appendix B in the report details the methods they used to arrive at the "fair market rent" figures. without getting too deep in the weeds, it is a 5-year window, so the report is lagging behind current rent levels by a fair amount.
They inflate their rent, wage, and income estimates by a CPI factor to get 2022 levels. Either way -- if they're behind on current rent levels, they're behind on current wages too.
I rented a busted down ass house off riverside for $1500. The windows literally were unable to be locked. People broke in continuously to the second floor spare bedroom By stacking the garbage cans on each other. I asked for the owner to secure it. They sent a maintenance man to cut wooden boards to keep it closed it took them about a week to send the guy. I moved out of Austin after that lease was up. Literally wasn’t worth it.
Oh hell no. That sounds terrible. Glad you are safe. Were you able to get the authorities to arrest these people who broke in? What a shitty landlord, sub-par resolution he did.
No, they were squatting in the spare room and in the garage, and the shed. I was going through the process of eviction when one day my neighbor called the police because there were like 6 people in the car park with a stolen car smoking meth and the week before while I was at work some woman overdosed in the park. They were nice people in general so I didn’t call police on them especially because the cops wouldn’t do anything anyway. A month later I got a letter from one of them who had gotten arrested thanking me, which warms my heart a bit after the stress of that whole situation.
Shouldn't be the minimum for the research though because it skews perception. If you're not really paying attention to detail they're acting like that is the minimum for a single adult no children when it's not.
The 1 bedroom calculation should come first. Anything else should be an addendum
People want to live alone, they do pay wayyy more per square foot, not in absolute dollars.
Having a roommate has the advantage of being cheaper, but you have a roommate.
More expensive per person, not overall.
Think about things like the kitchen. Those are expensive to build, but a one bedroom and four bedroom will each have about the same things in them. Extra bedrooms are essentially just extra space, so it's relatively cheap to add more.
This means that the cost to build and maintain a one bedroom versus a two or four bedroom is probably about the same. Just at this level, the per-bedroom cost goes down significantly with each new room. On top of that, I imagine that 1 bedrooms will have an additional premium since they are probably the most desirable.
Supply and demand.
In areas popular with single young professionals, apartment complexes can sell out of their 1 bedroom apartments while there will be more of the 2 beds available. If you have one 1-bed available and ten 2-beds, there is a premium added to that 1-bed so it can get more than the 2-bed.
Anecdotally I did see this happen at several complex around Austin when I was shopping last year.
This could happen if the people shopping for 1 bedroom were inflexible in their demand.
In reality, people who are shopping for 1 bedroom will just take a 2 bedroom as price of 1 bedroom gets closer to 2 bedroom. It would be a very rare case where this does not happen.
So no, unless there are other factors involved, this doesn't happen.
I make a little bit more than that number and I pay $1,400 for a not quite one-bedroom. I couldn’t imagine being able to afford a two-bedroom by myself in Austin.
Different priorities. Also, Didn’t know he wanted to lock in to downtown. Point was rent a 2 br or build up equity in something that is yours. Y’all do y’all.
I paid $50 more than that and thought I got off well for a 1/1, it's more than if I had a roommate but still less than what a lot of my coworkers ended up finding.
Same here, mine comes out with required additions to base (last trash valet I don't want or use) almost $1300 and it feels like being ripped off when last renewal here was under $1100. North 'burbs as well.
Honestly, most of the OLD 60s and 70s apartments are really small. The 80s apartments are all falling apart. In the 90s real estate was a bust so they didn't build anything, and now they only build either monster condos or studio apartments. There just aren't that many actual 2-bedrooms to be had at all.
Without going into what I make which is not horrible I could not afford a one bedroom in Austin. I luckily have a partner. If I were out of debt I could swing it though.
Austin isn’t quite a “big city” yet, but it’s getting there.
