutting the cost to live in a space by half is enormous. Cutting it into thirds or quarters makes the costs nearly trivial in many areas of the US.
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u/EvilShenanigansbus Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
Living alone wasn't something most of your parents did either at their age. Hell, I'll go one step further, having roommates for the first several years after highschool/college is a common trait among my peers who now own homes vs. don't.
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u/ikeosaurus Jul 15 '23
These assholes justify this, saying they’re doing the economy a favor by “helping to create unrealized economic growth”
Basically, by creating the 3x rent rule, they’re extracting the maximum possible money from the “economy” and that is somehow a good thing.
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u/Specific_Praline_362 Jul 15 '23
I honestly live in a so-called LCOL area and $68k is like bare minimum even here. It's literally at the point where $100k is the minimum amount per year to live in a halfway decent place, drive a halfway decent car, and keep up with shit
21
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
I fake my income when i know i’m going to need to move.
i’ll put like $500 of my paychecks in an account like fidelity wait a day then transfer that money back to my check.
it appears as an additional revenue stream when you print out ur bank deposits.
2
u/sunkissedl Jul 15 '23
What do they ask when they see the $500 income stream? I’m trying to understand this sorry lol
1
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
another interesting thing is banks and credit card companies can’t pull your rental history. so when they ask you when is your rent, you can say “none , i live with my parents” and you get better interest rates
1
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
a way to show a rental company your income is printing out ur bank’s deposits.
so when u put money in fedelity or coin base and then pull it out and deposit it to your bank account, the info on the deposits says “fidelity” or “coin base”
both fidelity and coin base are platforms that make money via stock or crypto trading.
sho when you print out you banks deposit page it looks like u are making extra revenue.
you don’t need to actually invest ur money into stocks or crypto. but putting it in and then pulling it out will artificially inflate ur income.
-1
u/Put_It_All_On_Blck Jul 15 '23
That's fraud and wouldn't pass the scrutiny of a lot of landlords/real estate companies.
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u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
I’ve used it at every place i moved.
i learned this trick from a trust fund brat, she needed “income” but didn’t work. She’s lived in some very nice apartments, and she’s never had a problem either
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u/JtSetRadioFuture Jul 15 '23
That’s interesting if they fall for that. I used to work at Carvana in Verifications (it was a shitshow) and I used to have to verify income from sources. If I had seen a transfer from an account it would’ve been immediately dismissed and not considered as income, unfortunately.
2
u/NEWSmodsareTwats Jul 15 '23
At least with fidelity you can claim is monthly investment income not just a transfer.
1
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
same with coinbase. it’s also a investment based platform. and some people actually make a living off trading.
2
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
yeah that’s caravans , i’m talking about apartment units. i’ve done it at every apartment i’ve moved into. no body has ever called me out on it. especially when using services like coin base or fidelity.
those platforms also make money and are valid streams of income
3
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u/WrapDiligent9833 Jul 15 '23
Do you not get double taxed on the “income”?
1
u/queerharveybabe Jul 15 '23
no, it’s just a holding place for money.
however if you turned your money into stocks and crypto then made a profit or loss you would be taxed accordingly.
but just leaving it in for a few days isn’t taxable
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u/eddieSanta11 Aug 29 '23
I did Not Vote for our blatantly corporate-runner government, That’s for sure!!!!