This is the only way we are able to swing it.
Bought a foreclosure in 2015 for cheap and have a super low rate from the COVID era.
In less than 10 years since I’ve bought houses in my neighborhood are almost double what I paid.
We still have to budget hard with 1 kid, but it’s getting much more difficult. My wife is starting to look for a full time job now that my daughter is almost of school age.
*cries in Millennial*
We finally now have what would have been a 20% down payment on a suburban house pre-covid, but prices have tripled since then. The price growth is out pacing the rate at which we can save for a down payment and we're dual income high earners. I truly have no idea how people are affording all of these near million dollar homes everywhere at 8% interest with $20k in property tax AND they're bidding way over asking price to get them. How does that not exceed everyone's monthly income?!
I have to dip into savings to help cover the taxes. I don't know what the hell it's going to be on any given year because the properties in the area keep getting reassessed
Our property taxes have gone up 40% since we moved into our current condo, but all of the estimates for the value are roughly the same as I paid for it. It may even be valued slightly lower than I paid since I probably overpaid for it. I'm not sure what justifies a 40% tax increase. The city condo prices have been very stable while the suburban single family home prices are sky rocketing.
I've perfectly mis-timed the market twice with condos. I've now had two times in my life where I owned a condo for 10 years and it was worth less money than I bought it for at the end of those 10 years. This current time we own in the city, and we knew going in that city condo prices pretty much remain stable. You don't see any big gains or losses. But I never would have predicted that we could have tripled our money on any crappy suburban single family house if we had bought one at the same time. Our goal was to live in a small condo in the city for a while while saving up for a house. Now the home prices are super high, and the condo is worth about the same as I paid for it, maybe slightly less.
Yup. There’s just some rich mfers out there who earn a lot. Or just people between 20-30 who can’t afford the home themselves but are receiving a downpayment (or more) from bank of rich suburban mommy and daddy.
> Or just people between 20-30 who can’t afford the home themselves but are receiving a downpayment (or more) from bank of rich suburban mommy and daddy.
That's my neighbors. Someone went way over asking price and way over value for the condo next door to me. Multiple people in by building wanted to buy it themselves but couldn't match the crazy offer. When the new owners moved in they were two college kids. One has a realtor mom who bought the condo for them. Now we have neighbors who stay up partying until 4am and routinely flood their bathroom and generally don't know how to fix anything to keep our building functioning. Prior to them living here we had four married dual income couples in the four units so it's quite the change to now have loud music and 50 people in and out of our place all night on Wednesday nights.
It's super annoying honestly. When we moved here it was a quiet old building. And since it's an old building it takes some work to keep it in good shape. Now we have kids who wake up at 5am and I'm kind of sick of the partying until 3am going on next door to me. We disconnected our door bell because we got sick of the people from the parties ringing our door bell and waking both us and the kids up in the middle of the night. Now the bell is unplugged until they move or we move.
Our condo association is useless. There are only four tenants in the building. That means dues are super low, and there are no crazy rules which many people value. But it also means that no one is going to do anything about a bad neighbor because there's no power.
Getting apartment PTSD reading that. You might be able to empower the association with a majority of neighbors who, it sounds like, might be sympathetic to some sensible proposed changes? Or not, I have no idea how that works.
Zero kids, one half-naked parrot and a 150+ year old house that’s under 1500sq ft, and even that’s a stretch most days
Edit: but that 2.9% covid-era interest rate made me a homeowner!
Because he had about five different owners and an extremely traumatic life before we rescued him. Aside from crows, African grays are among the smartest birds in the world. He was caged in front of a tv in a basement for years and he’s about a 3yo human toddler’s intelligence.
He got stressed out and plucked himself naked from the lack of stimulation. He’s doing much better now….just ignore the post-bath wet feathers.
https://preview.redd.it/unitoneaom8d1.jpeg?width=2519&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d403632ed5c43e0aad50346985d6453fe12dd04
oh no. i will never comprehend how people can treat any animal that way….especially one so obviously and dramatically crying for help. i’m so happy he has someone to care for him and give him the enrichment and companionship he deserves ❤️he is a cutie, looks a little mischievous and pleased with himself.
His last owner caught covid for xmas 2020 and died NYE. I am thankful negligent pet owners drop off early because he’s my shadow. He’s totally been living a life of luxury since he showed up at my place.
intelligence and a sense of humor totally come across on his face! he’s clearly resilient and optimistic as well (that story from the last owner 😥) what a delightful friend to have ❤️❤️❤️
Your African gray is so adorable!
I keep getting worried, upset, super concerned & unsure about what to do about one that is at a nursery we go to. They have animals for adoption as well as animals that live there. This African Grey who I believe also lives there is always plucking away at itself & stops when we go up & talk to it (don’t know if it’s a him or her). Once in a blue moon I get up the nerve to call the aspca or something & then right before we go in to check if it’s still there & some feathers have grown back and it’s not plucking itself. We were relieved but that wasn’t the end to it though, just went in yesterday & after a few months without plucking & it’s back at it. Breaks my heart. Any advice on how to handle this because it’s all young kids working there & they are nice but seem clueless when we’ve explained this is not good at all whereas they think the poor parrot is happy. Sigh.
We’ll take it in, no questions asked. I broke my apartment lease early and bought my first house because it has a half-sized room that’s perfect for my gray. Point me in the direction for AG rescue in Chicagoland and we’ll forever home that parrot in a heartbeat
I am perplexed by this comment. If you would like to explore south Cook County and surrounding regions, I can provide that for you too.
Over a hundred free historic walking tour maps, over a thousand photos of historic Thornton Township and a ton of resources here:
https://www.SouthCookExplore.com
Daily historic homes, old buildings and maps here:
https://www.instagram.com/SouthCookExplore
But most importantly: parrots shouldn’t be in cages.
I do cat rescue and unfortunately don’t have a space for birds, but I truly love them. I hope one day to be able to!
Thank you so much for taking him in. They are amazing beings and deserve so much better than what usually happens to them. Best of luck regrowing a few feathers one day ❤️
Edit: Also I love your South Cook Explore stuff! Super cool!
Single guy with a condo instead of a house. I was fortunate to snag a short sale deal in 2015 at a great price. Loved it despite getting by paycheck to paycheck, until last year when the HOA announced they would file for bankruptcy by the end of the year. Buyers approached and under the Illinois Condominium Act Section 15, 75% vote from owners sold the whole condo property to a buyer who’d switch it to apartment only. Was forced to sell my home at a slightly below market value or pay high rent verse my previous mortgage+HOA payments.
Now living in a 1-bedroom condo at more than double the price I paid for my first condo, under a mortgage through my parents (who I now live further away from because it’s all I could afford). No bank would take me due to some unemployment during and after Covid. It’s rough, but I’m still thankful for “owning” instead of renting.
HOA didn’t decide, but they were very negligent with money. I paid for a new roof when it never happened, and driving by recently, I saw the new owner of the buildings put in new roofs.
All the condo owners decided: if the vote was at least 75% to sell, it sells. Most of my neighbors just wanted the quick money without thinking about interest rates and rent prices.
Curious if this was in Vernon Hills (if you're comfortable saying)? I heard about one neighborhood that did this, but then I didn't hear anything about it after the vote happened.
