I currently pay ~14% of my post-tax income on rent.

That said, software engineers earn well above average around here, and I'm sharing a 3 bedroom apartment in a predominately student area with 2 other young professionals.

There are some places in the UK that are just stupidly expensive though. Particularly in Guildford. I don't know why so many games companies open up there when it would take the average games programmer 14 years just to save up a deposit to buy a house there at current market prices.

Funny you should say that, I stay in Guildford :(

Rent alone around here can - and will - easily eat up to 60% of income. That's before adding heating and other costs. Most part time jobs don't pay enough.

I am extremely interested in this as I plan to move as soon as I fix some trouble around here.

In Melbourne, I'd expect to spend about 40% on rent. If you have a high paying job and are ok with a very long commute, you could cut that in half or quarter though
At one point I was probably spending about 55% on rent for a 2-bedroom inner suburbs flat, after my room-mate moved overseas.

40-50% of your income going straight to rent is pretty ridiculous, but it's a fact of life in some places. Owning property is a nice dream, but it takes a lifetime to pay off the required loans.

40-50% of your income going straight to rent is pretty ridiculous, but it's a fact of life in some places.

I am spending about 25% of my post-tax income on rent right now. I'm in Tri-State Area, about 10 miles from NYC.

What is scary though, is that according to the public statistics of the area, I earn more than double of the average income per household - thus the other people must be spending over 50% of their income just on the rent !

Owning property is a nice dream, but it takes a lifetime to pay off the required loans.

That heavily depends on the country. In the part of the Europe I am from, the yearly taxes from owning the house were almost non-existant.

Here, I've talked to many colleagues who pay $15k per year just in property taxes. That's $150k per 10 years, $300k per 20 yrs and $450k in 30 yrs. And that's on top of the average $200k mortgage.

So, even if you pay off the mortgage in 30 yrs, if you will live in the house for next 20-30 yrs, you will pay additional $300k-$450k just in taxes. Thus, saying "no more mortgage" really means nothing - it's just a minor financial relief.

Yes, I know of the areas with zero (or almost zero) property taxes, but I would never force my family to live there. A retirement community is a different thing though. That's where these areas make most sense anyway.

You may object that even if you rent, you still pay the taxes, since they're part of the rent. Sure, they are. But you are free to move out with zero costs if you figure out the area sucks after a year or two. Wanna do that with the mortgage ? That's practically unrealistic, unless we're talking about area that suddenly became crime-infested, at which point you just "forget" you paid off half of mortgage (yet still own bank more money that house is now worth) and just move on , knowing you have to start the mortgage from scratch elsewhere.

30 yrs is way too long for an area to stay the same. I've had a colleague who bought a house in a nice and safe area in Chicago and within 8 yrs, the situation turned around and the area became infested with gangs. She happened to live 2 blocks from the local mobsters and that particular street became "famous" several times nationwide, since on Fridays there were like 15-20 shot people. Regularly.

If this happens when you rent, you just move out next month or two. When it happens when you have mortgage, your house is suddenly worth 30% of what you borrowed, thus even after 10yrs of paying mortgage you still own bank more money than house is worth.

You may object that even if you rent, you still pay the taxes, since they're part of the rent. Sure, they are. But you are free to move out with zero costs if you figure out the area sucks after a year or two. Wanna do that with the mortgage ? That's practically unrealistic, unless we're talking about area that suddenly became crime-infested, at which point you just "forget" you paid off half of mortgage (yet still own bank more money that house is now worth) and just move on , knowing you have to start the mortgage from scratch elsewhere.

30 yrs is way too long for an area to stay the same. I've had a colleague who bought a house in a nice and safe area in Chicago and within 8 yrs, the situation turned around and the area became infested with gangs. She happened to live 2 blocks from the local mobsters and that particular street became "famous" several times nationwide, since on Fridays there were like 15-20 shot people. Regularly.

If this happens when you rent, you just move out next month or two. When it happens when you have mortgage, your house is suddenly worth 30% of what you borrowed, thus even after 10yrs of paying mortgage you still own bank more money than house is worth.

That's a very good point. Currently, I am looking for ways to bring my rent down even cheaper (already at 20% of net income), as it is the biggest cost in my monthly expenses list, and buying a property is one of the ways I could do to achieve that goal. Property tax, location, and price all factors in and I have yet to know where I want to stay long term.

Cheaper places tend to be far, which means there's an increased cost of transportation and gas. Is the location crime-infested? Is there growth in the last few years? Will I be able to pay up the mortgage within a short amount of time? 30 years is practically a lifetime debt. 15 years is better, but I am aiming for something shorter than that. I hate to be bound by long-term debts, especially when the place you sleep is the collateral.

I agree with VladR. That's a topic for continuous arguments in Hungary, where owning a flat or house is considered a default thing like marriage and having kids.

My wife and I pay ~30% of our combined after tax monthly income on our mortgage, and that's mostly voluntary.

Our minimum payments would be about 17%, but we're trying to attack the mortgage principal early.