How much does everyone pay for rent?

I loved 4th of July on the Mall, it was always a blast.  I was north of Georgetown in Friendship Heights.

I was in Fairfax from late '98 i think.  i've been to friendship heights, nice (Expensive!!!) area.  I used to work i n rockville and bethesda, too, but from baltimore originally.

I was close to 50% when I lived in Providence, too.

And Miami!

I was in Fairfax from late '98 i think.  i've been to friendship heights, nice (Expensive!!!) area.  I used to work i n rockville and bethesda, too, but from baltimore originally.

Nice area but I certainly didn't live in a nice home, an ugly apartment building close to American University (my girlfriend was going to school there).

Great thing about DC was rent control, when we moved in our rent was 750 when we moved out 5 years later it wasn't even up to 800 yet.

SORRY HIJACK OVER!

I was in Fairfax from late '98 i think.  i've been to friendship heights, nice (Expensive!!!) area.  I used to work i n rockville and bethesda, too, but from baltimore originally.

I moved to the UK from Arlington, VA, and am astounded at how much more it costs to live here! And I thought D.C. was expensive! I had a very large (though older) one bedroom apartment that was maybe a mile or less from the Pentagon, and I paid for being that close in. Before we were married, my husband had an even nicer and newer apartment in Fairfax for the same rent I was paying. Now our rent in Reading would cover both of our D.C.-area apartments and most of the cost of a third! Granted, our place here is pretty new and it's a two bedroom, but the sticker shock even this far out of London is scary.

I moved to the UK from Arlington, VA, and am astounded at how much more it costs to live here! And I thought D.C. was expensive! I had a very large (though older) one bedroom apartment that was maybe a mile or less from the Pentagon, and I paid for being that close in. Before we were married, my husband had an even nicer and newer apartment in Fairfax for the same rent I was paying. Now our rent in Reading would cover both of our D.C.-area apartments and most of the cost of a third! Granted, our place here is pretty new and it's a two bedroom, but the sticker shock even this far out of London is scary.

Seriously??!!! We're paying less for a three-bedroom house in the UK than we did for a small generic one-bedroom apartment in Columbia, MD three years ago.

Seriously??!!! We're paying less for a three-bedroom house in the UK than we did for a small generic one-bedroom apartment in Columbia, MD three years ago.

Yep, seriously! It's all about location, though, and prices vary as much throughout the UK as they do in the U.S. You're in Northern Ireland, I think, from your profile, and what little I've heard of prices there is that they are much less than southeast England (at least that's what my hubby says). What you pay is also about your needs: we needed a large place (too much stuff) and we needed it to be disabled accessible (which knocked out most houses here). We had to find a large, disabled accessible flat, which was harder to find and cost more than it would've cost us in Arlington. We could've saved money and possibly gained room in a three-bedroom house here, but it would've had stairs and that's a no-go for us.

This topic is depressing, but quite interesting! 

We pay 15% of our combined salary for an absolutely horrible one-bedroom flat. The average rental price for a 2 bedroom flat, in the Isle of Man, is between £725-950, and you best not have children or pets otherwise you'll end up in a dump (like us) and still have to pay the same rent. Needless to say, I'm very jealous of the house renters who pay less than £1000 per month!

What you pay is also about your needs: we needed a large place (too much stuff) and we needed it to be disabled accessible (which knocked out most houses here). We had to find a large, disabled accessible flat, which was harder to find and cost more than it would've cost us in Arlington. We could've saved money and possibly gained room in a three-bedroom house here, but it would've had stairs and that's a no-go for us.

Groovy_Yank, I think you're comparing apples and oranges.  Older properties dominate in Britain, there are no where near as many new builds as you'd find in the States.  So the number of properties you could find that fits your need for specific disabled access I would guess is very low and probably would cost more.  Perhaps I'm wrong about that?  I couldn't say for sure.

Not sure how much you had to pay in Arlington but about 8 or 9 years ago we had friends in Ballston paying $1600/month for a 1 bedroom flat.  Where we are in the southeast of England we'd not pay hardly anything more for that Today in a 3 bedroom house.

Groovy_Yank, I think you're comparing apples and oranges.  Older properties dominate in Britain, there are no where near as many new builds as you'd find in the States.  So the number of properties you could find that fits your need for specific disabled access I would guess is very low and probably would cost more.  Perhaps I'm wrong about that?  I couldn't say for sure.

Not sure how much you had to pay in Arlington but about 8 or 9 years ago we had friends in Ballston paying $1600/month for a 1 bedroom flat.  Where we are in the southeast of England we'd not pay hardly anything more for that Today in a 3 bedroom house.

It's true that it's hard to compare exactly, but looking at what we get here for what we got in Arlington, it is costlier for us (and several of our friends in the D.C. area who have also lived or are living in Reading think it costs more here, too).

But regardless of what we found, it's good to know some people actually are doing better on house prices in the UK. Maybe there's hope for us yet!

The one bedroom next to us just rented out for 650.00 and it isn't even in the city.  If you take this house it will be about 25% of our income, but not including council tax. 

I wish I were only in my 20's then maybe I would feel better about it all. 

I used to live in Rosslyn VA, it was expensive. 

I also used to live near Providence, sadly I was in AmeriCorps, making 9,500 a year and felt richer then.

We pay between 1/5 and 1/4 of our income, depending on the month and we live in SW20 in a 2 bed. However, this year we're moving to either Kingston or Finchley and our rent is bound to go up quite a bit since in addition to being more expensive area, we're also looking for a bigger place.

We are lucky wife purchased this house over 6.5 years ago and got a very good deal so mortgage is not to bad but renting and buying both expensive unless you can come up with a good deposit for buying a proprty then at least you have something to show at the end of the payments one would hope, but who knows today everything is expensive.

Here you can pick up an average size property for around £400/600 pcm renting.

To purchase you can get a good 3 bdrm for £110/150,000 if buying.

My partner and I pay approximately 31% of our net income for rent, nearly 35% if council tax is included, for a somewhat shabby, not too chic 1-bedroom flat North London, Zone 2. The location is good and the rent is actually on the low-side for the area but that's because the decor and general condition of the space is somewhat lacking.

In New York we paid about 22% percent net for a really nice 2-bedroom apartment in Queens, though to be honest we had a good deal and the rent was much below market rate for the area.

We would buy if we could because there's absolutely no benefit to renting in the UK

We pay around 30% of our net income in rent.

Our rent is £1250 per month for a 2 bedroom quite large flat with garage and garden in southwest London. This doesn't include council tax or bills, but our tax is Wandsworth council so its quite cheap.

Yep, seriously! It's all about location, though, and prices vary as much throughout the UK as they do in the U.S. You're in Northern Ireland, I think, from your profile, and what little I've heard of prices there is that they are much less than southeast England (at least that's what my hubby says).

Rent prices haven't kept pace with house price inflation here. NI has had several years of 50% per year house price increases, so it's actually not much cheaper than SE England by now. I estimate that if we were to buy the house we're renting, our mortgage payments would be 2-3 times our current rent. We did get a good deal on this place, but we weren't too picky about our requirements.

That said, I'm not sure you could pay me enough--or make houses cheap enough--to go back to the DC area. Not my cup of tea. So my perceptions may be a bit biased.