🎉 You need to make this much to buy a home?

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Read time: 2.5 minutes

Good Afternoon Party People! 🎉

Salary needed to buy a home. Interview tips. Mandatory vacations?

This is a party you all won’t want to miss.

PARTY PLAN 🎉

🏡 How much you need to make to buy a home…

🧑 The BEST thing to say in an interview

🌴 Mandatory vacations?

And, of course, MEMES!

MEME OF THE DAY

PAY DATA

How Much You Need to Make to Buy a Home

Since 2020, the income needed to comfortably afford a home is up 80.5% (via Zillow).

Wait, that has to be a typo, right?

The decimal is in the wrong place?

Nope!

Home shoppers today need to make more than $106k (nationwide average) to comfortably afford a home.

Well that must mean wages are up close to 80% since then too, right?

No again!

Since January 2020, the median income in the US has risen 23%. Four years ago, a household income of $59,000 could comfortably afford a home (spending less than 30% on a mortgage). That was below the median income of $66,000, meaning more than half of American households had the financial means to afford homeownership.

Now, the $106k needed to comfortably afford a mortgage payment on a typical home is well above the median household income of roughly $81k.

More than half of all first-time home buyers say at least part of their down payment came from a gift or loan from family or friends.

How to buy a house in 2024:

Step 1: Get a downpayment from family

Step 2: Make 6-figures

Easy.

Almost a quarter of homebuyers last year reported co-buying with a friend or relative. 

The majority of Gen Z and millennial buyers said they plan on renting out at least one room to be able to afford the mortgage.

The only major metros where a typical home is affordable to a household making the median income are Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Detroit.

Seven major markets require an income of $200k or more. The top four are all in California:

1. San Jose ($454,296)

2. San Francisco ($339,864)

3. Los Angeles ($279,250)

4. San Diego ($273,613)

Seattle ($213,984), NYC ($213,615), and Boston ($205,253) round out the top 7 most expensive cities.

It’s no wonder job seekers want to work remotely.

INTERVIEW TIPS

The BEST Thing to Say in an Interview

Job interviews often feel like a high-stakes game where every word counts. And in a way, they are.

With tens of thousands of dollars on the line, every answer is potentially worth a lot of money and one misstep can be the difference between landing an offer or getting rejected.

But for candidates who are prepared, it feels less like gambling and more like a regular conversation.

Different jobs will demand different skills, and interview formats may vary quite a bit from industry to industry, but there are a few universal strategies that have been proven to be effective in an interview.

According to Andrew McCaskill, here is the “smartest statement” you can make at the end of any job interview:

“I want to underscore how much I want this job. I think my skills and experiences are perfect for it, and that I could have a strong, positive impact on the team. Here’s why...” 

The reason for using a closing pitch like this is to convey what McCaskill says are the two most important things hiring managers look for: enthusiasm and confidence.

Someone who seems neutral or apathetic about the role likely won’t leave a lasting impact on the hiring manager, even if their skills and experience are a perfect match.

He also recommends that interviewees keep the focus on two or three skills outlined in the job description (and concisely explain how they can use them to support the organizations’ goals).

Related side note: knowing the organizations’ goals will take some research and preparation before the interview.

For job seekers wanting to save time on interview prep, check out the resume prep tool on JobParty.AI. It gives real interview questions and suggested answers for any job at any company. Here’s what one user had to say:

Have an interview scheduled? Try JobParty.AI.

PTO

Mandatory Vacations?!

With employee stress and burnout nearing all-time-highs, more companies are considering a mandatory vacation, even to the point of full office shutdowns to make it happen.

How nice of them!

According to a recent Harris Poll survey, less than 78% of Americans don’t use the maximum amount of paid time off allowed by their employer.

In fact, only 8.7% of employers require workers to take a minimum amount of vacation.

Most of those employers are in industries like trucking, airlines air traffic control, and finance because federal regulations require that certain roles take time off.

Now companies in other industries are looking at ways to force workaholic employees to take vacation to cut down on burnout, which ultimately leads to turnover and costs money.

The average worker took 15 paid days off last year, despite nearly half being allowed more than that. Heavy workload and lack of adequate staffing were the top reasons why workers in the U.S. aren’t using vacation days.

Enforcing mandatory vacation may be difficult to implement and enforce, so some companies are looking for more employee-friendly alternatives, such as a total office shutdown.

Tech companies have already adopted shutdowns, usually taking place the week of July 4th or between Christmas and New Year.

Even companies that offer unlimited PTO are shutting down offices and operations for a week at a time. That way, employees can truly reset without having to answer emails or phone calls.

QUICK HIT 🎉

For the first time since before the pandemic, the number of job openings and people looking for a job are roughly the same.

The number of job openings has declined sharply in every single state since 2022.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were two job openings for every job seeker in 2022.

Now, the ratio is about 1.2 openings per person (via OregonLive).

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