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Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

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Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#81

Post by xanderstrike »

an_account wrote: post #60
taurath wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how politicians don't consider that a crisis. Too many fat happy landlords I suppose.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

> But, instead, young people want urban living

I think most young people are trying to go where the jobs are more than anything.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#82

Post by Clubber »

white-flame wrote: post #21
dikdik wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sort of agree with you, but I don't think you completely understand the problem. Yes, it doesn't really "matter" if people are living with their parents or on their own. The problem is what this shift signals. People are not much different than they were 50 years ago. If it took just as much resources to live on your own 50 years ago as today, there would "not be the same urgency to leave home." Of course no one wa…

Or is this a signal that the broad and rapid American growth in the middle of the 20th century was anomalous, not a baseline? It might not be a "dearth of resources" but a return to the true long-term norm.

The broad, rapid American growth has a lot to do with the fact that Europe and the Far East was in complete ruins after WWII and the US was in the immediate position to rebuild Europe.

Remember, right before the mid century prosperity, we were in a massive depression caused by the "Roaring 20s" which was fueled by another smoldering Europe.

The time period before WWI; the late 1800s and early 1900s were pretty bleak. Before that, the North was fairly prosperous but the South was under reconstruction, so that region was pretty bleak as well.

Of course, there is plenty of wealth to go around today, it's just concentrated due to a war on the middle class by industry, aided by goverment, dating back to at least Reagan.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#83

Post by ctchocula »

ryandrake wrote: post #72
ap22213 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was surprising: "Among Gen Xers who have exceeded their parents’ income, those with college degrees are less likely to surpass their parents’ wealth, mostly due to student loan debt."

Gen X here, just turned 40. If you compare how I'm doing with how my parents (who were solidly middle class) were doing, it's not even close. At 40, they had multiple homes, were secure in their savings and retirement through generous pensions, and practically debt free. This was on school teachers' salaries! Me? Student loan debt set me back years, crippling housing costs, and a crappy 401(k) that is probably worth…

If you put your money into an S&P 500 index fund in 2006 and reinvested dividends every distribution, you would have 6.89% annual return even taking into account recent recessions. In other words, if you had $10,000 in your 401(k) in 2006 and stopped adding any payroll to it, it would be worth over $19,000 now. If your 401(k) isn't in an index fund, it might be worth switching it into one rather than keeping it in a managed fund that charges higher expense ratios, but has worse returns.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#84

Post by WalterBright »

parennoob wrote: post #35
hkmurakami wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that in (at least some regions of) Spain, it's perfectly common and acceptable to continue living with their parents well into adulthood. I remember reading that José María Olazábal (one of the best professional golfers in the 90's, with millions of dollars in earnings) was still living with his parents into his early 40's (though to be fair, he was traveling for half the year on tour). I often think that…

In India this is pretty common as well. It makes meals etc. much easier, provides instant babysitters (the grandparents), and so makes it more flexible for a husband/wife pair to work and still have some free time in the evening. Privacy of course suffers, but then again I with multiple kids like a lot of US households have, there isn't that much privacy anyway. -------------------------------------------------------…

> Privacy of course suffers

Sure, but I'd rather be in a house with extended family than with roommates.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#86

Post by Trundle »

an_account wrote: post #60
taurath wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how politicians don't consider that a crisis. Too many fat happy landlords I suppose.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

Artificially lowered apartment rent seems obviously flawed but how about just not artificially lowering supply? Surely these high prices should have a lot of developers chomping at the bit to turn low density accommodation in to high density accommodation.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#87

Post by Trundle »

an_account wrote: post #60
taurath wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how politicians don't consider that a crisis. Too many fat happy landlords I suppose.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

Artificially lowered apartment rent seems obviously flawed but how about just not artificially lowering supply? Surely these high prices should have a lot of developers chomping at the bit to turn low density accommodation in to high density accommodation.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#88

Post by PebblesHD »

an_account wrote: post #60
taurath wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how politicians don't consider that a crisis. Too many fat happy landlords I suppose.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

Indeed, and I feel like not living near a city is the only realistic option. My hope is the eventual completion of the western metro line to Windsor might allow my commute to drop below an hour each way. At the moment the M2 motorway costs me about 15 hours of my life every week, which I'd really love to spend sleeping in when I'm exhausted, or writing, or playing with some new code, or really anything that doesn't involve sitting on a bus. Sadly even out of the city it's almost unaffordable, which is a shame.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#89

Post by PebblesHD »

forthefuture wrote: post #62
girvo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It disproportionately affects young people, and they don't really care about young people. So I'm not surprised.

It's more that it only affects poor people, regardless of age, and they really don't care about poor people. Young rich people are doing just fine.

I'd certainly like to believe I'm above the 50th percentile of incomes for my age, and I'm struggling to bring the costs of living to under 75-80% of my take home income. Given many young people aren't as fortunate as even I am I feel like there's a very large portion of the coming generation for whom owning a home will never be a reality.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#90

Post by PebblesHD »

Bombthecat wrote: post #66
PebblesHD wrote: post #49

Not sure if Australia's current housing situation is analogous to America's one, but one of the primary motivators on our side of the pond is financial. Rents within 60km/35mi of the main Sydney CBD have crossed well over 50% of the average persons wage, at around $700/week. I currently live 45km from Sydney and pay $800/wk for a detached house primarily because I don't want to live in a 1 bedroom box in the city. Un…

My former boss told me three or four years ago that rent and electrical bills will make 75% of your income. Like back in the industrial Revolution. Sadly I think he is right.

Between rent, bills, transport, and food I'm hovering around 75-80% - id say your former boss was rather on the money there...
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