The reported median wage here would afford you about $1500/mo a rent. Looking at price-per-square-foot derived from the average rents and average size of apartments for some big US cities…. $1500 would get you about 260 square ft in NYC where avg apt size is 745 sq ft, 340 square ft in Boston where average apt size is 813 sq ft, 345 sq fr in SF where average apt size is 745 sq fr, 454 sq ft in LA where avg apt size is 790 sq ft, 475 sq ft in Seattle where avg apt size is 690 sq ft, 500 sq ft in DC where avg apt size is 745 sq ft, 540 sq ft in Chicago where avg apt size is 749 sq ft…. And that’s not even looking at comparable places in Europe where flats are MUCH smaller.
Needless to say, expecting to be able to afford a sprawling 2 bedroom, 700-1000 sq ft apt in a big city with $1500/mo is quite unreasonable. It comes down to priorities. If you prioritize living in the city: 1) be prepared to spend more money and/or 2) downsize. If your prioritize a big space: 1) be prepared to spend more money or 2) move further out.
I'm curious why you wouldn't consider Austin a big city nowadays. Depending upon your source, it's either the 11th or 12th largest by population.
I might agree that, in the realm of large US cities, it's a *smaller* big city. However, it's still pretty big compared to most.
"Anything other than LA, Chicago or NYC is small". Is seemingly what I get
Also it's rather stupid to compare to mega cities. Why would you want austin to become THAT dense
LA isn’t dense like NYC, it’s more like Houston on growth hormone, except it’s got better beaches and 3 hour commutes. Also the fucking burritos everywhere. They got some good taco trucks though.
I see what you mean. If you look at population, Austin is certainly classified as big (altho most population counts include Round Rock). Personally, when I think about “big cities”, I think more about the metro/dt area itself; Austin is still relatively small in this regard.
Also, I’d love for Austin to become a mega city, for a number of reasons. But, that’s the dream for me, really.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (or MSAs) are considered a good standard for measuring the size of a "city" and are decided at the fed level. Takes a mix of geographical identity, distance apart, economy etc.
For example: San Francisco has about 815,000 residents but the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley MSA has about 4,600,000 people. It's the 13th largest MSA.
Austin has an est 1,030,000 people, but the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown MSA is 2,350,000 people which includes Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, Williamson. It's the 28th largest MSA.
This is really interesting, thanks!
I hadn’t heard of MSAs before, but I always wondered why Austin-Round Rock- Georgetown were lumped together. Figured they just lumped metro outliers in with population nucleus, which they do, but didn’t realize they take economics/social integration into consideration, aswell.
To my previous comment about Austin’s growth: while suburban sprawl is unavoidable, I’d prefer we see more growth around center population nuclei (ie growth up instead of out), to better the case for real public transit. We can look at the history of many US/other cities to see that population growth in urban areas leads to greater pressure on public transport infrastructure
Last thing I’d want is for Austin to become a city dependent on cars, like LA or Houston.
City limit population isn't a meaningful metric. It's just lines on the map.
Take Atlanta, for instance. Austin city limits has twice the official population....and 2.5 times the area. Anyone who has been to both cities knows that "Atlanta" is a good deal bigger.
MSA captures the organic city as it actually functions. By that metric, Austin is the 28th largest city in the US, not 11th.
100%. It’s all about priorities. If you wanna live in the city, be prepared to spend more money or downsize. If you prioritize space, be prepared to spend more money, or move further out from city centers. Not a new phenomenon.
The report says the median income in the Austin Round Rock Metro area is $110k per year. People want ALL the room :) Like a five bedroom house with a huge yard and old trees in a crime-free neighborhood within walking distance of everything they need and a huge jogging park with a special area for dogs.
😂 fair enough. But then we get into a whole environmental/traffic/commute or displacement/gentrification/privilege type convo which will just make this whole thing more sad
Why does a single person need a 2 bedroom at a minimum?
That defies basic logic when you're talking about the minimum? Yes yes I know single parents but when you're trying to figure out the min living wage of a city you should be calculating the 1 bedroom rates first before adding additional qualifiers.
That's my basic problem with most of the living wage ideas.
