How much rent can I afford?
How much rent you can afford depends on so many factors, and can’t be answered based on the information you’ve provided (we have no idea what kind of debt you have, transportation expenses, how much you spend on entertainment rather than the fact that you do like to go out, whether or not you are willing to sacrifice the privacy of living alone for the less expensive roommate situation, etc). For the record, 30% isn’t just conventional wisdom, it is the formula used by landlords, rental complexes and property managers to determine whether or not the applicant is eligible to rent the unit.
The only way you can decide how much of your income you can afford in rent is to serious examine your finances. Get your last 3 months (at least) bank statements and take a serious look at how much you spend – most people are suprised how much those little extras add up. Just making a list of bills and expenses is usually not enough, you have to look at the real numbers to see where your money is going. Also consider how your expenses will change when you move, some may decrease and others will more than likely increase (especially if you’re living with your parents) If you have friends living in similar circumstances to how you would like to live, ask them how much their utility bills are or use an online estimator to give you an idea. Also consider how much time you’re going to spend in your appartment and how important it is that is ‘nice’. The house I live in costs around 17% of my total household income, its not very nice but its functional and it frees up money for other things.
I rent on Capitol Hill and pay about 40% of my income to rent. I recommend that if you do plan to rent in town, you might cut one day out of going out (no one goes out on M/T/W/Th/Su very much anyway save for right after work.) You need to decide whether you want to live alone or with people. That is going to be a major factor to how much you are going to spend. You can also save a lot of money living right out of town near a metro stop.
Some landlords (eg, the decent ones) will insist that your rent not exceed some fraction of your income. When I was a kid, it was 25%. By the time I was working a property of my own, it was 33%. These numbers were based on gross, not net earnings; wages were normally verified with your employer’s HR department. Because this is a rental requirement — often handed down from the management company — it is not necessarily yours to decide how much of your pay you will spend on rent. In certain circumstances (such as college students) we would allow Dad to be on the lease. This of course made the rent/income numbers work right, but also meant Dad had legal rights and obligations. Nthing the “get a roommate.
The 30% suggestion is a benchmark. You can be above it and be perfectly healthy financially (but you need to be hyper vigilant). The key here is to get in touch with your non-housing finances. The best way to determine how much you have to spend on rent is to do a quick budget of your monthly costs, focusing on necessities only (e.g., car payments, school loans, groceries, utilitiees, etc.). Estimate how much you will need for those things. Then, theoretically, anything left over is your housing maximum. Then, make sure you subtract from that going out expenses, savings goals, etc. This is not the most rigorous financial exercise, and you probably should be saving some money, but it’s probably more realistic for what you’re trying to get at.
