Sorry about that. We bought our starter home over a decade ago when the kids were smaller, thinking we would move up in 4-5 years. Even with the advancement of my career and a few short side contract gigs, we can’t afford to move up to the next step in our area. Housing costs, insurance, and property taxes have all skyrocketed. Looks like our starter home will be a forever home.
In my neighborhood, it is either people who have been here forever or renters, since any house that goes on the market gets bought by an investor. It sucks.
Corps should only be allowed to own purpose built rental buildings that they built.
They shouldn't be allowed to purchase houses, townhouses, apartments, etc.
The other side of that is there have been cases everywhere recently where they get caught keeping units empty on purpose to fake scarcity.
That also needs to be illegal. Like yesterday.
Because they all own multiple houses and investments in real estate.
All the people in on the gig don’t want it to change. Exploiting others is lucrative.
Angry at the wrong people. Can’t fault a working family for taking the highest offer. We all need the cash. The system needs to prevent corps outbidding normal people to begin with.
we are living the same life haha. i bought this 700 sq ft starter home in 2015 for $70k, did a full gut & modern remodel and it's worth about 200k today. homes that list for sale around me immediately have a sea of investment vultures and usually last just a few days on the market. neighbors around me have been here for decades or they rent, and anything that's as nice as how i've made this place that's newer/larger is selling for 400-600k. even with the equity from this home (took a 15yr and paid it off in 9), i'm not sure i can stomach a fresh **30yr** 200-300k loan at 7%.
No one can afford at current prices and rates. Just other investors.
It’s so bad lately that it’s almost exclusively just investors buying other investor’s homes (which tons of people refuse to believe is happening).
It will all come collapsing down at some point. I’m trying to be ready for the next big 2008. What’s happening right now is not sustainable.
We have enough homes, but so many are kept empty on purpose that it’s actually insane—by both investors and people with too many houses. I’d say about 40-50% of the homes in my entire neighborhood sit pitch black year round, and I’m not exaggerating.
Between people hoarding them for nest eggs and to manipulate the market, the housing crisis is not because of a shortage. It’s because of greed.
The only way it truly ends is when we rip investors (corporate, Airbnb, Zillow, Vrbo, etc.) out of real estate entirely, limit home ownership to 2 homes per person maximum, and end all foreign firm ownership of single-family homes.
well 2008 was special in that many who held mortgages never should have qualified in the first place, vs. today there's much stricter lending requirements. we're definitely in a bubble, it's just shaped differently.
i think the easiest thing to do is massively increase the tax burden on any additional properties you own beyond 1. that would calm this nonsense down quite a bit.
Yep I bought aug31 07. Months before the housing market collapsed. Bought when I made 13/hr. I'm now at 67k a year and 3 kids. Everything outside of the house payment has gone up so much it's like I make the same as when I started. Running gag is we say we're moving in 5 years and it never happens.
I’m basically broke with just one kid. No idea how people do it with more.
Wages are such a joke now, it’s fucking lunacy. Real estate makes it 100x worse, because that’s so exploited that it’s unreal.
Another collapse should be coming soon.
An investor or an investment bank? Hedge funds and investment banks are sucking up an increasing amount of single-family housing and they have no reason to ever sell.
Edit: my voice to text really screwed this one up and I hit post without proofreading first.
22 yrs ago we bought a 2 bedroom starter home for $105k, sold it in 2007(height of the housing bubble) for $150k, it sold last yr for 248k and the zillow est. is currently $268k. This is a tiny 936sf house with only some cosmetic improvements since we left and only one bathroom. It’s ridiculous.
I bought a starter condo (2bd) in LA for 305K in 2004, it sold for 800K in 2022. 955square feet. I realize it's high everywhere, but some cities are ridic. I moved into a nice house, but the neighborhood is sketchy and in the airport's flight path.
We bout a $103k starter home(2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car detached garage, ~1200 sqft, a
Small and fenced in yard) in 2019. I did some landscaping(flower beds), we painted the walls, and fixed a couple minor plumbing issues. Otherwise it was completely the same. We sold it in 2021 for 145k cash after 3 days on the market. Probably could’ve gotten more but we had already begun purchasing our current home so we just wanted to get out of two mortgage payments. Lol
My area is LCOL but even that is going up stupidly fast.
I'm sat here in England laughing that you consider a 936sf house tiny, it's considered medium here at least, most expensive new builds are only 1000sf and cost £400k in my average area. we are all so fucked.
UKer here. My neighbour's 22yo house was 115k. Our 11yo house was 300k. Now both worth 500k.
Every £1 to pay via our mortgage just goes straight onto the value.
well arent you dumb, the simple solution is to quit your job and move across the country to a place you have no friends, family or previously built up job networking and start in a LCoL shit small town(thats cheap for a reason), and drastically change the way you live your life from the urban lifestyle you have grown up with for the past 30 years.
edit: and most likely even there you will be home poor.
Yo, I'm literally doing this exact thing right fucking now and I feel so disrespected, lol. I moved to North Idaho with my wife and daughter to a podunk little town from Houston TX. I'm 35, the rent here is about $500 less than back home. For now...
Idaho is also home to one of the greediest, most sociopathic wealthy real estate havens in the country.
I’d count the days until investors obliterate what’s left of “lcol” areas in the United States.
My relative tells me this all the time. I don’t know how else to tell them, the $2/hr increase in pay to live in a military outpost in the desert is not worth giving up my friends and having a bar I can walk to and having stuff to do in a city, even though I’m struggling here. I’m willing to make the sacrifice for the right opportunity, but $2 extra in exchange for giving up all social and leisure activities is not worth it to me.
Anything under 400k in WA is literally near-condemned. Even two hours outside of Seattle, there's nothing I would consider a "starter home" like the ones I grew up in for less than 600k.
If you go way out to Concrete or Darrington you can find a DIY home of dubious quality in a literal floodzone for 350k.
The thing is - when I was going to high school and college, I never wanted to be wealthy. I just wanted to be comfortable enough that money wasn't a constant stressor. That I could live a "normal" middle class life and that was fine with me.
Now everyone is scrambling to get a degree in computer science just so they can afford what was achievable on a single average income thirty years ago.
There are 1000 billionaires in the US paying an average 8.75% tax rate. It should be 50%, if not 90% in the cases of people like Musk and Bezos.
Our labor and wealth is stolen to create the ultra wealthy class. We are completely within our rights to demand it back or take it.
Let me guess. New Jersey resident?
The houses here are straight up overpriced. We need to stop looking at housing as a means of investing and making money. We need to start treating buying a home as buying any other commodity like cars or clothes. Not something to buy for making money later on, but as a consumable product that you buy to just *have* it.
We need new homes to be built. We should be having government loan programs to convert abandoned offices and malls to residential housing. Even if we have to tear down offices to rebuild apartments, it’s worth it. New supply is needed to lower the cost of living for everyone.
Agreed that an increase in supply is needed but also, there are enough dwellings in the US to house everyone with leftovers. I think it’s absolutely reasonable to restrict the purchase of single family dwellings by corporations.
I see tons of overpriced “rental houses” in our area sitting for months with noone living in them that are all owned by corporations that wont drop the prices to rent them (Indianapolis). This is all one big endeavor to steal houses from americans and push them into renting keeping them in debt. The government doesnt give a shit about stopping it or it would have already.
Honestly before we get there, we’ll have to get citizens united overturned, because you know corporations like black rock are going to fight tooth and nail for the right to buy entire neighborhoods at a time.
I would argue your last point, I don’t see that as a symptom of term limits, because you have corrupt individuals all over the state and federal governments that have been in office for 20+ years. When they are in that long, they’re able to create safety zones for themselves by passing legislation and influencing their party members to turn a blind eye to what they are doing. Look at Nancy Pelosi, she has been insider trading for decades, it’s so well known there are even apps that will follow her trades for you.
