I'd gladly pay more if it meant everybody in America could be homeowners (if they actually wanted to, and put in effort i.e. 9-5 at a FACTORY job for 40 years, to retire w/ a decent pension, and the works), you know like 90% of baby boomers had, but current generations do not have. We're already at a point where nobody will own anything anymore, everything is rented. Owning a home is out of reach unless you make over 200k.
I’m not sure this is true anymore. The median American will never be able to afford their own home at current housing prices. Sure, we have a higher gdp per capita, but it doesn’t buy us the things we actually need like housing, health care, etc.
Perhaps what’s needed is to bring back family homesteads, but that doesn’t feel like much progress.
You're missing the point: people who currently own a house get fucked. An entire generation or two of people will be locked out of retirement if housing prices significantly fall.
This needs to be accounted for. A majority of Americans own a home, so you're not going to get meaningful change in this area if it hurts most people.
Home ownership is a luxury everyone wants. I can't imagine people don't salivate at the idea of a sturdy, comfortable, private nest. The only class of people who can afford it are people with incomes on par with tech workers.
That's a weird comparison. Not every household makes enough money to afford a home. I don't think home ownership is a universal human right so I don't really see the problem with this. The median household shouldn't be buying a median priced new car either
If housing hadn't exploded in the US over the last 30 years the US would have needed to confront the fact that wages would never allow anyone to retire or build any wealth.
My wife and I live in a suburb of the Sacramento, CA area and have a combined household income of $400k and we have 20% saved for a $700k house (avg price in this area). But the mortgage costs would still be insane. We could either pay $2500/to rent a nice house (3-4bed 2b 2000sqft,we have no kids) or $4000-5000/mo for pretty much the same.
At this point in the housing market, buying makes no sense. I wish people would stop pushing the "American dream" of NEEDING to own a home. Homeownership is not a necessity, it is a luxury.
This American dream philosophy has caused very unfair policies where people who make $60k qualify for housing assistance and can buy houses for 0 down because the govt pays for some of their down payment[0].
If I can't enjoy the luxury of owning a home, why do my tax dollars pay for that luxury for those who earn less? I'm not anti socialism at all, either. I'm just stating that home ownership is a luxury in this day and age. Pay for people to live somewhere, yes. Provide them with mental health care, yes. I don't mind my tax dollars being used for those necessities. Helping with home ownership? In a market that already has fierce competition and low inventory? It's ridiculous.
Please explain to me why it's beneficial to society to people to work 30 years, paying all sort of interest and fees to middle men and excluding the median citizen from home ownership?
Dare I remind you that a single income family could afford a new construction home with just 4 years of salary in the 1950s and 1960s.
Build more houses, make everyone that can go remote, remove the needless fake money bidding wars that come from easy leverage for those who qualify.
It is scientifically proven that when a human owns something instead of rents it, they take much better care of their property and their community (source: google). Mortgages and renting just bring despair and trigger apocalyptic emotions in humans, which is why the Bronx looks like the Bronx, and Bellevue looks like Bellevue.
This is a very silly comment when you look at actual prices. Even adjusting for inflation house prices have doubled or tripled in a lot of places while wages have remained stagnant.
No amount of scrimping and saving will overcome the fact that the house I grew up in is now $600,000 more than they bought it for when the average wage is like $55,000.
I’m not even a generational doomer type. Millennials and Gen Z will probably broadly be ok in the long run. But pretending that not owning a house is a problem of excess is just stupid when looking at the math.
There is a lot of confirmation bias in these stories.
Half the issue is that people have been indoctrinated to expect home ownership and long for some golden age seen on TV that never existed.
Home ownership was never universal in the US. It has been within a few percent of 65% since the 1960s[1]. It was always out of reach for the lowest earners, like those that make minimum wage.
Some people whos parents owned houses will inevitably be unable to afford them themselves. Some people whos parents couldn't will.
So basically you want to own a home with all the benefits that come with it but you don't think you should pay the market rate like everyone else because you deserve not to. And boomers are to blame for it. Gotcha.
Your argument is just as tired. It made sense in the boomer days when a good job and hard work guaranteed a home. My dad bought his first for about $6000.
Decades of under building, greed, nimbys and their needed character, have eliminated that guarantee, or even possibility. As well as any tears for incredibly rich obstructionists to progress.
It's not like Condos in San Fran are affordable either, though. Last time I looked. I don't have 20% to put down on $750k. And why is it $750k? Because we can't have new construction, no, that would diminish the property values of the "established gentry", excuse me, the people who were lucky enough to buy something in 1997. So let's screw over an entire generation of Americans, maybe even 2 generations, so that the 50-somethings can keep their cushy retirement funds, i.e., their existing properties. America. The Greatest Country on Earth, unless you have less than $2-3 million in total assets, in which case you can fuck right off and go live somewhere on a farm in Nebraska.
I'm down-voting you because you haven't made an argument in the face of the issue.
The flaw the assumption is that somehow 'buying' a home that is 15x your annual salary, that takes your entire life to pay off, is some kind of 'freedom'.
I think people are overthinking the problem when it is quite simple: Housing prices have put owning your own home out of reach for the vast majority of young people.
I worked hard to pay my mortgage, feeling happy that I was on my way to owning a house. With a house, I started a family and life was good. I didn't mind putting up with corporate nonsense.
Without a house, I most certainly would not done this. I probably would have kicked around doing odd jobs to save for going backpacking in Thailand. Why the hell would I want to be part of a system that doesn't reward me? There's no reason to buy in (or sell out)
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