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by tptacek 1064 days ago
I don't know anything about the broader argument here. I responded to a comment that said that $300k/yr would only get you a small place in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Chicago. That's categorically false. Mortgage calculators are premised on other expenses scaling with your housing cost, and capture the other bulletpoints ("country club membership", really?).

Someone with a $300k/yr income will end up with an extraordinarily nice home, by any standards, in Chicago.
2 comments
onlyrealcuzzo 1064 days ago
$800k is not getting you anything spectacular in the nicer neighborhoods in Chicago unless you're looking at 1 and maybe 2 bedroom condos.

The median condo is not particularly great - and it goes for ~$660k in most of the nicer neighborhoods.

The median house is well over $800k in the nicer neighborhoods.

And, again, Chicago is one of the most affordable cities in the US.

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tptacek 1064 days ago
You can just look at Redfin to see that this isn't true. You can get a 4bdr in the Loop for ~$800k. I've spent most of my life here, including the last 19 years, and I just bought a new house here; I think you're going to have a hard time talking me down from my own lived experience.

The standard message board tactic for wriggling out of this position is to define "the nice neighborhoods" in Chicago ludicrously narrowly, like the only nice places to live here are Lincoln Park and... well that's it. But even Lincoln Park is doable at $800k.

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bamfly 1063 days ago
> ("country club membership", really?)

Yeah, I know. I wasn't raised part of that class and don't hang out with many people in it, either :-)

Books I've read on the topic and the handful of people I know in it, yeah, that's just what you do if you're in That Set. Country clubs.

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