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

Post by kelseyfrog » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 3:29 AM UTC

HPsquared wrote: post #119

kelseyfrog wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you chart Case-Shiller housing price index vs median income over time[1] you can start to see that housing as a proportion of income has increased. Versus the 1960s and 70s, housing costs today are twice the proportion of income they used to be. In other words, all other things being equal, someone today is being asked to sacrifice twice as much with respect to housing. If the goal is to get young people into hous…

The sale price isn't the full story though, as interest rates were much higher when the prices were super low. The relevant thing is monthly cost (mortgage payment or rent) over hourly (post-tax) wage.

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 3:44 AM UTC

willcipriano wrote: post #30

epiccoleman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We were recently considering moving closer to "back home" from our metro area - the biggest problem is that there's just not much going on back there, and the schools are substantially worse. That said, a pretty nice and big house that we were looking at in our "home" area was actually something we could afford - the same house here in the city would probably cost close to double.

School quality is overhyped, what they are really measuring is student quality for the most part.

Post by ozr » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 6:59 AM UTC

hotpotamus wrote: post #80

ozr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A pathological sort of comparison is much more common now. They assume that what their parents have (with 20+ years of work), or what they see on social media, is what they should have too. That they don't is perceived as a great injustice. You can see someone that has what you want and either a) work towards it, or b) complain. There's always a mix of both, but b) is very loud right now.

Or perhaps they think they should have what their parents had 20 years ago when they were children and their parents were in their 20's?

Post by piva00 » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 11:23 AM UTC

nabilhat wrote: post #89

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…

25 years ago, I was spending just over 1/3 of my take home pay on rent. That used to be a normal thing that people could do, only 25 years ago. The exact same apartment is listed today for over four times what I was paying then. The same job I had then now pays 25% more. Rent for the same apartment is more than that job's entire gross pay.

Post by HDThoreaun » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 1:53 PM UTC

nostrebored wrote: post #36

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…

Housing has had a real appreciation at a rate that far outpaces real median wage increases. This is fueled partially by incentives to buy homes, but largely by speculative real estate purchases by older generations. People over the age of 35 own nearly 85% of real estate in the U.S., with people over the age of 55 owning nearly 45%. In both of these categories, ownership is extremely overrepresented and trending up.…