What percent of your income do you spend on your car payment and mortgage payment?
April 22, 2006 3:30 PM   Subscribe

What percent of your income do you spend on your car payment and mortgage payment?
posted by comatose to Work & Money (54 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
If you give a little context for why you're asking, I bet you'll get more willing answers. Right now, I think I spend about 25-30% of my income in the combined payments of two cars and a house things. I think the rule of thumb is your mortgage/rent should never be more than 1/3 your income.
posted by mathowie at 3:32 PM on April 22, 2006


is that before tax or after tax for the 1/3?
posted by crewshell at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2006


38.3%

No car payments. Mortgage is hefty but that's how it goes here in D.C. and many parts of the coasts (U.S.).

Things are fine.. And when I sell, they'll be more than fine. (hopefully)
posted by seinfeld at 3:36 PM on April 22, 2006


My car payment is 4% of my take-home.
My rent is 12%. No mortgage (yet).
posted by scarabic at 3:40 PM on April 22, 2006


Car = 11% of take home
Rent = 31%

Alexandria VA, if that's any kind of help
posted by Fejery at 3:49 PM on April 22, 2006


Car - don't have one
Rent - around 10-12% of net income
posted by brain_drain at 4:01 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage: 16% of take-home
Cars (2): 10% of take-home

In Ohio.
posted by ferociouskitty at 4:02 PM on April 22, 2006


No car payment.
Rent, about 15% of gross. (in Montana)
Alimony, 17% of gross. :)
A peaceful home, priceless.
posted by The Deej at 4:03 PM on April 22, 2006 [1 favorite]


Suburb of Boston here.
Mortgage = 33.9%
But my monthly wraps in my taxes so it's really 40.5%

Mortgage sounds like a lot, but it's only $30 more than I was paying in rent. Such is the Boston area.

When I had a car payment it was 10%

Jeez, I'm not sure how I made ends meet at one time, but things are okay now.
posted by jdl at 4:04 PM on April 22, 2006


No car payment but my mortgage payments are approx 45% of my income. I share my mortage with one other. She makes slightly more, so her percentage is only 40%. In Calgary, Alberta.
posted by chudmonkey at 4:11 PM on April 22, 2006


No car payment.

Mortgage is ~28% - however, tacking on my condo association fee (which just went up in a huge way) brings that up to almost 38%.

This is in Florida.
posted by brain cloud at 4:15 PM on April 22, 2006


Chiming in from central Minneapolis --

Car, 7% (Honda Civic bought new two years ago with 0% interest).
Rent, 20% -- it would be significantly more but for the fact that my lovely, beloved landlords care far more about having a stable long-term tenant than about making money on the unit, and only raise my rent when expenses force them to. Market rate would put the percentage closer to 25% or more.
posted by Kat Allison at 4:16 PM on April 22, 2006


1)Recently paid off the car.

2)Rent about 14% of net pay. I've got a landlord deal like Kat Allison above.
posted by bim at 4:27 PM on April 22, 2006


Car 0%
Rent 9% - rent room in house for $420 + another $100 to rent storage space from uhaul
Mortgage 10% - currently buying a fixer upper in philly for 100k.

Houses in the suburbs here are expensive, but the city itself is still cheap.
posted by malp at 4:32 PM on April 22, 2006


Car: 0%
Motorcycle: 0%
Mortgage: 15% or so of after tax (take-home).

I'm in San Francisco, and have never purchased a car that wasn't at least 5 years old (and only one that cost more than $6,000). Anything newer not only would cost too much, but would immediately lose most of its value once it got dented, vandalized, broken-into, and/or stolen in my neighborhood.

I've owned my condo since 1998, and refinanced it in 2002.
posted by toxic at 4:43 PM on April 22, 2006


Car: 0% - we always go for older/cheaper vehicles so we can pay up front rather than have to make payments.
House: approx 7%. Far from the big cities, cheapish house, more than half paid for, so the interest component is now smaller.
We're the kind of household that will do a lot to avoid getting in debt (the house is our only big debt) and go without if we can, rather than have to take out loans. Hope that's a useful data point. Why do you ask? Just vague curiosity?
posted by normy at 5:19 PM on April 22, 2006


Rent - 26.8%
Car Lease - 10.9%

Amounts are after tax, in Cambridge, MA.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:25 PM on April 22, 2006


Los Angeles here.

