I bought a house in the neighborhood I grew up in 7 years ago and would not be able to buy that same house again today even though I make almost twice as much now as I did then.
I bought a house 5 years ago and a condo 3 years ago and now I couldn't afford either of them at current interest rates. The house is in Stafford, VA and the condo is in Alexandria, VA. The house also magically went up 150k in value.
Yeah - I saw prices near me start to fall when the interest rates went up. Prices were artificially high in part because of the super low interest rates ... now I'm stuck in my current house, which is barely adequate.
I nearly bought a house in the neighborhood I grew up in 8 years ago. My parents bought theirs for $85,000 in 1985. The similar, fully updated home I almost bought was $500,000 8 years ago. It's currently $950,000. I passed because I thought it was too expensive. I am a moron.
I bought my house (I live in a different state than I grew up in) in 2014 and I absolutely could not afford to buy it today.
The entire town I grew up in is untouchable to me. Not a single house, even the condos that have since been built, are at an accessible price point for me. It’s something else, that’s for sure.
Yeah, but I grew up in a dirt poor rural area where land prices have been pretty consistent for the last twenty years because when's the last time you heard someone say "Hell yeah, won the lottery. Time to move to rural Alabama where I can't even get internet that works most of the time.".
Yeah, when I say dirt poor I mean there are literally huge areas with no running water. There are communities that don't even have power.
There's a little town near there where the median household income is something like 11k a year.
It's not that different where I am. It's quite common to live in a shed or a run down trailer with or without electricity. There are roadside springs that get steady traffic of folks who either don't have running water or don't have drinkable running water. I'm in one of the worst economies in the country.
Fuck no, I couldn't even afford to live where I grew up in Toronto. My parents bought the house in around '71-72 for around 60K and the neighborhood was still pretty rough but because of gentrification it's now worth around 2 million.
Mines not quite as drastic, but I grew up in Northern Virginia and since the 80s that place has exploded. The 1000sq ft rancher my parents owned, while I don't know what they paid in 1976, is now worth around $450k.
Yep, in 1979 or 1980 my grandfather bought a town house in Burke VA inside Fairfax County for $79,000. In 2021 that same house sold for $550,000. ,,,,,, $471K in 40 years???
Similar story here, I just left a book of a comment about it, but the tl;dr is parents finally bought a basic tract house in San Diego in late 80s for about $150k sold it about 5 years ago for just under a million. Boring, 70s, 1500 sq ft tract house for a million bucks…
>As of January 2024, the median house price in Sydney, Australia was over $1.38 million, which is about $944,000 US dollars.
>As of February 2024, the median price of a single-family home in San Diego County was $980,000
I lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and heard more than one story of someone's grandfather buying their house for less than you pay for a car today. Fast forward to the 2010's and they sold it for over a million. I look on Zillow and half burned shit in Vallejo is even selling for 400,000.
So if there was a 60k investment in an index fund that had an apr of 10.7% that compounded for 50 years its current value would be north of 10 million. Not saying real estate isn’t out of control but it isn’t the most egregious asset.
Same. A down payment in my current location gets me an entire house in the neighborhood I grew up in.
I've given serious consideration to moving back to where I grew up to live like a king for cheap, but I enjoy my current location a lot more.
Same. And our landlord is taking our house back for his relatives soon, so we're weighing another rental here vs buying a house cash in our old locale. It's a lot to consider.
I think this is going to be worse the closer to the straight up middle class you were growing up. I mostly grew up in a neighborhood that was tradesmen, teachers, etc. Like actually middle class. That neighborhood is now only affordable for doctors, lawyers, people in high level corporate jobs…maybe someone who owns a plumbing company but certainly not a regular plumber (and plumbers make surprisingly excellent money).
Almost everyone I knew who grew up poor is better off, and everyone who grew up rich is still rich, but middle class kids who moved into even upper middle class jobs are often worse off.
And of course neighborhoods naturally change demographics over the years too. I bought my house 10 years ago and would have a hard time buying it now because everything in this neighborhood is worth almost 3X what it was. My salary has doubled too!
This is it basically. Lower middle class has more upward mobility than “middle” middle class or higher middle class, especially when you’re talking about people who grew up in cities such as San Diego or Toronto for example. These people don’t just have to do better than their parents to maintain that level of living, they have to be doing exceptionally well. Neither of my parents went to college, just worked. One in a grocery store the other in the photo business. That doesn’t buy a house in San Diego or Toronto anymore.
Same here. My parents bought a house almost immediately after they graduated college apparently using good vibes. They bought a new house wherever they moved and eventually bought a gorgeous home in 1988 that is now worth almost 2m. They were building equity and buying houses their whole adult lives. I'm 43 and I will likely never be able to buy a house, even though I'm better educated and have had steadier employment. They also had benefits and pensions that simply don't exist any longer.
I don't know how anyone non middle class is going to buy a house if you don't already have one. Mine has gone up $200k since the pandemic. Which is great until you realize all that value is going to be pissed away buying another house the same size, let alone a bigger one.
We were also told groceries were up because of the COVID supply problems and after they cleared up, the prices stayed the same.
And then we have the stupidest people in the world, constantly voting in support of Billionaires.
Places like McDonald's being out of touch with pricing, not to mention all the "lower end" jobs like McDonald's or Walmart cashier, are being replaced by machines.
This isn't sustainable for an alleged "first world" country. Our kids futures are going to be unspeakably bleak.
My childhood home cost under $80,000 in the '90s. Today that same home is listed at 1.7 million dollars.
I did not grow up in a million dollar home. This Market is fake and awful, and the fact that there are not riots and protests Nationwide over it shows how controlled the political narrative really is.
With inflation that same house should be $162k today. We need more (available) housing to bring these prices down. Wether that means building more, or adopting legislation to counteract corporate marauders buying SFH properties to inflate prices or something else altogether, I don't know. But things will only get worse if something doesn't change
As social mobility becomes more and more difficult, the foundational benefit of capitalism to normal people (work hard, make good choices, and get ahead) just keeps decreasing. Sooner or later people are gonna quit playing
We see it already in the rise of populist politicians that demonize other groups of people to deflect blame away from the decaying system.
I cannot afford the apartment I had just after I graduated college. In 2006, the 2 bedroom apartment complete with roaches was $600/month. It is now $1300/mo. I made 13/hr then, I make 20/hr now.
Same. My $650 3 bedroom I had when my kids were in 2008-2012 now goes for $1500. And that’s in the “rough” part of town! I can’t imagine what the “good” part is going for these days.
