Housing costs

[kymom99]

I think they cracked down on that with new developments here. The developer is supposed to set the HOA fees so they cover all possible repairs and then buy insurance to cover any shortfall if they get it wrong.

They need to do that. I can see where mismanagement would go on without consequences otherwise

 

[scrapquitler]

I know this varies so greatly by region. Just curious how much people pay for their monthly rent or mortgage. Also curious as percentage of income. I feel ours is very low, but still struggle with having enough for extras and sometimes necessities.

We live in a relatively high COL area, and we purposefully bought a house that cost way less than what the conventional wisdom would have suggested that we could afford. Our mortgage was something like 10-12% of our Gross Income. Because of that, were able to pay off our mortgage in about 17 years instead of 30. So now our monthly housing cost is just the property tax bill (which is about $700/month) and maintenance.