How to make $150k in a year

[ss20ts]

You don't, most places. A median house price in Phoenix seems to be around $400,000. Assuming that you can put down $40,000 (10%), then your monthly payment (at 5% interest) will be around $2000/month or $24k per year. Add property tax, insurance, HOA fees, etc... and you're paying maybe $28k per year for your housing expense. If we assume spending of, say, 50% of net income on your house, then you need to gross about $84k in my book to be able to afford it.

Do the same calculation using the $650k median price here in San Diego, and you get a gross salary of $136k.

Note: Part of the reason I think you can go as high as 50% of your net is that you've locked in your housing expense for a long while, and any raises will improve the situation.

Mortgage lenders tend to require your mortgage payment including escrow to be no more than 33% of your income. 

ashkir lives in Cali. Probably the most expensive state to buy real estate in the nation. He's not relocating to save a few bucks. Relocating isn't easy or cheap also the job he has may not be available if he relocates and he'd be hard press to find the same job with the same pay elsewhere. Lower cost of living areas generally have lower incomes as well. 

There's no way you can get a mortgage for $650K with an income of $136K. 3 X $136K = $408 The general rule of thumb has been 3 times your salary for the amount of house you can afford.

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Buying a house
During the housing crash and for many years after, you could buy a house in some parts of the Midwest, such as St. Louis, for only $20,000.

Another strategy is house hacking, for example, buying a duplex and renting out the other half to pay your mortgage, so you're living there basically for free.

Did you see the state of said $20K houses? They needed a boatload of work. 

Owning a duplex is great when the tenant pays and the place doesn't need many repairs. Covid left many landlords with deadbeats who weren't paying their rent for years (depending on location). The courts are finally get through the evictions here. Meanwhile, the place was trashed and the landlords went 3 years without payment.