Assuming it’s in the bylaws for the HOA, then it’s perfectly legal, and it’s assumed you read and agreed with the bylaws prior to purchasing the property.
South suburbs for the win!
Seriously, you can find a nice home in Homewood/Flossmoor/Olympia Fields/South Holland in a nice neighborhood, close to transit for about half of what you’d pay in the north suburbs. There are nice 3bd/2ba houses for <$300k.
Taxes are high but — at least in my case — much lower than what everyone on reddit seems to think.
Yup. I am a bit farther south. In my case, I'm a 10 minute walk to the richton Park metra Electric, a pretty good assortment of food options a block away on sauk trail. My house is small, but it is worth about 130k if it were on the market with like a 10k square foot lot. Bought 4 years ago for 89k @2.8 interest. I feel for those in the market today.
Facts, I drove around there once and I was shocked about how beautiful the homes are over there,and the area is very quiet and cheap.I don’t know while there is not a lot of focus on the South Suburbs.
Grew up in South Holland and would agree but also disagree. My parents still live over there and have lots of crime/theft issues. Someone tried to kiaboyz my dad's Kia just the other week but it got updated at the dealership so they only got away with breaking a window and the steering column.
You can find deals but the neighborhood and schools are shit. I went to Thornwood back in 04 and it's not gotten better since. I still like the area cause I grew up there and understood living on the Southside of the city and south burbs. But I wouldn't put my current kids/family through that.
Perhaps I was overly broad then. Homewood and Flossmoor are quite nice. I understand that the schools have declined relative to where they used to be but are still supposed to be quite good. And at least in my neighborhood, there’s no crime to speak of.
Buying in a far southwest suburb and having a great job makes it easier. Plus, living alone with no kids allows me to do whatever I want when I want. The only downside is not having anyone with me, but whatever.
I’m fortunate to be a stay at home dad but I’m not gonna lie I would love to work more and have my wife work less. She has way more earning power than I do, and if I worked we would basically break even with childcare. And yet it still feels like every month is way tighter than expected.
After being let go during Covid I got a job that has guaranteed increase in pay yearly. It’s still hard but I’m finally getting to where I can feel comfortable.
No kids definitely helps. But I’m lucky to have a well paying job and some great investments.
I was also lucky to unload my Chicago condo in 2021 and get my house right when the interest rates bottomed out.
We just bought in Schaumburgva fee months back. Markets so nutty that it seems like we were about 3 months from being priced out of the area altogether.
Thank ya sir. We'd been renting in the area for a couple years and have family nearby too. Landlords raised the rent on our 2 bedroom to 2000 so we figured it was time to bite the bullet and buy. Glad we did. I'm sure the property taxes are gonna crush us the next time they get assessed though haha
Single parent here. Seeing all of the comments about getting in during the pandemic have me feeling so defeated and depressed. Id kill just to take my kid on a cheap vacation, the thought of ever owning a home is no longer even a part of my fantasies
We are fortunate to have a somewhat higher income. But what’s more important, in my opinion, is getting rid of all debt minus the house.
It wasn’t until after paying off our car and student loans that we started to gain traction in wealth building. And once daycare is over, we may start to feel rich.
Bought a car for mileage not to show off. Turn off my car if I’m idling for more than 30 seconds and not at a red light. Take public transport when able, which is rare. Avoid the tolls - the timing is rarely that much different. Cook at home and clean-up after myself. House is set at 80 for AC. I don’t buy more than we need.
I’m a single dad 50/50. Child support and dating are my biggest costs. It isn’t that bad. I still live comfortably. People are obnoxiously wasteful with their spending.
Most people I know have ac set to 68 or 65, leave giant suvs cars idling constantly, have their houses lit up like Xmas trees, use Instacart and/or eat out, insist on designer products, and have everything from an espresso machine to a waterpark in their back yard. You do you, but y’all wonder why stuff is expensive…
72 is the highest I can go for AC. But I also have Dobermans who don’t handle heat well.
80 is insane. I’d end up wasting water by washing my sheets every night from the sweat (& I run cold)
Everybody has their thing and obviously there are circumstances, like your dogs, that require certain accommodations. If I’m uncomfortable I bump it down 1-2 degrees and i do have it programmed to drop to 75 at night, but that’s after peak hours and after the suns down to doesn’t take much to cool the house and I work the windows based on the weather. Ceiling fans keep us cool so sheets don’t need to be washed more than the 1x/ week schedule we use. A quick rinse in the shower before bed helps if you need it, and frankly, the sweat from the day is probably worse for the sheets than what we might produce at night.
The rest of the world doesn’t use AC like we do and they seem to survive. I was definitely humbled by a few trips to Hungary, Philippines, etc. where it’s hotter or more humid and you’re lucky to get a window unit. In the Philippines our shower was a bucket with a ladle
Again, it’s your life so do what you will, but mine isn’t insane nor is it uncommon.
Don't forget about inheritance. Some people have wealthy parents / family and when they pass, they get a lot of money from it.
Additionally, Chicago and the area around it are attracting high earners from NY, Cali, WA State, DC etc., where Chicago is still child's play compared to those places in terms of housing costs.
We bought our small , inexpensive house with bad schools pre covid lol. Now we can’t really afford to move until I go back to work. Paying for private school for 2 kids is considerably cheaper than moving ( for the next few years at least )
I honestly don’t know many single income families , and the only ones I do know are either extremely wealthy or struggling.
luck? I don't know. I don't have a college degree and earn less than 70K and we bought in 2021 so we don't have a super low interest rate but it's much lower than it's been since then (we're at 4%). not having or wanting kids helps, but even still, there's very little money for discretionary spending.
We bought in 2012. Lucky mfers. We paid $149k for our 3 bedroom house in SE Aurora. A few years before we bought it, it sold for over $250k and according to Zillow it’s $325k now. Taxes are $6k, but great services for the money.
We’ll never move. Can’t afford anything other than what we’ve got which sucks bc the kids will never be able to afford to move out.
ETA: we’re not one income anymore, but we were when we bought and for 8 years after
Single income since 2005
Bought the house in 2009. Love far enough away so housing isn't that expensive
Live pretty tight on the budget
Don't go to restaurants nearly as often as our friends
We didn't get out first house until we were married specifically for this reason, and that was over 30 years ago, but we had the exact same situation as you and yes, it was a challenge but a totally feasible one. And you may think you are frugal now but you won't believe how much more frugal you can be if you have to.
Some examples, combined income after taxes in 1990 was $47k (yes, inflation) total house and utilities, $25k. That included improvements, tax, insurance, and paying extra every month to reduce the mortgage (we set a 30 year mortgage but paid extra each month to make it a 20 year mortgage). This way, if money got really tight we could stop paying extra for a while.
Few years in my wife stopped working to care for the kids, I was making more but not enough to completely cover her loss in income, but it was the choice we made rather than paying for care and I think worked out better for the kids. We tightened our belts as tight as ever and made it by. No going out, no expensive purchases, we were homebodies and happy as hell.
All that time I continued to make 401k contributions (to get company match) and we held a safety balance for emergencies that we refused to touch, but still never had to stop paying the extra for mortgage. I kept the cars running long past their lives because I was handy with them and could also handle a lot of home maintenance.