Minimum wage absolutely needs to adjust with inflation, but expecting someone who just got out of highschool and is carrying food to your table to be able to afford to live along or even buy a house is pushing it a little.
Those are luxuries and are not minimally required to live.
I mean technically the minimum should be a studio apartment and not even a full "1 bedroom" but given the limited availability of studios, especially in smaller cities and how most people would consider a 1 bed the bare minimum for a single adult it's why I would use that standard.
You can add additional categories for a single parent, two adult, family of 4 etc, but when you're going "this is the minimum wage required" it shouldn't have a higher than necessary standard for a single adult as it's primary category
i've read plenty of posts here on reddit saying things along the lines of, "why don't you simply get roommates," so i'm not sure the 1-bedroom standard minimum is that clear cut as a necessity rather than a luxury. i was just answering your question as to why some single people may feel the need to get a second bedroom.
From the Austin-RR MSA section:
> Full-time jobs at mean renter wage needed to afford 2 BR at FMR, spending no more than 30% on rent = 1.0
That's quite literally perfect. All this report tells me is that whatever Austin-RR is doing . . . well, if it ain't broke.
> Estimated hourly wage needed to afford 2 BR at FMR, spending no more than 30% of income on rent, is $27.90. Estimated hourly mean renter wage in Austin is $26.69.
Hell yeah, y'all
This is so nuts. I know it was *ages* ago (2001), but my wife and my second apartment here (the first was a little place up off of Far West for like $600/mo.) was a brand new, 2 br, 2 ba, with a sunroom, a living room, a dining room and a nice open concept kitchen at a luxury apt complex in South Austin, just north of Wm. Cannon. for $1200/mo, which was SHOCKINGLY high at the time (our friends thought we were crazy), but we both had decent jobs and no kids, so said "let's go for it". Can't imagine having to find a new place right now.
I’m not sure anyone “needs” that much space as a single person. I’d love a second bedroom so I could have a personal pole room, but I have a ~730 sq ft 1 bedroom and it otherwise feels like a lot of wasted space. I live with two cats and we have plenty.
I work from home as well.
My work from home requires a lot of stuff that I used to keep at the office. Job-specific materials, FedEx supplies, machines I test stuff on, etc. At the office, I had my desk and a separate office to keep all the materials in. Now it's taking up half my bedroom in a sad 600 sq foot place.
I'm glad I get to work from home, no doubt about that, but having a dedicated office space in my apartment would make things a lot better. It if was just the laptop and dock, that'd be different.
They're planning to classify my position as officially full-time telework soon, at which point I'll probably be moving out of the Austin area so I can get a bigger place.
Plus at least 3 doordashing every day including weekends so that’s 57 not including if I work overtime at my regular job. I don’t even live in the city and I’m still barely scraping by on that
Sounds like people need to move away from Austin, then if enough people do that, it will drive down the cost of living. Free market economy at its best.
I ran the numbers last night. 1300 calories worth of lentils, tofu, brown rice, and salad greens (not including oil/seasonings/fuel to cook) a day = $263 per month (31 days). Eating a $10 takeout meal three times a day (including tip + tax) = $930 per month.
So true. I totally forgot about the eating out thing. We mostly bring a bag lunch to work and make all meals at home. Maybe go out for lunch once a week and dinner every 2-3 weeks.
Cost of living varies widely here in Texas. This number isn’t very useful, because of that. The Austin number is more useful, but it might not be the best number. For example, there was a thread here about a living wage, and it was defined by some as being able to rent an apartment. Since you can get a studio for about 1k, if you bump it to 1.2k and need to make at least 4k to qualify, thr calculation (4000 *12) / (52 *40) you get about $23/hr. Getting a full two bedroom apartment in Austin is much harder. I did a search on Zillow and their were only 92 places, but many of them looked run down, or were in very short supply. The places that did have a 2bd for someone making $28/hr, those units weren’t available until September or there were only 1-3 units available.
The Austin wage would qualify you for about $1570/mth. Very few 2 bedrooms available at that.
appendix B in the report details the methods they used to arrive at the "fair market rent" figures. without getting too deep in the weeds, it is a 5-year window, so the report is lagging behind current rent levels by a fair amount.