Car payment = 7% of take home pay (but I got a 4-year loan instead of a 5-year to pay it off faster overall; with a 5-year loan it would have been about 5.5%)

Rent = 25% of take home pay (but that's because I have a roommate; when I lived on my own, rent was nearly 50%. Hence why I don't live on my own anymore!)
posted by scody at 5:34 PM on April 22, 2006


Housing + car expenses = 50% of my income, but I make very little money.
posted by Maisie Jay at 5:54 PM on April 22, 2006


Car=Paid Off
Rent=23%

I live in one of the lowest costs of living areas in the country, so the amount of apartment I get (huge, posh, antique, renovated) in the neighborhood I'm in (highly maintained, historic, everyone gardens, my backyard is against two art galleries) is ridiculously high for the little money I spend compared to most Mefi'ers.
posted by sourwookie at 5:58 PM on April 22, 2006


I don't have a car.
Mortgage + building fees = 70%
Graduate student/homeowner in Brooklyn
posted by billtron at 6:07 PM on April 22, 2006


Effing ouch, billtron. I've been waiting for someone to top us, and you finally did. In our case, it's mostly due to elective overpayment, though.
posted by NortonDC at 6:10 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage: 20%
Cars: 3.4% (for two)
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:48 PM on April 22, 2006


Oh, and for what it's worth the car total isn't really representative. It counts the car we have on lease, and the car that had a really good financing offer.

We have another recently purchased car that we bought cash, because the financing offers weren't good enough to justify the hassle.
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:59 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage = 21% of take home.
Car = None - both are paid for.

In the suburbs of Atlanta, for what it's worth.
posted by deadmessenger at 7:02 PM on April 22, 2006


Rent: 39.28% (in my reality) or 33% (in the reality where I show more appreciation for the non-taxable benefits, like $5k/year health insurance)

Car: all mine

I'm a near-newbie teacher living in Las Vegas. (Well, in the surrounding unincorporated county land where most people live. If I lived in LV proper, things would be better, but I'd probably spend the difference on vodka and bullets.)
posted by Liffey at 7:03 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage: 19% of take home from one salary.
Cars: 0% two old cars both paid off.
Townhouse in the Pittsburgh suburbs.

This is why we don't live on the east coast where I'm from or the west coast where my wife is from. I don't really want to pay more than $100K for a house.
posted by octothorpe at 7:05 PM on April 22, 2006


43% rent
10% on car payment
9% on car insurance (new driver, driving a new car...bad idea)

Suburb of Boston.
posted by fuzzbean at 7:11 PM on April 22, 2006


I have no mortgage, we rent. I make no car payments because I paid cash in full. So 0% and 0% respectively. Rent is currently around 15% of gross income.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:26 PM on April 22, 2006


25% rent
6% car payment
posted by disaster77 at 7:40 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage: 7%
Car: 2%
posted by visual mechanic at 8:15 PM on April 22, 2006


Car: 0% (paid for)
Rent: 14% of gross, 24% of net (after taxes, 401(k) contribution, and other payroll deductions)
posted by kindall at 8:35 PM on April 22, 2006


Car payment is 15% of take-home, but I consider myself an automotive enthusiast so it's half transportation and half hobby. Motorcycle is paid for. No mortgage, but rent is 25% of net. Both of us are getting by on my income and student loans, but I bought the car when I was single. At what we expect when we're back to dual-income: car will be paid for, student loans will be 10% and mortgage will be around 25%.
posted by mendel at 9:08 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage: 13.15%
Car: 8.21%

Both are % of pre-tax income, and after a raise that I received less than 2 months ago.
posted by tkolstee at 9:10 PM on April 22, 2006


22.9% of take-home pay, but I am paying extra on both.
posted by john m at 9:12 PM on April 22, 2006


Rent: 40%
Car: 7%

i live in nyc. now that its on paper like that, it makes me want to move back to queens.
posted by xospecialk at 10:41 PM on April 22, 2006


You Americans sure are lucky, here in Estonia the average monthly wage is around 550$ (that's 6600$/year) but the average house costs around 90 000$.