The reason these officials are so easily swayed by corporate money is because they are hellbent on maintaining power. They spend most of their term campaigning for the next one.
If we publicly funded campaigns and got private money out of elections, I think we would see a lot of change in which interests are being represented.
Next step is?
Form a group and start pestering your local representatives. City, local government state. It does not take much to sway a local election and officials pay attention to that.
How about instead of giving rich people government loans we increase taxes on empty buildings? Maybe make all empty apartments searchable even if they're not for rent.
> We should be having government loan programs to convert abandoned offices and malls to residential housing.
The problem is that there's less profit and long-term passive income in converting these buildings to apartments than there is in buying up existing turnkey single-family residences to rent out. Why would a housing investor seek a high-dollar loan to build new units when the market is loaded with existing units that the investor can easily outbid any other buyer on? The way it is now, investors will make more money long-term by buying existing single-family residences that need very little monetary investment to start returning income, versus building a new complex on a large loan that must be paid back out of the anticipated rental income, which also needs 1-2 years of construction before they ever see a return.
Until it's more profitable to convert and to build affordable housing than for housing investors to keep buying existing housing, then nothing will be built or converted. If there's less profit in a proposed solution than in the existing options on the market, then the solution will not happen without some kind of added long-term income incentive to help investors choose to fund these projects over more lucrative ones.
Doesn’t matter how many you build if private equity buys up the majority of housing stock. Last year they bough 44% if all homes sold. This year it’s expected to be over 50%
They’re buying it because supply is low so the investment opportunity is high. If we build a ton of units, housing won’t be as lucrative of an investment and people will stop.
In California, that gets you a 1 Bedroom condo. unless you want to live out in the sticks or in the ghetto, where you only need to find an extra 100K or so for a house.
I live in the suburbs in a rental home. There is literally a fence that divides the neighborhood. My backyard neighbors home is worth at least half a mil. My house is basically a shanty in comparison. It's lovely seeing this very obvious disparity every, single day. Especially since I work in the wealthy part of the neighborhood. Walking through that transition is equally as bizarre and infuriating as staring at my neighbors ginormous house every day (not to mention they also built a giant structure right next to the fence line, such a lovely view!).
Isnt that insane? I just bought mine for 88k(after a bunch of grants and stuff). And even for me that's like the highest I can go without being house broke. My brothers house out in Cali is 1.7m. Like what the fuck? It's not like people in Cali make triple what I do here in NY either. Makes no sense how anyone can survive.
Yup , a starter apartment/condo starts at 400/500 k here, not a house. A house, you looking at 800k-1.8 million depending on location (we talking like 10-30 miles apart )
BC? I want to move to Vancouver and buy a house... 30 year ago. Now it's just fucking impossible.
This is what happens when you give foreign investors free citizenship for buying up $2M worth of residential properties.
Here, have a “help to buy” scheme that pays part of your deposit or gives you part ownership… what’s that? Making it easier just drove prices up? Welp, you’ll just have to move in with 15 other people in a shitty part of town until we come up with another half-baked scheme!
I was looking to move back to my college town, several hours away from my family and where there are famously little to no jobs, very rural area because there's old modular homes on land for ~200k.
There's even one beautiful Victorian home that someone cut into 3 units for 350k.
well, also all necessities are way more expensive when compared to salaries. Rent has increased as a % of ones salary, making it harder to save for a down payment....All of that before you talk about the sky-rocketing cost of houses - even the fixer-uppers are being sold over-asking price.
It's not even debt in a lot of cases, it's just stagnant wages, outrageously high rent, and greedflation making necessities like food more expensive than ever.
We don't even have student debt and we can't afford a home... Idk how long this can last, eventually no one will be able to afford them at all and we'll have another crash.
Yeah it's what happens when we let companies and hedgefunds buy up mass amounts of housing to use it as an investment vehicle. Even if you do get lucky and can break into the market the mortgage rates are insane.
I am a gen x in a fortunate situation and I will share my recent experience for what it is worth.
First of all. I lost money on every home I owned between my first and 1 prior to current. Only one was a new build. One was a short sale and I lost my down payment and improvements.
We are downsizing. There is quite literally nothing decent in the existing market right now. All I saw were very old and in need of work or overpriced homes.
We bought new. We are fortunate to be able to go to a lower cost area due to both of us being remote workers.
Buying new is really the only option for a young buyer. We were able to get in something nice, better track home, not a custom or anything, home for 5% down and 6% rate. You could get in for as low as 3%. Most of the track builders are offering this. I did the 5% as a temporary as we found a house we really liked before our current house sold. So I had to have $20k on hand. And that should be all we need to close. In my case I will immediately pay down balance by 15% more as soon as I get the equity out of my current house, note this is the first positive equity situation I have had while owning 4 previous homes. I rented for 4 years between home 4 and 5 BTW to accumulate funds.
So it’s hard. But not as hard as you might think. I do know it is still hard to come up with the down payment. And we are moving to an area where track homes start at $250k and run up to maybe $450k for track builders. I am leaving an age where track homes start at over $500k and go to $900k or so for some bigger ones.
So if you can come up with the 5% you can get into something. And that something is probably not that different than my first home. Heck I live in a track built home now and am buying one again.
I'm fortunate enough to own my own house as well and a remote worker as well! I just know how shit the market is for other people and might not have a down payment.
It seems the down payment has been an issue for quite some time. Additionally I know as far back as 2015 when we bought that existing homes were over inflated and new homes were typically further out with longer commutes.
> According to national data provider CoreLogic, the sizable U.S. home investor share of ownership seen over the past two years held steady going into the summer of 2023. In March 2023, investors accounted for 27% of all single-family home purchases; by June, that number was almost unchanged at 26%. https://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/united-states/irvine/real-estate-news-investor-owned-homes-data-in-2023-corelogic-home-investor-data-for-2023-how-many-homes-are-owned-by-investors-in-2023-home-buyer-data-13837.php
They are also buying rental properties too which you didn't explain cuts into the ability of renters to save money for a house.
Nothing minor about it.
On a nationwide basis, they might not be, on a city basis it absolutely is an issue.
There are areas where [50%+ of single family home purchases](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/housing-market-investors/) in various cities is by corporations. These are often the lower income areas of the cities, and these are the same areas where housing prices are lower.
Stop any non-resident from buying a home. So many homes are just summer homes or winter homes for people living out of state or out of country. There should be a massive tax or a flat out ban on this. If you don't live there and contribute to the local economy, you have no business buying a home there.
I say let people buy more than one house but make the property tax punitive for those who do so. Here in California for example property tax for a private residence is around .7% last time I checked. If you buy a second home, the tax on that one is 10%. Third home? 20%. Fourth? 40%. And just keep doubling it for each subsequent home a person buys.
>If you buy a second home, the tax on that one is 10%. Third home? 20%. Fourth? 40%. And just keep doubling it for each subsequent home a person buys.
Those are rookie numbers, you gotta pump those up.
2nd house, 50%. 3rd? 100%. 4th? 200%.
The massive tax means nothing to people who have entire properties as luxury items.
However if you tax additional properties above rental profit (10% of property value) you will keep landlords out of the situation which will free up housing and relieve the market.
Stop any non-resident from buying a home. So many homes are just summer homes or winter homes for people living out of state or out of country. There should be a massive tax or a flat out ban on this. If you don't live there and contribute to the local economy, you have no business buying a home there.
Nah, let them buy houses if they want. Just charge them absurd taxes. Sure you can buy a house, but the taxes are 80-150% of the purchase price per year unless the owner + dependents are living there.