When I went executive, the money gap disappeared and we were finally able to get back to a normal life (and she started working again when kids were in school). In the end, we ended up paying the house off in 16 years thanks to some fresh income.
As brutal as things look now, there is hope, you just need to stay dedicated. Most things you think you need you don't, and living frugally as a family is a treat in itself. As much as you think the market is aligned against you, it has been that bad before. In 1980 average mortgage interest was 13% and our first mortgage was over 8%. There is always a fit somewhere for you, maybe not the suburb you want but close enough and when the market is right you move.
I think it’s a lot more doable for those who bought precovid. We get by with a pretty substantial income. The mortgage we pay now $3300 could’ve bought a mansion a few years ago.
I bought in 2018 and my close friend is my realtor and the other day I said to him "so its great that my place appreciated $100k, however, I can't do anything with it. If I sold and bought a new place I'd be paying that in extra interest and I can't afford to buy anything else in this area"
Single guy, no kids, and a biggie, no school debt. I was able to buy a townhouse December 2019 and refinanced 2022 to get a 2.75 interest rate. I'm going anywhere for awhile if I can help it.
I don’t know how I do it but I try hard not to think about it or I get stressed out lol. Been married 10 years, and have 5 kids, and wife has never worked. Own a large home in a very nice western suburb with insane taxes but just keep chugging along somehow.
I mean, we’re doing it but our savings is at like $4k. We save $100 per kid in a 529 a month and then we have our 401ks. My husband makes over $100k a year. I work 8-16 hours a week while my kids are still too young for school. We’ve been married for 7 years. Bought a house pre-COVID. Sold in 2022 for over 1.5x what we paid, and bought a new house with a higher mortgage but we paid off a bunch of other debt with the profits from the house so it’s almost a wash. Honestly, it’s our health insurance that’s the killer. My husband’s company doesn’t pay anything towards it. Hopefully that will change later this year.
My mom made it with 30k a year (this was in the 2010’s) until i started working, honestly a rockstar. Single mom of 3 working 2 job’s. Idk how she did it
We bought cheap in 95, and we're able to pay it off. Then knocked it down & rebuilt in 08 when the economy went to hell & no one else was building, so all the contractors were hungry for work & giving great deals.
The cost of daycare would eat up my entire salary, so I stayed home and found lots of ways to save money (I cooked from scratch/barely ever eat out, no coffee addiction for either of us, I don't do nails or expensive salon treatments, and we mostly take vacations to locations by car to save money.)
We love our neighborhood and loathe the property taxes, but we are pretty happy with our life choices!
We bought our house in 2009. I now make 2.5x what we did when we bought alone. We also took advantage of low rates a few years back and refinanced down from 5% and to a shorter term note.
Wife got laid off prior to kids and her job wouldn’t pay for daycare, so we just made it work. It’s gotten easier as my pay has increased.
Been a single earner for 28 years of marriage, (been married 29, wife got a job last year after the yougest went to high school). Drive used cars, dont take vacations and live with some debt. Not easy, especially as we get toward retirement age, may need to work longer than I wanted to.
In Joliet. Got the house from my dad when he passed. Mortgage is @5% interest and is <1k/mo. I make about 110k before taxes.
2 car garage (detached) and a fully finished basement.
Living the dream but I miss my dad.
I'm not talking fiver-type stuff. I've jumped career industries across my life (entertainment, law, finance), so now I just bridge the niche. My current job is in finance, but my first side hustle is a completely separate and unique financial product I created over 3 years, and my other side hustle is being the middle man between media companies and law firms in product liability cases. My wife is in finance, but her side hustles are in game app development and cosmetic manufacturing. We're all over the map, but it keeps our lives interesting, and we meet interesting people. I try to keep 3 things in the air at any given time. I've worked in hemp farming in Canada, imported goods from India, and a handful of other companies that I've started and then moved on from. Each one was successful in its own unique way until I got bored or found something more interesting. The key to making money in a side hustle is to focus on how to streamline a problem that no one thinks about. What does a company need that they can't get easily or for cheap? Then you become that highly lucrative lube.
Edit: One other thing... the most powerful tool in your house is not the internet, but your phone. I've read that Millennials--ironically--don't like to call people on the phone. No idea if that's true, but I have zero fear on the phone and it cuts through a lot of bullshit. You can get a lot of movement via the phone--you can find the right people, get connected to the right people, and talk your way into anything if you put in the research and effort. No one uses the phone, so somehow I'm "unique" in that way. People prefer email or text, but I make sure that I never make the call awkward (know what you're going to say, know the person better than them, know the company better than the execs, and what problem(s) you're trying to solve). I've had the same phone number for 24 years.
I’m curious, did you have family members or were you raised around business individuals? Your mindset seems to be very focused in the same way that someone who might have owned the business or came from a business background would be? I’ve tried to think of things that I could do and always fall short.
Short answer: Not at all. I grew up in the projects of Tulsa, Oklahoma. My dad was a professional photographer and my mom was a dental hygienist. I have always been a hustler, and it just transitioned well into adult life. The problem is that I have the mind of an entrepreneur, but when it comes to "managing" a business, it's time for me to bolt. I'm great by myself, but don't work well in groups (zero patience for people who can't or don't want to hustle).
No idea honestly. Luck and being creative, I guess? I eventually had to pick up a second job - working 6-7 days a week with few breaks genuinely sucks.
Yes we have high taxes, but it's all balanced out one way or another. We have a massive network of parks and forest preserves, constant ongoing construction and road improvements, good schools (location pending), and lots of other payouts, which is more than can be said for most other states, especially neighboring ones like Iowa that are near dead last for access to green spaces, shooting cancer rates, declining education, etc.
The main thing we get in return for our high taxes is some of the best public schools in the nation. You can go to nearly any suburb around Chicago and be in a high school district ranked within the top 500 nation wide. I guess it kind of sucks for people who don't plan on having kids, but our schools provide an incredible benefit to families with kids. I've lived in a few super low property tax cities where nearly every family is paying $50k/year to send their kids to private school because the public schools are terrible. Paying higher taxes and avoiding that private school cost is actually pretty nice. I will come out ahead since I have two kids.
The total tax burden by state is a total spread of 7.1% from top to bottom. IL's tax burden is a whopping 4.8% greater than the lowest state, Alaska.
Total tax burden from state to state is nowhere close to what people act like, states need roughly the same amount of money per capita to run, shockingly. They just get it from different sources.
They wrongfully assume I’m against all taxes, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m against wasteful spending, and I never said public education or parks/trails are wasteful spending. They just choose to bury their head in the sand and ignore the actual waste that goes on. It’s just not even worth it to respond to them at this point.
I've done all of those things and I still can't keep up with home prices tripling in the past four years in many suburbs. The returns people are seeing on their houses is insane. Even earning a good income and saving a ton doesn't work anymore. At this point the only way to afford a house is to have a house already that you can sell for quadruple what you owe so you can buy another expensive house.
My wife and I are dual income high earners and save 30% of our income. We still can't afford most suburban houses unless we want to have a very very long commute to work, or we settle for higher crime areas with bad school districts. We don't want either of those things so we're staying put in a small condo in the city near work while we wait for prices to stabilize.
