Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerPlayer80
A buddy of mine recently bought a nice (but very small) studio condo in a great area of Massachusetts. With the low interest rates and a relatively inexpensive condo fee that includes heat, his mortgage and condo fee only come out to a little over 600 bucks a month.
And since this place is very close to his job so he is not paying much in terms of gas, he probably is not paying more than $1,200 a month to live.
If you are living alone, $1,200 a month can definitely make ends meet in some situations.
Yes, where and how you live makes a
huge difference. I live in Michigan. We are renting, but soon will be moving and buying the house next door. The housing market is really weak here, and what will be our new house has recently been appraised at $15,000. It is a three-bedroom with a full basement and enclosed porch.
My kids used to say that we lived in "the hood", and the neighborhood certainly has its quirks. A couple years ago we had several neighbors who would get drunk and argue outside late at night. Some of these neighbors had extended families in the house or nearby, and the whole thing could blow up to 20 or more people outside. The record is three police cars that I've seen on our block at the same time.
A lot of people wouldn't want to live here, but it's not like we're in the ghetto. There are no drug dealers on the corner and no drive-by shootings. We raised three children here, and never felt that they were in danger. Also, we live less than 10 miles from Lake Michigan.
If you don't have to have the best of everything (we pay cash for used cars, and it's been almost ten years since we made a car payment) your living expenses can be surprisingly low, even in the United States.
I don't think that one person living alone could make it on $1,200 a month here, but of course, a single person wouldn't need a 3-bedroom house (my wife and I both have an office.) I think that with an income of something $1,500 a month for a single person it might be possible.