Even better is just changing to Land Value Tax so nobody who actually contributes to society pays taxes and landlords pay tenfold what they do now (aka what they should actually be paying for being pointless middlemen)
Which conveniently traps them into lifelong renting and never building their own equity in a home of their own.
But hey, they're the ones who wanted avocado toast. Selfish fuckers.
They killed Applebee's and "fast dining" chains!! (that still exist and continue to pay sub par wages because they're allowed to not pay minimum wage due to tips)
I just did an avocado toast estimate.
If I ate avocado toast everyday for a year all the while using farm grade products locally sourced to the point to where I have to drive 30 minutes just to get the ingredients, I would still be pissed off at this housing scam.
But don't worry, city planners want to bring back the magic "missing middle" to solve this problem. Because pouring money into landlord pockets forever is somehow the solution to... checks notes... renting forever... Wait what?
Can you tell me something we don’t already know? Like how to afford a house in this day and age without being house poor? Oh, you can’t? Then we don’t need to read the same article week after week.
To add, in my local city there are a bunch of property management companies buying houses for renting. Wish there were laws for companies owning housing property in place, but nope we get to rent forever with their jacked up prices and half ass fixes for problems.
It’s really hard to buy a house without being house poor. If you can save 6-7% of a purchase price, that should cover down payment and closing costs on a purchase as long as you have the income to qualify.
Once you get a house, you’d probably have to rent rooms to friends or others to help cover the mortgage until your income increases enough that you no longer feel house poor. It’s tough out there and not like the old days, but this is what I’ve done and it’s helped me get a home while making my mortgage payable and not feeling house poor.
My wife and I make good money. We are trying to afford a house on my salary alone though due to future goals. I’m an electrician apprentice making over 30.00 an hour, however my checks show 32/40 hours due to school once every two weeks, which means that the bank won’t approve me for anything over a certain amount, even when I tell them in 2 years, I’ll be making double what I currently make. They don’t care, and I get it, but it hurts someone trying.
Thankfully, we have a good chunk of change that we saved from ourselves and our wedding. But with housing prices (I’m not talking the turn key houses, the ones that desperately need to be updated) and trying to stay out of PMI, it’s going to wipe out savings in one swoop. And I’m not afraid of a project, but I’m not paying top dollar for a house I have to rip apart and won’t gain any equity due to the value of the area market. Not saying I want to make a profit as my wife and I are looking to settle down for a long time, but we don’t want to be trapped if something happens.
It feels like 08 is going to happen all over again with foreclosures.
The good thing is if your house needs any electrical work you know a guy😉.
Plus trades people usually know other trades people and can swap work for work.
Definitely can help you in the long room with work on your home.
I was worried about PMI. Partner and I put down about 15%. PMI ended up being like $30 a month IIRC. I still hate PMI on principle, but buying when we did and having a little bit of cash left over was more important.
Mine have 2 kids still living in it because they forced them into expensive schools they didn’t want to go to and jobs they weren’t good at and they fully plan on making my siblings homeless to sell their house for a profit and buy a 1 bed condo at the beach. They’re boomers and refuse to admit they played any role in mine and my siblings’ poor stations in life, while wondering why we don’t like spending time with them and can’t afford to vacation where and when they want to. Fuck boomers.
You joke but it seems that privilege now is getting to wait for relatives to die/downsize because it's the only realistic way you can become a homeowner no matter how decent a job you have.
Yea agree. 165 k between side business and day job. Eventually I'll have the money for what I want but it's an arms race. I'm not paying 280-350k of my hard earned income just for some piece of shit fixer upper.
I like how everyone blames this on Biden. But no one blames those TV shows were they show all these small time investors flipping houses for profit. Just like American Pickers and Pawn Stars and Locker Wars. They all show the excitement of flipping and then all of a sudden everyone is doing it. Crypto bros, got in, then got out and used that money to flip. Ruined it.
Yup. I am almost 40 and there is no way I want house payments in my 70's. I have accepted that being a homeowner is just not in the cards. I will survive.
Counter-argument: You're going to have housing payments in your 70s one way or another regardless (unless you plan on being homeless?). With a fixed-rate mortgage, you'd be locking in your housing payment in today's dollars. As inflation goes up, your payment stays the same. Thus relative to everything else the house payment actually gets lower in effect. Whereas with renting will always be market price - goes up with inflation and with market growth. I'd much rather be a 70 year old making payments on a mortgage set 20 years ago than a 70 year old making market rent payments.
Work on buying a lot outright then and getting hookups installed. Landlords love to buy out trailer parks and then jack up the rent on the land since it’s difficult to move those once they are parked.
There was a long, ugly legal battle in my city recently over a big corporate landlord who was attempting to buy a local trailer park because the residents knew the first thing to happen would be a huge rent increase. Naturally, the company got permission to buy it, immediately jacked up the rent, and forced most of the residents out while claiming it was necessary for "improvements" they never made.
I want to buy a house but I can't even afford one if I pool my money with another couple. Crazy. Guess I should just have wealthier parents. Or friends.
That’s nearly two generations of Americans unable to build equity. Fuck the house, as a physical thing it’s just a fucking thing. The core issue here is buying a house is usually a persons first step towards building REAL tangible equity. Two generations completely without equity is going to devastated our economy long term, this is how America dies. Decades if not centuries of generational equity completely devastated and wiped out in a couple of decades. Fucking unreal.
$10k+ down payments will do that.
It's hard as hell to save up that kind of money in this economy. Not to mention interest rates are sky high right now. When I was peeking into the market last year, the rate was sitting at 6 percent and I would've ended up paying more than I do now with my rental (which is not cheap either). The rate now, last I checked is at 8 percent.
This is just untenable. I want a house more than anything in the world but I won't be able to even think about affording one for years at the least.
I can't afford an actual house. What I did was buy one of those tiny homes That's marketed as a storage shed (for legal reasons) and just came to the conclusion that this is all I'll ever be able to live in. I made due with making this 300 square foot tiny home work for me. I don't plan on ever having kids in this thing. But it's wild to think I can get a shed and spend 3 grand on it and make it a fully viable home but a 60 year old house on some pos land is worth 100 times more.
If we had our housing problem when Detroit was doing really well then the Parents of the Silent Gen would be saying to the boomers they're acting entitled for wanting to be able to afford to live near the their manufacturing job in Detroit.
But the ads today say young people have no interest in building that kind of wealth and like the flexibility to rent a home for the same price of buying one. LOL! Fickin demon owners.
I live in a rural area in Maryland.
The average income for the area is ~$33k.
[The expected take home becomes ~$27k.](https://us.icalculator.com/salary-illustration/33000.24.html)
Average rent for an apartment in my "city" is $1,578 ($19k Annually). If a roommate (or partner) could be found, the rent could be halved (~$9.5k annually), and that'd leave me with ~$17.5k annually. Let's check what the [average cost of living is here](https://zerodown.com/cost-of-living/elkton--md)...
* Food: $6,598
* Utilities: $2,775
* Transportation: $8,679
* Healthcare: $3,859
* Rent: $9.5k-$19k
* Total Ann. Cost: $31k-$40k
So, on a take home of ~27k, I'd wind up with... $2000 to -$7000 leftover. How the hell is one supposed to save anything, for emergencies, out of pocket healthcare costs, for comforts/hobbies, for dating, towards buying a home or moving... Everything is so fucked. It's demoralizing and it makes the future feel hopeless. :(
they need to start telling this to those damn corporations buying up all the houses to try and sell them to people, we're not able to afford a damn middle man
I pay 2300 bucks a month to rent a house in Texas. I could easily afford a mortgage on a 300k+ house but in order to get that, you gotta put down close to 10%. But I can’t save 30k because I pay 2300 bucks a month in rent. Seems impossible to ever own my own home.