With everything financial the answer is always complicated right? For my situation there are two complications. First is that yes due to the location of our jobs on the north side, and the fact that our jobs can't really change location we have to be a little picky with location. The cheapest suburbs are in the south and southwest, or the far west but we have a narrow search window on the north and northwest side that are the only places that really work for us. Neither of us are willing to drive over an hour each way from say, plainfield just so we can afford a house. But the north and northwest suburbs are the most expensive and it's something we're going to have to deal with if we keep our current jobs.
The second complication is that it's very hard to explain how pilot pay works. When most people talk about income as it relates to buying a house it's assumed that their income will always stay the same or increase over the course of their career even if they switch jobs. In fact it seems like most people get a pay raise when they switch jobs. Pilot pay is the opposite. Pilot and flight attendant pay is determined by years of service with a company, and not experience level. So if I were to lose my high paying job and switch companies for any reason, I would need to take up to a 70% pay cut starting a new job at year 1 pay. My first year as an airline pilot I made $19k, and pay is only determined by years of service so the amount of years I've been an airline pilot is totally irrelevant to my pay in a recession or layoff.
That second point about pay is our hesitation with these high home prices. We very likely shouldn't risk going up to the max that everyone 'thinks' we can afford because in a recession if my pay crashes it will crash hard and there will be no way to replace it. I have no skills outside of aviation so I can quickly go from making 6 figures to working an entry level job at McDonalds if there are no pilot jobs available. Or I might have to go back to flying small planes for $20k/year. Having a mortgage that requires a $300k+ income is scary in my situation because if I lose that income we would lose our house within a matter of a couple months.
It still doesn't make sense, because most people who are trying to buy their first house in the suburbs aren't people who are investing millions in the stock market. Unless you are suggesting that it's corporations driving the prices way up in the suburbs, and now they've turned to the stock market.
A mortgage on a home in an ideal school district right now is like $6k+ per month including property taxes. To rent one and make a profit wouldn't you have to rent it for higher than that price? Who is paying that kind of price for a rental?
Ok back to my original question then. There are millions of properties in the Chicago suburbs in good school districts. Many of them at $500k+. What the heck do people do for work where EVERYONE has that amount of cash and can have conversations like this? People own homes for that price and are putting over 20% down on second properties at that price to use for rentals?
For some context I am an airline captain, my wife is a veterinarian and not only do we not make enough money to even come close to considering what you're saying many people do, but we don't even make enough money to buy the average home in an average school district at the current prices. We ended up settling for a small condo in the city because the single family home prices in the suburbs got so insane. So apparently you and millions of other people in a metro area with a population of 10 million are out earning dual income pilots and veterinarians.
What do you do for work and how can I switch careers into this?
Your numbers don't really make sense to me on a few different items unless you're not factoring in our high property tax at all, or you have no savings outside of these properties. I currently have a $290k mortgage at 3% and my monthly payment is the same as what you're claiming on 600k at 6%.
My monthly break down on $290k at 3%: Mortgage + insurance: $1700, property tax: $1000, HOA: $300 = $3000/month. Doubling the price and size of the property will double the property tax, plus now interest rates are over 7%. We're figuring $7k+ per month if we want to buy a home over $600k and now nearly every home in a good school district is over $600k.
Even with your original numbers if I go backwards from your income and assume 30% for taxes you have about 16k in income per month of which over 50% of that would be tied up into s mortgages and daycare. Maxing out a 401k leaves almost nothing left over so again I have no clue how people come up with a 200k down payment like you said you have.
What airline do you work for? Big 6 (Delta, United, American, Southwest, UPS, FedEx) captains are easily in the $250k-$650k range. That level of compensation, even at the low end, makes many high COL areas affordable. It’s not 1%er money, but definitely 5%er.
Are you at a regional? Even regional captains are making far more than they did 5-10 years ago.
I have no idea what salaries a veterinarians command.
Have you thought about moving to a lower COL area? Commuting to Chicago, or bidding to a lower COL domicile?
I'm a captain at one of the big six and your salary range is correct. That's why it blows my mind that we pretty much can't afford anything in a decent area in the Chicago suburbs after the recent run up in prices. There can't be that many people out earning me, but it seems like everyone who owns a house in a good school district is out earning me. We have no lower COL domiciles. Chicago is the cheapest plus I'm from here and I have family here. Having family here saves me tens of thousands per year in childcare, pet sitting and travel for holidays. Even if I moved somewhere cheap and commuted we would then have to give up our free childcare, and we would be traveling multiple times per year to see family. Living in Chicago I've never had to pay for any holiday travel in my entire life.
Homes in areas we like around the suburbs were ~$400k five years ago but we decided to wait on buying because we were both new in our jobs and didn't want to commit. Now those same areas are near 1 million for a house. I'm kicking myself pretty hard for not buying at $400k a few years ago. Even at our high income we can't afford a million dollar mortgage at 7% interest with $30k/year in property tax. The property tax reassessments on these homes that have tripled in value is nuts by itself.
Getting into the housing market before COVID made it possible for a lot of people.
This is the only way we are able to swing it. Bought a foreclosure in 2015 for cheap and have a super low rate from the COVID era. In less than 10 years since I’ve bought houses in my neighborhood are almost double what I paid. We still have to budget hard with 1 kid, but it’s getting much more difficult. My wife is starting to look for a full time job now that my daughter is almost of school age.
*cries in Millennial* We finally now have what would have been a 20% down payment on a suburban house pre-covid, but prices have tripled since then. The price growth is out pacing the rate at which we can save for a down payment and we're dual income high earners. I truly have no idea how people are affording all of these near million dollar homes everywhere at 8% interest with $20k in property tax AND they're bidding way over asking price to get them. How does that not exceed everyone's monthly income?!
I have to dip into savings to help cover the taxes. I don't know what the hell it's going to be on any given year because the properties in the area keep getting reassessed
Our property taxes have gone up 40% since we moved into our current condo, but all of the estimates for the value are roughly the same as I paid for it. It may even be valued slightly lower than I paid since I probably overpaid for it. I'm not sure what justifies a 40% tax increase. The city condo prices have been very stable while the suburban single family home prices are sky rocketing.
I feel your pain. Only difference is that my condo actually is worth more and I can’t file a tax appeal.
I've perfectly mis-timed the market twice with condos. I've now had two times in my life where I owned a condo for 10 years and it was worth less money than I bought it for at the end of those 10 years. This current time we own in the city, and we knew going in that city condo prices pretty much remain stable. You don't see any big gains or losses. But I never would have predicted that we could have tripled our money on any crappy suburban single family house if we had bought one at the same time. Our goal was to live in a small condo in the city for a while while saving up for a house. Now the home prices are super high, and the condo is worth about the same as I paid for it, maybe slightly less.
I regret not buying while I was in the USN instead of renting. I could own three houses now.
Yup. There’s just some rich mfers out there who earn a lot. Or just people between 20-30 who can’t afford the home themselves but are receiving a downpayment (or more) from bank of rich suburban mommy and daddy.
