I, like most programmers, am comfortably in the top 5% and cannot even imaging being able to own a home like you describe at my income level. There is a good chance those people are part of the 1% themselves. It actually doesn't take that much money to get there. Though it has been sold as a domain of people making tens of thousands of dollars per hour, so I can see why some may not even realize where they stand.
I, like most programmers, am comfortably in the top 5% and cannot even imaging being able to own a home like you describe at my income level.
Sure you can. Anyone "comfortably in the top 5%" can afford a very large home, it just might not be exactly where you'd want it to be.
You're choosing instead to devote more of your income to being close to where you work and/or living in an area with ready access to services you find valuable.
I just did a quick mortgage affordability calculation and someone who earns at the bottom end of the 5% can only afford a $300,000-400,000 home.
Even where I live, which is very rural with comparatively cheap homes, only gets you a modest sized home. You need at least $500K to even start looking at 3000 sq. feet homes with big garages unless they are complete dives.
Yes. Obviously a 3000 square foot house with a three car garage is a bit much for a single person, so I was assuming top 5% household income. Top 5% there is ~$200K/year.
I'd be interested to see which calculator and which figures randomdata was using. I have a hard time getting less than $750,000 for a "conservative" figure, assuming your debt isn't absurd and you save up for a $100K down payment (should be very manageable with $200K gross).
Fair, though not all households have multiple earners either. I think it is still quite conceivable for someone to be in the top 1% and still feel like they are failing in life.
And what about local wealth distributions? A $100K income puts you in like the top 0.5% in my community. Someone making that much here is part of a 1% group, just not at the country scale. If houses are cheap in your locality, I expect things to be similar.
When I posted that, I was really picturing the majority of the occupants being in their 50s or older, so they've had a lot of time for their investments to start to pay off. You won't find many 20 year olds being able to say the same, granted.
If you are still young, my only tip is to start investing too. With any luck, your time will come as well.
