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The Rachel Cruze Show

The One Cost of Living Rule I Swear By

The Rachel Cruze Show

Ramsey Network

Education, Investing, Business, Self-improvement

4.83.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan I know it may feel like your goal of owning a home is a moving target, but don’t lose hope! In this episode, you’ll learn one cost of living rule to never break, plus three things to consider before buying a home.    Next Steps:  💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🛡️ Stay on top of real estate updates with RamseyTrusted housing market trends.   🎥 Watch my video Home Upgrades That Are (and Aren’t) Worth the Money.   Connect With Our Sponsors:  🏥 Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries.  🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network:  🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour  🎙️ The Ramsey Show  💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show  💰 George Kamel  💼 The Ken Coleman Show  📈 EntreLeadership    Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So it's no secret that today's housing and market is uniquely challenging. So if you're

0:10.2

feeling the weight of that struggle, you are not crazy, you are not alone. Now, in our current reality,

0:15.3

there are three things that you want to evaluate before buying a home. So we're going to dive into

0:20.3

those. but before

0:21.2

we begin, make sure to subscribe and share this episode with a friend who you think we'll enjoy it.

0:27.8

All right. First and foremost, let's share some stats about the housing market. So NBC News says that

0:35.5

according to the Census Bureau data, nearly 30% of middle class homeowners

0:40.1

have monthly payments costing more than 30% of their income.

0:44.9

So when it comes to buying a home, you guys, we do talk about that that payment needs to be

0:49.8

around 25% of your take-home pay.

0:52.6

In an ideal world, that's what you want. So that 75% of the rest of your

0:57.1

take-home pay can be put towards things like living expenses, paying off debt, saving up for stuff

1:03.4

you need or want, like all of that, right? But when a lot of your income is being taken up by your

1:08.2

rent or your mortgage, it gets really hard to win financially.

1:11.8

The next stats that I found interesting came from Zillow. Americans must earn roughly $106,500

1:19.1

in order to live comfortably to afford a home. And that is a significant increase from the 59,000 annual household income needed in 2020.

1:31.1

So we know the housing market went up significantly the value of homes.

1:35.9

And for most places in America, almost all of them, they have stayed at that price.

1:40.6

And there wasn't this bubble where everything, you know, popped and went back down to 2019 numbers.

1:45.4

They stayed really high and they are continuing to increase steadily, smaller percentages, but we're seeing that.

1:52.1

So when you have such an increase when it comes to the housing market, being able to afford a house in 2025 versus 2019 is going to look and costs very, very different.

2:03.2

So I think it's really important to know that reality. And I'm sure a lot of you, especially

...

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