Income -- House cost -- Pool cost

[Speedo]

Just out of curiosity... (hopefully this isn't too personal)

How much as a percentage of gross (household) income did everyone spend on their house and pool?

example: If you're making $60,000 a year (household gross) and you live in a $150,000 house with a $20,000 pool you would post up 250% and 33%. (150/60=2.5 and 20/60=0.33)



My (Fiance and I) percentage is: 109% (house) and 7% (pool)

 

[chem geek]

Base House: 320% ..... Pool: 28%
The purchased house was rebuilt at additional cost (400%) including addition of a pool both paid for with assets (funds) that came from earlier capital gains (IPO) so is not reflective of normal gross income that I'm using as the basis for these percentages. That is, had I not had extra assets, I wouldn't have rebuilt a house nor put in a pool using just my income.

 

[bk406]

222% and 14%

 

[ping]

House 347%, Pool 47%. House estimated value now is 521%.

 

[Speedo]

chem geek - Not to get too far off topic, but you were part of a company's IPO? That's awesome!

If I had known that we were going to stay at our current house forever, my pool percentage would likely be 22%. And of course we would be likely to put more money into the house itself over time.

Currently we're trying to figure out what our long term plan and goals are, which is what made me think of creating this thread. My Fiance doesn't care nearly as much as I do about the pool, but even when I talk about inground she doesn't ever say that it's a ridiculous amount of money

 

[Speedo]

House 347%, Pool 47%. House estimated value now is 521%.

I definitely wouldn't be surprised to see houses in Cali that are 500%+

Glad to hear that your property value has gone up so much! That's the main reason we don't want to put more money in to our house, because we know at this point it probably won't be worth much more even with all new appliances, etc. Until something NEEDS replaced, we will probably just wait it out. Definitely helps to be in a house/neighborhood where you can invest and expect some return.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

House 150% pool 0% - Father-in-laws pool! His would be silly he's selling old house and the purchase price is not really relevant to his income. His house and my house are in the same price range if that helps. His house also declined from a few years back and was a bargain. Pool was specifically excluded from house inspection by the sellers - we inspected but only to understand what the potential impact to finances would be. So far all of the equipment has held up.

 

[msgtdan]

44% DIY built house 2.25% DIY installed

 

[bigfunky]

130% and 16%

 

[Swampwoman]

I'm going to suggest a different way to look at it, because I'm not sure these percentages are meaningful out of context.

(In my case, my pool was "free"...insofar as it was a foreclosure and there was about a 150% differential between what was paid for the property and its current appraised value on mere year later ...the cost of my pool today would also be higher than normal due to a variety of things its construction required from the original owners.)

So the way I'd look at investing in an in-ground (and I DID look at it this way actually -- and then decided it was smarter to just go buy a house that already HAD a pool instead of constructing one...)

1. Determine how long you intend to stay in that house.
2. Amortize the cost over that time and determine if that is a sustainable cost/eg. "worth it."
3. Forget about recovering the investment...too many people DON'T want pools, so you have a very specific clientele and that can mess with resale value
4. Consider it instead an "entertainment/consumable" lifestyle investment not unlike a luxury car or cottage or annual cruises, etc.

You will notice that if your answer to number 1 is "20 years" your construction cost, amortized, looks like pretty cheap entertainment. You will notice if your answer is "four more years" on the other hand, it's a little steeper!

If your answer is truly anything under 20 years in terms of question 1, consider going out and finding your "death house" as I call it now. You never know what you might find, but it's possible you'll end up with the pool "free" by comparison That's what mine is -- the one that is one floor for when we're old and can't do stairs, large master, guest area not in main house, enough land, plan-to-die here...etc.

 

[Speedo]

I was looking for an existing in-ground, but the two I've found don't seem to be "giving" the pool away with the house. In the price range we're looking at there only seem to be 40 year old homes that have been remodeled, which isn't exactly what we want. Looking at what's available it seems the better deal would be finding what we really want and putting the pool in after. This will be a slow process since we are just beginning to figure out what our next steps will be. I'm excited though!