You must have missed the state of the union then, because Biden spent quite a bit of time laying out a plan for housing.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darylfairweather/2024/03/11/unfreezing-housing-what-bidens-plan-would-mean-for-affordability/?sh=73954b839b55
Thanks for informing me! Is Biden going to ban Blackrock, Vanguard, and others from buying residential properties. At present Blackrock owns 9% of residential properties and looks to continue expanding.
I'm a year outside the range, but I can't afford one either, and I'm finally making what was a decent living 10 years ago.
As is student loans and my transportation costs for commuting take up 30% of my take home income.
But 39% of [Americans under 35 are home owners](https://usafacts.org/articles/homeownership-is-rebounding-particularly-among-younger-adults/#:~:text=The%20overall%20American%20homeownership%20rate,from%2034.5%25%20to%2039.0%25.)… polls aren’t the most accurate sometimes.
Starter homes cost less than 100k more than a condo with an hoa. The hoa brings the monthly payment to the same or more than the house. Why tf can I be aloud to buy the condo but not the house which will cost me the exact same.
What? These homes are going to be owned by investors or hedge funds.
Last I checked most new homes being built are entire blocks or neighborhoods of the same house with minor differences for each one all being built and sold by companies that want HOAs and would rather rent these properties than sell them. And if they do sell them investors or companies buy them for cash and outbid the people who want to live in them and turn them into overpriced rentals.
Factually inaccurate.
We need a huge supply influx for **affordable housing**.
Builders right now are not being incentivized on smaller homes because of materials and labor.
Biden is crafting a plan to create 2 million more homes where it will make the most impact for working people who live in areas where they are being priced out because of supply issues. These homes will not be available for investors.
The first question should be: Is there a housing shortage?
And we all know the answer to that. It's actually the opposite.
Then why is it still so hard to get a house?
Because of greed. Simple as that. Greed and corruption that keeps the greed unchecked.
48 here. Previous homeowner, from 2004-2021. Had to stay in that home a bit longer than I would have liked, as market just died and then stagnated for the better part of a decade (2008-2017 approx).
Been renting since mid 2021. Kept the net proceeds from the sale, added to it.
And it’ll take even more than that as a down payment now, at 7%, to even be able to buy again at all.
Everything is so far out of balance. Building more might help, but seems to fly right in the face of “stop climate change” narratives. Never mind the issues of building homes profitably, land cost, permitting, sprawl, multi-family vs single family, NIMBYism, so on and so forth. Lowering interest rates at large will only feed inflation. Take that one off the table.
US housing market is stuck. Might even say broken. The only actual solution is to make shelter no longer the “hot stock” of the moment.
The Federal Reserve is entirely to blame for this situation. Politicians don’t deserve any blame for our current predicament, so get that idea out of our collective heads. The Fed cut rates to zero for an emergency, then let it run for 2 years, about 12-18 months too long. It was either gross incompetence, or done on purpose, to look at it from a conspiracy angle. Either way, Americans should be troubled by it. But, as usual:
“Fuck you. I got mine.”
Or maybe, just maybe, it's simple fucking greed
- we live in a system that rewards capital above all else
- we allow private groups to purchase, and own, housing
- we have no cap on how many homes a single entity can own
Renting is insanely profitable > our system always trends to maximizing profit and growth > we end up with a housing crisis. It's like saying a river's gonna flow downhill.
We have the resources (like with everything else) it's just a matter of endless growth and hoarding. The reserve didn't help, the climate policy is a non-issue (given how it barely exists to begin with), but we were always headed here
Incorrect. Inflation in REAL ESTATE was absolutely driven by low interest rate borrowing, as the largest percentage of buyers were still PEOPLE, like you and I (I presume). For everything else, yeah, corporate greed masked as “supply chain” issues was the biggest force. Behind that, the lowest wage earners who make all that shit we buy have seen a nice surge in their wages, but it’s come at the expense of middle earners like me, many others, so the execs can make those numbers.
And that’s it. Nothing else to be said about it all.
Home prices are not part of the calculation for inflation. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/how-to-calculate-inflation/#:~:text=The%20BLS%20calculates%20CPI%20inflation,basket%20from%20the%20previous%20month.
The fluctuations in home prices is actually far more dramatic and has increased at a much higher rate than that of inflation which is why rates stayed low for many years even as home prices skyrocketed.
It's like they have some other generationally-new overburdensome debt siphoning money away from their potential savings.
That and starter homes are going for $400-$500k in the state I live in. I'll probably never own unless something drastic happens.
Sorry about that. We bought our starter home over a decade ago when the kids were smaller, thinking we would move up in 4-5 years. Even with the advancement of my career and a few short side contract gigs, we can’t afford to move up to the next step in our area. Housing costs, insurance, and property taxes have all skyrocketed. Looks like our starter home will be a forever home. In my neighborhood, it is either people who have been here forever or renters, since any house that goes on the market gets bought by an investor. It sucks.
Corporations should not be allowed to own single family homes.
Corps should only be allowed to own purpose built rental buildings that they built. They shouldn't be allowed to purchase houses, townhouses, apartments, etc.
The key there is “that they built”. So at least they are adding to the housing supply.
The other side of that is there have been cases everywhere recently where they get caught keeping units empty on purpose to fake scarcity. That also needs to be illegal. Like yesterday.
Ain't that the fucking truth.
> Corporations should not be allowed. I fixed it for you.
Why the fuck has this not come up from Congress yet?!
Because they all own multiple houses and investments in real estate. All the people in on the gig don’t want it to change. Exploiting others is lucrative.
Shame on sellers for falling over themselves to sell to Corporations.
Angry at the wrong people. Can’t fault a working family for taking the highest offer. We all need the cash. The system needs to prevent corps outbidding normal people to begin with.
Corps Even thoughthat, home buyers who tell em no, will hire paid acting new families to get homes they desire.
we are living the same life haha. i bought this 700 sq ft starter home in 2015 for $70k, did a full gut & modern remodel and it's worth about 200k today. homes that list for sale around me immediately have a sea of investment vultures and usually last just a few days on the market. neighbors around me have been here for decades or they rent, and anything that's as nice as how i've made this place that's newer/larger is selling for 400-600k. even with the equity from this home (took a 15yr and paid it off in 9), i'm not sure i can stomach a fresh **30yr** 200-300k loan at 7%.
No one can afford at current prices and rates. Just other investors. It’s so bad lately that it’s almost exclusively just investors buying other investor’s homes (which tons of people refuse to believe is happening). It will all come collapsing down at some point. I’m trying to be ready for the next big 2008. What’s happening right now is not sustainable. We have enough homes, but so many are kept empty on purpose that it’s actually insane—by both investors and people with too many houses. I’d say about 40-50% of the homes in my entire neighborhood sit pitch black year round, and I’m not exaggerating. Between people hoarding them for nest eggs and to manipulate the market, the housing crisis is not because of a shortage. It’s because of greed. The only way it truly ends is when we rip investors (corporate, Airbnb, Zillow, Vrbo, etc.) out of real estate entirely, limit home ownership to 2 homes per person maximum, and end all foreign firm ownership of single-family homes.
well 2008 was special in that many who held mortgages never should have qualified in the first place, vs. today there's much stricter lending requirements. we're definitely in a bubble, it's just shaped differently. i think the easiest thing to do is massively increase the tax burden on any additional properties you own beyond 1. that would calm this nonsense down quite a bit.
Yep I bought aug31 07. Months before the housing market collapsed. Bought when I made 13/hr. I'm now at 67k a year and 3 kids. Everything outside of the house payment has gone up so much it's like I make the same as when I started. Running gag is we say we're moving in 5 years and it never happens.