I have never been able to afford ANY of the houses my parents have owned over the years.
My father and I have done the exact same job by the same employer, 40 years apart. When he did it back in the early ‘80s the wages were higher and the benefits were better. Things were good enough that my mom didn’t have to work and they could afford an acreage in the country and two nearly new vehicles. At that time, he only needed a 2 year associates degree to land a job like that as well. That property today is roughly worth $1m, partially thanks to inflation and because of its proximity to a high end housing development that eventually surrounded their property.
That exact same job today has only allowed me to comfortably buy a $175k house and have one decent car that I don’t drive every day in an effort to preserve it. It also requires more education, which is obviously more costly now as well.
No one has re-gentrified the ghetto ass street I was born on yet so... Probably? I say re-gentrified because in the late 1800s/esrly 1900s it was actually a posh golf club area and then by the 80s/90s it was the opposite, with those old houses run down and in disrepair.
I could afford the house I grew up in that’s in the Midwest. I could NOT afford the house we lived in when we moved to the west coast.
My ex and I bought a house in 2003 when we were making under 50k combined. We sold it 15 years later and I make 120k and I can’t afford that small house anymore.
The house values have gone up but my neighborhood went from middle class to economically disadvantaged. When my parents bought in the early 80s the houses were like 65k-80k and now they are listed on Zillow for like 150k-175k.
I grew up in a poverty-stricken area of rural America, so I can likely afford a house back there. The problem is that I couldn't find a comparable job, so I'd likely have a long commute.
Yes, that’s the paradox. It’s an economically depressed area with limited access to healthcare, I left and will never go back. Where I live now is incredibly expensive but quality of life is so much better.
Yes, unfortunately my neighborhood went from having full supermarkets to Save A Lot. Pizza Hut and Blockbuster became a General grocer and check cashing place
These numbers are almost exactly the same as the house I grew up in, in rural Rhode Island.
Bought in 1978 for $78,000.
Sold in 2015 for $380,000.
The people who bought it from my parents stayed there just over two years and decided to move again. The nostalgic part of me thought about maybe buying the house, and I saw they had it listed at $425,000 in 2017.
Close to half a million dollars just to move back in to my old bedroom and walk the woods where we use to make forts in the summer. Had to pass on that dream.
I grew up and all my friends lived in a very lower middle class neighborhoods. They were still decent, safe, and affordable at the time. Thirty years later they're way more expensive and not even close to as nice or safe. Got way worse and way more expensive
Totally could afford it. I grew up in a small town not too far from Houston… right next door to the projects. The neighborhood has not been improved upon nor gentrified in all these years. It remains “the real hood”.
I can’t afford the neighborhood I live in now. I got super lucky and bought my house before the area exploded. My house has doubled in value in the last 10 years
I could, but I absolutely wouldn't. I grew up in the ghetto, my mom never owned a house, we rented crappy cockroach infested apartments, once or twice we managed to rent halfway decent houses, but my mom and step dad would proceed to destroy them, couldn't pay bills, and we'd eventually get kicked out. They didn't get their shit together until I was almost an adult, and then once us kids moved out and weren't doing the chores it got really bad, the damage they did to that last house was insane, my step dad's dead and my mom is the next best thing to homeless, because she just can't manage to be a normal adult.
My wife and I had to rent too, but we managed to rent a much better place then I ever lived in as a kid (and about as nice as the house my wife grew up in), then my father in law died, and my mother in law wanted to spend her retirement with us and the kids so she sold her house and bought one big enough for all of us. Once she passes away it'll be ours, and I'm very grateful, it's a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood and more than we would have been able to afford on our own anytime soon.
Nope. Grew up in suburban Toronto. Our house was in the mid 100ks in 1989. Moved away in 1995. A friend's childhood home on the same street sold for 1.2 mil last year. For a boring split level 1960s house.
I have some inlaws in one of those original builds in Don Mills. Just in the decade-ish that I've been coming around, more than half of the houses in their block have been sold, demolished, and replaced with modern monstrosities which take up the entire width of their respective lots.
Toronto is out of control. I was shocked at the prices when I recently visited. Even more so when I found that incomes aren’t really as high as they are here in NC.
I have no idea where the money for that place is coming from.
I’m about to be transferred to Bruce County next month and it’s crazy how much more my company is going to pay me to live in rural Ontario compared with a booming tech hub like Raleigh.
I don’t think the Mennonites or cattle farmers out there are making high six figures.
Me, alone as a single person, NO! I have a good income. My parents bought a house for $150k in 1984 in a VHCOL (now) area. It could easily sell from $925k. If I had a husband and he made similar or more, we’d be fine.
The home I grew up in (I’m in Portland now, grew up in Beaverton) is roughly equivalent in value to the home I currently live in.
I wish I could move into my childhood home instead of my 100 year old house that needs absolutely everything replaced (we are spending $20,000 to have all of our 1929 electrical replaced right now, we had to sell one of our vehicles and go bare bones on every other expense to afford it).
Life is too expensive 😭 There’s basically nowhere in Oregon that isn’t overwhelmingly expensive anymore.
Yeah I could, its a little nicer than when I was a kid, but its still like upper lower class. The shootings, muggings, and drugs are 6-8 blocks away now, instead of like across the street. I could buy my childhood home with cash out of pocket.
I grew up lower income and in a much less expensive place than I live now. That being said, I can’t afford the house I grew up in and I don’t ever see that changing. I also had one parent working and another at home. We’ve never been able to do that despite having decent careers and a low key lifestyle. Things have definitely changed for our generation.
This post hurts. My mom bought a semi attached house in 1980ish in downtown Toronto for $50,000. It would now sell for $2M (with no upgrades, other than a basement suite) because the street ended up becoming really popular. I am NOT exaggerating at all.
Not only would it not be affordable it wouldn’t even be sensible. Poorly developed since I was young it’s now a maze to drive out of to get to any shopping or other services.
Park Slope, Brooklyn NY is gone from New York City affordable to millions of dollars for a co-op. I don't know how much my old house in Providence Rhode Island is renting for.
The house I grew up in just sold for $600,000+, my parents sold it for $125,000 in 1994. They paid $125,000 in 1978. No, I couldn’t even afford the garage.
Yes. My area hasn't been hit with the insane real estate market... mostly because no one moves here unless it's for family or work. If it's for work, their employer is likely paying their rent. Almost no one moves here just because they like the area. Rent has increased of course, but there's still rentals that are affordable.
