61–70 of 213 posts
- Millennials with children
- Millennials living in rural areas vs those in the cities
- Millennials with college educations
- Nonwhite Millennials
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that 78 hours of minimum wage work could pay the rent in 1980, compared to 109 hours in 2010 [1], along with the other associated cost-of-living increases over the last three decades that have come without comparable increases in wages. I doubt that most people who felt financially secure and could afford a new car wouldn't want to own a new car. Nobody really enjoys drivin…
I wish I could afford my own transport, but my low paying tech job (I'm a 4 year self taught junior developer at a small web development company) can barely pay my rent, let alone afford the ridiculous amounts of money I would have to pay for car insurance (I think I was quoted around £2,100), my driving lessons and a car mean that, for the next few years at least, it won't be possible.
Which is a shame, considering that I have to pay 1/6 of my monthly wages in monthly bus tickets anyway.
I pay $150 month for my family talk, text, and data plan, plus another $50 for high speed internet into my house. The payment on my car is $207 a month (own, not lease).
I probably spend another $2k-$4k a year on other piece of technology, while doing the bare minimum to keep my car running.
And I live in the suburbs in the midwest. I bet HNers in cities have a much stronger bias towards personal technology than personal transportation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> younger generations don't see a house or a car as a symbol of status or wealth, merely as something to be used, as a necessity And then there are fixies - impractical bikes that cost 700 euro simply because they are cool. Whereas you can get a practical bike for less than 200 euro. Maybe it is that we are cheap, so those things that cost beyond a certain threshold (like cars and housing) just need to work, whereas…
> Bikes Fixies aren't really popular beyond the hipster demographic; while there are a lot of bikes that cost >$500 dollars, they're generally bought by serious bikers for whom the value proposition is more than worth it. > iPhone The only thing exorbitant to me about the iPhone is the data plan, because of how often I'm in the range of WiFi. I'd argue having a personal GPS, email client, information lookup, etc. etc…
Most of the sunglass brands that people know, and the stores they buy them from, are owned by a single company:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870451890457536...
I'm fairly sure the reason 21-30 year olds aren't buying houses and cars in droves isn't because they are "quirky eco-conscious individuals" that your marketing "isn't speaking to"... I'm pretty sure its mostly because: 1: Many of them don't have jobs (or have low-paying jobs) because of the economy. 2: Many of them watched their parents drown in debt from houses and cars they bought but couldn't really afford 3: Stu…
#3 is underappreciated. We have a generation that's going to be slaving away for years to pay off large student loan debts that are at high interest rates compared to a mortgage. Naturally they're going to be averse to wasting money on an overpriced car when they could be paying a student loan instead, which has a guaranteed rate of return of 5-10% (depending on the terms of the loan), tax-free.
Then factor in that for many folks, they spent that money on that education and graduated to find out the only place that would/could hire them was the local coffee shop for 20 hours a week, and there is no amount of marketing in the world that is going to convince that person to buy a $30,000 car.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The only real threat from lasting attitude change, is that perhaps millenials will vote for more transit projects and subsidies over more car/road projects and subsidies and thus make it more feasible in more areas to not own cars. We can only hope.
The trend for mass transit is to remove options from travelers, thus making itself less useful to us. As such, it's hardly worth funding. [1] That's not to say that it must be inherently so. Just that, so long as these projects are typical government projects that are expected to go over-budget and over-deadline with no repercussions, they will be used as a tool for political favors and cronyism, at our expense. [1]…
In the age of smart phones, the car has ceased being a vital communication tool for young people. There's no need to drive to the mall to see if Paul is there hanging out. A text will let me know that he's at Joel's party instead. Another text and Steve will swing by in his car. The housing situation is another matter. There's a glut. Credit is tight. Jobs are scarce. And housing prices are going down. Millenials are…
You're right about smart phones, but I'm not so sure about housing. Credit is ridiculously cheap, and housing everywhere is on sale. If you have a job, why wouldn't you buy as much house as you can afford?
I rent at present, it's not ideal, but it means that I'm not tied to a certain geographic region - if I need to move, it's a hassle, but I don't have a house on a 25-year mortgage that I'm stuck trying to sell in a terrible market, I can just say to the landlord - right, I'm offski, here's the keys, bye.
In 1985 the average age of a car on the road was about 6 years. In 2012, the average age is over 11 years. This has a number of obvious implications on new-car purchasing behavior of young people: 1. It's much easier to buy a used car now since they have more years of service in them. 2. Getting a hand-me-down from a relative is possible. 3. Culturally, getting a new car is much more rare so there is less pressure to…
I would like to explain to the author, very slowly and carefully, that something happened in 2008 which made banks a bit more wary of lending to people they would call "subprime." I tried to get a mortgage this spring and failed, even with a good income and 35% down payment.