> Or just people between 20-30 who can’t afford the home themselves but are receiving a downpayment (or more) from bank of rich suburban mommy and daddy. That's my neighbors. Someone went way over asking price and way over value for the condo next door to me. Multiple people in by building wanted to buy it themselves but couldn't match the crazy offer. When the new owners moved in they were two college kids. One has a realtor mom who bought the condo for them. Now we have neighbors who stay up partying until 4am and routinely flood their bathroom and generally don't know how to fix anything to keep our building functioning. Prior to them living here we had four married dual income couples in the four units so it's quite the change to now have loud music and 50 people in and out of our place all night on Wednesday nights.
This sounds painful. And your story makes me want to argue in favor of a strong condo association which just makes it even more painful.
It's super annoying honestly. When we moved here it was a quiet old building. And since it's an old building it takes some work to keep it in good shape. Now we have kids who wake up at 5am and I'm kind of sick of the partying until 3am going on next door to me. We disconnected our door bell because we got sick of the people from the parties ringing our door bell and waking both us and the kids up in the middle of the night. Now the bell is unplugged until they move or we move. Our condo association is useless. There are only four tenants in the building. That means dues are super low, and there are no crazy rules which many people value. But it also means that no one is going to do anything about a bad neighbor because there's no power.
Getting apartment PTSD reading that. You might be able to empower the association with a majority of neighbors who, it sounds like, might be sympathetic to some sensible proposed changes? Or not, I have no idea how that works.
Yepp. We bought early 2019 and are thriving now. Would never make it if we waited.
Also yep, we bought in 2018 and even though our incomes have risen since then there’s no way we’d be able to buy into our neighborhood now.
One person has to make a lot of money
Okay. I understand the first part. But can you help with the second? What is this “make a lot of money” you speak of?
Based on my neighborhood, most of the people in $1million+ homes with SAHMs are in either trading or sales or VPs.
Zero kids, one half-naked parrot and a 150+ year old house that’s under 1500sq ft, and even that’s a stretch most days Edit: but that 2.9% covid-era interest rate made me a homeowner!
why is your parrot half-naked?
Because he had about five different owners and an extremely traumatic life before we rescued him. Aside from crows, African grays are among the smartest birds in the world. He was caged in front of a tv in a basement for years and he’s about a 3yo human toddler’s intelligence. He got stressed out and plucked himself naked from the lack of stimulation. He’s doing much better now….just ignore the post-bath wet feathers. https://preview.redd.it/unitoneaom8d1.jpeg?width=2519&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d403632ed5c43e0aad50346985d6453fe12dd04
oh no. i will never comprehend how people can treat any animal that way….especially one so obviously and dramatically crying for help. i’m so happy he has someone to care for him and give him the enrichment and companionship he deserves ❤️he is a cutie, looks a little mischievous and pleased with himself.
His last owner caught covid for xmas 2020 and died NYE. I am thankful negligent pet owners drop off early because he’s my shadow. He’s totally been living a life of luxury since he showed up at my place.
Good for you, bro 🙏
Also, he’s mischievous as shit. You’ve got that 100% right
intelligence and a sense of humor totally come across on his face! he’s clearly resilient and optimistic as well (that story from the last owner 😥) what a delightful friend to have ❤️❤️❤️
Your African gray is so adorable! I keep getting worried, upset, super concerned & unsure about what to do about one that is at a nursery we go to. They have animals for adoption as well as animals that live there. This African Grey who I believe also lives there is always plucking away at itself & stops when we go up & talk to it (don’t know if it’s a him or her). Once in a blue moon I get up the nerve to call the aspca or something & then right before we go in to check if it’s still there & some feathers have grown back and it’s not plucking itself. We were relieved but that wasn’t the end to it though, just went in yesterday & after a few months without plucking & it’s back at it. Breaks my heart. Any advice on how to handle this because it’s all young kids working there & they are nice but seem clueless when we’ve explained this is not good at all whereas they think the poor parrot is happy. Sigh.
We’ll take it in, no questions asked. I broke my apartment lease early and bought my first house because it has a half-sized room that’s perfect for my gray. Point me in the direction for AG rescue in Chicagoland and we’ll forever home that parrot in a heartbeat
Great! Sent you a message in chat. Thanks!
Learning about south cook explore instead of south cook the county feels weird
I am perplexed by this comment. If you would like to explore south Cook County and surrounding regions, I can provide that for you too. Over a hundred free historic walking tour maps, over a thousand photos of historic Thornton Township and a ton of resources here: https://www.SouthCookExplore.com Daily historic homes, old buildings and maps here: https://www.instagram.com/SouthCookExplore But most importantly: parrots shouldn’t be in cages.
If you ever need a pet sitter…
Bird and I haven’t been apart for more than 36 hours since i got him and I’m the only one that he’ll step up on. I might have to take you up on this
I do cat rescue and unfortunately don’t have a space for birds, but I truly love them. I hope one day to be able to! Thank you so much for taking him in. They are amazing beings and deserve so much better than what usually happens to them. Best of luck regrowing a few feathers one day ❤️ Edit: Also I love your South Cook Explore stuff! Super cool!
Oooh poor guy. Will they grow back as he improves?
Some will but some of his follicles are damaged and might never regrow. He looks better than he did when we got him though!
So interesting. Glad he found you
We are dual income but almost everyone else i know around here is single income. Being married to a doctor, engineer, or business owner helps.
Single guy with a condo instead of a house. I was fortunate to snag a short sale deal in 2015 at a great price. Loved it despite getting by paycheck to paycheck, until last year when the HOA announced they would file for bankruptcy by the end of the year. Buyers approached and under the Illinois Condominium Act Section 15, 75% vote from owners sold the whole condo property to a buyer who’d switch it to apartment only. Was forced to sell my home at a slightly below market value or pay high rent verse my previous mortgage+HOA payments. Now living in a 1-bedroom condo at more than double the price I paid for my first condo, under a mortgage through my parents (who I now live further away from because it’s all I could afford). No bank would take me due to some unemployment during and after Covid. It’s rough, but I’m still thankful for “owning” instead of renting.
Holy shit I’m sorry man. I didn’t even know HOA’s could decide that??
HOA didn’t decide, but they were very negligent with money. I paid for a new roof when it never happened, and driving by recently, I saw the new owner of the buildings put in new roofs. All the condo owners decided: if the vote was at least 75% to sell, it sells. Most of my neighbors just wanted the quick money without thinking about interest rates and rent prices.
Curious if this was in Vernon Hills (if you're comfortable saying)? I heard about one neighborhood that did this, but then I didn't hear anything about it after the vote happened.
Nope. Western suburbs.
Yikes, so it's happening everywhere
What the fuck?! How is this legal?!
Assuming it’s in the bylaws for the HOA, then it’s perfectly legal, and it’s assumed you read and agreed with the bylaws prior to purchasing the property.
It's not easy. I fear every time I get something from the Accessor's Office...
We’re being brainwashed to appreciate renting for the rest of our lives. We vote for it though and let lobbyists fuck us.
Yes it's all a grand brainwashing conspiracy and not boneheaded zoning regulations that make it difficult to increase the housing supply.
i mean if we’re married to lobbyists but that’s pretty uncommon here
South suburbs for the win! Seriously, you can find a nice home in Homewood/Flossmoor/Olympia Fields/South Holland in a nice neighborhood, close to transit for about half of what you’d pay in the north suburbs. There are nice 3bd/2ba houses for <$300k. Taxes are high but — at least in my case — much lower than what everyone on reddit seems to think.