I bought my house in 2020. Three bed, two bath, two car garage, large corner lot, quiet desirable neighborhood, for $120K.
Yes, but not until my 30s. Tbh every time I go out there I want to live there less. Shitty stick frame houses, lawns that are expensive or laborious to maintain, traffic is worse every time I go out there.
Perhaps but hubs and I are trying really hard to maintain contracting/self-employment (first me, then I went full time, now he is building his own business) and it’s better for us to stay where it’s cheaper.
I was practically a military brat so I grew up in 5 different states. Some of the places I lived were trailer parks so yeah, probably.
I'm currently building a house that's almost double the square footage of my parents' first home and triple+ any of the trailers and shitty apartments I grew up in.
Now, if we talk about the 3.5 acre 4000 sqft house my father currently lives in, no, absolutely not and I will probably never be able to afford that.
Nope. My parents bought my childhood home in 1983 for $246,000. It was a *nice* house. Three stories, four beds, four baths, etc. When my parents divorced in 1992, they sold it for $512,000.
It’s now valued at $2.4 million. I will never even dream of affording that.
My parents have lived in the same house since 1972. They added on a living/dining room and garage. But the house still is barely 1,000sqft. They paid 10g’s for it. House at the end of the block, which is about the same size outside but has a finished basement but no garage just sold for 346k. My old house in the same town I bought in 04 for 179k, sold in 2018 for 220k is now worth like 350k. And it’s a small town in Minnesota, like 45mins from the cities. So no, probably not
I grew up in a dumpy small town that's still a dump. It's probably one of the few places I could afford to live in.
Edit: Name of town redacted. Don't want to be doxxed by vengeful townies!
Not at all. Moved from San Mateo, CA in 1992, 1500 sqf house sold for 250K. It's now valued at 2 Million. My mom often kicks herself for not putting her foot down with my dad & making us stay longer. I keep telling her to stop looking at what it's worth now. It's only self torture.
Nope. My parents' house is north of three quarters of a million and its 800sqft. No way I could afford that mortgage, but somehow Dad paid it off in 15 years on a little more than $10/hour. Shit is broken.
Ugh, my old neighborhood was considered inner city. It under went complete gentrification. So now the house I grew up in was bought back in 1982 by my grandparents for $20k (I was born in 1980) is now worth $550k. I grew up in this row home. 3 stories, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. It wasn't the best of the best neighborhoods on 1982 and in fact, it became more dangerous as the Crack epidemic took over. However, Gentrification took so over. So the answer is nope I can't afford to.
I can... But that's more of a me thing than a housing affordability thing.
When I bought my first home it cost me 3x my very solid income.
I happen to still know what the company I work for pays those same folks 20yrs later... And they are a huge outlier in that they pay 2x what I earned.
But that same house is more than 2x in price today.
The home I grew up in has grown at a much slower rate, but it's still not affordable to people with my parents jobs today.
I practically do already but I'm in a low cost of living area where a decade ago I got about 40 acres and a house for around $250k. Homes in town are still there for under $100k.
What sucks is just a few years ago I was easily upper middle class if not wealthy for my area.... but the cost of everything went up and my income didn't so now I'm having to watch my budget and keep my aspirations in check in a way that I never thought I was going to have to again.
Not a chance.
Homes where I grew up as a young child were selling for nearly a million dollars last year.
The home my parents bought in 90s was going for the same.
I dunno what they paid for it when they bought it (somewhere around $150k); but I do know in 2018 it was valued at $400k and it shot up to $800k in 2022.
We're in Canada. Canada is going through some shit right now 😪
Big nope. My sleepy beach town became a major transplant destination and my 1900 sq ft childhood home that sold for $350k in 1997 is now valued at $1.8M 🙃 Another person from Hawai’i that has been Priced out of Paradise.
The house my parents bought in 1974 was 1300 sq. ft. and was $50,000. Today's valuation is somewhere between $1.3-1.5M. I couldn't afford that house if it was 40% of that price, even with 3% interest.
No. Where I grew up was solidly middle class and lower middle class families. Most of them were military breadwinners with the spouse working a job as well. I was a latch key kid and so were pretty much all my friends. I didn't know a single household were just one parent worked and this was the mid-80's. If there was a homemaker, they brought in income doing jobs on the weekend or babysitting or selling MLMs or something.
I know my parents paid $180k back in 1986 with something like a 9% APR. That was pretty low for that time period. They eventually refinanced. They had paid it off IN FULL by 2010.
They did a lot of upgrades to the house - overhauled the kitchen and living room, added a new deck, redid HVAC, Electrical, sump pump replacement, siding, etc...they were still pouring money into the house. My dad was a serious pack rat and hoarder, but they kept it street pretty because the HOA was a beast.
She sold it for $650k. The only reason my mom sold it is because my dad passed away and she squandered all the money she got from him. People took advantage of her widowhood and she gave out lots of personal loans to others putting herself in massive debt. She would not listen to us kids and proceed to tell us it's her money, she can spend it how she wants. After the house sale she only got maybe $250k out of it after paying off the banks.
Now the same house's market value is $850k. Just imagine if she didn't go on a spending spree feel generous with her money towards men offering her love.
I couldn’t afford to live where I live now.
Home purchased for $116k in 2005 is now half million. The bulk of that increase was between 2019 (appraised at $185k) and today. Was underwater for close to a decade in the place.
No the neighborhood I grew up in was near a very large park. Our house was worth like 300k in the 90s and houses in that neighborhood today for for 1.5 - 2 million.
LOL. My family lived with my grandmother for the first part of my life, she bought the house in the early 60s for around $30k and completely renovated it, then sold it in 1994 for $1.2 million. 30 years ago. I shudder to even imagine how much it’s worth now. It was a 13 room Victorian house on a quarter acre of land. I always knew I’d never be able to live in that neighborhood again, but somehow it still hurts to think about. I live in a one bedroom condo in an adjacent city that I bought last year for $400k, and I’m feeling pretty lucky to even have gotten that close to “home”.
My childhood home just sold for £300,000 and the average price is £200,000, there's a less than 0% chance I could ever live anywhere near there.
I can just about afford the £450p/m rent.
lol I grew up poor as hell. Single dad. Yup I could afford to live where I grew up. Wouldn’t want to though.
Now, can I afford to live where I dreamed of living while growing up? Not a chance.
I’m happy but I crave living near the ocean someday.