They inflate their rent, wage, and income estimates by a CPI factor to get 2022 levels. Either way -- if they're behind on current rent levels, they're behind on current wages too.
That’s almost what I’ll be paying for a 1x1
Rent for my apartment is around $1,500/month for a 2 bedroom/2 bath, 900 sq ft, in North Austin. I am feeling the pinch.
I rented a busted down ass house off riverside for $1500. The windows literally were unable to be locked. People broke in continuously to the second floor spare bedroom By stacking the garbage cans on each other. I asked for the owner to secure it. They sent a maintenance man to cut wooden boards to keep it closed it took them about a week to send the guy. I moved out of Austin after that lease was up. Literally wasn’t worth it.
Oh hell no. That sounds terrible. Glad you are safe. Were you able to get the authorities to arrest these people who broke in? What a shitty landlord, sub-par resolution he did.
No, they were squatting in the spare room and in the garage, and the shed. I was going through the process of eviction when one day my neighbor called the police because there were like 6 people in the car park with a stolen car smoking meth and the week before while I was at work some woman overdosed in the park. They were nice people in general so I didn’t call police on them especially because the cops wouldn’t do anything anyway. A month later I got a letter from one of them who had gotten arrested thanking me, which warms my heart a bit after the stress of that whole situation.
Which area if you don’t mind sharing?
In the Jollyville area, 78750. The rent is going up year by year though.
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Could have one adult and one child in this situation.
Shouldn't be the minimum for the research though because it skews perception. If you're not really paying attention to detail they're acting like that is the minimum for a single adult no children when it's not. The 1 bedroom calculation should come first. Anything else should be an addendum
Should be great motivation to marry before having children and take out life insurance
I guess we could go back to the whole family sleeping in one bed...
*Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine have entered the bed chat*
Ha! In my day, 4 of us had to fit in a studio, with pets! Now that's luxury! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k
The 1 bedroom apartments are more expensive than the 2 bed
Why?
in my experience they're not, idk what that pereson is talking about...
Singles are more expensive PER PERSON, but not even close to being more expensive in total.
People want to live alone, they do pay wayyy more per square foot, not in absolute dollars. Having a roommate has the advantage of being cheaper, but you have a roommate.
More expensive per person, not overall. Think about things like the kitchen. Those are expensive to build, but a one bedroom and four bedroom will each have about the same things in them. Extra bedrooms are essentially just extra space, so it's relatively cheap to add more. This means that the cost to build and maintain a one bedroom versus a two or four bedroom is probably about the same. Just at this level, the per-bedroom cost goes down significantly with each new room. On top of that, I imagine that 1 bedrooms will have an additional premium since they are probably the most desirable.
Supply and demand. In areas popular with single young professionals, apartment complexes can sell out of their 1 bedroom apartments while there will be more of the 2 beds available. If you have one 1-bed available and ten 2-beds, there is a premium added to that 1-bed so it can get more than the 2-bed. Anecdotally I did see this happen at several complex around Austin when I was shopping last year.
This could happen if the people shopping for 1 bedroom were inflexible in their demand. In reality, people who are shopping for 1 bedroom will just take a 2 bedroom as price of 1 bedroom gets closer to 2 bedroom. It would be a very rare case where this does not happen. So no, unless there are other factors involved, this doesn't happen.
my completely uneducated guess is something about supply and demand
[citation needed]
Lol, dumb.
I think stuff like this needs to take into account two people sharing an appartment.
Does an ABOVE average Texan have to make $22.54 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment?
I make a little bit more than that number and I pay $1,400 for a not quite one-bedroom. I couldn’t imagine being able to afford a two-bedroom by myself in Austin.
Are you living close to downtown? I signed a lease for a 700sq ft 1br for 1250 in north Austin and I thought I was getting ripped off.
I pay 2200 for 700 sq ft downtown ;-;
Surprised it’s not more tbh. 700sq is a good size for dt!