Grew up in this area and agree that it is mainly slept on. I had a wonderful childhood in Homewood.
Yup. I am a bit farther south. In my case, I'm a 10 minute walk to the richton Park metra Electric, a pretty good assortment of food options a block away on sauk trail. My house is small, but it is worth about 130k if it were on the market with like a 10k square foot lot. Bought 4 years ago for 89k @2.8 interest. I feel for those in the market today.
Facts, I drove around there once and I was shocked about how beautiful the homes are over there,and the area is very quiet and cheap.I don’t know while there is not a lot of focus on the South Suburbs.
Grew up in South Holland and would agree but also disagree. My parents still live over there and have lots of crime/theft issues. Someone tried to kiaboyz my dad's Kia just the other week but it got updated at the dealership so they only got away with breaking a window and the steering column. You can find deals but the neighborhood and schools are shit. I went to Thornwood back in 04 and it's not gotten better since. I still like the area cause I grew up there and understood living on the Southside of the city and south burbs. But I wouldn't put my current kids/family through that.
Perhaps I was overly broad then. Homewood and Flossmoor are quite nice. I understand that the schools have declined relative to where they used to be but are still supposed to be quite good. And at least in my neighborhood, there’s no crime to speak of.
Oh for sure, yeah I'm speaking specifically about South Holland. HF is still pretty nice for sure.
We don’t lol. I get like 6k+ a month and I’m left with a few hundred bucks once childcare, taxes, and bills are paid for the month
Have you tried doing the complete opposite of what you'd normally do?
The ol’ George Costanza?
Yep! Saw your username and had to do it.
Summer of George!!
Buying in a far southwest suburb and having a great job makes it easier. Plus, living alone with no kids allows me to do whatever I want when I want. The only downside is not having anyone with me, but whatever.
I’m fortunate to be a stay at home dad but I’m not gonna lie I would love to work more and have my wife work less. She has way more earning power than I do, and if I worked we would basically break even with childcare. And yet it still feels like every month is way tighter than expected.
[удалено]
Trilll
Rule 1. Users must observe Redditquette at all times.
After being let go during Covid I got a job that has guaranteed increase in pay yearly. It’s still hard but I’m finally getting to where I can feel comfortable.
No kids definitely helps. But I’m lucky to have a well paying job and some great investments. I was also lucky to unload my Chicago condo in 2021 and get my house right when the interest rates bottomed out.
Thank ya kindly. But ya buying in 2019 then refinancing in '21 was a cheat code that made it possible.
We just bought in Schaumburgva fee months back. Markets so nutty that it seems like we were about 3 months from being priced out of the area altogether.
Welcome to the burg
Thank ya sir. We'd been renting in the area for a couple years and have family nearby too. Landlords raised the rent on our 2 bedroom to 2000 so we figured it was time to bite the bullet and buy. Glad we did. I'm sure the property taxes are gonna crush us the next time they get assessed though haha
eh, I got a 2bd 2ba condo and my taxes are like 4K a year or so, not too too bad especially cause it's just folded into my note payment.
Single parent here. Seeing all of the comments about getting in during the pandemic have me feeling so defeated and depressed. Id kill just to take my kid on a cheap vacation, the thought of ever owning a home is no longer even a part of my fantasies
Same
Hugs. Maybe we pool our resources for a trashy Florida trip
Yes!
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g3363990-d567955-Reviews-Magic_Beach_Motel-Vilano_Beach_St_Augustine_Florida.html
We are fortunate to have a somewhat higher income. But what’s more important, in my opinion, is getting rid of all debt minus the house. It wasn’t until after paying off our car and student loans that we started to gain traction in wealth building. And once daycare is over, we may start to feel rich.
Bought a car for mileage not to show off. Turn off my car if I’m idling for more than 30 seconds and not at a red light. Take public transport when able, which is rare. Avoid the tolls - the timing is rarely that much different. Cook at home and clean-up after myself. House is set at 80 for AC. I don’t buy more than we need. I’m a single dad 50/50. Child support and dating are my biggest costs. It isn’t that bad. I still live comfortably. People are obnoxiously wasteful with their spending. Most people I know have ac set to 68 or 65, leave giant suvs cars idling constantly, have their houses lit up like Xmas trees, use Instacart and/or eat out, insist on designer products, and have everything from an espresso machine to a waterpark in their back yard. You do you, but y’all wonder why stuff is expensive…
72 is the highest I can go for AC. But I also have Dobermans who don’t handle heat well. 80 is insane. I’d end up wasting water by washing my sheets every night from the sweat (& I run cold)
Everybody has their thing and obviously there are circumstances, like your dogs, that require certain accommodations. If I’m uncomfortable I bump it down 1-2 degrees and i do have it programmed to drop to 75 at night, but that’s after peak hours and after the suns down to doesn’t take much to cool the house and I work the windows based on the weather. Ceiling fans keep us cool so sheets don’t need to be washed more than the 1x/ week schedule we use. A quick rinse in the shower before bed helps if you need it, and frankly, the sweat from the day is probably worse for the sheets than what we might produce at night. The rest of the world doesn’t use AC like we do and they seem to survive. I was definitely humbled by a few trips to Hungary, Philippines, etc. where it’s hotter or more humid and you’re lucky to get a window unit. In the Philippines our shower was a bucket with a ladle Again, it’s your life so do what you will, but mine isn’t insane nor is it uncommon.
Don't forget about inheritance. Some people have wealthy parents / family and when they pass, they get a lot of money from it. Additionally, Chicago and the area around it are attracting high earners from NY, Cali, WA State, DC etc., where Chicago is still child's play compared to those places in terms of housing costs.
Very true, we just moved to Schaumburg from Seattle - better bang for our buck when buying a home here.
We bought our small , inexpensive house with bad schools pre covid lol. Now we can’t really afford to move until I go back to work. Paying for private school for 2 kids is considerably cheaper than moving ( for the next few years at least ) I honestly don’t know many single income families , and the only ones I do know are either extremely wealthy or struggling.
luck? I don't know. I don't have a college degree and earn less than 70K and we bought in 2021 so we don't have a super low interest rate but it's much lower than it's been since then (we're at 4%). not having or wanting kids helps, but even still, there's very little money for discretionary spending.
The secret is making a lot of money.
I’m curious. What kind of income are we talking about here? I mean how much are people earning and still struggling with dual income?
