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The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

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Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#71

Post by akreal »

Slartie wrote: post #68
cen4 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike many other sectors where prices drop thanks to constant advances in Tech, what is weird is how Tech hasn't made a dent in Housing. Health I can understand cause it takes a long time to produce a Doc, and there is a high demand and low supply dynamic. But we can easily build housing cheap. Even if the real estate/investment lobby is busy buying up all the "prime" land, its not like the US is a small country to…

> Even if the real estate/investment lobby is busy buying up all the "prime" land, its not like the US is a small country to work around them somewhere. Even the US being a big country doesn't help much. The value of land for the purpose of living on it is largely defined by the infrastructure around a particular piece of land: are there schools, shops, doctors, ... nearby, or do you have to drive through an empty de…

The infrastructure problem should also have a relatively cheap technical solution. I assume the major bottleneck is bureaucracy, which largely has no technical workarounds so far.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#72

Post by usrusr »

intexpress wrote: post #4
mikestew wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA, emphasis mine: “The average age of homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 in 2023 …”

The article says: “That’s a historic high, up from an average age in the low-to-mid 40s in the early 2010s.”

So it looks as if the cohort buying has stayed roughly the same over the years. The average buyer was born in 1970. Bad enough. But when we consider the bell curve, to compensate for the older tail getting decimated by age it must have gotten even worse for younger cohorts than what "the average rises by one year per year" suggests at first glance.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#73

Post by jeanlucas »

mikhailfranco wrote: post #67
surfpel wrote: post #7

Well that’s what happens when you frame housing as an investment. If it didn’t outpace the market and the consumer inflation rate, it wouldn’t be a good investment. So by definition it must become unaffordable for the masses. No great way out of this mess.

There are a few things that could be done to remove the artificial advantage of (primary) residential property: - remove the exemption (or reduction) for Capital Gains Tax - remove Income Tax relief for mortgage interest - remove any exemption (or reduction) for Inheritance Tax Not all these advantages exist in all jurisdictions. Then there are other changes that could mitigate distortions, inequality and volatility:…

I would add one more item:

- enforce security and building standards to old buildings, this pushing new ones to be built

Japan has this and it is used to enforce new civil engineering tech for earthquake/tsunami/disaster prevention, but it also makes old not up to standard buildings becomes less valuable

I think our homes are not as technological as they should be because we see them as investments to be preserved

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#74

Post by nickd2001 »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #45
portaouflop wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what boomers actually believe in.

It's gonna be 16 years in February that I've been a financial coach and I've helped literally hundreds of people at all income levels and backgrounds achieve their financial goals. What I said is the truth and my clients can attest to that.

I believe you :) Simply refusing to play "keep up with the Joneses", seems to me can make the difference between being able to buy a home or not. Albeit it can take some inner confidence. I can't remember anyone actually asking me "why do you drive such a s*** car?", but they probably think it. ;) The key thing is not to care. Caveats - (1) this doesn't solve the problem if due to friends and family network you feel a need to live somewhere extortionate e:g London, NY, SF etc (although OTOH all of those have cheaper places 2 hr train ride away) (2) In USA, people can get randomly saddled with huge healthcare bills.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#75

Post by toastal »

ilikerashers wrote: post #69
whatever1 wrote: post #6

This is not a U.S only or even a western issue. UK, EU, China, India etc all suffer from crazy real estate prices. I think the whole world is due for a big societal revamp. The old generation has concentrated too much asset wealth for the productive generation to stay productive.

We need very big changes to capitalism at its core. There are warning signs flashing across all economies without any coherent solutions.

Wouldn’t you just change your economic system if you need to change the core for its fundamental flaws playing out as expected?

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#77

Post by Yizahi »

cen4 wrote: post #61
surfpel wrote: post #7

Well that’s what happens when you frame housing as an investment. If it didn’t outpace the market and the consumer inflation rate, it wouldn’t be a good investment. So by definition it must become unaffordable for the masses. No great way out of this mess.

Unlike many other sectors where prices drop thanks to constant advances in Tech, what is weird is how Tech hasn't made a dent in Housing. Health I can understand cause it takes a long time to produce a Doc, and there is a high demand and low supply dynamic. But we can easily build housing cheap. Even if the real estate/investment lobby is busy buying up all the "prime" land, its not like the US is a small country to…

People can't live inside Kubernetes pod, unfortunately :) . The problem is not technical, it's regulation in three ways - 1) regulations restricting building new housing altogether (USA and Commonwealth issues especially, due to obsession with detached homes and zoning). 2) increasingly long times to obtain all permits (Australia issue and likely many others), 3) economic downturn which is also a type of regulation.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#78

Post by spicyusername »

cen4 wrote: post #61
surfpel wrote: post #7

Well that’s what happens when you frame housing as an investment. If it didn’t outpace the market and the consumer inflation rate, it wouldn’t be a good investment. So by definition it must become unaffordable for the masses. No great way out of this mess.

Unlike many other sectors where prices drop thanks to constant advances in Tech, what is weird is how Tech hasn't made a dent in Housing. Health I can understand cause it takes a long time to produce a Doc, and there is a high demand and low supply dynamic. But we can easily build housing cheap. Even if the real estate/investment lobby is busy buying up all the "prime" land, its not like the US is a small country to…

Supply and demand at work.

Lowering costs to build should, in theory, increase supply.

High demand should, in theory, increase supply.

But other things influence the balance, regulations, interest rates, etc, that are either keeping supply low or demand high, inflating prices.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#79

Post by monkeyfun »

cen4 wrote: post #61
surfpel wrote: post #7

Well that’s what happens when you frame housing as an investment. If it didn’t outpace the market and the consumer inflation rate, it wouldn’t be a good investment. So by definition it must become unaffordable for the masses. No great way out of this mess.

Unlike many other sectors where prices drop thanks to constant advances in Tech, what is weird is how Tech hasn't made a dent in Housing. Health I can understand cause it takes a long time to produce a Doc, and there is a high demand and low supply dynamic. But we can easily build housing cheap. Even if the real estate/investment lobby is busy buying up all the "prime" land, its not like the US is a small country to…

In fact, it's actively made housing prices worse -- consider recent price-fixing scandals for one example.

Re: The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

#80

Post by AnimalMuppet »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #43
torginus wrote: post #34

Honestly I thought the US is one of the easiest places in the developed world to become a homeowner (even if you have average income), provided you're willing to not live in one of the super expensive places. The US is relatively sparsely populated, while typical wooden homes take less labor and material to build.

It is. The "56" in the headline is skewed because of repeat buyers. Average age of first time buyers is 38, and that's skewed because of inflation/high interest rates of the last four years. It had been very steady around 30 for the last 50 years. Also, the 30 year fixed mortgage which is not as common abroad helps, but moreso when rates are low.

Well, the shift from 30 to 38 for first-time buyers is still a major change, isn't it?
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