Rent/Mortgage

[WebLady]

Just curious how much everyone pays and how different things are in different areas.

DH and I have a 3 bdrm house and our mortgage is like $700 a month; that includes our homeowners insurance too. Before we got the house we lived in a 2 bdrm apartment and paid nearly $850 a month, plus renters insurance!

[neebelung]

We're renting for now, and it's $1300/month. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath single family home, with a screened-in in ground pool, 2 car garage, on a heavily wooded half acre, in a very quiet, older neighborhood, across the street from a huge lake, and 2 blocks away from the river. I absolutely love our house (we may make an offer to purchase it from the owners after we get married).

[sweetvenus]

I pay a little over $1000/month for my house. That's the mortgage, insurance, taxes, HOA dues, everything. It is 1330 sq ft, three bedroom, two bath, two car garage, fenced-in backyard.

[Goin2thechapel]

Our mortgage per month is $2400.00....It's a three bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom, no garage though :( and no pool :(

But I love our house.

[SerendipityCrafts]

We are paying just over $600 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment + utilities. The average price for a home in Montreal is about $250,000 so, if we were to buy with 10% down, we would still be looking at a mortgage of roughly $2000.00 a month (which would include school & property taxes).

[Danielle9608]

I said other because my mortgage is $2,000 per month. Includes taxes, insurance and condo fee For a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 1400 sq townhouse, no garage

[dawsmi]

We are renting a 4 bedroom house w/no garage in Saskatchewan for under $300/month + utilities! It is a very big house and I am hoping to get transfered soon to a house with 3 bedrooms on the main floor!!

[HisMuse]

I can't imagine anyone in MA pays less than $1000 for mortgage. We pay almost $1400 and that is really low compared to most people we know.

[Danielle9608]

We are renting a 4 bedroom house w/no garage in Saskatchewan for under $300/month + utilities! It is a very big house and I am hoping to get transfered soon to a house with 3 bedrooms on the main floor!!

Wow!!! Thats a great deal. Only thing you can rent here for $300 is storage!

[dawsmi]

Wow!!! Thats a great deal. Only thing you can rent here for $300 is storage!
Ya!! LOL!! It does pay to have connections!! Especially with our wedding coming in just over a month!!

[SerendipityCrafts]

Wow!!! Thats a great deal. Only thing you can rent here for $300 is storage!

LOL I forgot about our storage unit .... to house all the stuff we can't fit in our apartment. That's about $75 a month. I also have stuff stored in the warehouse at my day job.

[uptowngirl]

We pay about $1300 a month for our mortgage/taxes/insurance. We have a two bedroom bungalow built in 1910 - it is only 800 square feet, but has a full unfinished basement where we keep all our junk so it feels bigger than it is. No garage - but a nice fenced yard and an alley behind.

[lizardbnorton]

Right now I don't pay anything. I love my mom. But the apartments we are looking to move into start at like 1600. They have some others in the area that are around 1000, but they all look like garbage.

[brendalin]

I have a two story, three bedroom, two bath home and my mortgage (everything included, taxes, etc...) is $625.00 a month...

[WBandMe]

I'm in an itty bitty 700 something sq ft 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment, we pay $988 a month and that includes rent and water. There are apartments around here that are bigger and way way cheaper, but they're really trashy. We live in a building from 2004 and it's enclosed and secure and in a nice, quiet spot as opposed to most college apartments, so it's worth the extra money, even though it hurts every month to pay rent lol.

[Jenn060306]

We pay our mortgage weekly. So from month to month it varies based on how many Friday's there is. It's soooo great to have it this way. DH's pay is weekly so we never have to worry about getting too spend happy!

[flyerso6]

we pay 1150 a month for mortgage, which includes taxes and insurance. Its a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, 1450 sq ft with a 1 car garage. We also have a fence in yard but we had that put in right after we bought the house last year. (have 2 dogs).

[sjk1431]

We pay $789 and we have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom townhouse with a fenced backyard.

[Kirby]

We rent a 3 bedroom apartment for $450/mo + utilities. It is really old, but suits us just fine for now. We want to buy a house shortly after we get married.

[WebLady]

DH just reminded me that we have a 2nd mortgage, so that adds about $200 a month to our payment.

