The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents • Hacker News Board

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#351

Post by Retric » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #335

Retric wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That analysis completely fails after WWI. The actual cause of the post war boom was a massive increase in agricultural efficiency. This freed up a large chunk of household budgets to be spent of consumer goods which kicked off a long cycle of economic growth.

Timeline and geography doesn't work out for your hypothesis. The Green Revolution began in earnest in the late 50s; at that point, the post-war expansion in the U.S. was alread 10-15 years old and slowing down. It also started in developing nations like Mexico, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines - there's perhaps some influence through international trade, but if that's the cause you'd expect Mexico and India to…

The US also saw a short term boom after WWI just look at the 20’s. That doesn’t explain why the boom continued for so long after WWII. Also, the green revolution was more a global phenomenon, the US saw significant agricultural productivity growth in the 1940’s from increased mechanization and fertilizer usage.

For comparison I would suggest you look at how common and large US recessions where from 1800-1900. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_Unit...

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#352

Post by novok » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #246

> Housing is more expensive for them than prior generations I harp on this constantly. But housing is not more expensive in the majority of American metros. Adjusted for inflation the median cost per square foot of new housing is almost exactly the same as it was in 1990. (This doesn't even take into account that mortgage rates are drastically lower since then.) We get skewed on this for two reasons. One is because h…

America & Japan are lucky that at least houses are somewhat affordable.

Canadians & many europeans on the other hand...

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#353

Post by Sodman » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

PaulStatezny wrote: post #219

wernercd wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with "life" is all the... nickle and dimes... $10 for Nextflix, $90 for Amazon, etc. On top of Gas, Electric, Phone, Internet, Car, Insurance, Gas, etc. It's easy to watch the money flow in... and right back out.

But the thing is, nobody said you have to pay for Netflix or Amazon. Each person is responsible for making good choices with his or her money. Lack of financial discipline is not society's fault. Yes, managing finances takes some level of skill when there are many different expenses in a modern personal budget. But there are ways to live frugally and get ahead. They just aren't flashy or fun. On two very small income…

Outside of the obvious "don't buy a gas guzzler" tropes, most of the best ways to save money will end up costing you time. Whether it's living with a longer commute or working more hours, there is a point at which people are just happier living their lives than wasting years in their prime scrounging and being miserable to afford a downpayment on a house in worse condition than what they could afford to rent. Big budget decisions like vacations and cars will obviously factor into this in a big way, but nobody's financial situation is changing massively over a Netflix subscription.

Following your own logic, it's almost like saying how dare you say you had _any_ budget for eating out? Why not just save even more money?

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#354

Post by saagarjha » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #348

saagarjha wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other places have managed to become entirely COVID-free due to properly following lockdown policies. The US is still gaining thousands of cases a day–the only reason this isn’t more is that most people are staying inside. The places you mentioned with “new outbreaks” have a handful of new cases, and yet are taking it significantly more seriously than the United States.

Europe is having a handful of new cases? No, that isn’t true. Spain is reporting more than 10,000 new cases a day.

I did not specifically mention Spain, I was thinking of the other things on your list that are actually countries–as far as I am aware, cases in Australia are still going down, in China they are a negligible number, in New Zealand they had a couple dozen that they immediately locked down over and will likely stop the spread of. But since you brought it up, let's look at Spain–why does it have so many new cases every day? Because they aren't following the policies!

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#355

Post by nubbins » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #328

tidepod12 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One is because homes today are substantially larger and have more amenities than they did in previous generations. I have noticed that most of my fellow millennials seem to have completely forgotten the concept of "starter home" and assume that as soon as you turn 25 you should be entitled to a 4 bedroom house with a pool, huge yard, wonderful neighborhood, three-car garage, etc. Among my friends that have bought ho…

Have you ever actually look for small living spaces in the US? I would be perfectly fine with a 450sf apartment in northern VA, but their almost impossible to find in desirable locations. A large reason for this is the actual cost to construct a building doesn’t increase linearly with apartment square footage. Simply having a smaller apartment doesn’t reduce the amount of space needed for hallways, elevators, or park…

Maybe people in middle America already have enough space to not feel pinched so that extra space is viewed as an amenity not a huge factor that they demand? In my experience in denser high COL areas space is priced basically linearly on the margin. In NYC going from 1 br to 2 br can significantly affect your quality of life so people are willing to pay an extra $1000.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#356

