How wide is this issue?
Please speak up and name your country.
Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
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Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#2Can you define what you mean by housing crisis? Affordability, supply etc.?
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#3In the U.S. I would say yes in many parts of the country. I've lived in SF, DC, San Diego, N. Nevada, and all of them are plagued by extremely high home prices making purchasing a home pretty unattainable for the average person (Nevada only in recent years). This was already an issue before interest rates went through the roof, now I imagine that if you need a mortgage buying a house is dramatically more expensive.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#4Can you define what you mean by housing crisis? Affordability, supply etc.?
Monthly housing costs being higher than one third of your monthly net income. (assuming immediate access)
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#5A lot of this is going to heavily depend on definition. San Francisco is expensive, but should anyone be able to live there at any income? Is it a housing crisis if they could move elsewhere but refuse to do so? In addition, how much space is too little? How many bathrooms are too few?
My Dad grew up in a 1200 sqft house with 5 people and 2 bathrooms. Even as a junior banker/accountant, he had roommates while living in Toronto. But the expected standard is increasingly one bedroom/one bathroom for everyone. People complain that a 700 sqft condo is a shoebox as well.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#6In TX it depends what city, you can still find something in DFW that is affordable but might not be in a prime location. Housing here has gone up almost 50% in the last 8 years. 400k will typically get you an average nice smallish house but 600-800 will get you an extremely nice large house. Job market is decent, wages are good, quality of life is comfortable and affordable.
In places like Toronto, Canada, a house that cost 300k is now selling for 1.2 million 10-12 years later. A condo use to be something a first time buyer could afford but now they too have increased in price where 500 sq/ft -1000 sq/ft can run 700k to 1 Mil. Most folks can't afford the down payment and you need to be earning around 300k to even consider buying something with the interest rates at 7-8 %. I actually saw the price of a Condo I was watching go from 300k in Oct 2019 to 600k in April of 2020. It doubled in price in like 6 months. Housing was going up in price 1.5k -2k a week during the Pandemic.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#7A lot of this is going to heavily depend on definition. San Francisco is expensive, but should anyone be able to live there at any income? Is it a housing crisis if they could move elsewhere but refuse to do so? In addition, how much space is too little? How many bathrooms are too few? My Dad grew up in a 1200 sqft house with 5 people and 2 bathrooms. Even as a junior banker/accountant, he had roommates while living…
Having roommates, or renting a room in someone's house, or living as a boarder, was not that uncommon in years past, especially if you were single. I'm not sure how common this still is, but I agree it seems that expectations for housing have risen.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#8Can you define what you mean by housing crisis? Affordability, supply etc.?
Monthly housing costs being higher than one third of your monthly net income. (assuming immediate access)
How is this rule-of-thumb automatically applicable to everywhere? Some places have higher taxes and lower housing costs, others are the opposite. And that's just within the United States.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#9A lot of this is going to heavily depend on definition. San Francisco is expensive, but should anyone be able to live there at any income? Is it a housing crisis if they could move elsewhere but refuse to do so? In addition, how much space is too little? How many bathrooms are too few? My Dad grew up in a 1200 sqft house with 5 people and 2 bathrooms. Even as a junior banker/accountant, he had roommates while living…
Having roommates, or renting a room in someone's house, or living as a boarder, was not that uncommon in years past, especially if you were single. I'm not sure how common this still is, but I agree it seems that expectations for housing have risen.
In America, living with roommates has absolutely been a norm through at least one's mid 20s. The idea that everyone gets a clean, safe studio apartment within walking distance of all important and fun things has always been a luxury, not a guarantee. You're definitely right that people want more now.
Which is a good thing, we want to live in a society where people keep asking for things to be better. But it's also good to remember where we came from, and try to be humble.
Re: Ask HN: Is your country facing a housing crisis right now, in 2023?
#10It's interesting to me that the issue seems to be mostly in the anglosphere - moving to France I noticed folks are more willing to live in apartments and not pay 10-20 years salary for their first home (more like 3-5).