Rent, Buy, or Live with parents?

[Anonymous No.53536818]

Any other /biz/raelis struggling with this decision? Currently 30 and living with parents after I moved home for a job (was in dif city before). I currently make 21 per hour, which means after tax and no overtime, I take home about 1350 every two weeks, or roughly 2700 per month, give or take. I live in what is considered to be one of the lowest cost of living cities in the USA, and finding an affordable apartment is extremely difficult. Cheapest apartments I can find that are still in somewhat decent areas (not ghetto, not formerly redlined black areas) are about $800 per month minimum for a 1b1ba. Fucking insane that you used to be able to get a nice downtown apartment for $500 a month a decade ago.

Anyway, I'm living at my parents now and working from home, so I'm saving over 90% of my paycheck each month, which is great, but I'm sick of living at home. My parents don't have some mcmansion where I live in the basement in a mini apartment. I want to be able to get laid, I want to be able to cook my own food and leave when I want to.

When it comes to buying a house, even without the inflated market, idk if I could afford it. I have about 20k saved up. My parents are willing to help me with a down payment. But even if I find a 200k house and do a 40-50k down payment, owning seems daunting. I never feel very secure in my job, and what if I end up unemployed? The idea of taking out a mortgage and committing that for the next 30 years I will pay X amount every month is nerve-wracking for me.

[Anonymous No.53536824]

>>53536818
800 a month is about 30% of my take home pay, and that's pretty much the cheapest I could find that would still be livable (could find cheaper but literally would be bedroom in ghetto black person's house). But if I do that, then my take home becomes 1900 a month. After electric bills will probably be more like 1800. After groceries (lets say 100 week frugal) probably 1400 per month. And then if I end up socializing and drinking/smoking realistically I'm down to 1000. And that's without any vacations or trips. At best I'd be able to save like 10-12k per year and just seems so shitty. Still though, I cannot live in my parents' house indefinitely as a grown adult.

I'm going to try to sign up for ubereats or some shit to make extra money, but I shouldn't have to work more than 40hrs a week for a basic 1 bedroom apt and some savings. I am asking for financial advice, should I just suck it up and live with my parents for another year or two?

[Anonymous No.53536972]

>>53536824
>>53536818
I am exactly where you are @30 back with my parents, just with a larger income 198k but the cheapest (aka need a complete remodel) ghetto neighborhood homes are 350k+ and with insurance and taxes would be at least another 1000 a month on top of any mortgage payments and many thousands needed to make the place livable. basic af apartments are all 3000/month and up.

[Anonymous No.53537206]

>>53536972
>>53536824
>I am exactly where you are @30 back with my parents, just with a larger income 198k

I have a low income, so living with my parents makes sense. You have a high income. 3k a month is 36k per year. That's barely more than 18% of your income. That would be the equivalent of 630 a month for me (assuming that was your income before taxes), which I would consider reasonable. If you're really making that much 3k a month doesn't even sound bad to have your own place, you can still save up

[Anonymous No.53537228]

What do you do for work to make $21/hr? How high is your ceiling?

Ultimately that's not a good wage. Do you have any plans to upskill?

[Anonymous No.53537377]

>>53536818

I mean whether you rent or buy a house or condo, you're going to have a monthly housing payment regardless once you're out on your own. If you were ever in dire straits you could sell the house and use the equity to live on for a bit, whereas you have no equity in an apartment available. But the ideal would be to get a new job ASAP (if you have concerns about your current one, might not be a bad idea to have an exit strategy in place should you get let go, or maybe even find something right now that not only is more secure but also pays better, then jump ship). And also have some emergency savings available to help cover expenses while you're between jobs.

[Anonymous No.53537742]

>>53537228
>>53537228
>Do you have any plans to upskill?

Trying to do that with my job right now. I finally got back into more office based work after doing physical stuff/operations the past few years. I'm working from home too which is nice. It's just working off excel spreadsheets and sending emails basically. I'm at a pretty good company, and if I could get a salaried role I'd be golden, there's lots of opportunity. But otherwise no, I graduated college a decade ago and never was able to decide if I wanted to do grad school or anything. I felt like my prospects were so much shitter after college than I thought they'd be, I was paranoid of going to school for another few years and then being in the same boat. At this point going back seems impossible. Also not sure I could learn to code or whatever, just not that into programming

[Anonymous No.53537947]

>>53536818
Don't worry too much about the commitment of owning a house. It's not near the liability people make it out to be, because you can always rent your property out and have some moron pay your mortgage off for you. As long as your payment is lower than what comparable properties are renting for, it is advantageous to buy.

If you are in a low cost of living area, you can probably head a few minutes outside of the city to a USDA-eligible area. USDA offers direct loans with no money down and a current interest rate of 4% (this came up a bit from last year when it was in the low 3% range). You won't do better than that rate for the foreseeable future.