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Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

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Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing is significantly more affordable outside inner city suburbs. And of course everyone wants to live close to their social circle. I want to live in a mansion by the beach. But sometimes in life you have to make compromises especially when you're young and that includes working your way up the property ladder.

Comparing living near jobs and quality schools to living by a mansion on the beach is quite unfair - people don't solely desire the luxury of cities, they desire the opportunity for themselves and their families. "Working your way up the property ladder"? The median sale price for a house in Westchester County, NY is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. With insurance and property taxes and the current interest…

They get in for a small %. Hold for a few years than sell for 1,000,000.

They get a loan from parents

They rent out their basement

They partner up.

They buy the lower priced 600,000 home and make repairs themselves.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cities have jobs. Cities have opportunity. Cities have diversity. Why should we expect, encourage, or even desire that young people sacrifice economic and social opportunity and mobility? Why is the response to high housing cost in cities lecturing "current generations" about their choices? There are glaringly obvious problems in many of our cities that make housing so expensive. Is it so outrageous to try to solve t…

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Diversity means you are allowed to peacefully exist without someone wanting you dead for your identity.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#93

One of the homeless studies in San Francisco several years ago found that of first year unhoused people , 20% of them were people that simply broke up with a partner they were living with. The bigger realization was thinking about the not depicted complement of that graph: these were the proverbial strong ones that actually left I could see that reality spreading across the country.

Or got kicked out for drug/drinking abuse.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#94
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what wealth are cities draining from rural America? Is it possible there's a simpler explanation? That the economy of the twenty-first century is dominated by information and technology, and that these demands are better matched to the agglomeration affects of true urban density, where the best and brightest can learn from each other?

> Exactly what wealth are cities draining from rural America? Obviously it's not the cities themselves draining the wealth, but rather a spiral of excess capital accumulation. It just so happens that many of the people perpetuating this cycle live in cities. Generally, increasing one's capital is done by taking money that was being funneled one place, and funneling it to yourself instead. For example, CVS can open a…

Density increases exchange of ideas and promoted specialisation, which increases productivity. This has been true throughout history and may as well be the zeroth law of economics.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#95

> Housing Costs Are So High They left out the "in the trendy, inner city areas we want to live in" part. Because whilst housing prices are rising in cities we are also seeing major declines in populations for smaller towns. And whilst our parents were willing to sacrifice and embrace these towns which in turn became gentrified it doesn't seem current generations feel the same way.

If your parents live in the city then it often makes sense to pay the high cost of living in exchange for the family support, free child care, etc.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it is it doesn't invalidate the argument. Outside my "city" you can get housing for much much cheaper and have the same commute as if you lived in the city itself. But at some point you're going to have to give up this notion that population density can be made infinite. At some point you can't simply cram more "work" into a city.

Dude, when NYC has half the density of Paris, there is so much more density to be added to cities in the US. And this isn't building skyscrapers all around. It is building those 4/5/6 levels apartment buildings all over the place, most with some businesses on ground level. There are plenty of opportunities to make these cities cheaper and more livable. What we lack here in the US is politicians who aren't sellouts.

I'm curious if those population density stats account for land used for parks. NYC has 4x the park land area of Paris (12,000 ha. to 3,000).

In NYC parks are 14% of the city's land area, so it can't account for the whole discrepancy, but it's something!

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#97
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exactly what wealth are cities draining from rural America? Obviously it's not the cities themselves draining the wealth, but rather a spiral of excess capital accumulation. It just so happens that many of the people perpetuating this cycle live in cities. Generally, increasing one's capital is done by taking money that was being funneled one place, and funneling it to yourself instead. For example, CVS can open a…

Density increases exchange of ideas and promoted specialisation, which increases productivity. This has been true throughout history and may as well be the zeroth law of economics.

The actual 0th law of economics is the law of decreasing marginal utility. You can't expect specialization and productivity to increase indefinitely as density increases. Clearly, we're at an inflection point. How can people specialize and be productive if they can't even afford a place to live?

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#98
post #93

One of the homeless studies in San Francisco several years ago found that of first year unhoused people , 20% of them were people that simply broke up with a partner they were living with. The bigger realization was thinking about the not depicted complement of that graph: these were the proverbial strong ones that actually left I could see that reality spreading across the country.

Or got kicked out for drug/drinking abuse.

there’s 80% other people to make assumptions about, really no need to discredit this subset

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#99
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Density increases exchange of ideas and promoted specialisation, which increases productivity. This has been true throughout history and may as well be the zeroth law of economics.

The actual 0th law of economics is the law of decreasing marginal utility. You can't expect specialization and productivity to increase indefinitely as density increases. Clearly, we're at an inflection point. How can people specialize and be productive if they can't even afford a place to live?

The actual zeroth law would be a corollary of the second law of thermodynamics: scarcity.

> Clearly, we're at an inflection point

This has been claimed repeatedly throughout history. Without knowledge of the future, it is impossible to know whether we are at an inflection local or global. With resepct to any American city, we know we are far from the inflection point because we have counterexamples abroad.

Re: Housing costs are so high that divorced couples are still living together

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or any big city in Europe? Sometimes I wonder if Americans travel out of the US at all.

> Or any big city in Europe? Many big cities in Europe are having housing crises of their own - Lisbon, Amsterdam, London etc. Just today, there was this thread bemoaning the housing situation in Netherlands - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38444948 > Sometimes I wonder if Americans travel out of the US at all. Sometimes I wonder if people know real facts about Europe or just have some rosy imagination or gener…

And they're still better than most cities in the US in terms of housing, density, and infrastructure.

With its half-million population, Lisbon has better public transportation than my lovely Philadelphia, with its joke subway with two lines. I'd bet Lisbon's trolleys have better coverage than SEPTA has for the whole city in PHL. And, mind you, Lisbon is among the poorest capitals in the European Union.

I could easily live in Lisbon right now if it wasn't for the low EU salaries (and my wife really loving being in the US). My goal is still to claim my citizenship and retire there eventually or in Porto.

And I'm not even considering the really good infrastructure places, like Madrid, with its circular subways (two lines). The wealthiest country in the world must do better.

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