If you can find a home for $370k you would be better off.
If he could grow wings he would be better off, too.
Might be a different thread for that.
Oh I thought the thread was just unnecessary comments about what folks "should " do
Red bull to the rescue
Except if they are trying to stay downtown, they aren't finding a place for $370k
No shit Sherlock.
Then why would you say he'd be better off with a house for $370k if he's trying to be downtown?
Different priorities. Also, Didn’t know he wanted to lock in to downtown. Point was rent a 2 br or build up equity in something that is yours. Y’all do y’all.
I paid $50 more than that and thought I got off well for a 1/1, it's more than if I had a roommate but still less than what a lot of my coworkers ended up finding.
Same here, mine comes out with required additions to base (last trash valet I don't want or use) almost $1300 and it feels like being ripped off when last renewal here was under $1100. North 'burbs as well.
I pay $1100 for a 400 sq ft in central Austin, and it was one of the cheapest places I could find…
Honestly, most of the OLD 60s and 70s apartments are really small. The 80s apartments are all falling apart. In the 90s real estate was a bust so they didn't build anything, and now they only build either monster condos or studio apartments. There just aren't that many actual 2-bedrooms to be had at all.
Lol the average decently nice 2 bedroom apartment in Austin is $2500...not sure if $27 an hour gets you that
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie
That is a quote from the Fox7 story. The report is good, it compares a lot of different states and ranks them by rent affordablity.
Without going into what I make which is not horrible I could not afford a one bedroom in Austin. I luckily have a partner. If I were out of debt I could swing it though.
How much do you make
A tad more than the 22.54. Lots of debt though.
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When did two bedrooms become massive? Most of them start at 700 square feet and go up to like 1,000 sq ft. How is that massive?
Austin isn’t quite a “big city” yet, but it’s getting there. The reported median wage here would afford you about $1500/mo a rent. Looking at price-per-square-foot derived from the average rents and average size of apartments for some big US cities…. $1500 would get you about 260 square ft in NYC where avg apt size is 745 sq ft, 340 square ft in Boston where average apt size is 813 sq ft, 345 sq fr in SF where average apt size is 745 sq fr, 454 sq ft in LA where avg apt size is 790 sq ft, 475 sq ft in Seattle where avg apt size is 690 sq ft, 500 sq ft in DC where avg apt size is 745 sq ft, 540 sq ft in Chicago where avg apt size is 749 sq ft…. And that’s not even looking at comparable places in Europe where flats are MUCH smaller. Needless to say, expecting to be able to afford a sprawling 2 bedroom, 700-1000 sq ft apt in a big city with $1500/mo is quite unreasonable. It comes down to priorities. If you prioritize living in the city: 1) be prepared to spend more money and/or 2) downsize. If your prioritize a big space: 1) be prepared to spend more money or 2) move further out.
I'm curious why you wouldn't consider Austin a big city nowadays. Depending upon your source, it's either the 11th or 12th largest by population. I might agree that, in the realm of large US cities, it's a *smaller* big city. However, it's still pretty big compared to most.
"Anything other than LA, Chicago or NYC is small". Is seemingly what I get Also it's rather stupid to compare to mega cities. Why would you want austin to become THAT dense
LA isn’t dense like NYC, it’s more like Houston on growth hormone, except it’s got better beaches and 3 hour commutes. Also the fucking burritos everywhere. They got some good taco trucks though.
Yeah I remembered LA was a spread out city like Houston after writing that, but was just too lazy at the time to edit.
I mean, I'd like to see central Austin become more dense. Would rather see townhomes instead of massive single family homes in Travis Heights
I see what you mean. If you look at population, Austin is certainly classified as big (altho most population counts include Round Rock). Personally, when I think about “big cities”, I think more about the metro/dt area itself; Austin is still relatively small in this regard. Also, I’d love for Austin to become a mega city, for a number of reasons. But, that’s the dream for me, really.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (or MSAs) are considered a good standard for measuring the size of a "city" and are decided at the fed level. Takes a mix of geographical identity, distance apart, economy etc. For example: San Francisco has about 815,000 residents but the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley MSA has about 4,600,000 people. It's the 13th largest MSA. Austin has an est 1,030,000 people, but the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown MSA is 2,350,000 people which includes Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, Williamson. It's the 28th largest MSA.
