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Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

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Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#91

Post by seanmcdirmid »

spc476 wrote: post #90
atonse wrote: post #15

(Genuine questions, please don't misinterpret as negative judgement): How much of this is actually new as far as income vs costs, and how much of this is unwillingness to make sacrifices that older generations did? For example, in my 20s (20 years ago), it was very common for 20somethings to live in shared housing with 2-3 roommates. They would share kitchens, fridges, everything. And these houses weren't even that g…

It's the same as it ever was. I remember the same hand wringing about home ownership among Generation X in the mid-90s, and largely for the same reasons. This is nothing new.

It has been getting harder for each generation. So it is nothing new that it is harder for Generation N+1 than Generation N, but that doesn't make it not news.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#92

Post by xenonite »

The generation of my parents could indeed afford nice houses.

Seeing this, I understood it will be worth to study hard and learn a lot, then go for a typical job.

But the equation does not hold now.

What carrots will the next generation learn to follow? I am afraid it will rather be the stick.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#94

Post by fragmede »

yaomingite wrote: post #39
atonse wrote: post #15

(Genuine questions, please don't misinterpret as negative judgement): How much of this is actually new as far as income vs costs, and how much of this is unwillingness to make sacrifices that older generations did? For example, in my 20s (20 years ago), it was very common for 20somethings to live in shared housing with 2-3 roommates. They would share kitchens, fridges, everything. And these houses weren't even that g…

With apps it should be very easy to find a room to rent in a shared unit, but there is no good way to do that. I've tried, and the system for long term rentals isn't as polished or usable as something like AirBNB.

There are co-living companies out there. like you said, they aren't as polished as Airbnb due to the nature of the market, because building a site as good as Airbnb is expensive as hell.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#95

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gnicholas wrote: post #46
matrix87 wrote: post #28

Imagine being a young adult with parents in the Bay Area, and you didn't happen to major in tech or biotech or anything that pays well What should someone do in that case? Move to a cheaper area? It isn't all that obvious

I went to an alumni gathering in Palo Alto in 2007 and talked with a middle-aged dad about this. He was very clear-eyed: kids who grow up here do not have a right of return. The people who can pay for property here — largely due to jobs at fast-growing companies — will be the ones who live here in the future. There is some level of parental wealth that will allow children to live here, even in the absence of a job th…

> He was very clear-eyed: kids who grow up here do not have a right of return.

The USA doesn't have a residency system, so this is true throughout the country. Some form of rent control (inheritable) or a hukou system could change that, but I don't see it happening for awhile, and kids who didn't grow up "here" would complain that they weren't allowed to live in that place (either via a legal restriction or a system that raises the barrier of entry for new residents like rent control).

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#96

Post by hotpotamus »

wait_a_minute wrote: post #82
toomuchtodo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you bet on political will and a supportive electorate? Any other similar outcomes to the Czech Republic? Or are they an outlier perhaps unable to be reproduced? 40%-50% of global pregnancies are unintended annually. When contraceptives are readily available and women are empowered, the fertility rate falls. Is there enough fiat to change that? There is a light cone based on aggregate productive labor participat…

People have decent enough access to fiat already. Certainly better than what our parents and grandparents and so on went through. What’s absent is the foresight to think about the future with wisdom. People are in party mode for too long and think life is just about single life living or an endless consumption-based vacation type of experience. We require a return to maturity and responsibility and clear, focused tho…

I suspect wisdom is not having children when you can't afford to take care of them. Just ensuring that my own medical care is met is a challenge - to add a couple kids to that equation is a terrifying notion. School and housing certainly haven't gotten any cheaper either.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#97

Post by jevoten »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #83
jevoten wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any other similar outcomes to the Czech Republic? Or are they an outlier perhaps unable to be reproduced? "We shouldn't try because it won't work. We know it won't work because there are so few examples of it working." Most countries used to have above-replacement fertility. At least some countries that implement natalist policies recover fertility. While not exactly a reversal of low fertility, Israel is an exampl…

We disagree it’s a problem, or that a fix is needed.

Populations that don't think it's a problem will be replaced by those who do.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#99

Post by scruple »

mullingitover wrote: post #23
atonse wrote: post #15

(Genuine questions, please don't misinterpret as negative judgement): How much of this is actually new as far as income vs costs, and how much of this is unwillingness to make sacrifices that older generations did? For example, in my 20s (20 years ago), it was very common for 20somethings to live in shared housing with 2-3 roommates. They would share kitchens, fridges, everything. And these houses weren't even that g…

> Are the prospects actually there in smaller towns? They might be more with remote work now. The prospects in small towns are atrocious, that's why they're small towns. If you want to see what a post-apocalyptic world is like, just drive through a random small town in the midwest. There's a downright spooky vibe to them, they're sprinkled with abandoned and rotting buildings. The dream of remote work is largely dead…

> This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory is fading.

That's a quote from the first season of True Detective. It's stuck with me because it's almost exactly how I've always described the small midwest town that I grew up in.

I started working part-time remote around 2010, and full-time in 2016 until June of 2023. I stayed close to tech hubs because I never felt like it was a particularly safe arrangement.

Re: Why can't today's young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

#100

Post by jetbooster »

HPsquared wrote: post #21
atonse wrote: post #15

(Genuine questions, please don't misinterpret as negative judgement): How much of this is actually new as far as income vs costs, and how much of this is unwillingness to make sacrifices that older generations did? For example, in my 20s (20 years ago), it was very common for 20somethings to live in shared housing with 2-3 roommates. They would share kitchens, fridges, everything. And these houses weren't even that g…

On the last point, young people don't really start families any more. Or, it's on a significant decline.

Well without a stable home to do so in we aren't comfortable trying to start a family. We (me and my partner) are genuinely trying to follow the same playbook my parents, grandparents and great grandparents did, but even with a household salary about 3x median we're not yet able, at 30 years old.

We're not "not starting families", like its a choice. It's not economically feasible.

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