Take a look at the statistics and you will realize what the title of this piece is trying to tell you. It is frightening and something that only the people going through it even know about.
Here goes the scary truth about economic conditions in this Country at this time.
In 2006 the average household income in the United States was $48,201 or about $4000 a month. This information comes from the U.S. Census Bureau where we also learned that the bottom 20% of Americans earn $23,202 per household while the upper 6.37% earn 1/3 of the income in the Country! I'll bet you didn't know that. Take home pay for the average household, without withholding for state or federal taxes would be $3695 a month, maximum.
The average credit card debt per household is $8367 and requires a payment, on average,
of $209 per month. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics income rose 188% from 1990 to 2003 while credit card debt rose a whopping 350% during the same time period.
The increase in credit card debt show no sign of slowing.
The total debt per family excluding mortgage payments is $18,654 an additional 10,000+ in obligations for installment debt including automobile payments. One could add another $261 a month for debt repayment on the additional $10,000. Debt repayment therefore totals on average about $470 a month.
The National Association of Realtors tells us the average price of a house in our Nation is $230,000 with the West checking in with an average of $345,000+ as the most expensive area and the Midwest averaging $165,000+ and is the least expensive area.
Putting this all together we can see there are definitely problems. Classically you are suppose to spend a maximum of 40% of your gross income on your mortgage, property taxes and insurance payments which means $1600 a month.
A recent report shows the median mortgage payment in 2006 was $1687, not including property taxes and insurance. Property tax and insurance on your house would be at least $280 a month.
Let's add it all up and look at the results. Starting with $3695 a month net, excluding any taxes, subtract the mortgage, property tax, insurance and debt payments ($2438) and it nets you $1258 for all your necessities for the month. Everything you need to stay alive comes out of that figure, which amounts to $292 a week. This is for an average household with an average house, average debt and average mortgage payment and it is hard to see how this could work without major problems. Before you start cranking out the emails I know that you will tell me that these folks shouldn't own a house and you need to rent. First of all rents aren't that low any more and second, you lose your tax deduction so what you save in rent goes in a great part toward income taxes.
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