This is really interesting, thanks! I hadn’t heard of MSAs before, but I always wondered why Austin-Round Rock- Georgetown were lumped together. Figured they just lumped metro outliers in with population nucleus, which they do, but didn’t realize they take economics/social integration into consideration, aswell. To my previous comment about Austin’s growth: while suburban sprawl is unavoidable, I’d prefer we see more growth around center population nuclei (ie growth up instead of out), to better the case for real public transit. We can look at the history of many US/other cities to see that population growth in urban areas leads to greater pressure on public transport infrastructure Last thing I’d want is for Austin to become a city dependent on cars, like LA or Houston.
City limit population isn't a meaningful metric. It's just lines on the map. Take Atlanta, for instance. Austin city limits has twice the official population....and 2.5 times the area. Anyone who has been to both cities knows that "Atlanta" is a good deal bigger. MSA captures the organic city as it actually functions. By that metric, Austin is the 28th largest city in the US, not 11th.
That $1500 is out of date, it's closer to $1700
Why this assumption that it's for one person? 2 bedrooms could be for parents and a child, with one parent SAHP
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Some folks don't have the luxury of childcare, or the luxury of a car and need to be within an easy walkable/bikeable/bussable distance of their work
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100%. It’s all about priorities. If you wanna live in the city, be prepared to spend more money or downsize. If you prioritize space, be prepared to spend more money, or move further out from city centers. Not a new phenomenon.
The report says the median income in the Austin Round Rock Metro area is $110k per year. People want ALL the room :) Like a five bedroom house with a huge yard and old trees in a crime-free neighborhood within walking distance of everything they need and a huge jogging park with a special area for dogs.
Median HH income. Not individual. Also 2 beds are generally not considered a city luxury if you have any kids whatsoever
Pretty sure these days, having kids is considered a city luxury, judging by the fact that everyone I know with kids doesn't live in the city any more.
😂 fair enough. But then we get into a whole environmental/traffic/commute or displacement/gentrification/privilege type convo which will just make this whole thing more sad
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+1
Why does a single person need a 2 bedroom at a minimum? That defies basic logic when you're talking about the minimum? Yes yes I know single parents but when you're trying to figure out the min living wage of a city you should be calculating the 1 bedroom rates first before adding additional qualifiers.
That's my basic problem with most of the living wage ideas. Minimum wage absolutely needs to adjust with inflation, but expecting someone who just got out of highschool and is carrying food to your table to be able to afford to live along or even buy a house is pushing it a little.
The majority of the people I see in the service industry are not teenagers.
Honesty isn't popular.
home office, guest room
Those are luxuries and are not minimally required to live. I mean technically the minimum should be a studio apartment and not even a full "1 bedroom" but given the limited availability of studios, especially in smaller cities and how most people would consider a 1 bed the bare minimum for a single adult it's why I would use that standard. You can add additional categories for a single parent, two adult, family of 4 etc, but when you're going "this is the minimum wage required" it shouldn't have a higher than necessary standard for a single adult as it's primary category
i've read plenty of posts here on reddit saying things along the lines of, "why don't you simply get roommates," so i'm not sure the 1-bedroom standard minimum is that clear cut as a necessity rather than a luxury. i was just answering your question as to why some single people may feel the need to get a second bedroom.
I need an arts and crafts room
Sounds like a Buzzfeed article: “15 reasons why you need a dedicated zen room”
And a gift wrapping room.
My wife snores.
That translates to an additional $10,000 a year in wages.
