15% of your income

[Bobrox]

Based on my country salary and house rent, almost 15% of monthly income spent for renting house and must paying every month but in last four years ago price or rent house get significant increasing and we must paying around 20% of monthly salary. Most of us working fully day how to pay rent house due most of 20% salary payment must be allocate for renting house, nowadays buying house almost difficult although trough instalment way payment back can't back up yet during have lower salary monthly payment.

Need get out and find good opportunity by earning higher salary payment is only way how to change bad way we must paying 15% to 20% salary payment rent house, now has target to buy or building own house and we don't need to spent 20% monthly for cost of rent house.

[AmaGold70]

I think these totally depends on how much income you earn either weekly, or monthly, and the location and type of house you are living. However, the economy as at 10 years ago and the economy at present are two different things entirely. The economy as at 10 years ago is far better than the economy of today, which aids in increased rentage. Today, only 15% of your income is not enough to afford you a comfortable house, this is because inflation has eaten deep into our economy, cost of building materials are very high which is also affecting cost of house rentage. many have relocated to other areas which they feel they can afford to pay their rent.
In my own country, the rate of building houses are very slow because of high cost materials, and many have even relocated from the city to towns and rural communities because they are no longer capable of paying their rent in the city.

[Oluwa-btc]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

This would only be applicable to the smaller countries more like an underdeveloped country where majorly most of them don't have to pay rent cause they are landlords and owners, so the 15% income can really go for the least that tend to pay for rent, but in some developed countries and cities today that wouldn't cover half of the rent because recently there's been a rage in increments of rents in soany regions.

[Pablo-wood]

If we go by 15% of our income so many will be forced to live in trenches all their life. I am not promoting extravagant spending but one can't just depend on their income to sought out their bills. I rather advise side hustles for house rents and the main income can handle other bills that way meeting up renewal of rents and other expenses can be managed and maintained. No matter how much we earn one still has to be calculative because the more we earn the more responsibility we incur and this makes our earning look insufficient to meet all of our needs forcing us to cut down on expenses so as to balance things.

[DPHOR]

As far as I know currently, housing expenses is one of the biggest expenses so far in my family and I know how much goes out of our hand in housing or home remedy's. To realistic, house is one of the biggest thing that is consuming our monthly income and even as that, almost our yearly income is being consumed by house rents which could even lead to worst because there are people today who still living in a rented apartment, and this attributed to the reason why we relocated from where we are to our home, in order to reduces expenses and make little savings for ourselves and even that this seems not to reduces because price of things are getting heck over the time.

[Hewlet]

do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

For me, i spend less than 15% of my income on house rent because it is actually actually not too expensive getting a simple house that a single person ca stay in. imagine you are earning $400 per month, by a year, you have earned at least $4800 and if you remove 15% from that, you should be having $500 dollar kept for your housing need which is typically the average a simple house usually cost. with time, housing budget will get even higher and i would even think it necessary that a serious plan be put in place by everyone to get a house for himself so as to avert any form of those occurrences.

[davis196]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

The current housing crisis is mostly due to housing prices being too high. The 2008 crisis was caused by the housing prices collapsing. There's nothing in common between those two situations. I would mind the current real estate prices to collapse just like they did in 2008. Houses and apartments have become too overpriced and many big corporations have entered the real estate market with the intention of buying low and selling high. Owning a house or apartment(or multiple houses and apartments) shouldn't be a speculative investment. The governments must step in and regulate the real estate market. 

[Fakhrulenclix]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

I am starting to feel it now, even though I know it will be different in each country, but in my country, especially at the moment, rent prices are increasing and even if we look over the past few years, they have continued to rise, albeit slowly, and currently, it has even exceeded 15% of my income, and indeed, I strongly suggest that it is better for us to buy a place to live rather than having to keep renting it continuously.