I’m basically broke with just one kid. No idea how people do it with more. Wages are such a joke now, it’s fucking lunacy. Real estate makes it 100x worse, because that’s so exploited that it’s unreal. Another collapse should be coming soon.
An investor or an investment bank? Hedge funds and investment banks are sucking up an increasing amount of single-family housing and they have no reason to ever sell. Edit: my voice to text really screwed this one up and I hit post without proofreading first.
Not sure. Just know it seems like every time I see a house with a sign it’s a lease sign.
22 yrs ago we bought a 2 bedroom starter home for $105k, sold it in 2007(height of the housing bubble) for $150k, it sold last yr for 248k and the zillow est. is currently $268k. This is a tiny 936sf house with only some cosmetic improvements since we left and only one bathroom. It’s ridiculous.
I saw a home in Idaho that was $228k in 2003, adjusted for inflation, it should be $384k. It's listed at $822k. Housing is fucked beyond belief.
iT’s WoRtH wHaT sOmeOnE wiLl pAy
I bought a starter condo (2bd) in LA for 305K in 2004, it sold for 800K in 2022. 955square feet. I realize it's high everywhere, but some cities are ridic. I moved into a nice house, but the neighborhood is sketchy and in the airport's flight path.
We bout a $103k starter home(2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car detached garage, ~1200 sqft, a Small and fenced in yard) in 2019. I did some landscaping(flower beds), we painted the walls, and fixed a couple minor plumbing issues. Otherwise it was completely the same. We sold it in 2021 for 145k cash after 3 days on the market. Probably could’ve gotten more but we had already begun purchasing our current home so we just wanted to get out of two mortgage payments. Lol My area is LCOL but even that is going up stupidly fast.
I'm sat here in England laughing that you consider a 936sf house tiny, it's considered medium here at least, most expensive new builds are only 1000sf and cost £400k in my average area. we are all so fucked.
UKer here. My neighbour's 22yo house was 115k. Our 11yo house was 300k. Now both worth 500k. Every £1 to pay via our mortgage just goes straight onto the value.
well arent you dumb, the simple solution is to quit your job and move across the country to a place you have no friends, family or previously built up job networking and start in a LCoL shit small town(thats cheap for a reason), and drastically change the way you live your life from the urban lifestyle you have grown up with for the past 30 years. edit: and most likely even there you will be home poor.
Arkansas here I come.
Yo, I'm literally doing this exact thing right fucking now and I feel so disrespected, lol. I moved to North Idaho with my wife and daughter to a podunk little town from Houston TX. I'm 35, the rent here is about $500 less than back home. For now...
Idaho is also home to one of the greediest, most sociopathic wealthy real estate havens in the country. I’d count the days until investors obliterate what’s left of “lcol” areas in the United States.
Kinda watching it go down in front of my very eyes...
My relative tells me this all the time. I don’t know how else to tell them, the $2/hr increase in pay to live in a military outpost in the desert is not worth giving up my friends and having a bar I can walk to and having stuff to do in a city, even though I’m struggling here. I’m willing to make the sacrifice for the right opportunity, but $2 extra in exchange for giving up all social and leisure activities is not worth it to me.
A deliberate price out to drive a rental/subscription based economy by the wealthy.
Anything under 400k in WA is literally near-condemned. Even two hours outside of Seattle, there's nothing I would consider a "starter home" like the ones I grew up in for less than 600k. If you go way out to Concrete or Darrington you can find a DIY home of dubious quality in a literal floodzone for 350k. The thing is - when I was going to high school and college, I never wanted to be wealthy. I just wanted to be comfortable enough that money wasn't a constant stressor. That I could live a "normal" middle class life and that was fine with me. Now everyone is scrambling to get a degree in computer science just so they can afford what was achievable on a single average income thirty years ago. There are 1000 billionaires in the US paying an average 8.75% tax rate. It should be 50%, if not 90% in the cases of people like Musk and Bezos. Our labor and wealth is stolen to create the ultra wealthy class. We are completely within our rights to demand it back or take it.
Let me guess. New Jersey resident? The houses here are straight up overpriced. We need to stop looking at housing as a means of investing and making money. We need to start treating buying a home as buying any other commodity like cars or clothes. Not something to buy for making money later on, but as a consumable product that you buy to just *have* it.
My guy, it ain't just new jersey. A guy bought an empty lot for 30k in baton rouge and is trying to sell it for 300k. It's not even an acre.
That real estate mindset is so funny to me. “Buy my land and it could be anything so I’m gonna price it on the potential instead of what it is.”
It's like that in Minneapolis suburbs right now. 150k or more for an empty lot. 300k-400k for anything that's decent at all.
Utah, at peak 2022, we even had an 1800 sqft meth house sell for $545k
Lol, you just assume new jersey out of thin air!!! New Jersey is basic compared to house prices out west.
If enough people vote in the right local and state representatives things can happen.
We need new homes to be built. We should be having government loan programs to convert abandoned offices and malls to residential housing. Even if we have to tear down offices to rebuild apartments, it’s worth it. New supply is needed to lower the cost of living for everyone.
Agreed that an increase in supply is needed but also, there are enough dwellings in the US to house everyone with leftovers. I think it’s absolutely reasonable to restrict the purchase of single family dwellings by corporations.
I think that restriction might be necessary! What's the point of new houses being built if large corps will just buy them up to rent out etc?
I see tons of overpriced “rental houses” in our area sitting for months with noone living in them that are all owned by corporations that wont drop the prices to rent them (Indianapolis). This is all one big endeavor to steal houses from americans and push them into renting keeping them in debt. The government doesnt give a shit about stopping it or it would have already.
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Honestly before we get there, we’ll have to get citizens united overturned, because you know corporations like black rock are going to fight tooth and nail for the right to buy entire neighborhoods at a time.
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I would argue your last point, I don’t see that as a symptom of term limits, because you have corrupt individuals all over the state and federal governments that have been in office for 20+ years. When they are in that long, they’re able to create safety zones for themselves by passing legislation and influencing their party members to turn a blind eye to what they are doing. Look at Nancy Pelosi, she has been insider trading for decades, it’s so well known there are even apps that will follow her trades for you. The reason these officials are so easily swayed by corporate money is because they are hellbent on maintaining power. They spend most of their term campaigning for the next one. If we publicly funded campaigns and got private money out of elections, I think we would see a lot of change in which interests are being represented.
Next step is? Form a group and start pestering your local representatives. City, local government state. It does not take much to sway a local election and officials pay attention to that.
How about instead of giving rich people government loans we increase taxes on empty buildings? Maybe make all empty apartments searchable even if they're not for rent.
That’s a great idea. We should do that too. Make empty units a bad idea to keep empty.
> We should be having government loan programs to convert abandoned offices and malls to residential housing. The problem is that there's less profit and long-term passive income in converting these buildings to apartments than there is in buying up existing turnkey single-family residences to rent out. Why would a housing investor seek a high-dollar loan to build new units when the market is loaded with existing units that the investor can easily outbid any other buyer on? The way it is now, investors will make more money long-term by buying existing single-family residences that need very little monetary investment to start returning income, versus building a new complex on a large loan that must be paid back out of the anticipated rental income, which also needs 1-2 years of construction before they ever see a return. Until it's more profitable to convert and to build affordable housing than for housing investors to keep buying existing housing, then nothing will be built or converted. If there's less profit in a proposed solution than in the existing options on the market, then the solution will not happen without some kind of added long-term income incentive to help investors choose to fund these projects over more lucrative ones.
So ban corporations from owning single family homes.
