Do you ever find yourself driving around a town or city and see these ginormous houses and think to yourself, “how does one afford that?” What do they do to be able to pay for a house so large and complex? In all honesty, most households cannot truly even afford the luxurious house they may be living in. There are a million households out there according to the annual State of Nations Housing Report, from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Students, that do not have enough money for their housing. On average a person or family will financially plan to use about 30% of their monthly revenue for rent or mortgage, but many people are not and currently then overdoing it.

Think about it, if you are using so much of your budgeted income to maintain a luxurious house that is not extremely necessarily you then factor in that you will be able to spend less on other costing areas. What if you and your family want to take a nice vacation, but then you remember you are spending so much on your unnecessarily large house, and realize you cannot take that fun family bonding vacation now. Or how about cars, for that daughter that just turned 16, and health care and other areas essential in life.

What would you cut back on since you are spending so much on your house? Do you have any children? What is most critical for your family other than the roof over your head that is costing so much? A family of 5 kids may instead buy cheap unhealthy food for their family, since they don’t have the funds to buy healthier options, but how beneficial is that? Overspending on a house or putting unhealthy food into your children’s body is what some families must think about in this situation. Big houses may be fun and all but also may be burning a hole in your pocket more then needed to be.

The prices homes have been rising since the 2007 housing crash and is beginning to scare those who wish to be home owners officially into only being able to rent a house. With this it has been shown that over 11 million people who rent are using over half of their income to rent a house, the number has significantly gone up since 2001. Many cities and towns around America have those households families who feel the need to be “cost burdened “ whether they are homeowners or just renting. Some of the highest include Miami, Los Angeles and Deltona-Daytona Beach. But if you are a household out there looking for a good costing first time homebuyer some great cities to begin are San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Orlando, and Atlanta.