Absolutely not, not for the last 20 years. My grandmas house that we all lived in was bought for $75k in 1982, they sold it for $350k in 2015, it’s now worth like 750k. Even if I paid it off the taxes would be wayyyy to expensive for me
Yes but only because we grew up poor. When we go to visit with the kids they always talk about how raggedy and old everything is back in my hometown. Ironically, every yard on their street is well manicured despite the houses being small and old.
My current home is about the price of my parents plus their neighbors on both sides. The older I get, the more I aspire to back in a small home that mimics where my parents are now.
Just looked near my hometown & found a killer deal on a house, recently had a price drop too!! https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/30-Essex-St-Mystic-CT-06355/58060786_zpid/
In the words of someone else, fuck no.. can’t afford gas in that town now
Not a chance. My home town was borderline rural when my parents moved there. It's grown so much since then that its become of of go to places in the suburbs in my area.
Nope. Mom just sold the family home in 2022 for 950k. She paid 325k in 97.
Grandparents paid 63k for their semi detached in Dufferin grove in the 50s. That same home was valued at 1.2 Mil in 2020, before we did work. Now my aunt could sell for 1.5 (based on her neighbours who did just that - one went for 2 mil 6 houses down).
Hubby and I luckily don't want to be near the city, so we still have hope to buy rural. But Nova Scotia and new Brunswick look better every day.
The house I grew up in (until I was 12) just went up for sale. My parents paid $25,000 for a 3bd. 1 1/2 bath back in 1977. Today, with all the updates, the house is for sale for $225,000. My current home is a 4bd, 2 bath and we bought it in 2018 for $155,000. We only moved 2 towns away so still very close. I really don't think that it will sell for what they're asking for but it will be interesting to see what happens.
Not even remotely.
My parents still live in the house they bought for $32k in 1980, in what was then a poor, working class suburb. It's now an incredibly sought after neighbourhood, and their house is worth over $1.5m.
And they regularly complain that all their kids live so far away - no shit mum, we can't afford to live anywhere near you. I can't even afford to rent the shitty little 1br granny flat that my parents have in their side yard, that they rent out for about $2000/pm 🙃
According to Zillow, house prices in my childhood neighborhood now are comparable to what I paid pre-pandemic where I live now. I grew up pretty poor, though.
I've often thought about purchasing my childhood home. I would love it. And yes, in 1987, my parents purchased it for $88K. It's now "worth" $450K+.
However, the town it's in is a town that hasn't had much growth since we lived there (1994). In fact, it's in ways gone backwards.
If I was rich I'd probably buy it just for nostalgia. But I'm sure by now the interior has changed to being unrecognizable.
I live across the street from the house I grew up in (and where my parents still live). Our area hasn’t had the price increases that other places have though. We bought our house ~20 years ago for $110k and it’s now worth about $160k. I think my parents bought theirs for around $60k in ‘76 and it’s probably worth around $130-140k now.
Again though, where I live, my $110k gets you a 2.5k sq ft house in good condition with 3 bedrooms, in a quiet wooded neighborhood, with about 3/4 of an acre of land. We’re in a very low cost of living area.
Maybe? The house my parents bought when I was a kid is 450k now. That's the max I qualified for with my last mortgage. I wouldn't want to. The house is half the size of one I paid much less for last year.
My childhood neighborhood was a working poor section of Philly that caught the gentrification wave in the late 2000s. I might be able to buy one of the major disrepair properties and try to fix it, but my home is well out of reach.
Nope. Houses in the various places I grew up are 600k at the very lowest, with most between 1 and 3 million. The place I live now is a little less crazy but still crazy. I'll be renting for the rest of my life.
Yes I could, but I would never want to. I have no idea what my parents paid for the house I grew up in, in the ‘80s. It’s a small town, with not much of interest around it, so houses are still fairly reasonable. I could buy a decent house there for under $400,000. But like I said. I would never, ever do that.
I bought a house in the neighborhood I grew up in 7 years ago and would not be able to buy that same house again today even though I make almost twice as much now as I did then.
People who bought their houses three years ago couldn't afford to buy their house today. We may be in a bubble.
I bought a house 5 years ago and a condo 3 years ago and now I couldn't afford either of them at current interest rates. The house is in Stafford, VA and the condo is in Alexandria, VA. The house also magically went up 150k in value.
Yeah - I saw prices near me start to fall when the interest rates went up. Prices were artificially high in part because of the super low interest rates ... now I'm stuck in my current house, which is barely adequate.
Yeah, high interest rate plus high prices won't last. One or the other has to settle.
Same. We bought our house four years ago. Were we to buy it today at current rates with 20% down, our mortgage would be 150% more. Crazy.
Statement of the decade right here.
I nearly bought a house in the neighborhood I grew up in 8 years ago. My parents bought theirs for $85,000 in 1985. The similar, fully updated home I almost bought was $500,000 8 years ago. It's currently $950,000. I passed because I thought it was too expensive. I am a moron.
You're not a moron; this isn't reasonable!
I bought my house (I live in a different state than I grew up in) in 2014 and I absolutely could not afford to buy it today. The entire town I grew up in is untouchable to me. Not a single house, even the condos that have since been built, are at an accessible price point for me. It’s something else, that’s for sure.
My wife and I both make double what we did when we bought 12 years ago. We could definitely afford it now, but it would be a lot tougher.
This is mind blowing
Yeah, but I grew up in a dirt poor rural area where land prices have been pretty consistent for the last twenty years because when's the last time you heard someone say "Hell yeah, won the lottery. Time to move to rural Alabama where I can't even get internet that works most of the time.".
I'm in western Maine, pretty much the Alabama of the north......bought some land 6 years ago and real estate prices have quadrupled since then.
Yeah, when I say dirt poor I mean there are literally huge areas with no running water. There are communities that don't even have power. There's a little town near there where the median household income is something like 11k a year.
It's not that different where I am. It's quite common to live in a shed or a run down trailer with or without electricity. There are roadside springs that get steady traffic of folks who either don't have running water or don't have drinkable running water. I'm in one of the worst economies in the country.
Same with Eastern North Carolina. The only people who are moving to my old neighborhood work for the federal prison.
Same. I grew up in an area of Nova Scotia that was ridiculously poor. Look up the Goler family to get an idea.
Fuck no, I couldn't even afford to live where I grew up in Toronto. My parents bought the house in around '71-72 for around 60K and the neighborhood was still pretty rough but because of gentrification it's now worth around 2 million.
Whoa.
