Can a Single Guy Afford a Home in the Nashville/Middle TN Area??? (Clarksville: real estate, renting)

[bdj5773]

Real estate prices are considerably higher in and around the Nashville area than in and around the St. Louis area. In fact, there is quite the difference. Even an hour outside of the Nashville metro, home prices are still high. I'm a single guy who makes around 88k p/year and no debt. This is a decent income, but doing the numbers, I'm wondering can someone like me afford a home? Dave Ramsey recommends no more 25% of your take home pay going toward a monthly house payment. Other financial advisors say up to 30%. Even with my income, I still only qualify for less than 300k on a home, and with what I actually bring home for take home pay p/month, around $1500 p/month house payment max. Doing a lot of searching on realtor.com, it is difficult to find a decent home in a good area under that. Not unless you start to get well more than an hour away from Nashville. An hour away from St. Louis and finding a good house in a good area is very common. Has Nashville and the Middle TN area priced single guys like me out of the market, even though making decent money? Apparently 88k is still not enough in that market.

[JJAF]

It definitely has gotten out of hand. Even 2-bedroom apts in "safe areas" in Murfreesboro (about 35-40 minutes south of Nashville) have surged up to 1,500-1700$ monthly range. A lot of us who have our mortgages paid or low interest rates from a couple of years ago can't afford to sell and move if we want to downsize or leave the city and have more land. My house is newer (8 year sold), and I want to downsize from a 2-story to an older 1 story ranch style. I could sell mine and have to settle for 600 less sq ft, have to completely remodel and have a home 40-50 years older for almost an even trade money wise. I have no choice but to stay put. Maybe you could find something in your range, but it would be 850-900 sq feet and older and a great distance from Nashville. Best of luck.

[Wartrace]

Another problem is traffic. If you are going to work in Nashville and commute from a more affordable location you will be sitting in traffic. I have had to go up to Nashville several times over the past few months during "rush hour" and it is a mess. I was asking myself how all the people did that every day.

[bdj5773]

Originally Posted by Wartrace

Another problem is traffic. If you are going to work in Nashville and commute from a more affordable location you will be sitting in traffic. I have had to go up to Nashville several times over the past few months during "rush hour" and it is a mess. I was asking myself how all the people did that every day.

I failed to mention that I work remotely. I can actually live anywhere, but my sight is set on middle TN area, particurlary northern middle TN. My kids live in the St. Louis area and my parents live in N. MS. This will put me around half way in between but a tad closer to N. MS. However, I still would like to be relative close to a bigger town. I have been looking at the Clarksville area quite a bit or maybe close to Dickson, which appears to be growing. Maybe even the Pleasant View area which also appears to be growing. But even in those places home prices are almost out of reach. It's just sad that an income approaching 100k and it's very difficult to find something. Yes, I can find something but it's a dump or in an undesirable area. So get this....Dave Ramsey has a calculator on his website. His rule is no more than 25% of take home pay. I'm not saying I agree totally with Ramsey's percentage. Just using it as an example. Punching in a number of $5,000 take home pay per month, and that calculation says with even 20% down payment, my home-buying budget is $158k. I just laughed when I saw that number. 10% down payment and the budget is $128k

[jabogitlu]

The Dave Ramsey style advice no longer applies. It sounds good for wealthy folks to say something like that, but in reality no one can get a home by paying 25-30% of take home income, unless you're analyzing on a dual earner basis. Dave Ramsey is incredibly wealthy and completely out of touch with what it takes to live these days.

Since you work from home, have you considered getting a second work from home job?

[bdj5773]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

The Dave Ramsey style advice no longer applies. It sounds good for wealthy folks to say something like that, but in reality no one can get a home by paying 25-30% of take home income, unless you're analyzing on a dual earner basis. Dave Ramsey is incredibly wealthy and completely out of touch with what it takes to live these days.

Since you work from home, have you considered getting a second work from home job?

My one job takes up plenty of my time. Not unless I had to would I take on a second job. And the way home prices are, the second job would have to be permanent.