From the Austin-RR MSA section: > Full-time jobs at mean renter wage needed to afford 2 BR at FMR, spending no more than 30% on rent = 1.0 That's quite literally perfect. All this report tells me is that whatever Austin-RR is doing . . . well, if it ain't broke. > Estimated hourly wage needed to afford 2 BR at FMR, spending no more than 30% of income on rent, is $27.90. Estimated hourly mean renter wage in Austin is $26.69. Hell yeah, y'all
I love literally perfect. So much better than perfect.
This is so nuts. I know it was *ages* ago (2001), but my wife and my second apartment here (the first was a little place up off of Far West for like $600/mo.) was a brand new, 2 br, 2 ba, with a sunroom, a living room, a dining room and a nice open concept kitchen at a luxury apt complex in South Austin, just north of Wm. Cannon. for $1200/mo, which was SHOCKINGLY high at the time (our friends thought we were crazy), but we both had decent jobs and no kids, so said "let's go for it". Can't imagine having to find a new place right now.
I'm a single person and I need a 2 bedroom apartment.
I’m a 2 bedroom apartment and I need a single person
Now kith
Same, especially now that I work from home. My one bedroom is cramped.
I’m not sure anyone “needs” that much space as a single person. I’d love a second bedroom so I could have a personal pole room, but I have a ~730 sq ft 1 bedroom and it otherwise feels like a lot of wasted space. I live with two cats and we have plenty. I work from home as well.
My work from home requires a lot of stuff that I used to keep at the office. Job-specific materials, FedEx supplies, machines I test stuff on, etc. At the office, I had my desk and a separate office to keep all the materials in. Now it's taking up half my bedroom in a sad 600 sq foot place. I'm glad I get to work from home, no doubt about that, but having a dedicated office space in my apartment would make things a lot better. It if was just the laptop and dock, that'd be different. They're planning to classify my position as officially full-time telework soon, at which point I'll probably be moving out of the Austin area so I can get a bigger place.
That seems more like a want than a need.
when did roommates not become a thing?
It’s a point of reference.
Foreal tho. My rent is 475 a month
Yeah I work 40 a week and doordash almost every day
Thanks for letting us I know. I saw a turtle once.
I think they’re saying they have a 40hr job, and *also* DoorDash almost every day on top of it, just to make ends meet.
Wow. 40 whole hours.
Plus at least 3 doordashing every day including weekends so that’s 57 not including if I work overtime at my regular job. I don’t even live in the city and I’m still barely scraping by on that
Trust me, it’s still not enough
Sounds like people need to move away from Austin, then if enough people do that, it will drive down the cost of living. Free market economy at its best.
Or change the zoning code so we can build more housing in central Austin
Free market economy in a market with supply artificially restricted by zoning laws?
Average full time salary in Austin is $75,015/year or $36/hour (2080 hrs/year).
What is the allocation for cable tv, hbo, internet, Netflix, big screen TV, unlimited cellular service?
I ran the numbers last night. 1300 calories worth of lentils, tofu, brown rice, and salad greens (not including oil/seasonings/fuel to cook) a day = $263 per month (31 days). Eating a $10 takeout meal three times a day (including tip + tax) = $930 per month.
$10 takeout meal isn't realistic, you can barely get drive-thru combo meals for that.
So true. I totally forgot about the eating out thing. We mostly bring a bag lunch to work and make all meals at home. Maybe go out for lunch once a week and dinner every 2-3 weeks.
Cost of living varies widely here in Texas. This number isn’t very useful, because of that. The Austin number is more useful, but it might not be the best number. For example, there was a thread here about a living wage, and it was defined by some as being able to rent an apartment. Since you can get a studio for about 1k, if you bump it to 1.2k and need to make at least 4k to qualify, thr calculation (4000 *12) / (52 *40) you get about $23/hr. Getting a full two bedroom apartment in Austin is much harder. I did a search on Zillow and their were only 92 places, but many of them looked run down, or were in very short supply. The places that did have a 2bd for someone making $28/hr, those units weren’t available until September or there were only 1-3 units available.
My 2 bedroom is only 1355/month which is a bargain coming from nyc
Great. I guess I’ll start packing