I really want to move and we talk about buying land and building a house; I assume this would raise the payment alot more for us.

[bichonlvr]

Oh I live in California...need I saw more!?!?!!

Although we have a 5 bedroom house, so I guess I can't complain too much!

[crazycatlady]

our rent is $700 a month. its about 1,000 sq ft 2 bed 2 bath. plus thats with a $25 per month pet rent for our babies. so really its $675.

[ChibiAiChan]

We pay $495 a month (sale at the time) which will go up to $595 in July *sigh* apartments are ridiculous. And its stupid i have to pay pet rent.. they don't work so they don't pay rent! We had to pay a butt load for the deposit. *that* should be good enough!

[EarlyBird]

we pay 1592.00 a month including tax and insurance for our mortgage. then 95$ a month in HOA fees
We live in a detached villa (Its like a home, it just means there is shared common spaces and the homes are a little closer together)
It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a garage.

[Nekochanpurr]

We pay $500 a month for a one bedroom apartment. We are suppose to have storage, but they won't give it to us.. Won't even give us one for my mom and i to share, cuz some dude downstairs comes before us because he knows the manager.. Ugh. But we can't afford to move.

[Whitewater]

I picked 'other' because of our unique living situation right now.

When we started out together I was paying $625 (plus elec, phone and cable) for a 711 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment in a decent part of town. He was paying the same, though his apartment was about 650 sq.feet -- but he was in a better neighborhood.

A year ago we both moved into the duplex that we're in now, and it orginally was listed at $900/mth plus elec and cable but my landlord likes me and she gave us a deal at $800 because the place had stood idle for months and she wanted it rented.

The home that we put the offer on is 1540 square feet with 3 bedrooms and one non-conforming bedroom, 1.5 stories and a finished basement, with 1 full bath and 1 half bath, plus a decent sized yard. If the bank accepts our offer (it's a bank-owned property, so even though we put the offer in a week ago, it might be two MORE weeks before we hear back from them), with the interest rates falling and all, we will probably pay somewhere between $6-700/month for our mortgage including all necessary insurance including mortgage insurance because we can only put about 6-8% down for a downpayment instead of the 20% you need to avoid mortage insurance.

You can see why I chose 'other' in the poll :) Our mortgage will still be less than rent, and we're getting a heck of a better value for our money.

Whitewater

[rllf4701]

We are renting a 16 by 70 trailer with a carport and tiny yard for 375/ month plus utilities. We have looked at houses but there is not much around here that we can afford that will sell if we need it to (I am a certified teacher waiting on a position to open up)

[crazycatlady]

rllf4701 - youre in mt. vernon right? thats all there is in so. ill. are a bunch of trailors! there all over the place! maybe youll luck out - i know that places are tearing down the trailors to put up apartments. someone told me that carbondale, il has the highest number of trailors per capita in the united states lol.

[soontobemrs]

I currently rent and I pay $575 a month for a 3 bedroom, 1 bath (water included) - like everything, it has it pros and cons but I have yet to even find an apartment in my area for less than $900 a month so I guess I'm doing pretty good.

[rllf4701]

crazycatlady- Well we are not quite in Mt. Vernon but in that general area. Thats kinda funny but very true. When we were looking to rent something, we seen a few houses and a lot of trailers. The trailer we are living in is actually really nice. We have more room than most of the people i know who live in small houses around here. Oh well...it doesn't matter to me as long as theres a roof over my head and I have somewhere safer to go when the weather gets all wacky. The only thing I hate is watching all the money we spend on rent just go down the drain.

[BrandyGibbons]

We just built a house, 2200 sq feet, 2 car garage, 4 bedroom, 21/2 bath, unfinished basement and we pay 2000 a month, including property taxes and insurance. The house in london, ontario are very affordable.

[Jacklynn]

We only pay $350/month WITH utilities. It is only 1 bedroom and 1 bath, but it does what we need it to. We live above a business (though its not actually used.. haha the owner lives in another state) and we send the owner the mail that comes like twice a month in exchange for reduced rent :)

[Nikita706]

We're renting a large, newly remodeled 2 bedroom, 2 bath house in Northern Cali and it's $1,000/mo. (we know the landlords...it usually rents for $1,200/mo.). It has a medium sized yard in the front. It's older and kind of run down, but has new carpets, appliances, floors, etc. We're hoping to fix it up a bit (we plan on being there until we are able to buy a home).

