Oregon Families Are Struggling Financially
We are a middle class family of 3 in a suburban community in Oregon. These numbers would be dramatically higher in larger families…
HOME COSTS
My Husband and I bought our home in late 2020. We bought our house for $570,000. We put 20% down. Our interest rate is 2.5%. Our monthly mortgage payment is $2,490.
If we would have bought this house in 2024 for $570,000… The mortgage rate would be 6.77%. The monthly mortgage payment would be $3,654. That’s an increase of $1,164 a month.
GAS PRICES
We own a truck. The tank is 38 gallons. The average price in my area in Oregon was $2.59 in late 2020. It used to cost us $98.42 to fill up.
The gas price at my local station is currently $4.29. 2024 it costs us $163.02 to fill up. That’s an increase of $64.60 every time we have to fill up our tank. During the summer months, we are filling up every week. That’s an increase of $258.40 per month.
GROCERY PRICES
Purchases from 2 stores, Fred Meyer and Costco from last month. We spent $865.45. I do buy groceries from other places and we eat out as well so the actual number is way higher.
The $865.45 number is even after we’ve done everything we could do to bring down our monthly bill from previous months. We are a family of 3. Groceries have gone up by 25.8% on average.
Groceries in late 2020 would have been around $642.17. That’s an increase of $223.48 per month.
These numbers do not include increases on things like insurance, electricity, childcare, clothing, basic necessities etc. PGE has gone up around $80 per month for us since 2020, but we run natural gas for our heating system so it’s not as large of an increase as others who don’t use natural gas. Childcare has gone up around $150 per month. Car insurance has gone up $52 a month. Going to the movies is up 28% and eating out at restaurants is up 21.5% since 2020.
I’m very grateful that we bought in late 2020. But think about all those families who need to buy a house currently in 2024. We would never be able to afford to move. We are a middle class family. We make good money.
We are in the red every single month now when in late 2020 we were saving money. We’ve also lost thousands in our 401k.
Counting shopping at 2 grocery stores, gas, car insurance, childcare and PGE our overall costs have gone up by $763.88 per month or $9,166.56 per year.
This is for a family of only 3. The numbers are dramatically worse for larger families. This is not okay. And again this isn’t even the half of it but just the very basics.
If we would have bought a house in 2024 instead of 2020, the overall number would be an increase of $1,927.88 a month (with all items above included) or an increase of $23,134.56 a year.
We cannot survive another 4 years of this
AN OREGON MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY