i'm over half, and expecting yet another rent increase soon.

Who are the half that make the 7 figures required to not spend half your income on housing?

Did they just fully make up have the surveyed population?

I literally cannot remember a point in my life when I wasn't spending half or more of my income on rent/mortgage.

I'm wondering if the people in this thread who are saying they pay less than 30% of their income on rent as if it's some sort of trick or achievement actually understand percentages since they don't seem to understand that the "nearly half" part of the headline puts them in the majority...

I don't know anyone spending less than half of their income on housing.

they make your walls so thin so you can hear your landlord masturbating to this

I actually thought 30% housing was the norm for the past 10 years?

I was renting from 2009-2017. My threshold was $1000. Once they raised my rent above that I was out. So in all that time my rent increased ~$100-150. That was for an 1140 sq/ft, 2 bed, 1 bath apartment including the extra I paid for a detached single garage. I looked up the same apartment today. It’s $1750 and they don’t even post the garage prices. I’m gonna say probably $1900 all in for the same thing today. So a ~$900 increase in a similar timespan. Oof.

The apartment wasn’t anything special. Cheap carpet, old appliances but everything worked. It was showing its age but it was being maintained.

I worked in the largest city in the state but got an apartment ~25 miles away cause it was way cheaper than downtown. It was only a couple minutes drive from the highway and a tram station. So commuting wasn’t terrible. For a bit there my work even paid for the tram.

Even back then there was muttering about rent going up for the foreseeable future. Glad I got out of the renting situation cause it’s so much worse than I could have ever imagined.

We should build and fund more public housing.

Unfortunately, a large chunk of the country doesn't believe the government can or should do anything, so I guess that's a difficult pitch to make.

I wish. I'm at a little below half lately.

And that is only going to go up. In my area at least, the price of rent has gone up ~15% per year for the last 5 years. In 5 more years the apartment I was renting will cost more per year than my house payment.

Your daily reminder that basic housing should be absolutely zero fucking dollars because housing should be a human right, and anything above 0% should be criminal.

I know that rent has gone up, but you definitely can hack it. I never spent more than 30% of my take home pay on rent. I managed that by looking at places that fit my budget or living with roommates. Pretty much you won’t have very good luck if you’re a single person trying to rent your own place though. In terms of finding places within budget, I always avoided any type of new buildings built in the last five to ten years or so. The cost of those is usually highest. They’ll promise flashy amenities, but it’s usually not worth it. Also, avoid corporate landlords. If you can, find a mom and pop landlord that’s been in business for awhile. They usually have better deals and don’t go up on rent every year provided you’re a good tenant that pays on time and doesn’t cause any stresses for them. You’ll have the best luck with this if you stick to places where people list their own properties like Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, etc. Avoid spots that corporate landlords use like apartments.com.

Edit: Or, don’t. Ignore this advice and pay through the nose. You’ll be renting forever.