[FFC]

We're in a 1100 SQ Ft house, we pay $1700/mo rent. Long story short, mom bought it off Matt and his ex for what they owed, to save their credit, and we are paying the mortgage on it.. and I can't WAIT to move out, but we have another year or 2 before we can sell it cuz the market is so bad right now.

[KMS]

We just payed our first month's apartment rent - $695 water, gas, cable for ~650 sq ft. It's actually a good price for the quality around here. We looked at some scary places in the lower 600's in the surrounding area. Everybody that has come over has been pleasantly surprised by what we've gotten for our price. We hate paying for something we don't own, but it will do for the time being and we love it! It's home.

[Brianne1114]

We pay $565/mo for a 2BR/1.5BA, 885 sq.ft apartment in the "good" zipcode in the city. Water/trash are included, and up until last year we had gas heat included also.

[mindi_lynn]

We pay $602 (including taxes and insurance) a month for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, full unfinished basement, 1 car garage 930sq feet (give or take a few sq feet). It is located in the nicer part of town. We love the neigborhood but wish the house was bigger. We have been here for over 4 years. We figured we could stay in this house another 5 years and have at least one kid before we need to upgrade.

[saltyveruca]

We just payed our first month's apartment rent - $695 water, gas, cable for ~650 sq ft. It's actually a good price for the quality around here. We looked at some scary places in the lower 600's in the surrounding area. Everybody that has come over has been pleasantly surprised by what we've gotten for our price. We hate paying for something we don't own, but it will do for the time being and we love it! It's home.

That really is quite good. I helped a friend apartment shop and she couldn't find anything decent for less than $800, no utilities.

We pay $950 for a rented house in the 'burbs. 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, garage, big backyard, nice area. I think it's close to 1,400 sq feet? Who knows. Anyway, we got chased out here for the price because every house we found in town for around $1,000 was pretty scary. We're hoping to buy a house this summer/fall, hopefully closer in. If we play our cards right, we'll get more for less money, or at least the same amount. Goooo recession! :ura1:

[sbeechan]

I'm moving in with my fiance on the 15th of april. We live in New England and the prices are pretty steep for rent so we were really happy when we found our place- it's a new townhouse with 2 bedrooms and a full basement with 1.5 baths... and we're only leasing it for $800 per month.

[wedin08]

We pay $275 a month for a 1 bedroom apt. We live in Iowa.

[smileyone2002]

Charlie has his own house and we pay almost $600 a month...the payments just went up actually it used to be $550:purplex:

[lize566]

We pay right around $1000 (mortgage, taxes, and insurance) a month for our house. It is 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, 2 car garage, full finished basement, big backyard, in the better part of the city. I :heart: our house!

[kgvettegirl]

I'm afraid everyone is going to get really mad at me but here goes. I own a 11 room house built in 1810 on 20 acres. the yearly taxes are $1600. I inherited from my grandparents. Fuel oil bill about $2000. per winter. My Uncle lives there and takes care of it for me. We live in RC's home which is paid for. Taxes about $900. Homeowners Association Fees $850 per year. 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, finished basement 2 car garage on 3/4 acre lot.

[Nekochanpurr]

Why would be we bad at you, Elizabeth?? Your older house sounds AMAZING!! Pictures? i loveeeeeeeee old houses!! :D

[kgvettegirl]

I'll take my camera and get some tomorrow. It should be pretty since everything is blooming right now. It started life as a barn turned into a home in 1830 or 40 I'll get some of the interior too since some of the old stuff is realy cool. Fireplaces, moldings that sort of thing.

[Nekochanpurr]

Squee!! that is so cool!! (sorry for fangirlling over your house.. Heh.).

[MrsDM]

We bought a 2 bedroom 1 bath 1100 sq feet condo about a year ago. Detached garage. With taxes, we pay $870 a month, plus $140 for water every 3 months, Electricty is $100-140 depending how warm/cold it is, and $80 for association fees.

I really wish we had something bigger, but for 19 and 21, we're not doing too bad! We want to buy land and build but the timing with the wedding and all is just bad. Land alone will cost $100,000 - $150,000 for a couple of acres not in a subdivision. Agh.

[Nekochanpurr]

Hey, look at it this way.. The bigger the house, the more you will have to pay to heat/air condition the sucker! :D

[Parhelion]

<is jealous> Both of those houses sound amazing, kgvettegirl. Though holy cow...fuel oil costs a fortune! O_o

We live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath (can't recall square footage) apartment for $695/mo., including water and basic cable service. The apartment complex isn't the best (it's sadly known for vandalism), though it's in a decent area of town and perfect walking distance from groceries, good Chinese food, and a Starbucks. Renter's insurance is $45 every three months, gas/electricity runs on average $80/month during Spring and Fall, about $100 during Summer and Winter (AC is a must--Denver sometimes gets into the 100s in July).

[firespirit]

I'm gonna have to go with other on this one. The mortgage is over $2000 a month and the dock rent is an addition $600 a month. That doesn't include taxes and insurance.

[Tadswife]

My hubby and I live in a town house condo with 2 bedrooms, 1 and a 1/2 bath, rec room, loft and a deck. We pay about $960 a month in morgage( that also includes our property taxes. We have them put a certain amount away for that. If not it would kill us at the end of the year) and 160 in condo fee's. Now for the Taxes.. hold on to your seats ladies... we pay I believe $4,200 in property taxes. But we pay our home owners insurance every year since it's only $150 dollars are something in that range. The property taxes are a killer!!!!!! :bbeek:

[Whitewater]

I hear you on property taxes! What is saving us with our new house is that here in Minnesota, we have something called 'homesteading' which cuts property taxes in *half*.

We're still paying $87 a month (like you, we built it into our mortgage payment) but that's better than $174 a month!!! The property taxes on our house are absolutely insane - 2100 a year! For a tiny house and an equally tiny bit of land! But that's what you get when you live in the city. We could only afford to be within the city limits, but it's also our first house.

At that, I'd like to update my original post on this thread. Currently we're paying 900 a month plus elec, cable and phone for our (pretty shabby) 2 (tiny) bedroom duplex that has no yard. It *does* have its own laundry room, hence the high price tag.

Our first home will cost us $550 for the mortgage, plus close to $300 for all the insurance and taxes and whatnot that goes with a mortgage, so it winds up being about $830, minus the utilities.

But for that money we get a nice fenced yard, three stories (basement, main floor, and bedroom loft), much more square footage, a much nicer neighborhood, a bigger kitchen, a bigger laundry room, TONS of storage, and a fully electricized two car garage, plus some extra driveway space for a boat or a trailer or whatever. And the house isn't falling down around us, like our duplex kind of is.

I think it's a fair trade!


Whitewater

[BelhurstBride]

We live in a 2 Bedroom/2 Full Bath Apartment for $1025 a month. That includes a $50 pet fee every month (for 2 cats and 1 dog). We have a community pool and gym, which is nice. I love our apartment, but I honestly feel like we are paying wayyyyy too much for an apartment when we could be paying a mortgage for the same amount or just a bit higher. We are waiting until after the wedding so that we're able to get a good down payment for a house. I can't wait!! It's just like throwing $12,000 away every year.

And our upstairs neighbors walk like they are made out of cement... and throw their ashes and cigarette butts all over our patio.. and blast their tv so loud that it wakes us up at 6am.. and get in huge fights all of the time in which we can hear every word.:snide:

Can you tell I'm ready to move?

[Nikita706]

I love our apartment, but I honestly feel like we are paying wayyyyy too much for an apartment when we could be paying a mortgage for the same amount or just a bit higher.

We're in the same boat. We're paying $1,000/month on a 2 bedroom, 2 bath house. It's spacious, but it's really old and if we weren't putting so much effort into fixing it up, it would be really run-down. It is frustrating to think that we could be putting that money towards owning our own home instead of throwing it away every month. But if FH and I went down to apply for a loan, we'd only qualify for about $130,000 loan (which would be about $600/mo.), which wouldn't buy half a house in Northern California. It's ridiculous. That's one of the reasons we're planning on moving to Portland, OR. Housing prices are more reasonable, and there are a lot more business opportunities. FH works as a lock and alarm technician at a local shop and could make about $20,000 more a year STARTING in Portland (we saw an ad the other day for a company that was hiring out of Portland).