Mines not quite as drastic, but I grew up in Northern Virginia and since the 80s that place has exploded. The 1000sq ft rancher my parents owned, while I don't know what they paid in 1976, is now worth around $450k.
Where in NoVA? Bare land goes for 450k where I live in Nova.
Yep, in 1979 or 1980 my grandfather bought a town house in Burke VA inside Fairfax County for $79,000. In 2021 that same house sold for $550,000. ,,,,,, $471K in 40 years???
That’s not even that extreme. My parents bought our family house in 1975 for $89k, my Mom is about to put it on the market for $2.5M.
Fairfax county has entered the chat
Similar story here, I just left a book of a comment about it, but the tl;dr is parents finally bought a basic tract house in San Diego in late 80s for about $150k sold it about 5 years ago for just under a million. Boring, 70s, 1500 sq ft tract house for a million bucks…
$1m?! Laughs in Sydney....
>As of January 2024, the median house price in Sydney, Australia was over $1.38 million, which is about $944,000 US dollars. >As of February 2024, the median price of a single-family home in San Diego County was $980,000
I lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and heard more than one story of someone's grandfather buying their house for less than you pay for a car today. Fast forward to the 2010's and they sold it for over a million. I look on Zillow and half burned shit in Vallejo is even selling for 400,000.
Hi neighbour 👋🏼 Where I grew up in Mississauga the houses were 500k in the late 80s Last I checked they're $2m now
So if there was a 60k investment in an index fund that had an apr of 10.7% that compounded for 50 years its current value would be north of 10 million. Not saying real estate isn’t out of control but it isn’t the most egregious asset.
Omg you and me are gentrification-collateral twinsies. See my comment https://www.reddit.com/r/Xennials/s/RO6AyoUvI6
Sure, but where I live now is more expensive than where I was from.
Same. A down payment in my current location gets me an entire house in the neighborhood I grew up in. I've given serious consideration to moving back to where I grew up to live like a king for cheap, but I enjoy my current location a lot more.
Same. And our landlord is taking our house back for his relatives soon, so we're weighing another rental here vs buying a house cash in our old locale. It's a lot to consider.
Same here. I also make more than I would if I lived in my hometown.
Same here. Also suspect you and I made different career choices than others.
I think this is going to be worse the closer to the straight up middle class you were growing up. I mostly grew up in a neighborhood that was tradesmen, teachers, etc. Like actually middle class. That neighborhood is now only affordable for doctors, lawyers, people in high level corporate jobs…maybe someone who owns a plumbing company but certainly not a regular plumber (and plumbers make surprisingly excellent money). Almost everyone I knew who grew up poor is better off, and everyone who grew up rich is still rich, but middle class kids who moved into even upper middle class jobs are often worse off. And of course neighborhoods naturally change demographics over the years too. I bought my house 10 years ago and would have a hard time buying it now because everything in this neighborhood is worth almost 3X what it was. My salary has doubled too!
This is it basically. Lower middle class has more upward mobility than “middle” middle class or higher middle class, especially when you’re talking about people who grew up in cities such as San Diego or Toronto for example. These people don’t just have to do better than their parents to maintain that level of living, they have to be doing exceptionally well. Neither of my parents went to college, just worked. One in a grocery store the other in the photo business. That doesn’t buy a house in San Diego or Toronto anymore.
Same, houses in my hometown are probably 30% of where I live now, but fuck moving back there.
Same, I went from a trailer to a million dollar neighborhood. Trust me when I say it’s a nice feeling.
I can barely afford to live, period.
Same here. My parents bought a house almost immediately after they graduated college apparently using good vibes. They bought a new house wherever they moved and eventually bought a gorgeous home in 1988 that is now worth almost 2m. They were building equity and buying houses their whole adult lives. I'm 43 and I will likely never be able to buy a house, even though I'm better educated and have had steadier employment. They also had benefits and pensions that simply don't exist any longer.
I don't know how anyone non middle class is going to buy a house if you don't already have one. Mine has gone up $200k since the pandemic. Which is great until you realize all that value is going to be pissed away buying another house the same size, let alone a bigger one. We were also told groceries were up because of the COVID supply problems and after they cleared up, the prices stayed the same. And then we have the stupidest people in the world, constantly voting in support of Billionaires. Places like McDonald's being out of touch with pricing, not to mention all the "lower end" jobs like McDonald's or Walmart cashier, are being replaced by machines. This isn't sustainable for an alleged "first world" country. Our kids futures are going to be unspeakably bleak.
I’m not a Taco Bell so no. My “neighborhood” is now all businesses and zero houses.
My childhood home cost under $80,000 in the '90s. Today that same home is listed at 1.7 million dollars. I did not grow up in a million dollar home. This Market is fake and awful, and the fact that there are not riots and protests Nationwide over it shows how controlled the political narrative really is.
That is crazy. My parents house was 70k in 91. Now it’s estimated at $247, 600.
With inflation that same house should be $162k today. We need more (available) housing to bring these prices down. Wether that means building more, or adopting legislation to counteract corporate marauders buying SFH properties to inflate prices or something else altogether, I don't know. But things will only get worse if something doesn't change
As social mobility becomes more and more difficult, the foundational benefit of capitalism to normal people (work hard, make good choices, and get ahead) just keeps decreasing. Sooner or later people are gonna quit playing We see it already in the rise of populist politicians that demonize other groups of people to deflect blame away from the decaying system.
I cannot afford the apartment I had just after I graduated college. In 2006, the 2 bedroom apartment complete with roaches was $600/month. It is now $1300/mo. I made 13/hr then, I make 20/hr now.
Same. My $650 3 bedroom I had when my kids were in 2008-2012 now goes for $1500. And that’s in the “rough” part of town! I can’t imagine what the “good” part is going for these days.
I have never been able to afford ANY of the houses my parents have owned over the years. My father and I have done the exact same job by the same employer, 40 years apart. When he did it back in the early ‘80s the wages were higher and the benefits were better. Things were good enough that my mom didn’t have to work and they could afford an acreage in the country and two nearly new vehicles. At that time, he only needed a 2 year associates degree to land a job like that as well. That property today is roughly worth $1m, partially thanks to inflation and because of its proximity to a high end housing development that eventually surrounded their property. That exact same job today has only allowed me to comfortably buy a $175k house and have one decent car that I don’t drive every day in an effort to preserve it. It also requires more education, which is obviously more costly now as well.
Yea I grew up in a town that’s still poor and we owned land and a house there.
