Wage Required to Afford a 2-Bedroom Rental in Every State

Try getting a one bedroom like the rest of us did in the day....

originally posted by: nwtrucker
Try getting a one bedroom like the rest of us did in the day....

No you should be able to afford a bedroom for your best friend to live for free on minimum wage, didn't you know that?

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I guess you're not including escrowed insurance and taxes.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Who said 300k for a house?

You did:

Just because there are houses on the beach that are $2million doesn't mean you can't live in that city 2 blocks over for $300k.

Dude, thanks for your participation, but I don't agree with your rant at all. I've owned three different homes. I know what it costs. I know what property values are.

You might not be including escrowed insurance and taxes (which is fine) but that is the TYPICAL arrangement with a mortgage.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I guess you're not including escrowed insurance and taxes.

Rent does not include rental insurance either. If you want to add in Insurance and Taxes you can afford about $220k house at $1,500 a month including taxes and insurance and $0 down payment.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
You did:

No, I did not, you completely missed the comparison, $300k had literally nothing to do with what someone making minimum wage should buy. It was comparing the fact that just because one house costs $2 million does not change the fact some houses will cost $300k close by.

So just because prime locations may cost $3k a month for rent does not change the fact you can get a place close by for $1,500 or less.

Dude, thanks for your participation, but I don't agree with your rant at all. I've owned three different homes. I know what it costs. I know what property values are.

You might not be including escrowed insurance and taxes (which is fine) but that is the TYPICAL arrangement with a mortgage.

No, you obviously don't. You said a $150,000 house costs $1,500 a month. I pay, including taxes and insurance, $614 a month for $100k mortgage on $120k house. It would be $921 a month for a $150k mortgage.

Simple math.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Simple math.

You missed the interest deduction in your math.
Renters don't get that.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

No, I did not

Yes, you did.


But, I'm not going to argue with you about this. The numbers in the report are what they are.
If you have a rebuttal, and solid numbers, then by all means make a report and publish it!! There are many people who would be delighted to know that the situation is not as dire as it is reported to be.

(You also said you don't watch FOX news, but yet, you provided a link above to foxnews.) (Just in case you weren't tracking correctly.):

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04


Great. Unions are all for high minimum wage .. for non union people, and low minimum wage for union workers.

Unions seek exemption from LA minimum wage law they helped pass

www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

It was a link someone provided in another thread which I copied and pasted. Is there something in the article I posted which you find incorrect? Otherwise you seem to be using the ad-hominem of attacking the messenger to disparage the message.

I guess what else can you do when you are wrong?

I already gave my rebuttal. Can you show me where a $150k mortgage would cost $1,500 a month which is your number?

originally posted by: pthena

$19.62 wage required for 2 bedroom.

Holy Moly! My son just moved into a 1 bedroom. I don't think his and his wife's income is even that much. At the moment he's part time Yoga instructor at the YMCA.

Between the two they can't bring in 20 bucks an hour? Maybe they should have hold off on the whole marriage thing until they could afford something with combine wages...

a reply to: Xtrozero

No, minimum wage needs to be high enough for a single mom with 3 children to make minimum wage and afford a bedroom for each child.

Never mind the fact that almost ALL minimum wage earners are not "breadwinners" and are mostly younger students.

A couple of thoughts...

1. The whole world outside of the US think of synergy when it comes to a living wage. It seems in America everyone wants to solo it and when they can't they scream foul or unfair.

2. When you can't do it on your own...(which I feel is a luxury) then you need to work as a team. As you make more money you can then afford nicer things in life, like your own place.

3. When we see 19 per hour needed for 2 bedroom then that means one person who make 20 bucks an hour or two people who make 10 each. There is no "right" involved in this you either make more than what you need to live on or you get a roommate. If you spend your whole life in an apartment with roommates there is only one person to blame.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: Xtrozero

No, minimum wage needs to be high enough for a single mom with 3 children to make minimum wage and afford a bedroom for each child.

Never mind the fact that almost ALL minimum wage earners are not "breadwinners" and are mostly younger students.

If I came to you and said, I'll mow your lawn and you said sure I'll pay you 20 bucks, and I said, no you will pay me 100, will you pay it?

You are right, the normal model for minimum wage is low skill/education young people, or very old that want to subsidize their pension/social security, so what does this have to do with a single mother with 3 kids? That doesn't seem young or old...