Sorry for the derail.
posted by A Kingdom for a Donkey at 11:02 PM on April 22, 2006


Rent: 24%, including utilities.
Car: 0%. I don't drive.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:10 PM on April 22, 2006


Just for a totally different perspective, I'm on the Gold Coast, Qld, Australia and my stats are:

Rent: 31%
Motorcycle: 7%
Car: 0% (we own it, but it's a piece of crap)

I'm really envying those of you that seem to have a mortgage of 7-10%! I estimate that my mortgage, when I get it, will be about 40-45% of my income. (I don't know if this is an Australian thing, whether I'm looking at too ritsy places (but it doesn't feel like it) or what?)
posted by ranglin at 11:35 PM on April 22, 2006


Mortgage is about 7%, I don't drive but the Tube charges me about 3% to get to where I've got to go.

I bought a cheap flat in The Ghetto (Whitechapel) otherwise my costs would be much higher as I live in London.
posted by Mutant at 11:45 PM on April 22, 2006


Car: 0%
House Mortgage: 0%

Property tax on the house is about $700 a month. Since I have no regular income at the moment, that would make it:

Property Tax: -infinity% per month
posted by tkolar at 11:57 PM on April 22, 2006


Together, about 45% of take-home.

Mortgage 40, car 5.

In the suburbs of Sydney Australia, which I believe has very expensive property prices compared to the rest of the world. Plus, we only just started paying.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 12:49 AM on April 23, 2006


Toronto has ridiculously over-priced real estate, so we bought the smallest, cheapest townhouse we could find in a convenient part of the city.

Counting mortgage, condo fees and property taxes, my husband and I are paying about 20% of our take-home income each. I'm carrying all the costs this summer so he can make a dent in some other debt, so my summer percentage is 40%.

If you omit property tax, the percentage is 15% (30% for me over the summer).

No car.
posted by rosemere at 6:12 AM on April 23, 2006


Zero. Car and house are both paid for. Property tax is about $65 a year; it used to be zero before the last assessment (it's almost entirely covered under Louisiana's homestead exemption).
posted by localroger at 7:00 AM on April 23, 2006


No car payment. Mortgage is about 32% of my net income. This is in central Maine.
posted by JanetLand at 7:11 AM on April 23, 2006


Mortgage - 55% or so after net income.
Car - None.

Selling the house.
posted by Thistledown at 7:16 AM on April 23, 2006


localroger wrote...
Property tax is about $65 a year; it used to be zero before the last assessment

Bastard. Try that in California. :-)
posted by tkolar at 7:46 AM on April 23, 2006


Car: 0%

Rent: 20 % of take-home pay, about 13.5 % of gross pay.

To own the house where I live, I'd be paying about 70% of take-home pay toward a mortgage. To pay 20 % of take-home pay toward a mortgage in this area, I'd have to move 30 miles away and pour countless dollars into my solo-car commute every day. People who say renting is dumb and owning is the way to go seem clueless about this basic equation.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:29 AM on April 23, 2006


Rent: ~40% of take-home (after 401k, insurance, and taxes), ~23% of gross before bonus (ah sweet sweet Manhattan taxes)
Subway pass: less than 1% of salary
Not having to have a car or roommates: worth every penny
posted by ch1x0r at 9:32 AM on April 23, 2006


When I had a mortgage, it was about 55% of my net pay (call it closer to 60% with taxes) because I live in the Bay Area. The house wasn't worth that to me, and would have required another 20-30% of my paycheck to fix up, so we sold it and rented something much, much nicer in a non-ghetto neighborhood for about 30% of net. Owning was dumb.

The car's paid off now, but while I was financing it, the thing took up about 5% of my cash flow.

I don't have figures in front of me to work out the gross numbers, I'm afraid.
posted by majick at 11:13 AM on April 23, 2006


I'm a student in London. My rent is about 75% of my student loan 'income'.

I take the bus.
posted by reklaw at 11:43 AM on April 23, 2006


No car payments for us. A few repair bills here and there because they are old beaters.

House payment is 5% of our gross income.
posted by Ostara at 1:49 PM on April 23, 2006


My girlfriend and I paid for our car out of her savings, and we're paying back towards the savings every month. My half of that, + rent, is about 23% of take-home (in Dublin, Ireland).

When I was in Toronto, my car payment + rent was about 50%.
posted by antifuse at 3:33 AM on April 24, 2006


Mortgage - 21% (but we pay extra principal each month, so it's really more like 25%)

Car(s) - 14% (one will be paid off June '07, though)

These are based on net pay, and I live in a suburb of Rochester NY.
posted by Lucinda at 5:46 AM on April 24, 2006


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