Post by throwaway0a5e » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #337

Shivetya wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it isn't just homes. there is no starter car, no starter tv, no started anything. I regularly work with tech support persons who are spending more than I am on a wide range of goods and services. It is mind boggling to me. Yes some have trade offs but that seems to be either they are house poor or car poor but mostly the latter. What catches them as with those who do have the money is all those monthly bills can add…

I don't think anyone that says it intends it this way, but this is how I read 'generation rent'. Not 'forced into renting instead of buying property' but 'subscription over ownership for everything'. No money left, lots of stuff, as little of it as possible actually bought and owned. Lease car, rented flat, rented furniture, takeaways and meal box kits, craft beer / organic veg boxes, etc. In many cases it's a revers…

And the question is whether it's better to:

Incur cost being an outlier and then hope it all comes crashing down and you're left standing. I.e. do everything right and be financially prudent.

Or:

Just do what everybody else is doing and hope that you'll get bailed out eventually at the expense of the group that chose the other option.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#357

Post by dang » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

yelloweyes wrote: post #325

HorizonXP wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I no longer feel like this about my parents now that I live independently and have my own child. They’re wonderful grandparents. But yeah, when I was living with them in my 20s for my Masters? I felt just like you did.

yeah so what, douche?

We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. You can't post like this here.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#358

Post by dionidium » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

tidepod12 wrote: post #284

dcolkitt wrote: post #246

> Housing is more expensive for them than prior generations I harp on this constantly. But housing is not more expensive in the majority of American metros. Adjusted for inflation the median cost per square foot of new housing is almost exactly the same as it was in 1990. (This doesn't even take into account that mortgage rates are drastically lower since then.) We get skewed on this for two reasons. One is because h…

>One is because homes today are substantially larger and have more amenities than they did in previous generations. I have noticed that most of my fellow millennials seem to have completely forgotten the concept of "starter home" and assume that as soon as you turn 25 you should be entitled to a 4 bedroom house with a pool, huge yard, wonderful neighborhood, three-car garage, etc. Among my friends that have bought ho…

> I contend that it's not even just this, but also that within metros millenials are highly skewed to a handful of elite neighborhoods.

In St. Louis there's a small but frothy back-to-the-city movement that's driving prices up to new highs in a handful of trendy neighborhoods. And it's all anybody can talk about. It's a kind of synecdoche for "the housing market" to reference these tiny neighborhoods while using cargo-cult language about "gentrification" that people learned on twitter.

Make no mistake: prices are way up in those neighborhoods. But they're walking distance to far more affordable housing. It's really bizarre.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#359

Post by tidepod12 » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

dcdevthrowaway wrote: post #340

tidepod12 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One is because homes today are substantially larger and have more amenities than they did in previous generations. I have noticed that most of my fellow millennials seem to have completely forgotten the concept of "starter home" and assume that as soon as you turn 25 you should be entitled to a 4 bedroom house with a pool, huge yard, wonderful neighborhood, three-car garage, etc. Among my friends that have bought ho…

> Among my friends that have bought houses, many of them have gone into significant debt just to buy a 3-4 bedroom house, even though they have no kids and only use one of the bedrooms, because they think that at some point in their life they will put them to use. Are you sure your friends aren't just being rational? I thought about the rent vs buy thing pretty constantly in my 20s and always came down on the rent si…

Sure. If you're being rational, it would possibly make sense to buy a 2 bedroom house or even a 3 bedroom if you think you might need an extra room for a kid plus a home office.

But it's not as rational to insist that you need 4 bedroom house with a three car garage inside a top school district when you aren't even married/pregnant yet. Yes, life can change fast, but paying a premium mortgage for a top school district that you won't even use for 6 years minimum (if you suddenly got pregnant today) and an extra bedroom that is going to go unused for at least several years (second pregnancy, perhaps)? I can't see how that's rational.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#360

Post by MisterTea » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #246

> Housing is more expensive for them than prior generations I harp on this constantly. But housing is not more expensive in the majority of American metros. Adjusted for inflation the median cost per square foot of new housing is almost exactly the same as it was in 1990. (This doesn't even take into account that mortgage rates are drastically lower since then.) We get skewed on this for two reasons. One is because h…

> But housing is not more expensive in the majority American metros

My parents bought their NYC home in 1976 for $76,000. Adjusted for inflation brings that to around $350,000 in 2020 dollars. The house is currently valued at $800,000.