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Generational Luck in the Housing Market

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Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#41
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why blame the Fed? The low interest rates that made it easy to buy homes (driving up the price) also should have made it cheap to build homes which would have driven down the price. It was local regulations that prevented building homes.

Among other things, I think interest only mortgages are a completely degenerate financial product that shouldn't exist, the only purpose is so someone can leverage themselves to the tits on housing

> interest only mortgages are a completely degenerate financial product that shouldn't exist

Like, at all? Or for individuals? Maybe only for poor individuals?

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#42

Calling it luck makes it sound like there are uncontrollable forces at work. However, these consequences are entirely downstream of artificial, man-made policies.

And for most of us, we had no say in those policies. Particularly when they were the consequence of previous generation.

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was born in that time period. I would agree that in general people my age seem to be in a lot of trouble (I don't know about worst though, Gen-Z seems to be struggling a lot right now, and for them there's plenty of time for more fun economic struggles to happen). I'm also not where I should be financially despite the lucrative field, compared to others in my field, due to several setbacks (and also in part because…

If you bought a house in 2018, you don't get to complain.

[deleted]

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#44

The FED implicitly transferred trillions from poorer renters and young people to wealthy older homeowners.

Why blame the Fed? The low interest rates that made it easy to buy homes (driving up the price) also should have made it cheap to build homes which would have driven down the price. It was local regulations that prevented building homes.

> It was local regulations that prevented building homes.

Wealthy old homeowners tend to control those.

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#45

Where I live, many of the houses were built by the same builder or at least using the same basic plan (I've even seen houses built 20 years later than mine with the same basic layout). My wife and I purchased in 2015. A short bit after, there was some regret as prices were still falling. I recently went to pick up my child at a classmate's house. They just purchased last year. I walked in and, sure enough, roughly th…

> Not sure how my kids are ever going to own a house in the US (EDIT: Inverse of) Median income to the average house price, across America, is at its highest point since the 80s (when we started measuring) [1]. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=coAW

Shouldn’t that be compared to the median house price instead of the average?

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was born in that time period. I would agree that in general people my age seem to be in a lot of trouble (I don't know about worst though, Gen-Z seems to be struggling a lot right now, and for them there's plenty of time for more fun economic struggles to happen). I'm also not where I should be financially despite the lucrative field, compared to others in my field, due to several setbacks (and also in part because…

If you bought a house in 2018, you don't get to complain.

I'm not complaining, I'm doing alright, I'm just agreeing as a general generation thing.

Keep in mind though that I didn't buy a house until my late 30s. My parents, in contrast, bought their first house in their early 20s. Also they had me in their early 20s, and my brother in their late 20s. I'm in my 40s and I still haven't had children yet (might not ever at this rate).

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alpha will be fine--they'll benefit from boomers unwinding their real estate to pay for senior care. Huh? I assume a few private equity executives who own vast, national senior care businesses will benefit the most from the passing of the Boomers, followed by Millennial children of Boomers who die with assets (and despite Boomers being the wealthiest generation ever, there's plenty of inequality there as well) and…

> assume a few private equity executives who own vast, national senior care businesses will benefit the most from the passing of the Boomers Sure. But the Boomers will pay them by selling their homes.

And who do you imagine will buy these homes? Alphas struggling to save a down payment, or investment firms looking for more real estate to add to their portfolios?

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The year you are born is absolutely an uncontrollable force

Buddhists at least believe this to be controllable. It's the ultimate victim blaming religion - you're poor because you were a bad person in a previous life. Very awkward to jokingly say "I wish I were a puppy" when I play with my dog and to see the look of abject horror on my Buddhist partners face. I'm told even wishing for something like that significantly increases my chances of becoming a dog in the next life -…

> It's the ultimate victim blaming religion - you're poor because you were a bad person in a previous life.

You don't think Calvinism is worse? There, you're poor as an indicator that you're destined to go to Hell.

Re: Generational Luck in the Housing Market

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The year you are born is absolutely an uncontrollable force

Buddhists at least believe this to be controllable. It's the ultimate victim blaming religion - you're poor because you were a bad person in a previous life. Very awkward to jokingly say "I wish I were a puppy" when I play with my dog and to see the look of abject horror on my Buddhist partners face. I'm told even wishing for something like that significantly increases my chances of becoming a dog in the next life -…

Huh, have you asked them if saying "I wish I was an enlightened super-being" carries similar fate-affixing virtues? Because if so it seems like a neat short circuit
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