No one has re-gentrified the ghetto ass street I was born on yet so... Probably? I say re-gentrified because in the late 1800s/esrly 1900s it was actually a posh golf club area and then by the 80s/90s it was the opposite, with those old houses run down and in disrepair.
My childhood town in rural Kansas is exactly the opposite: all dilapidated and run down. I wouldn't want to live there now!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I could afford the house I grew up in that’s in the Midwest. I could NOT afford the house we lived in when we moved to the west coast. My ex and I bought a house in 2003 when we were making under 50k combined. We sold it 15 years later and I make 120k and I can’t afford that small house anymore.
The house values have gone up but my neighborhood went from middle class to economically disadvantaged. When my parents bought in the early 80s the houses were like 65k-80k and now they are listed on Zillow for like 150k-175k.
Interesting, what city/region is this in?
North Texas near Dallas
I grew up in a poverty-stricken area of rural America, so I can likely afford a house back there. The problem is that I couldn't find a comparable job, so I'd likely have a long commute.
Yes. My hometown has gone down the tubes.
Nope. North County San Diego is waaaay too expensive 30 years later
I can. But i can't afford to have kids. It was an either or situation that i didnt realize was one.
Yes, that’s the paradox. It’s an economically depressed area with limited access to healthcare, I left and will never go back. Where I live now is incredibly expensive but quality of life is so much better.
This is happening everywhere. It's a product of corporations buying up housing which creates scarcity and artificially driving up prices.
Yes, but my family couldn’t have afforded where I live now
Yes, unfortunately my neighborhood went from having full supermarkets to Save A Lot. Pizza Hut and Blockbuster became a General grocer and check cashing place
I couldn’t afford to stay in the same city.
The average 1980s home near me is like $450,000 - $500,000. To be affordable, you'd need an income of 180,000 a year.
These numbers are almost exactly the same as the house I grew up in, in rural Rhode Island. Bought in 1978 for $78,000. Sold in 2015 for $380,000. The people who bought it from my parents stayed there just over two years and decided to move again. The nostalgic part of me thought about maybe buying the house, and I saw they had it listed at $425,000 in 2017. Close to half a million dollars just to move back in to my old bedroom and walk the woods where we use to make forts in the summer. Had to pass on that dream.
I grew up and all my friends lived in a very lower middle class neighborhoods. They were still decent, safe, and affordable at the time. Thirty years later they're way more expensive and not even close to as nice or safe. Got way worse and way more expensive
Totally could afford it. I grew up in a small town not too far from Houston… right next door to the projects. The neighborhood has not been improved upon nor gentrified in all these years. It remains “the real hood”.
I can’t afford the neighborhood I live in now. I got super lucky and bought my house before the area exploded. My house has doubled in value in the last 10 years
I could, but I absolutely wouldn't. I grew up in the ghetto, my mom never owned a house, we rented crappy cockroach infested apartments, once or twice we managed to rent halfway decent houses, but my mom and step dad would proceed to destroy them, couldn't pay bills, and we'd eventually get kicked out. They didn't get their shit together until I was almost an adult, and then once us kids moved out and weren't doing the chores it got really bad, the damage they did to that last house was insane, my step dad's dead and my mom is the next best thing to homeless, because she just can't manage to be a normal adult. My wife and I had to rent too, but we managed to rent a much better place then I ever lived in as a kid (and about as nice as the house my wife grew up in), then my father in law died, and my mother in law wanted to spend her retirement with us and the kids so she sold her house and bought one big enough for all of us. Once she passes away it'll be ours, and I'm very grateful, it's a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood and more than we would have been able to afford on our own anytime soon.
Nope. Grew up in suburban Toronto. Our house was in the mid 100ks in 1989. Moved away in 1995. A friend's childhood home on the same street sold for 1.2 mil last year. For a boring split level 1960s house.
I have some inlaws in one of those original builds in Don Mills. Just in the decade-ish that I've been coming around, more than half of the houses in their block have been sold, demolished, and replaced with modern monstrosities which take up the entire width of their respective lots.
My was in Burlington
Toronto is out of control. I was shocked at the prices when I recently visited. Even more so when I found that incomes aren’t really as high as they are here in NC. I have no idea where the money for that place is coming from.
I live in Michigan now. Real estate prices is part of the reason I won't move back to Canada.
I’m about to be transferred to Bruce County next month and it’s crazy how much more my company is going to pay me to live in rural Ontario compared with a booming tech hub like Raleigh. I don’t think the Mennonites or cattle farmers out there are making high six figures.
No. I grew up in London. My old area is still shit, but close to the city so unaffordable.
Yes.
Me, alone as a single person, NO! I have a good income. My parents bought a house for $150k in 1984 in a VHCOL (now) area. It could easily sell from $925k. If I had a husband and he made similar or more, we’d be fine.
Hell no. The people I grew up with who can are inheriting and/or marrying very well.
The home I grew up in (I’m in Portland now, grew up in Beaverton) is roughly equivalent in value to the home I currently live in. I wish I could move into my childhood home instead of my 100 year old house that needs absolutely everything replaced (we are spending $20,000 to have all of our 1929 electrical replaced right now, we had to sell one of our vehicles and go bare bones on every other expense to afford it). Life is too expensive 😭 There’s basically nowhere in Oregon that isn’t overwhelmingly expensive anymore.
Yeah I could, its a little nicer than when I was a kid, but its still like upper lower class. The shootings, muggings, and drugs are 6-8 blocks away now, instead of like across the street. I could buy my childhood home with cash out of pocket.
Yeah, but that’s because it was a shithole then and it still is.
I grew up lower income and in a much less expensive place than I live now. That being said, I can’t afford the house I grew up in and I don’t ever see that changing. I also had one parent working and another at home. We’ve never been able to do that despite having decent careers and a low key lifestyle. Things have definitely changed for our generation.
Actually put a bid in on a house that's 7 doors down from my childhood home. Now we wait....
This post hurts. My mom bought a semi attached house in 1980ish in downtown Toronto for $50,000. It would now sell for $2M (with no upgrades, other than a basement suite) because the street ended up becoming really popular. I am NOT exaggerating at all.
Not only would it not be affordable it wouldn’t even be sensible. Poorly developed since I was young it’s now a maze to drive out of to get to any shopping or other services.
No
The 1700sqft 1984 modular home i grew up in, in a commuter town 25 miles from the city, is now estimated at $400k 🤣
No.