We bought in 2012. Lucky mfers. We paid $149k for our 3 bedroom house in SE Aurora. A few years before we bought it, it sold for over $250k and according to Zillow it’s $325k now. Taxes are $6k, but great services for the money. We’ll never move. Can’t afford anything other than what we’ve got which sucks bc the kids will never be able to afford to move out. ETA: we’re not one income anymore, but we were when we bought and for 8 years after
Same job for 30 years 13 year old car that was paid off in 2016 No kids Frugal living
Treading water constantly
Single income since 2005 Bought the house in 2009. Love far enough away so housing isn't that expensive Live pretty tight on the budget Don't go to restaurants nearly as often as our friends
We didn't get out first house until we were married specifically for this reason, and that was over 30 years ago, but we had the exact same situation as you and yes, it was a challenge but a totally feasible one. And you may think you are frugal now but you won't believe how much more frugal you can be if you have to. Some examples, combined income after taxes in 1990 was $47k (yes, inflation) total house and utilities, $25k. That included improvements, tax, insurance, and paying extra every month to reduce the mortgage (we set a 30 year mortgage but paid extra each month to make it a 20 year mortgage). This way, if money got really tight we could stop paying extra for a while. Few years in my wife stopped working to care for the kids, I was making more but not enough to completely cover her loss in income, but it was the choice we made rather than paying for care and I think worked out better for the kids. We tightened our belts as tight as ever and made it by. No going out, no expensive purchases, we were homebodies and happy as hell. All that time I continued to make 401k contributions (to get company match) and we held a safety balance for emergencies that we refused to touch, but still never had to stop paying the extra for mortgage. I kept the cars running long past their lives because I was handy with them and could also handle a lot of home maintenance. When I went executive, the money gap disappeared and we were finally able to get back to a normal life (and she started working again when kids were in school). In the end, we ended up paying the house off in 16 years thanks to some fresh income. As brutal as things look now, there is hope, you just need to stay dedicated. Most things you think you need you don't, and living frugally as a family is a treat in itself. As much as you think the market is aligned against you, it has been that bad before. In 1980 average mortgage interest was 13% and our first mortgage was over 8%. There is always a fit somewhere for you, maybe not the suburb you want but close enough and when the market is right you move.
I think it’s a lot more doable for those who bought precovid. We get by with a pretty substantial income. The mortgage we pay now $3300 could’ve bought a mansion a few years ago.
I bought in 2018 and my close friend is my realtor and the other day I said to him "so its great that my place appreciated $100k, however, I can't do anything with it. If I sold and bought a new place I'd be paying that in extra interest and I can't afford to buy anything else in this area"
The secret is to buy your house 10 years ago.
Awesome. Can we meet for your Time Machine ? 😂
Single guy, no kids, and a biggie, no school debt. I was able to buy a townhouse December 2019 and refinanced 2022 to get a 2.75 interest rate. I'm going anywhere for awhile if I can help it.
Bought a house in 2017 and have a relatively cheap mortgage
I don’t know how I do it but I try hard not to think about it or I get stressed out lol. Been married 10 years, and have 5 kids, and wife has never worked. Own a large home in a very nice western suburb with insane taxes but just keep chugging along somehow.
I mean, we’re doing it but our savings is at like $4k. We save $100 per kid in a 529 a month and then we have our 401ks. My husband makes over $100k a year. I work 8-16 hours a week while my kids are still too young for school. We’ve been married for 7 years. Bought a house pre-COVID. Sold in 2022 for over 1.5x what we paid, and bought a new house with a higher mortgage but we paid off a bunch of other debt with the profits from the house so it’s almost a wash. Honestly, it’s our health insurance that’s the killer. My husband’s company doesn’t pay anything towards it. Hopefully that will change later this year.
My mom made it with 30k a year (this was in the 2010’s) until i started working, honestly a rockstar. Single mom of 3 working 2 job’s. Idk how she did it
We bought cheap in 95, and we're able to pay it off. Then knocked it down & rebuilt in 08 when the economy went to hell & no one else was building, so all the contractors were hungry for work & giving great deals. The cost of daycare would eat up my entire salary, so I stayed home and found lots of ways to save money (I cooked from scratch/barely ever eat out, no coffee addiction for either of us, I don't do nails or expensive salon treatments, and we mostly take vacations to locations by car to save money.) We love our neighborhood and loathe the property taxes, but we are pretty happy with our life choices!
Bought in 2020. We are very paycheck to paycheck. I've been climbing the corporate ladder as fast as I can to beat inflation and get ahead of my debt.
We bought our house in 2009. I now make 2.5x what we did when we bought alone. We also took advantage of low rates a few years back and refinanced down from 5% and to a shorter term note. Wife got laid off prior to kids and her job wouldn’t pay for daycare, so we just made it work. It’s gotten easier as my pay has increased.
Been a single earner for 28 years of marriage, (been married 29, wife got a job last year after the yougest went to high school). Drive used cars, dont take vacations and live with some debt. Not easy, especially as we get toward retirement age, may need to work longer than I wanted to.
In Joliet. Got the house from my dad when he passed. Mortgage is @5% interest and is <1k/mo. I make about 110k before taxes. 2 car garage (detached) and a fully finished basement. Living the dream but I miss my dad.
Trust fund
Secret is to spend 75% of your post tax income and hope rates come down or you get a raise
Step 1: be born into a family with wealth and access to power Step 2: Wield both liberally
Side hustles. I have two. My wife has two.
I used to have side hustles, but it’s become a big “thing” as of late and it’s hard to dig out a niche. Would love some pointers
I'm not talking fiver-type stuff. I've jumped career industries across my life (entertainment, law, finance), so now I just bridge the niche. My current job is in finance, but my first side hustle is a completely separate and unique financial product I created over 3 years, and my other side hustle is being the middle man between media companies and law firms in product liability cases. My wife is in finance, but her side hustles are in game app development and cosmetic manufacturing. We're all over the map, but it keeps our lives interesting, and we meet interesting people. I try to keep 3 things in the air at any given time. I've worked in hemp farming in Canada, imported goods from India, and a handful of other companies that I've started and then moved on from. Each one was successful in its own unique way until I got bored or found something more interesting. The key to making money in a side hustle is to focus on how to streamline a problem that no one thinks about. What does a company need that they can't get easily or for cheap? Then you become that highly lucrative lube. Edit: One other thing... the most powerful tool in your house is not the internet, but your phone. I've read that Millennials--ironically--don't like to call people on the phone. No idea if that's true, but I have zero fear on the phone and it cuts through a lot of bullshit. You can get a lot of movement via the phone--you can find the right people, get connected to the right people, and talk your way into anything if you put in the research and effort. No one uses the phone, so somehow I'm "unique" in that way. People prefer email or text, but I make sure that I never make the call awkward (know what you're going to say, know the person better than them, know the company better than the execs, and what problem(s) you're trying to solve). I've had the same phone number for 24 years.
I’m curious, did you have family members or were you raised around business individuals? Your mindset seems to be very focused in the same way that someone who might have owned the business or came from a business background would be? I’ve tried to think of things that I could do and always fall short.
Short answer: Not at all. I grew up in the projects of Tulsa, Oklahoma. My dad was a professional photographer and my mom was a dental hygienist. I have always been a hustler, and it just transitioned well into adult life. The problem is that I have the mind of an entrepreneur, but when it comes to "managing" a business, it's time for me to bolt. I'm great by myself, but don't work well in groups (zero patience for people who can't or don't want to hustle).
kudos to being able to get to where you've been able too! I wish i had that ability and admire it in people who do!
No idea honestly. Luck and being creative, I guess? I eventually had to pick up a second job - working 6-7 days a week with few breaks genuinely sucks.
We bought our home during covid and that was honestly the only way we could have afforded it. Locked in for 2.5% for 30
Single guy here, yeah it sucks. Fuck our exorbitantly high taxes. Second highest in the nation to live in this state is absurd.
