Re:Uncomfortable answers to questions on Economy
by hugh on Thursday July 24, 2008 @08:32PM
(#256076)
Even most financial planning books/sites will tell you that it's "normal" to spend about 30% of your after-tax income on housing. WTF? Since when it's been "normal"?
30% of after-tax income doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Given that:
(a) in most areas there's more people than blocks of land in nice places, and
(b) living in a nice place makes a very significant difference to your quality of life
it makes sense that people are going to be willing to pay a significant fraction of their income in order to live in a nice place.
The only problem is the places where you can no longer buy a house on ~30% of the average local income. That's not sustainable.
30% of after-tax income doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Given that:
(a) in most areas there's more people than blocks of land in nice places, and
(b) living in a nice place makes a very significant difference to your quality of life
it makes sense that people are going to be willing to pay a significant fraction of their income in order to live in a nice place.
The only problem is the places where you can no longer buy a house on ~30% of the average local income. That's not sustainable.