Why is the mom single with 3 kids and zero skills but what a minimum wage job will pay for? Also, is it any companies responsibility or fault she is single with 3 kids?

Here is some truth...

1. If I have a minimum wage job I will hire the person best fit for the job. If I had 3 people to pick from guess who I would pick.

1. Mother with 3 kids
2. Young guy or girl living with their parents still but motivated.
3. A family man with a PHD
3. A 35 year old that looks like he has done 40 different minimum wage jobs in his life.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
A couple of thoughts...

1. The whole world outside of the US think of synergy when it comes to a living wage. It seems in America everyone wants to solo it and when they can't they scream foul or unfair.

I agree. And this goes even further. It's saying it's unfair ONE person can not afford TWO bedrooms. It's crazy.

2. When you can't do it on your own...(which I feel is a luxury) then you need to work as a team. As you make more money you can then afford nicer things in life, like your own place.

Yes. If you can't afford 5 kids don't have them. If you are not with a lifetime partner, don't have sex or us Birth Control. There is no reason that the AVERAGE single person NEEDS 2 bedrooms to survive.

3. When we see 19 per hour needed for 2 bedroom then that means one person who make 20 bucks an hour or two people who make 10 each. There is no "right" involved in this you either make more than what you need to live on or you get a roommate. If you spend your whole life in an apartment with roommates there is only one person to blame.

And there is also no need to live in an upscale neighborhood making minimum wage. The figures they give for "needed pay" are not for the average middle class rent, it's for UPPER middle class rent, in very nice areas.

The entire source is a sham.

I suspect that the numbers in this report were taken from rental agencies. Rentals handled through agencies are always inflated.
In our area rents are all over the place. We have a university and the rates in the immediate vicinity of the school are quite high for the area. A two-bedroom apartment near the U. can run as high as $950/month while a nice, older, two-bedroom home in my neighborhood rents for $300/month and that includes lawn service. Three-bedroom mobile homes rent for as little as $200/month and just a mile away two-bedroom "lake cottages" rent for $1000/week!
The rents being paid by students these days just amaze me. Back in the Dark Ages, we paid $60/month for a four-bedroom farmhouse and the landlord did the yard work and even plowed our garden for us. Shared four ways, it wasn't bad at all. But that was in the days when everyone had to have roomies to be able to get out of the homestead an on our own. We lived on what we made in our part-time jobs, but we couldn't have done it solo. We didn't have school loans or grants and our scholarships only covered tuition and some books. We didn't have a TV, much less cable and it was an event when someone had saved up enough cash to splurge and buy the latest CCR or Airplane album!
In those days (early '70s) minimum wage was about $1.60/hr if my memory is correct. I believe it was in '74 or early '75 when it was raised to $2.00/hr or thereabouts. If memory serves me, I was making $2.10/hr in those days and felt quite nonplussed when the minimum wage went up but my wages didn't increase. Just didn't seem fair to me that those working around me were suddenly worth more but the price of my labor hadn't risen.
Sorry to wander off down memory lane---back to topic---if you want to find affordable housing you need to look for it, really do some searching, not just go to the nearest rental agency.

a reply to: diggindirt

They definitely did that or something similar. The numbers they use are completely bogus. I looked up the price of rent in GOOD, safe, middle class towns, and they were about 70% of what they claimed.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Yes, just a quick perusal of the rentals in our area doesn't show the real picture because so many of our rentals are private. Just a few months ago I spent about a month assisting a relative in finding an affordable rental for a single woman and her two dogs. The rental agencies didn't have anything under $500/month and had assured her that she wouldn't find anything but a shack for any less. She was amazed when I happened upon a 2 bedroom cottage on a farm where her dogs could run free for $300/month with water, lawn service and snow removal included.

a reply to: diggindirt

Propaganda and lies, can ... not ... accept ... as ... truth .... *explodes*

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

There are lots of arguments for alternatives, and some countries do it better, but there are no economically viable fixes here in the US without systemic changes in other areas of the federal budget.

I respectfully disagree that there are no viable alternatives to the minimum wage issue. There is an alternative and why nobody ever brings it up is beyond me. It's calledMaximum Ratio and this is a great page that explains the difference between the minimum wage and maximum ratio.