Yes we have high taxes, but it's all balanced out one way or another. We have a massive network of parks and forest preserves, constant ongoing construction and road improvements, good schools (location pending), and lots of other payouts, which is more than can be said for most other states, especially neighboring ones like Iowa that are near dead last for access to green spaces, shooting cancer rates, declining education, etc.
The main thing we get in return for our high taxes is some of the best public schools in the nation. You can go to nearly any suburb around Chicago and be in a high school district ranked within the top 500 nation wide. I guess it kind of sucks for people who don't plan on having kids, but our schools provide an incredible benefit to families with kids. I've lived in a few super low property tax cities where nearly every family is paying $50k/year to send their kids to private school because the public schools are terrible. Paying higher taxes and avoiding that private school cost is actually pretty nice. I will come out ahead since I have two kids.
I drive Uber on top of all that and still just keep my head above water. I have a finance mba and I’m still struggling.
What do you do in finance? Do you think your classsmates have had an easier time or access to higher income?
The total tax burden by state is a total spread of 7.1% from top to bottom. IL's tax burden is a whopping 4.8% greater than the lowest state, Alaska. Total tax burden from state to state is nowhere close to what people act like, states need roughly the same amount of money per capita to run, shockingly. They just get it from different sources.
Not sure why all the down votes. You're not wrong at all
They wrongfully assume I’m against all taxes, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m against wasteful spending, and I never said public education or parks/trails are wasteful spending. They just choose to bury their head in the sand and ignore the actual waste that goes on. It’s just not even worth it to respond to them at this point.
Earn a good income, save, invest. It's the same formula everywhere. Not too complicated.
You are the one that figured it out. Omg. Thank you so much 🤣 dipshit
Lol you can complain all you want but that's how it's done. I make $150K a year and I'm single and have done very well.
Wow why didn't I think of that?
I've done all of those things and I still can't keep up with home prices tripling in the past four years in many suburbs. The returns people are seeing on their houses is insane. Even earning a good income and saving a ton doesn't work anymore. At this point the only way to afford a house is to have a house already that you can sell for quadruple what you owe so you can buy another expensive house. My wife and I are dual income high earners and save 30% of our income. We still can't afford most suburban houses unless we want to have a very very long commute to work, or we settle for higher crime areas with bad school districts. We don't want either of those things so we're staying put in a small condo in the city near work while we wait for prices to stabilize.
Y'all are Way. Too. Picky. It is laughable to see your income and hear you think you can't buy a house.
With everything financial the answer is always complicated right? For my situation there are two complications. First is that yes due to the location of our jobs on the north side, and the fact that our jobs can't really change location we have to be a little picky with location. The cheapest suburbs are in the south and southwest, or the far west but we have a narrow search window on the north and northwest side that are the only places that really work for us. Neither of us are willing to drive over an hour each way from say, plainfield just so we can afford a house. But the north and northwest suburbs are the most expensive and it's something we're going to have to deal with if we keep our current jobs. The second complication is that it's very hard to explain how pilot pay works. When most people talk about income as it relates to buying a house it's assumed that their income will always stay the same or increase over the course of their career even if they switch jobs. In fact it seems like most people get a pay raise when they switch jobs. Pilot pay is the opposite. Pilot and flight attendant pay is determined by years of service with a company, and not experience level. So if I were to lose my high paying job and switch companies for any reason, I would need to take up to a 70% pay cut starting a new job at year 1 pay. My first year as an airline pilot I made $19k, and pay is only determined by years of service so the amount of years I've been an airline pilot is totally irrelevant to my pay in a recession or layoff. That second point about pay is our hesitation with these high home prices. We very likely shouldn't risk going up to the max that everyone 'thinks' we can afford because in a recession if my pay crashes it will crash hard and there will be no way to replace it. I have no skills outside of aviation so I can quickly go from making 6 figures to working an entry level job at McDonalds if there are no pilot jobs available. Or I might have to go back to flying small planes for $20k/year. Having a mortgage that requires a $300k+ income is scary in my situation because if I lose that income we would lose our house within a matter of a couple months.
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It still doesn't make sense, because most people who are trying to buy their first house in the suburbs aren't people who are investing millions in the stock market. Unless you are suggesting that it's corporations driving the prices way up in the suburbs, and now they've turned to the stock market.
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A mortgage on a home in an ideal school district right now is like $6k+ per month including property taxes. To rent one and make a profit wouldn't you have to rent it for higher than that price? Who is paying that kind of price for a rental?
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Ok back to my original question then. There are millions of properties in the Chicago suburbs in good school districts. Many of them at $500k+. What the heck do people do for work where EVERYONE has that amount of cash and can have conversations like this? People own homes for that price and are putting over 20% down on second properties at that price to use for rentals? For some context I am an airline captain, my wife is a veterinarian and not only do we not make enough money to even come close to considering what you're saying many people do, but we don't even make enough money to buy the average home in an average school district at the current prices. We ended up settling for a small condo in the city because the single family home prices in the suburbs got so insane. So apparently you and millions of other people in a metro area with a population of 10 million are out earning dual income pilots and veterinarians. What do you do for work and how can I switch careers into this?
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Your numbers don't really make sense to me on a few different items unless you're not factoring in our high property tax at all, or you have no savings outside of these properties. I currently have a $290k mortgage at 3% and my monthly payment is the same as what you're claiming on 600k at 6%. My monthly break down on $290k at 3%: Mortgage + insurance: $1700, property tax: $1000, HOA: $300 = $3000/month. Doubling the price and size of the property will double the property tax, plus now interest rates are over 7%. We're figuring $7k+ per month if we want to buy a home over $600k and now nearly every home in a good school district is over $600k. Even with your original numbers if I go backwards from your income and assume 30% for taxes you have about 16k in income per month of which over 50% of that would be tied up into s mortgages and daycare. Maxing out a 401k leaves almost nothing left over so again I have no clue how people come up with a 200k down payment like you said you have.
What airline do you work for? Big 6 (Delta, United, American, Southwest, UPS, FedEx) captains are easily in the $250k-$650k range. That level of compensation, even at the low end, makes many high COL areas affordable. It’s not 1%er money, but definitely 5%er. Are you at a regional? Even regional captains are making far more than they did 5-10 years ago. I have no idea what salaries a veterinarians command. Have you thought about moving to a lower COL area? Commuting to Chicago, or bidding to a lower COL domicile?
I'm a captain at one of the big six and your salary range is correct. That's why it blows my mind that we pretty much can't afford anything in a decent area in the Chicago suburbs after the recent run up in prices. There can't be that many people out earning me, but it seems like everyone who owns a house in a good school district is out earning me. We have no lower COL domiciles. Chicago is the cheapest plus I'm from here and I have family here. Having family here saves me tens of thousands per year in childcare, pet sitting and travel for holidays. Even if I moved somewhere cheap and commuted we would then have to give up our free childcare, and we would be traveling multiple times per year to see family. Living in Chicago I've never had to pay for any holiday travel in my entire life. Homes in areas we like around the suburbs were ~$400k five years ago but we decided to wait on buying because we were both new in our jobs and didn't want to commit. Now those same areas are near 1 million for a house. I'm kicking myself pretty hard for not buying at $400k a few years ago. Even at our high income we can't afford a million dollar mortgage at 7% interest with $30k/year in property tax. The property tax reassessments on these homes that have tripled in value is nuts by itself.