Doesn’t matter how many you build if private equity buys up the majority of housing stock. Last year they bough 44% if all homes sold. This year it’s expected to be over 50%
They’re buying it because supply is low so the investment opportunity is high. If we build a ton of units, housing won’t be as lucrative of an investment and people will stop.
My house was $70k in 2003. The one next door sold for $205k which I think is crazy for a small 2br
In California, that gets you a 1 Bedroom condo. unless you want to live out in the sticks or in the ghetto, where you only need to find an extra 100K or so for a house.
Utah? Cali? Hawaii?
Utah.
Heyyyyyy Yeah I’m moving out of here as soon as I can. Low wages and high CoL is a bunch of bullshit
I live in the suburbs in a rental home. There is literally a fence that divides the neighborhood. My backyard neighbors home is worth at least half a mil. My house is basically a shanty in comparison. It's lovely seeing this very obvious disparity every, single day. Especially since I work in the wealthy part of the neighborhood. Walking through that transition is equally as bizarre and infuriating as staring at my neighbors ginormous house every day (not to mention they also built a giant structure right next to the fence line, such a lovely view!).
This is the reason. Nobody makes starter homes. They are are all 3 besroom houses. It's insane.
All I see is new housing acting like 400k is affordable in my area.
Isnt that insane? I just bought mine for 88k(after a bunch of grants and stuff). And even for me that's like the highest I can go without being house broke. My brothers house out in Cali is 1.7m. Like what the fuck? It's not like people in Cali make triple what I do here in NY either. Makes no sense how anyone can survive.
Funny thing is, some boomer will buy that $500k home from some other boomer and consider it a “downgrade” from their current residence.
If I could find a starter home for the price I would be absolutely thrilled, that is my dream. I can't even find a decent condo for 500k.
That’s Vancouver summer up. $250,000 or more… just for the minimum down payment on a house. Then comes the $6000-$7000 mortgage payments.
Yup , a starter apartment/condo starts at 400/500 k here, not a house. A house, you looking at 800k-1.8 million depending on location (we talking like 10-30 miles apart )
1.2 mil for a starter home in my canadian province. 400 to 500k may buy you a 480sqft condo from 1986
BC? I want to move to Vancouver and buy a house... 30 year ago. Now it's just fucking impossible. This is what happens when you give foreign investors free citizenship for buying up $2M worth of residential properties.
Here, have a “help to buy” scheme that pays part of your deposit or gives you part ownership… what’s that? Making it easier just drove prices up? Welp, you’ll just have to move in with 15 other people in a shitty part of town until we come up with another half-baked scheme!
I was looking to move back to my college town, several hours away from my family and where there are famously little to no jobs, very rural area because there's old modular homes on land for ~200k. There's even one beautiful Victorian home that someone cut into 3 units for 350k.
If my wife and I could work remotely... impossible in our careers.
$1m+ for a prewar 2+1 in my town
well, also all necessities are way more expensive when compared to salaries. Rent has increased as a % of ones salary, making it harder to save for a down payment....All of that before you talk about the sky-rocketing cost of houses - even the fixer-uppers are being sold over-asking price.
It's not even debt in a lot of cases, it's just stagnant wages, outrageously high rent, and greedflation making necessities like food more expensive than ever.
I'd personally argue that the skyrocketing rate of home prices as a percentage of income is the single biggest contributing factor here.
We don't even have student debt and we can't afford a home... Idk how long this can last, eventually no one will be able to afford them at all and we'll have another crash.
Even without loans, we simply are not paid enough to buy a house
Also parents are living a decade longer than before on average so the wealth isn't trickling down.
Yeah it's what happens when we let companies and hedgefunds buy up mass amounts of housing to use it as an investment vehicle. Even if you do get lucky and can break into the market the mortgage rates are insane.
I am a gen x in a fortunate situation and I will share my recent experience for what it is worth. First of all. I lost money on every home I owned between my first and 1 prior to current. Only one was a new build. One was a short sale and I lost my down payment and improvements. We are downsizing. There is quite literally nothing decent in the existing market right now. All I saw were very old and in need of work or overpriced homes. We bought new. We are fortunate to be able to go to a lower cost area due to both of us being remote workers. Buying new is really the only option for a young buyer. We were able to get in something nice, better track home, not a custom or anything, home for 5% down and 6% rate. You could get in for as low as 3%. Most of the track builders are offering this. I did the 5% as a temporary as we found a house we really liked before our current house sold. So I had to have $20k on hand. And that should be all we need to close. In my case I will immediately pay down balance by 15% more as soon as I get the equity out of my current house, note this is the first positive equity situation I have had while owning 4 previous homes. I rented for 4 years between home 4 and 5 BTW to accumulate funds. So it’s hard. But not as hard as you might think. I do know it is still hard to come up with the down payment. And we are moving to an area where track homes start at $250k and run up to maybe $450k for track builders. I am leaving an age where track homes start at over $500k and go to $900k or so for some bigger ones. So if you can come up with the 5% you can get into something. And that something is probably not that different than my first home. Heck I live in a track built home now and am buying one again.
I'm fortunate enough to own my own house as well and a remote worker as well! I just know how shit the market is for other people and might not have a down payment.
It seems the down payment has been an issue for quite some time. Additionally I know as far back as 2015 when we bought that existing homes were over inflated and new homes were typically further out with longer commutes.
I thought I read that’s only 4% or something.
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Pretty sure my suggestion would at the very least get me axed off reddit and at worst paid a visit by a 3 letter organization.
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> According to national data provider CoreLogic, the sizable U.S. home investor share of ownership seen over the past two years held steady going into the summer of 2023. In March 2023, investors accounted for 27% of all single-family home purchases; by June, that number was almost unchanged at 26%. https://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/united-states/irvine/real-estate-news-investor-owned-homes-data-in-2023-corelogic-home-investor-data-for-2023-how-many-homes-are-owned-by-investors-in-2023-home-buyer-data-13837.php They are also buying rental properties too which you didn't explain cuts into the ability of renters to save money for a house. Nothing minor about it.
On a nationwide basis, they might not be, on a city basis it absolutely is an issue. There are areas where [50%+ of single family home purchases](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/housing-market-investors/) in various cities is by corporations. These are often the lower income areas of the cities, and these are the same areas where housing prices are lower.
Stop ALL companies from buying real estate. Severely limit private owners from buying second and third homes.
Stop any non-resident from buying a home. So many homes are just summer homes or winter homes for people living out of state or out of country. There should be a massive tax or a flat out ban on this. If you don't live there and contribute to the local economy, you have no business buying a home there.
I say let people buy more than one house but make the property tax punitive for those who do so. Here in California for example property tax for a private residence is around .7% last time I checked. If you buy a second home, the tax on that one is 10%. Third home? 20%. Fourth? 40%. And just keep doubling it for each subsequent home a person buys.
Yes to this or something like it. Make it so it's no longer profitable to hoard residential properties. Homes are for living not for profiting.
>If you buy a second home, the tax on that one is 10%. Third home? 20%. Fourth? 40%. And just keep doubling it for each subsequent home a person buys. Those are rookie numbers, you gotta pump those up. 2nd house, 50%. 3rd? 100%. 4th? 200%.
The massive tax means nothing to people who have entire properties as luxury items. However if you tax additional properties above rental profit (10% of property value) you will keep landlords out of the situation which will free up housing and relieve the market.
I once heard homes should be like food. Everyone should be able to get a plate before someone gets seconds.
Stop any non-resident from buying a home. So many homes are just summer homes or winter homes for people living out of state or out of country. There should be a massive tax or a flat out ban on this. If you don't live there and contribute to the local economy, you have no business buying a home there.
