American Dream(Maybe just a modest dream).

@littleangrydog: The vast majority of people here make $8-$10/hr. Which equates to about $16,000-$20,000 per year. These aren't just high school kids either. A restaurant manager will make a bit more but not much. I interviewed at a Taco Bell for management, and they were offering $11/hr. I was making $18/hr at Walgreens in management (which no longer exist as it once did). They decided to hire people doing the same job for $11.50/hr, but with a "shift team leader" title. Going back to the restaurant manager, that's a few people in management, while dozens under them make little. Same as any company like Walmart, Walgreens, etc. The average wage in my town is $34,450, which is inflated because there are a ton of nurses here.

I make nearly $15/hour in Alberta,not as much as I should be making for what I do. I should be making about $18/$19 an hour. Trouble making ends meet.

did u get a GOLF or a JETTA WAGON

I've seen a lot of people settle--settle for jobs, settle for a spouse, settle for quality of life--to anchor themselves to The American Dream. It's more or less a carrot on a stick, and the people holding the stick are banks, corporations, real estate companies...basically people you can get in debt to.

With that said, it would be really nice to own my own place. I don't want anything crazy, especially since I am by myself and probably won't have kids (maybe a spouse someday), but still...a place to call my own would be nice.

But right now I am paying 1000 in rent (which is cheap for my area, sadly) and saving a buttload making 65k a year (which, again, is not a lot for my area).

Can you be anymore wrong?

The prices here reflect the minimum wage, $18.29 AUD per hour, and they want to increase it to $19.

The only reason I'd buy a house is if I have kids. If we didn't have kids, the wife and I would be fine with an apartment or a condo.

If I was living by myself, I'd have a small RV (plus a motor bike) and living a nomadic life.

@thegerg: "here" is McMinnville, TN

@thegerg: It's all I could find right now, I might start hitting the pavement for something better in April/May?

So you answered the big question. Thank you.

Ha. Good luck finding an affordable house in California.

You're gonna need at least 800k, maybe a million. That's more than what people retire with.

The American dream, or should I say the Californian dream, is working like a slave in Silicon Valley, infertile, while you live in a townhouse paying $3000/mo (projects for the middle class).

What the American middle class conquers in other states only the upper-middle-class can conquer in California or NY.

Upper middle class starts at 8k per month. Even so, I think that to sustain a good California lifestyle, it is necessary for your wife to also work to pay their own bills.

But California is still a great state to live in compared to countries that have a high tax burden.

California and NY is 2 times more expensive than other states. If you can buy a house for 200k in Atlanta, you'll probably have to pay 400k for the same house in California. In some cases you need to pay more than twice the value of any property in California.