If you were offered an apartment and it cost more than 30% of your income and you needed a grant to pay rent for those first months you’d be living there in order to be financially stable, would you choose to move in?
Only if there were no other options because it sounds really risky. Depending on the community and time of year, that might include living in a car as an option.
More than 30% is not all that unusual, but if it is over 50% just don’t do it. If you can get a grant specifically for rent that doesn’t have to be paid back, that’s okay too. But read the fine print. They might say you have to pay it back if this, if that, if you break the lease, etc.
It really would depend on what my other options were.
Can you stay where you are, or move to someplace cheaper, without being endangered or going broke?
Are you sure you can get the grant? What are the terms of the grant?
What are the terms of the lease? Can you move out without penalty when the grant runs out? Where would you go if you did?
Would living there, as opposed to your other options, let you get a better paying job, which would let you easily afford the place? How sure are you that you’d actually get the job, if so? How sure would you be that you could keep it long enough to build up savings?
Would living there save you a lot of money in other fashions – utilities, commute, health, needing or not needing to own a car? Could you get a roommate to split the cost? Can you find a roommate you can live with?
– probably etcetera. Also, I’m not at all sure that anybody should take financial advice from me.
Heh. I was well into my 30s and married before our household income was 3x our rent. Big cities are like that. Never heard of getting a grant though. Where would this grant be coming from? What would the terms of that be?
75% percent of my income for many years. What are the options? Can you afford to live on 25% of your income?
Yes. More than 30% is really common, but if you can get a grant - I’ve never heard of that! - then it becomes even more manageable.