[laspol65]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

Different places have different costs, if you live in a densely populated area, the cost of housing is a little lower, but if you move towards a city-oriented and busy crowd, then you must have spent more money there. However, many people consider housing cost as a basic expense, but in some places, housing cost can be up to 40 to 50% of your monthly income. So, your housing cost will depend on the place where you are, in the future, the amount of housing cost will increase because the birth rate is much higher than the death rate, so the housing cost increases more due to the shortage of space.

[dunfida]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

Actually it would be that depending on several factors like;

1. How much salary you earn monthly.?
2. How much is the rent that you are paying?
3. Do you have other sources of income?

We do know that each one of us does have that different level when it comes to income source and on the type of house or where its located because it would be totally subjective on which simply means that whenever you are that tending to rent into something that it is on the city proper then it would be that more expensive in compared into those far away. So it will be that totally depending on this case.
What matter most on here is that you do know on what you've been doing specially when it comes to budgeting on which we know that this is the most important. If you do saw yourself being that on tight on budget then thi is the time that you would be considering on having that looking for other income source.

[uneng]

Here in Brazil, renting is much more expensive than that. Minimum wage is around 1600 BRL, and if you want to live in a more or less decent place, you aren't going to pay less than 1000 BRL in a monthly basis for that. Of course, it will be a house or apartment enough for a family to live, so you can add everyone's income, like the husband and wife's income. Averagely, the total income must stay around 4000 BRL, which gives us approximately 25% of the total income being used for renting purposes.

Then you still have electricity, water, internet and gas bills, and every other taxes involved on every daily transactions, which grabs approximately 1/3 of total income made yearly by the citizen. The average individual lives exclusively to feed this dirty system. In courterpart, he is satisfied by being constantly bombarded by low dosages of low quality ephemeral pleasures, such as the garbage music, movies and tv shows sold by the media, which is sponsored by the government, which is sponsored by the common citizen, after all.

That is the perverted logic of this country called Brazil, and probably of many other countries in the world as well, which are getting decaying these days.

[sleepfirefly]

I feel like we have housing crisis for years now. When did you read that 15% thing? Are you sure it hasn't been updated to 20% or higher? Granted, we could also argue that we need a higher income instead of increasing budget allocation for housing and whatnot.

understandable that the 15% is outdated because of inflation but not just because of inflation. land is a finite source and there are already a lot of land that have been occupied by large companies. making them into employment hubs or into condominiums so it really is difficult now to buy a house or rent a nice condo without putting out big amount of money.

[Akbarkoe]

We live in a different era, and prices are skyrocketing. That term only applies to the past. We needed a much larger income to build a house.
We're encouraged to keep working and working,
while inflation erodes our money.
Is there a solution? Yes, there is a solution. If our income is higher, for example, $40,000 per month, and setting aside 15% of that is enough to build your modest home.

In this era the cost of building a house will take some people to save all their salaries for life before they can achieve that because the cost of purchasing a piece of land and building materials is on a high side.

If we keep working while we spend money on different things it becomes a burden to us because it's difficult to see a job that pays that big for you to remove 15% and still have what to save to build your own house. Rent monthly takes more than 50% of some person's monthly income they have to sort out other things before having the thought of building a house.

We can actually determine the appropriate percentage if our goal is to build a house. I think if you earn the minimum wage in your area, it's still quite possible to realistically project this. I don't think you need to save for life. However, on average, you can afford a modest home before the age of 50 if you focus on saving and set aside more than 40% of your salary.
On the other hand, we can seek alternative sources of income, such as investing to accelerate the growth of our money or to protect it from inflation. That's the best way if we can earn a large salary.

I think 50% of the monthly expenses is excessive. Perhaps we should move to a more modest place and reduce our living costs. However, there must be a solution if that's the case.

[Cryptomultiplier]

I feel like we have housing crisis for years now. When did you read that 15% thing? Are you sure it hasn't been updated to 20% or higher? Granted, we could also argue that we need a higher income instead of increasing budget allocation for housing and whatnot.

understandable that the 15% is outdated because of inflation but not just because of inflation. land is a finite source and there are already a lot of land that have been occupied by large companies. making them into employment hubs or into condominiums so it really is difficult now to buy a house or rent a nice condo without putting out big amount of money.