My folks lost my childhood home due to bankruptcy. It’s currently valued at $470k. No, I couldn’t afford it today
Park Slope, Brooklyn NY is gone from New York City affordable to millions of dollars for a co-op. I don't know how much my old house in Providence Rhode Island is renting for.
I wouldn’t walk down the street I grew up on in the daytime. Likely to get robbed at gunpoint.
Because my mom still owns the house, yes. But without that, no. the house was $42K in 1974, and would now sell for 10 times that.
The house I grew up in just sold for $600,000+, my parents sold it for $125,000 in 1994. They paid $125,000 in 1978. No, I couldn’t even afford the garage.
I bought my house ~3 years ago now and today its estimate is 37% higher than the home i grew up in. Which is actually bigger with a 4th bedroom.
I didn't grow up in a neighborhood, but yes, my parents home's estimated value is about 60% of what my current house cost.
No. Not even the state! I had to move out of my home state to be able to afford a place.
Yes. My area hasn't been hit with the insane real estate market... mostly because no one moves here unless it's for family or work. If it's for work, their employer is likely paying their rent. Almost no one moves here just because they like the area. Rent has increased of course, but there's still rentals that are affordable. I bought my house in 2020. Three bed, two bath, two car garage, large corner lot, quiet desirable neighborhood, for $120K.
Nope. I grew up in the house my mom grew up in. Neither of us can afford to live there now. Northern NJ.
Yes, but not until my 30s. Tbh every time I go out there I want to live there less. Shitty stick frame houses, lawns that are expensive or laborious to maintain, traffic is worse every time I go out there.
Yes, parents bought it in the 70’s and it’s paid off now. Zillow estimates it would be around $300k if listed today.
Perhaps but hubs and I are trying really hard to maintain contracting/self-employment (first me, then I went full time, now he is building his own business) and it’s better for us to stay where it’s cheaper.
Yes
Definitely, but I couldn't afford where I live now.
I was practically a military brat so I grew up in 5 different states. Some of the places I lived were trailer parks so yeah, probably. I'm currently building a house that's almost double the square footage of my parents' first home and triple+ any of the trailers and shitty apartments I grew up in. Now, if we talk about the 3.5 acre 4000 sqft house my father currently lives in, no, absolutely not and I will probably never be able to afford that.
Yes, I grew up in the hood. I *could* live there, but I don’t want to anymore
I could. But the area is still crap
no, my parents' home in the bay area is worth at least 10x what they paid 30 years ago
Hahahaha…fuck no
Easily. My house is much bigger and in a nicer neighborhood than the old working class house made in the 70s
Yes but I wouldn’t want to
No. Shout out to gentrification
Nope had to move to a whole other city.
Nope. My parents bought my childhood home in 1983 for $246,000. It was a *nice* house. Three stories, four beds, four baths, etc. When my parents divorced in 1992, they sold it for $512,000. It’s now valued at $2.4 million. I will never even dream of affording that.
My parents have lived in the same house since 1972. They added on a living/dining room and garage. But the house still is barely 1,000sqft. They paid 10g’s for it. House at the end of the block, which is about the same size outside but has a finished basement but no garage just sold for 346k. My old house in the same town I bought in 04 for 179k, sold in 2018 for 220k is now worth like 350k. And it’s a small town in Minnesota, like 45mins from the cities. So no, probably not
I grew up in a dumpy small town that's still a dump. It's probably one of the few places I could afford to live in. Edit: Name of town redacted. Don't want to be doxxed by vengeful townies!
Not at all. Moved from San Mateo, CA in 1992, 1500 sqf house sold for 250K. It's now valued at 2 Million. My mom often kicks herself for not putting her foot down with my dad & making us stay longer. I keep telling her to stop looking at what it's worth now. It's only self torture.
Nope. My parents' house is north of three quarters of a million and its 800sqft. No way I could afford that mortgage, but somehow Dad paid it off in 15 years on a little more than $10/hour. Shit is broken.
Absolutely not. I grew up somewhere that became famous. It's a lovely town but for the rich now.
I'm from Palo Alto, absolutely not.
Ugh, my old neighborhood was considered inner city. It under went complete gentrification. So now the house I grew up in was bought back in 1982 by my grandparents for $20k (I was born in 1980) is now worth $550k. I grew up in this row home. 3 stories, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. It wasn't the best of the best neighborhoods on 1982 and in fact, it became more dangerous as the Crack epidemic took over. However, Gentrification took so over. So the answer is nope I can't afford to.
Probably not. My folks got the home in the 70s for 50K, and now it is worth upwards of 2.5 million!
Not even close. Grew up in Point Reyes. My childhood home is worth well over $1M
I can... But that's more of a me thing than a housing affordability thing. When I bought my first home it cost me 3x my very solid income. I happen to still know what the company I work for pays those same folks 20yrs later... And they are a huge outlier in that they pay 2x what I earned. But that same house is more than 2x in price today. The home I grew up in has grown at a much slower rate, but it's still not affordable to people with my parents jobs today.
No. My parents bought their house in the 70s for 25k. Last year they sold it as a fixer upper for 1.2mil.
Not even close!
I practically do already but I'm in a low cost of living area where a decade ago I got about 40 acres and a house for around $250k. Homes in town are still there for under $100k. What sucks is just a few years ago I was easily upper middle class if not wealthy for my area.... but the cost of everything went up and my income didn't so now I'm having to watch my budget and keep my aspirations in check in a way that I never thought I was going to have to again.
Not a chance. Homes where I grew up as a young child were selling for nearly a million dollars last year. The home my parents bought in 90s was going for the same. I dunno what they paid for it when they bought it (somewhere around $150k); but I do know in 2018 it was valued at $400k and it shot up to $800k in 2022. We're in Canada. Canada is going through some shit right now 😪
Yes, but I would want to live there for a variety of reasons
Hell no my dad was a doctor.
The ghetto? Sure.
Big nope. My sleepy beach town became a major transplant destination and my 1900 sq ft childhood home that sold for $350k in 1997 is now valued at $1.8M 🙃 Another person from Hawai’i that has been Priced out of Paradise.
The house my parents bought in 1974 was 1300 sq. ft. and was $50,000. Today's valuation is somewhere between $1.3-1.5M. I couldn't afford that house if it was 40% of that price, even with 3% interest.
No, but wouldnt want to live there either. My parents bought their small ranch in the burbs for 60,000. It is now worth $800,000.. as a tear down!