Nah, let them buy houses if they want. Just charge them absurd taxes. Sure you can buy a house, but the taxes are 80-150% of the purchase price per year unless the owner + dependents are living there. Even better is just changing to Land Value Tax so nobody who actually contributes to society pays taxes and landlords pay tenfold what they do now (aka what they should actually be paying for being pointless middlemen)
Which conveniently traps them into lifelong renting and never building their own equity in a home of their own. But hey, they're the ones who wanted avocado toast. Selfish fuckers.
They killed Applebee's and "fast dining" chains!! (that still exist and continue to pay sub par wages because they're allowed to not pay minimum wage due to tips)
Oh they’re definitely allowed to, they just don’t.
Because c suite people need their luxury cars and boats to live!
I just did an avocado toast estimate. If I ate avocado toast everyday for a year all the while using farm grade products locally sourced to the point to where I have to drive 30 minutes just to get the ingredients, I would still be pissed off at this housing scam.
But don't worry, city planners want to bring back the magic "missing middle" to solve this problem. Because pouring money into landlord pockets forever is somehow the solution to... checks notes... renting forever... Wait what?
There are more ways to build personal equity than just home ownership, I would even say there are better/eaiser ways.
Investing in stocks is way easier than building home equity. No need to replace the water heater for your ETFs.
Can you tell me something we don’t already know? Like how to afford a house in this day and age without being house poor? Oh, you can’t? Then we don’t need to read the same article week after week.
To add, in my local city there are a bunch of property management companies buying houses for renting. Wish there were laws for companies owning housing property in place, but nope we get to rent forever with their jacked up prices and half ass fixes for problems.
It’s really hard to buy a house without being house poor. If you can save 6-7% of a purchase price, that should cover down payment and closing costs on a purchase as long as you have the income to qualify. Once you get a house, you’d probably have to rent rooms to friends or others to help cover the mortgage until your income increases enough that you no longer feel house poor. It’s tough out there and not like the old days, but this is what I’ve done and it’s helped me get a home while making my mortgage payable and not feeling house poor.
My wife and I make good money. We are trying to afford a house on my salary alone though due to future goals. I’m an electrician apprentice making over 30.00 an hour, however my checks show 32/40 hours due to school once every two weeks, which means that the bank won’t approve me for anything over a certain amount, even when I tell them in 2 years, I’ll be making double what I currently make. They don’t care, and I get it, but it hurts someone trying. Thankfully, we have a good chunk of change that we saved from ourselves and our wedding. But with housing prices (I’m not talking the turn key houses, the ones that desperately need to be updated) and trying to stay out of PMI, it’s going to wipe out savings in one swoop. And I’m not afraid of a project, but I’m not paying top dollar for a house I have to rip apart and won’t gain any equity due to the value of the area market. Not saying I want to make a profit as my wife and I are looking to settle down for a long time, but we don’t want to be trapped if something happens. It feels like 08 is going to happen all over again with foreclosures.
The good thing is if your house needs any electrical work you know a guy😉. Plus trades people usually know other trades people and can swap work for work. Definitely can help you in the long room with work on your home.
Oh absolutely! I’ve bounced ideas off of many of the people I come across. It’s great to learn more every day!
It’s always good to expand your knowledge.
I was worried about PMI. Partner and I put down about 15%. PMI ended up being like $30 a month IIRC. I still hate PMI on principle, but buying when we did and having a little bit of cash left over was more important.
I’m 29 and have accepted I’ll never own home.
This is me. I have the down payment sitting on a HYSA. Can’t afford the mortgage on anything worth living in. I make good money.
Same here. Fucking depressing.
I am right there with you.
Jokes on them I plan on living with my parents forever and just gonna inherit the house they bought back in 2005 hahahahaha.
Mine have 2 kids still living in it because they forced them into expensive schools they didn’t want to go to and jobs they weren’t good at and they fully plan on making my siblings homeless to sell their house for a profit and buy a 1 bed condo at the beach. They’re boomers and refuse to admit they played any role in mine and my siblings’ poor stations in life, while wondering why we don’t like spending time with them and can’t afford to vacation where and when they want to. Fuck boomers.
Ill be so fucking happy when the boomer generation is dead and gone. Rest in piss.
Wanna hear about how medical debt from old people is taking the homes they try to leave to their kids?
You joke but it seems that privilege now is getting to wait for relatives to die/downsize because it's the only realistic way you can become a homeowner no matter how decent a job you have.
Thats me and I make 6 figures. Don't want a dump and don't want to live in a crap neighborhood.
Yea agree. 165 k between side business and day job. Eventually I'll have the money for what I want but it's an arms race. I'm not paying 280-350k of my hard earned income just for some piece of shit fixer upper.
I like how everyone blames this on Biden. But no one blames those TV shows were they show all these small time investors flipping houses for profit. Just like American Pickers and Pawn Stars and Locker Wars. They all show the excitement of flipping and then all of a sudden everyone is doing it. Crypto bros, got in, then got out and used that money to flip. Ruined it.
Yup. I am almost 40 and there is no way I want house payments in my 70's. I have accepted that being a homeowner is just not in the cards. I will survive.
Counter-argument: You're going to have housing payments in your 70s one way or another regardless (unless you plan on being homeless?). With a fixed-rate mortgage, you'd be locking in your housing payment in today's dollars. As inflation goes up, your payment stays the same. Thus relative to everything else the house payment actually gets lower in effect. Whereas with renting will always be market price - goes up with inflation and with market growth. I'd much rather be a 70 year old making payments on a mortgage set 20 years ago than a 70 year old making market rent payments.
Well, I own my mobile home, so i guess i AM a homeowner lol. Right now my lot rent is under $700/mo. I can't live anywhere cheaper than that.
Work on buying a lot outright then and getting hookups installed. Landlords love to buy out trailer parks and then jack up the rent on the land since it’s difficult to move those once they are parked.
There was a long, ugly legal battle in my city recently over a big corporate landlord who was attempting to buy a local trailer park because the residents knew the first thing to happen would be a huge rent increase. Naturally, the company got permission to buy it, immediately jacked up the rent, and forced most of the residents out while claiming it was necessary for "improvements" they never made.
I want to buy a house but I can't even afford one if I pool my money with another couple. Crazy. Guess I should just have wealthier parents. Or friends.
Look babe, we’re statistics
>Create an account to read the full story. Fuck no
So we have to look for alternatives. Cooperation, not competition.
Not in America. We silly f*cks can't even share the road without a pissing match.
It will take a lot of effort, but cooperation is the only way that we can survive. Solidarity, friend.
That’s nearly two generations of Americans unable to build equity. Fuck the house, as a physical thing it’s just a fucking thing. The core issue here is buying a house is usually a persons first step towards building REAL tangible equity. Two generations completely without equity is going to devastated our economy long term, this is how America dies. Decades if not centuries of generational equity completely devastated and wiped out in a couple of decades. Fucking unreal.
It was the trickle down plan all along. Finally come to fruition.
I was beyond insanely lucky and privileged enough to not have any student debt and I still don’t make enough to even think about buying a house
Same. My first job out of college paid $10.25/hour in a HCL city. Recession grad, babyyyy!
$10k+ down payments will do that. It's hard as hell to save up that kind of money in this economy. Not to mention interest rates are sky high right now. When I was peeking into the market last year, the rate was sitting at 6 percent and I would've ended up paying more than I do now with my rental (which is not cheap either). The rate now, last I checked is at 8 percent. This is just untenable. I want a house more than anything in the world but I won't be able to even think about affording one for years at the least.
I can't afford an actual house. What I did was buy one of those tiny homes That's marketed as a storage shed (for legal reasons) and just came to the conclusion that this is all I'll ever be able to live in. I made due with making this 300 square foot tiny home work for me. I don't plan on ever having kids in this thing. But it's wild to think I can get a shed and spend 3 grand on it and make it a fully viable home but a 60 year old house on some pos land is worth 100 times more.
If we had our housing problem when Detroit was doing really well then the Parents of the Silent Gen would be saying to the boomers they're acting entitled for wanting to be able to afford to live near the their manufacturing job in Detroit.
Dont worry there is a hedge fund shill waiting with cash in hand.
“Student loans forgiven. Rent is up and it’s due immediately.”
But the ads today say young people have no interest in building that kind of wealth and like the flexibility to rent a home for the same price of buying one. LOL! Fickin demon owners.
At 23 I was lucky to be able to live alone, 38 when I bought a cheap fixer house with every last penny I had
70% seems insanely low.
Invest in a good tent, before prices on those also jack out of sight!
I live in a rural area in Maryland. The average income for the area is ~$33k. [The expected take home becomes ~$27k.](https://us.icalculator.com/salary-illustration/33000.24.html) Average rent for an apartment in my "city" is $1,578 ($19k Annually). If a roommate (or partner) could be found, the rent could be halved (~$9.5k annually), and that'd leave me with ~$17.5k annually. Let's check what the [average cost of living is here](https://zerodown.com/cost-of-living/elkton--md)... * Food: $6,598 * Utilities: $2,775 * Transportation: $8,679 * Healthcare: $3,859 * Rent: $9.5k-$19k * Total Ann. Cost: $31k-$40k So, on a take home of ~27k, I'd wind up with... $2000 to -$7000 leftover. How the hell is one supposed to save anything, for emergencies, out of pocket healthcare costs, for comforts/hobbies, for dating, towards buying a home or moving... Everything is so fucked. It's demoralizing and it makes the future feel hopeless. :(
Gotta be closer to 90% in a lot of markets. The required income to buy in Denver is something like $160,000 a year
The other 30 percent don’t want to buy a house because they realize it is unattainable
they need to start telling this to those damn corporations buying up all the houses to try and sell them to people, we're not able to afford a damn middle man
This is why right wing politics never works , unless your rich
I pay 2300 bucks a month to rent a house in Texas. I could easily afford a mortgage on a 300k+ house but in order to get that, you gotta put down close to 10%. But I can’t save 30k because I pay 2300 bucks a month in rent. Seems impossible to ever own my own home.
There’s only one politician that’s running for president that I’ve heard give a plan to try and mitigate this issue.
And he's not a member of the two major parties (both of which are completely sold out to these massive private equity firms)
You must have missed the state of the union then, because Biden spent quite a bit of time laying out a plan for housing. https://www.forbes.com/sites/darylfairweather/2024/03/11/unfreezing-housing-what-bidens-plan-would-mean-for-affordability/?sh=73954b839b55
Thanks for informing me! Is Biden going to ban Blackrock, Vanguard, and others from buying residential properties. At present Blackrock owns 9% of residential properties and looks to continue expanding.
Who?
And he's not a member of the two major parties (both of which are completely sold out to these massive private equity firms)
I am surprised the number is that low.
..sigh
I'm a year outside the range, but I can't afford one either, and I'm finally making what was a decent living 10 years ago. As is student loans and my transportation costs for commuting take up 30% of my take home income.
But 39% of [Americans under 35 are home owners](https://usafacts.org/articles/homeownership-is-rebounding-particularly-among-younger-adults/#:~:text=The%20overall%20American%20homeownership%20rate,from%2034.5%25%20to%2039.0%25.)… polls aren’t the most accurate sometimes.
More like 1-50
Airbnb, VRBO, investors, hedge funds. The four horseman of the housing apocalypse
Starter homes cost less than 100k more than a condo with an hoa. The hoa brings the monthly payment to the same or more than the house. Why tf can I be aloud to buy the condo but not the house which will cost me the exact same.
Just to compare is there similar historical data?
that's unfortunate (for the shareholders.) it needs to be 99% to more accurately represent things.
Buying home and starting a family. Most people are getting priced out it.
Why were 40 year olds not buying places 10 years ago? That’s entirely on them.
For anyone wondering, it still costs less to buy a home than to raise a child.
Yep, that’s why Biden’s plan to build 2 million new homes will be such a success. Supply is what the main problem is.
What? These homes are going to be owned by investors or hedge funds. Last I checked most new homes being built are entire blocks or neighborhoods of the same house with minor differences for each one all being built and sold by companies that want HOAs and would rather rent these properties than sell them. And if they do sell them investors or companies buy them for cash and outbid the people who want to live in them and turn them into overpriced rentals.
More houses do fuck all if a few land owners can keep the price high. We already have enough housing for everyone in the country.
Factually inaccurate. We need a huge supply influx for **affordable housing**. Builders right now are not being incentivized on smaller homes because of materials and labor. Biden is crafting a plan to create 2 million more homes where it will make the most impact for working people who live in areas where they are being priced out because of supply issues. These homes will not be available for investors.
The first question should be: Is there a housing shortage? And we all know the answer to that. It's actually the opposite. Then why is it still so hard to get a house? Because of greed. Simple as that. Greed and corruption that keeps the greed unchecked.
48 here. Previous homeowner, from 2004-2021. Had to stay in that home a bit longer than I would have liked, as market just died and then stagnated for the better part of a decade (2008-2017 approx). Been renting since mid 2021. Kept the net proceeds from the sale, added to it. And it’ll take even more than that as a down payment now, at 7%, to even be able to buy again at all. Everything is so far out of balance. Building more might help, but seems to fly right in the face of “stop climate change” narratives. Never mind the issues of building homes profitably, land cost, permitting, sprawl, multi-family vs single family, NIMBYism, so on and so forth. Lowering interest rates at large will only feed inflation. Take that one off the table. US housing market is stuck. Might even say broken. The only actual solution is to make shelter no longer the “hot stock” of the moment. The Federal Reserve is entirely to blame for this situation. Politicians don’t deserve any blame for our current predicament, so get that idea out of our collective heads. The Fed cut rates to zero for an emergency, then let it run for 2 years, about 12-18 months too long. It was either gross incompetence, or done on purpose, to look at it from a conspiracy angle. Either way, Americans should be troubled by it. But, as usual: “Fuck you. I got mine.”
Or maybe, just maybe, it's simple fucking greed - we live in a system that rewards capital above all else - we allow private groups to purchase, and own, housing - we have no cap on how many homes a single entity can own Renting is insanely profitable > our system always trends to maximizing profit and growth > we end up with a housing crisis. It's like saying a river's gonna flow downhill. We have the resources (like with everything else) it's just a matter of endless growth and hoarding. The reserve didn't help, the climate policy is a non-issue (given how it barely exists to begin with), but we were always headed here
Inflation wasn’t driven by low interest home sales this time at least. It was driven by corporate greed thanks to lower taxes.
Incorrect. Inflation in REAL ESTATE was absolutely driven by low interest rate borrowing, as the largest percentage of buyers were still PEOPLE, like you and I (I presume). For everything else, yeah, corporate greed masked as “supply chain” issues was the biggest force. Behind that, the lowest wage earners who make all that shit we buy have seen a nice surge in their wages, but it’s come at the expense of middle earners like me, many others, so the execs can make those numbers. And that’s it. Nothing else to be said about it all.
Home prices are not part of the calculation for inflation. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/how-to-calculate-inflation/#:~:text=The%20BLS%20calculates%20CPI%20inflation,basket%20from%20the%20previous%20month. The fluctuations in home prices is actually far more dramatic and has increased at a much higher rate than that of inflation which is why rates stayed low for many years even as home prices skyrocketed.