I agree that 25% of take home pay is not going to cut it in most cases (especially around the middle TN area and other parts of the country). I heard one of Dave's personalities the other day say between 25%-30% of take home pay. Can't remember who it was, but I distinctly heard him say that. So maybe they are realizing that the hard percentage of 25% is unrealistic. Even 30% is tough, but you don't want to be house poor either. I think 30% is a good reasonable percentage of take home pay. Anyway, didn't mean to get off on Dave Ramsey, but with my one job approaching 100k (which in a two or three years I should be there with my job), and seemingly very difficult to find a house is very disheartening. If the move is made, I do plan on renting for a year. Although I'm somewhat familiar with the area, I want to take a year to really acclimate myself to make sure exactly where I would like to settle down.

[Shakeesha]

Originally Posted by bdj5773

I failed to mention that I work remotely. I can actually live anywhere, but my sight is set on middle TN area, particularly northern middle TN. My kids live in the St. Louis area and my parents live in N. MS. This will put me around half way in between but a tad closer to N. MS. However, I still would like to be relative close to a bigger town. I have been looking at the Clarksville area quite a bit or maybe close to Dickson, which appears to be growing. Maybe even the Pleasant View area which also appears to be growing. But even in those places home prices are almost out of reach. It's just sad that an income approaching 100k and it's very difficult to find something. Yes, I can find something but it's a dump or in an undesirable area. So get this....Dave Ramsey has a calculator on his website. His rule is no more than 25% of take home pay. I'm not saying I agree totally with Ramsey's percentage. Just using it as an example. Punching in a number of $5,000 take home pay per month, and that calculation says with even 20% down payment, my home-buying budget is $158k. I just laughed when I saw that number. 10% down payment and the budget is $128k

Have you considered Bowling Green or Cookeville? These towns are sizeable enough to have the amenities you need but cheaper than Clarksville and other areas around Nashville. They are also growing and vibrant. It is sad that you cannot buy much more with your salary. We have a major housing crisis in Middle Tennessee and it is only getting worse. Overinflated housing values and underbuilt residential equals trouble for entry level home buyers.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by bdj5773

My one job takes up plenty of my time. Not unless I had to would I take on a second job. And the way home prices are, the second job would have to be permanent.

I agree that 25% of take home pay is not going to cut it in most cases (especially around the middle TN area and other parts of the country). I heard one of Dave's personalities the other day say between 25%-30% of take home pay. Can't remember who it was, but I distinctly heard him say that. So maybe they are realizing that the hard percentage of 25% is unrealistic. Even 30% is tough, but you don't want to be house poor either. I think 30% is a good reasonable percentage of take home pay. Anyway, didn't mean to get off on Dave Ramsey, but with my one job approaching 100k (which in a two or three years I should be there with my job), and seemingly very difficult to find a house is very disheartening. If the move is made, I do plan on renting for a year. Although I'm somewhat familiar with the area, I want to take a year to really acclimate myself to make sure exactly where I would like to settle down.

The 25% net pay is not going to be realistic, especially as a single person.

Personally, I'd try to wait for rates to come down, prices to drop, or some combination of both. Today's market is probably one of the worst for average buyers in a couple of decades.

[jabogitlu]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...ousing-renting

By the by, Minneapolis is proving that one of the best ways to combat huge jumps in housing prices (such as have been observed in Middle TN over the past decade) is to upzone single-family neighborhoods (as well as investing more in subsidies).

[bdj5773]

Originally Posted by Shakeesha

Have you considered Bowling Green or Cookeville? These towns are sizeable enough to have the amenities you need but cheaper than Clarksville and other areas around Nashville. They are also growing and vibrant. It is sad that you cannot buy much more with your salary. We have a major housing crisis in Middle Tennessee and it is only getting worse. Overinflated housing values and underbuilt residential equals trouble for entry level home buyers.

No to Bowling Green or anywhere in KY. Much rather be in TN. I love the Cookeville area and am very familiar with the area. When I say I work remotely, there is the rare occassion I do have to go in, which would be in St. Louis. I need to stay within 4 hours distance. Plus, I'm trying to put myself halfway in between my kids and my parents.

This says it all:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3h68qhdg6k&t=612