bostonbubble.com

[E222]

Hi:

I do not own a home. I have a management level job and make a lot higher than the median household income and I CAN NOT AFFORD TO BUY anything.
I am in mortgage industry and even though the loan officers try to sell me loans almost 10 times my annual income, I want to spend only up to 38% of my salary to housing, is it possible? No way! If you want to live in greater Boston area, and let's say that you make the median of around $55K/year all you can afford is $200K at best. What can I find for that price? I looked for years. I saw some TERRIBLE places, believe me. 300 square feet condos that are falling apart, places those are inhabitable... I have seen it all. Imagine, they ask $250K-$300K for condos that need full rehab, who can afford that? I figured it will eventually go down, but it did not. And on top of everything else, salaries did not go up, I could not find any higher salaried jobs around to move, prices of EVERYTHING go up, and we got stuck with our same salary (actually less with inflation) and prices doubling daily.

I know that I am not the only one. People are so worried about house prices going down and how that will affect the homeowners, but there are tons of people out there who refused to get ridicules loans and put their life in jeopardy just to make someone richer. Who cares about these people; people make “too much” to qualify for affordable housing programs and make “too little” to actually afford anything?

As for me, we moved out of Massachusetts, like many and settled in another state where the economic growth is much stronger. Prices here are still expensive for us, but at least the salaries increase and houses/condos that they sell do not need any work. I miss Boston, but not living there. If they do not do sth soon, seems like Boston will lose most of its middle class residents.