I have a friend who recently bought a house with his fiancee in a decent neighborhood for 250k, which for more rent-minded folk corresponds to monthly payments of 1180. Add in maintenance and the monthly payments increase to about 1600 a month, or 800 a person. Using a standard affordability modifier of 40, and a single person could afford the house on a 64k income, or two people with 32k each. Given the median income in the US is 59k thats very affordable.
The commute into Manhattan is about an hour, while not ideal its not that bad considering you're sitting on a train for that time, and its more of a self-inflicted wound given if NYC got its act together we could have much better public transportation. On top of that if you can afford it you can move closer by for a faster commute, and most people on hacker news are probably at least decently paid tech professionals.
Personally I have about a 20 minute commute and can easily afford the place I'm staying at. Generally if you're not dating/married you live with roommates, and if you are married then you have two incomes. I know other tech professionals in NYC that can afford their own place as well.
>Add in maintenance and the monthly payments increase to about 1600 a month
$400ish a month in maintenance seems very optimistic in my personal experience. There's always little bits of work to be done in a residence, and will be compounded when something major inevitably ends up going tits-up and needs replaced or serviced. Then on top of all of that, you have to have insurances and whatnot. Owning a house is great, but there's a fair bit more to it than just swapping the phrase "rent" for "mortgage payment" in regards to expenses.
>Given the median income in the US is 59k
For clarity, this is the median household income rather than individual.
The commute into Manhattan is about an hour, while not ideal its not that bad considering you're sitting on a train for that time, and its more of a self-inflicted wound given if NYC got its act together we could have much better public transportation. On top of that if you can afford it you can move closer by for a faster commute, and most people on hacker news are probably at least decently paid tech professionals.
Personally I have about a 20 minute commute and can easily afford the place I'm staying at. Generally if you're not dating/married you live with roommates, and if you are married then you have two incomes. I know other tech professionals in NYC that can afford their own place as well.