Hi Loungers , Is life in Illinios comfortable on a salary of 45k/year

Currently I am living in Florida and paid 20K a year , and let me tell you it it HARD. Is life in Illinios cheaper than Florida .. (I'll be moving to the Urbana-Champaign Area)

Also , is that salary enough to raise a kid on , buy a house , and still pay up 10,000 in credit card debt acquired through 4 years of college?

thanks

The operative word is "MAY".

surrounded by cornfields that occasionally become housing plans. I think you can swing this.

there`s people there from champaign-urbana and surrounding area

Might be a while to buy a house, but you can pay off 10 grand in a couple years while renting - congrats on getting out of college with so little debt.

I'm a Midwest guy who tried living in Florida. I'm now in Maryland, but will take the Midwest over Florida every day, and yes, I do like the seasons.

You'll break even

plus, I am a Champaign County native - yes INDEED :D

The household median income as of the 2000 census was $37,780 in Shampoo-Banana.

This is not a pricy area.

Downstate, it is usually cheaper, although U-C is a bit more expensive because it's a college town. You could always commute from Mahomet or something like that, or live on the outskirts of town where it's cheaper.

So is St Joe. They are seen as "desirable" and there has been a lot of development in both towns in the last few years. St Joe has pretty good schools, however, (Mahomet isn't bad, mind you--but the test scores are just a bit lower there.)

What you will also see, however, is a lot of stuff headed into repo in both towns. There are a lot of people who over paid for McMansions in those towns and they are losing the houses now that the mortgage market has gone into the crapper. I can't TELL you how many of those folks were in my office this year, and I can tell you many of those houses have lawn furniture in the living roms because they couldn't afford to buy anything else.

If you want to max out on what you can buy for your money, you can go about 30 minutes out of town and get some really nice houses for not a huge amount of cash. There is a huge Vic for sale next door to me that is currently listed at $179,000. It has a butler pantry, original woodwork, and an open front staircase to the second floor. This house sits in an elementary school district that has been consistently in the higher rankings for the state in test scores, and the class size is usually about a dozen kids. Yeah, it is a small town, but there is a lot to like about it.

Remember, we are more stable here than most places, but right now there are something like twice the active real estate listings than what there was last year at this time.



Laura

:P

My sons live there and make a little more than that and are living well.
Although they don't have kids and aren't paying a mortgage yet.
Illinois can be cheap living, if you know where to look!

It's a wonderful area. Housing is not that bad at all.

on all the stuff that usually sucks your salary dry. Mass transportation is good, housing can be found cheaply, food is reasonable with a LOT of farmer's markets (this is the breadbasket of the entire US doncha know), great deals on books and entertainment, a really world class diversified environment that is mostly Dem....

Not sure about buying a house. Your debt may make that wierd but still, it IS a student town - it's possible. :shrug:

I say go for it. I have friends who still live there (from when we were still going to school there more than 20 years ago) and they LOVE it and thrive on about your salary.

And then there'd be more Illinois Dems - always a good thing for us! :woohoo:

I live just outside CU, and actually work in Urbana.

You will need a decent down payment to buy a house, but yeah, you can do it on a starting salary of $45K. I will tell you that our housing market is a lot more stable than most places, and I will tell you that if you buy a house you might want to consider buying outside CU to maximize what you can get.

How old is the child? Is the kiddo in school yet?

Shoot me a PM if you like, I know a few good landlords and property managers if you are interested. I'll also be happy to offer info about some of the more fascinating social aspects of life in "The People's Republic of Urbana" where the tofus run free, the spouts are in fear, and the trees are beloved.

:hi:



Laura

Plus it's a nice area and there are lots of cool things fairly nearby.

I think 45k/year would easily be comfortable here, and you can definitely find a house and pay off your debts in that range.

CU is a nice place to live, especially if you like the atmosphere of a college town. Will you be working at the university?

From your response it sounds like you might actually be local!! Color me delighted, if so!




Laura

I live in over in Champaign ... looks like our community is well-represented here on DU :) :hi: