Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
Got data on this? In my anecdotal experience price per square foot has shot up in urban places, which is where the jobs for young people tend to be concentrated.
Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
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Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#22People who will have children ("eventual parents" for the purpose of this comment) are healthier, smarter and wealthier than people who will never have children. If the question is whether things have gotten harder for the average person, it is misleading to compare a group consisting only of eventual parents with a group composed of both eventual parents and non-parents. A better comparison would be 30-years-olds of today versus 30-year-olds (whether the 30-year-old has or goes on to have children or not) of the past.
ADDED LATER. A careful study or newspaper article on the question of whether people have it harder or easier than they did 30 years ago or 45 years ago would try to avoid comparing populations that a reasonable person would expect to differ for reason other than things in the country getting harder or easier. Whether or not my sentence above containing the phrase "are healthier, smarter and wealthier" is true, clearly one might reasonably expect systemic differences between people who have children or will go on to have children and people who do not.
Even if the "nonparent" group were on average more intelligent than the "parent" group, that would also be a reason to avoid omitting the "nonparents" from the older cohort in the study.
The fact that the OP does not even try to avoid those systemic differences suggests that either the author is not sufficiently skilled at statistics to be writing about what he or she is writing about or someone is trying to argue for some conclusion he or she is attached to, e.g., "it is awful how hard things have gotten in this country for the average person" or the article author is making the headline more dramatic than the situation actually is in order to get more clicks.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#23Compound that with the percentage of income 30 year olds spend on housing, education, health care and child care compared to their parents and we have a recipe for disaster.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
That's simply not true, at least on the west coast in any reasonably active real estate market.
It was never $1,455/sq ft like it is today in Palo Alto, nor $500/sq ft or even $200 per sq ft. This is a recent phenomena.
Furthermore, price per square foot actually tends to increase nowadays on smaller homes, where you'll pay even more per square foot if you're trying to buy anything under 2000sq ft, and it gets really crazy when you approach 1200sq ft.
Shop around for a house, see for yourself.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
Got data on this? In my anecdotal experience price per square foot has shot up in urban places, which is where the jobs for young people tend to be concentrated.
"the inflation-adjusted price of new homes has been relatively stable since 1973 in a range between about $105 and $125 per square foot"
However this is only new homes, not used homes.
http://www.aei.org/publication/todays-new-homes-are-1000-squ...
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#25Compound that with the percentage of income 30 year olds spend on housing, education, health care and child care compared to their parents and we have a recipe for disaster.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
* Because builders choose to make bigger homes to bring in more money.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#26Compound that with the percentage of income 30 year olds spend on housing, education, health care and child care compared to their parents and we have a recipe for disaster.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
I think you know that in any kind of major metropolitan area with a strong economy that price per square foot is much, much higher (adjusted for inflation) than previously.
Taking the aggregate is deceptive because housing is much cheaper in economically depressed areas of the country.
Edit: Looked at the source of your data. It includes only new homes, and ignores existing housing stock. Your entire argument is deceptive and wrong. I regret wasting my time reading the source and realizing that you are cherry-picking.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#27People who will have children ("eventual parents" for the purpose of this comment) are healthier, smarter and wealthier than people who will never have children. If the question is whether things have gotten harder for the average person, it is misleading to compare a group consisting only of eventual parents with a group composed of both eventual parents and non-parents. A better comparison would be 30-years-olds of…
Can you cite a source for that? While there will be cases where that is true, it may also be that those without children have higher willpower (no oopses), for example.
Further, not all of the children's parents were younger than 30 when they had their child. Being childfree at 30 does not mean childfree at 40.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.
* Because builders choose to make bigger homes to bring in more money.
It is true that suppliers do, to some degree, drive buyer preferences but I am skeptical that it's the primary driver of change.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#29About half earn more, about half earn less. Wouldn't that imply that the average earnings are about the same? If so, I don't know that I'd complain because that indicates stability.
Yeah, the title seems sensationalized relative to the actual data.
It looks like a stable regression towards the mean.
Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30
#30Compound that with the percentage of income 30 year olds spend on housing, education, health care and child care compared to their parents and we have a recipe for disaster.
Most consumers are tapped out, bad news for a consumer driven economy. There can only be so much more debt accrued.