This is if course the reality I live in currently. It's quite very expensive to get landed properties right now, not to talk of rentage. Even where you can afford it, there's of course the presence and pressure of a landlord that behaves like a dictator and even expect you as a tenant to cough up funds when it's asked for, despite the cost of renting, it would also be expected you contribute to develop and establish the apartment to standard with your funds of course, so how can even 15% of one's income be sufficient to stop embarrassment and avoid conflict and even acquire personal landed properties.

Inflation is a concern and for one to own their own homes or have a solid rentage apartment to live in with comfort and assurance of at least five year period to grow, I doubt 15% of one's income is sufficient.

[Cryptmuster]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

A decent apartment in my city costs almost half the average monthly salary. This might be acceptable if two people in the family earn money, as it covers all expenses and even allows for some savings. But if only one family member works and rent is required, it'll be more like survival, or you'll have to work hard to maintain a significantly higher income. You can always find cheaper housing, but it will be in a disadvantaged area with poor living conditions, and we definitely need to strive for something better, not cheaper.

[laijsica]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

It depends on your personal personality. The amount of salary you are getting and if it is inside the city, your housing expenses will increase, in which case it can be 40%-50% of the salary and this is a natural reason why you will decide to live in a good house in line with your income and considering the security of your family. That is why I said in the beginning that the amount of expenditure in the housing sector depends on your personality.

You can allocate 15% of your salary for housing if you get a job somewhere outside the city. But if you allocate 15% inside the city, then it will not be in line with your personality and will not be able to maintain the security of your family.

[Strongkored]

almost 10 years ago, i read that your rent or whatever you pay for your home should not exceed 15% of your monthly income. now in 2026, many reports are saying that there definitely is a housing crisis.

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

Housing expenses have always been the largest portion for me. Even though I don't rent, electricity, water, and other expenses are high because I live in a city with quite hot weather, requiring air conditioning.
If only 15% of our expenses were allocated to household needs, we could save quite a bit, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

[moneystery]

with some saying this could be worse than the 2008 crisis. do you still believe that only 15% of your income goes to rent or house expense? is housing expense your biggest expense monthly?

I don't know where you got that data from, but I think that currently most people pay 30% or even 50% of their monthly salary in rent, especially for those living in big cities, it doesn't make sense for them to pay only 15% of their income for rent, unless they have a large salary, but that's only a handful of people, for many people they are still burdened by rent that increases every year.

[serjent05]

For those who own the house, they are sure to meet the ideal since they don't have to pay for the rent.  But in my country, people who are renting spend almost 30% of their income, electricity and water bills not included.

Worse, most landlords increase the rental fee by at most 10% per year, but the salaries of the people who are renting don't even experience an increase for a long time.  So most people who are renting look for rent-to-own houses even though they need to spend a bit more for the monthly payment.

[ZAINmalik75]

I feel like we have housing crisis for years now. When did you read that 15% thing? Are you sure it hasn't been updated to 20% or higher? Granted, we could also argue that we need a higher income instead of increasing budget allocation for housing and whatnot.

In my country, I feel like the price for daily goods has increased over the past 5 years. Everything is expensive whether we have a house crisis or not. Land prices have increased, granted it's still cheap to buy and live in the countryside. I don't need to allocate for rent, but I have to pay for electricity, internet, and water. It's definitely more than 15% of my monthly income.

I heard it should not exceed 30%,

The exact number does not matter, but 30% was mentioned in the US federal housing policy and 15%, Op mentioned, maybe comes from personal financial rules they have been following, considering the region they are living in. Because that also matters.

Anyway the number does not matter, the cap is there so we would know how much we are giving away in housing and if other expenses go a little higher where we can end up. If it is more than 50% then it is not good. Mine is lower than 30%, but things were good so far now that war has started and everything is getting a little increment in rates maybe something indirectly will happen to lands too.