TL;DR: Americans now need to make $120K a year to afford a typical middle-class life and qualify to purchase a home. Minimum.
TL;DR: Americans now need to make $120K a year to afford a typical middle-class life and qualify to purchase a home. Minimum.
i replied to your comment because it did give me a bit of hope that it was probable for someone without a six figure salary. i was just looking for some context to see what kind of sacrifices to my lifestyle and living situation i might have to make to achieve that. if it came off as passive or judgmental i am sorry. that was not my intention. i am glad you tried to give others hope that it can be done, but without a clear path to a goal, however conditional, it doesnt end up helping very much.
the problem is that anything I say will be downvoted to oblivion because it disagrees with the Lemmy hivemind. So why should I contribute to an echo chamber? I do want to give hope though.
I work in IT and don’t make that much money. I saved up for 10 years, enough to have $10k for a house down payment, found a house for $250k and my mortgage is about $1400 a month. I don’t know what a superfund site is and I don’t have anything special otherwise. Just work hard,budget, and save up. It’s doable with less thna $50k a year if you can find the right place
i do understand your perspective. i have avoided social media for the last 15 years, and had only interacted on reddit very rarely before moving to lemmy, so it may be that i am less disillusioned, but it seems to me that the better the information, the less negative discourse seems to surround it. the article in the post will definitely incite a lot of negative feelings here, since it seems to confirm a lot of the beliefs of those who feel disenfranchised by the state of the world. so yea, the deck seems pretty well stacked against hope, at least on this thread.
anyway, i appreciate you getting back to me. its nice to hear some solid figures, and that does definitely give me some hope. $10k is achievable, and a 4% down payment is probably the most reassuring figure here, as a lot of the advice i hear is closer to 8-10% which make it just that much further out of reach as id have to save up twice as much or purchase a home worth half as much which is impossible in my current market.
if you could indulge me just a bit further, how far away from a metropolitan area are you? my wife has always grown up in cities and while she does like to visit more rural areas she isnt too keen on relying entirely on a car to get around, or having to own two cars to get by, but like i said before, im curious about any sacrifices wed have to make for that sort of lifestyle so, you know, if thats how it has to be then thats how it has to be.