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Comment by sib | Hacker News Reader

Traditionally the guideline was that housing costs (rent, utilities, etc) shouldn't be above 30% of gross income. $66K / $300K is only 22%. So, I wouldn't call it insane.

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I’m not sure where this $5500 figure came from but if you want a decent sized home in a good area with good schools there are not homes for sub $1m to be found.

$1.5m is a much more realistic sale price for a modest home in a good area, and with 20% down that’s more like $10k a month between mortgage and taxes and insurance.

> where this $5500 figure came from

It's SoCal - Torrance CA specifically as mentioned in the article. Prices are slightly lower because salaries are slightly lower (or maybe it's the other way around)

Well the article is wrong.

Median detached home sale price in Torrance is 1.275m. The $900k figure probably includes condos and is not what a house costs.

https://www.redfin.com/city/20094/CA/Torrance/housing-market

Yes, that's the house builder standard guideline. Not the conservative financial advisor advice

Except housing costs don’t stop beyond the $5500 on the mortgage. Add all the utilities, property taxes, insurance, and the monthly average of maintenance fees and it’ll probably be closer to $8-9k/mo.

Yes, that's why I wrote "(rent, utilities, etc)"... And for a rental, which is what my comment was in relation to, there are generally no property taxes or maintenance fees.

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