We had our son sign a lease for his half of the condominium.

According to an article titled, “Workers Saving Too Little to Retire” by the Wall Street Journal, 10,000 people are turning 60 every day and 57% of US workers surveyed, report less than $25,000 in household savings.

First thing is that governments are not household incomes as they like to portray that relationship, totally a different world.

Sounds like a lot, but compare it to the total number of rentals out there.There are 115 million households in the US.

hi, im looking on Trulia arround my area and finding alot of condominium and townhouses arround 30k,.

The $140k Homes run about $1700 a year in taxes, so that brings the total payment to $958/mo without insurance which kicks them off.Of course, you could just do a 2 income household and kick it over, and the people could do it that way, but people seem not to like it too much.Now, having said that , in these areas where a foreclosure comes up for $120k or so, they go like hotcakes.

I'd like to get some input on how much I could/should be spending on an investment property, given the fact that my wife and I will be looking for a home of our own in the next 1-3 years.We live in New York City, but I've been interested in purchasing a multi family investment property for a while now, and am getting the ball rolling on that.Our household income is around $180k/year.  

.- I usually calculate $50 each month to cover maintenance and repairs on the property (its a condominium so I dont need to pay for roofing or exterior work or I would set aside a lot more)- include any other expenses such as condo fees, Insurance, utilities, property taxes, etc. and break it down into a monthly cost (ie. $1500 property tax would be a $125/mo expense)- Ideally you want to be able to budget in an expense for property management (~8% monthly rent) but I found this didnt work for the numbers and I was willing to take it on myself so left it off my spreadsheetThe numbers are there to guide you in your expected cashflow and how much it will impact you if you're wrong will depend on your own personal situation.

With almost 46% of households as rentals, the Charleston market is better than it appears on paper.  

Census Bureau: American Community Survey (ACS)The ACS was launched in 2005 and is administered every year by the Census Bureau to roughly three and a half million households in the USA.