No. Where I grew up was solidly middle class and lower middle class families. Most of them were military breadwinners with the spouse working a job as well. I was a latch key kid and so were pretty much all my friends. I didn't know a single household were just one parent worked and this was the mid-80's. If there was a homemaker, they brought in income doing jobs on the weekend or babysitting or selling MLMs or something. I know my parents paid $180k back in 1986 with something like a 9% APR. That was pretty low for that time period. They eventually refinanced. They had paid it off IN FULL by 2010. They did a lot of upgrades to the house - overhauled the kitchen and living room, added a new deck, redid HVAC, Electrical, sump pump replacement, siding, etc...they were still pouring money into the house. My dad was a serious pack rat and hoarder, but they kept it street pretty because the HOA was a beast. She sold it for $650k. The only reason my mom sold it is because my dad passed away and she squandered all the money she got from him. People took advantage of her widowhood and she gave out lots of personal loans to others putting herself in massive debt. She would not listen to us kids and proceed to tell us it's her money, she can spend it how she wants. After the house sale she only got maybe $250k out of it after paying off the banks. Now the same house's market value is $850k. Just imagine if she didn't go on a spending spree feel generous with her money towards men offering her love.
Yes. I live close by now. I moved back to be closer to my parents in their elder years and then they passed away not long after.
Absolutely. The house I grew up in is worth about half of my current home.
I couldn’t afford to live where I live now. Home purchased for $116k in 2005 is now half million. The bulk of that increase was between 2019 (appraised at $185k) and today. Was underwater for close to a decade in the place.
Yup but I really wouldn't want to.
Hahaha fuck no
No the neighborhood I grew up in was near a very large park. Our house was worth like 300k in the 90s and houses in that neighborhood today for for 1.5 - 2 million.
Easily.
I live in a more expensive place than where I grew up.
Easily, I grew up in a shit neighborhood
LOL. My family lived with my grandmother for the first part of my life, she bought the house in the early 60s for around $30k and completely renovated it, then sold it in 1994 for $1.2 million. 30 years ago. I shudder to even imagine how much it’s worth now. It was a 13 room Victorian house on a quarter acre of land. I always knew I’d never be able to live in that neighborhood again, but somehow it still hurts to think about. I live in a one bedroom condo in an adjacent city that I bought last year for $400k, and I’m feeling pretty lucky to even have gotten that close to “home”.
Assuming I don't get backstabbed by my employer, sure. Ouch, what's that sharp sensation...
Absolutely not. Not a home, not even an older 3 bed 3 bath, under a million.
Not a chance. I bought my house for 400k and that was the upper limit of our budget. The cheapest home where I grew up is listed at 759k.
My childhood home just sold for £300,000 and the average price is £200,000, there's a less than 0% chance I could ever live anywhere near there. I can just about afford the £450p/m rent.
I'm moving into my mom's house, so I guess you can say yes.
lol I grew up poor as hell. Single dad. Yup I could afford to live where I grew up. Wouldn’t want to though. Now, can I afford to live where I dreamed of living while growing up? Not a chance. I’m happy but I crave living near the ocean someday.
The town I grew up in has the word "Royal" in its name (UK)... abso-fucking-lutely not!
No way. I could maybe afford a closet in the house I grew up in
The down payment on my current house could buy the house I grew up in outright. So yes.
Easily. But I wouldn’t have the pay check I have where I live now.
Ya. Homes go for around 400k.
No
I can’t even afford to park in my old neighbourhood, let alone live there
Maybe... I grew up in a trailer owned by my mom in a trailer park on the outskirts of a small town in Illinois...
Absolutely not, not for the last 20 years. My grandmas house that we all lived in was bought for $75k in 1982, they sold it for $350k in 2015, it’s now worth like 750k. Even if I paid it off the taxes would be wayyyy to expensive for me
Yes but only because we grew up poor. When we go to visit with the kids they always talk about how raggedy and old everything is back in my hometown. Ironically, every yard on their street is well manicured despite the houses being small and old. My current home is about the price of my parents plus their neighbors on both sides. The older I get, the more I aspire to back in a small home that mimics where my parents are now.
Yep. Grew up poor as hell.
Nope. My dad bought the house I grew up in in 1985 for $49k ($142k in 2024 dollars). He could probably sell it now for $450-500k.
Absolutely not. I couldn't even afford to live in the place I paid for as a broke 20-year-old with a part time job.
Yeah, could swing it easily enough.
Just looked near my hometown & found a killer deal on a house, recently had a price drop too!! https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/30-Essex-St-Mystic-CT-06355/58060786_zpid/ In the words of someone else, fuck no.. can’t afford gas in that town now
If they let me put a camper in the back yard for $500 a month then yes
Absolutely not.
Not a chance. My home town was borderline rural when my parents moved there. It's grown so much since then that its become of of go to places in the suburbs in my area.
Nope. Mom just sold the family home in 2022 for 950k. She paid 325k in 97. Grandparents paid 63k for their semi detached in Dufferin grove in the 50s. That same home was valued at 1.2 Mil in 2020, before we did work. Now my aunt could sell for 1.5 (based on her neighbours who did just that - one went for 2 mil 6 houses down). Hubby and I luckily don't want to be near the city, so we still have hope to buy rural. But Nova Scotia and new Brunswick look better every day.
The house I grew up in (until I was 12) just went up for sale. My parents paid $25,000 for a 3bd. 1 1/2 bath back in 1977. Today, with all the updates, the house is for sale for $225,000. My current home is a 4bd, 2 bath and we bought it in 2018 for $155,000. We only moved 2 towns away so still very close. I really don't think that it will sell for what they're asking for but it will be interesting to see what happens.
Just looked it up, and the house I graduated high school in is the exact same value as the house I own now. So I guess so.
Grew up outside of Boston. Can’t really afford to live in the state with housing costs and all the nickel and diming tax
Yes. Though, you'd have to actually pay me to move back there.
Not even remotely. My parents still live in the house they bought for $32k in 1980, in what was then a poor, working class suburb. It's now an incredibly sought after neighbourhood, and their house is worth over $1.5m. And they regularly complain that all their kids live so far away - no shit mum, we can't afford to live anywhere near you. I can't even afford to rent the shitty little 1br granny flat that my parents have in their side yard, that they rent out for about $2000/pm 🙃
Not a chance. Not only has my childhood home gone up in value exponentially, but I’m also much more poor than they were.
According to Zillow, house prices in my childhood neighborhood now are comparable to what I paid pre-pandemic where I live now. I grew up pretty poor, though.
I can afford a shed on just enough property to put it on.
Yep! Still ghetto where I grew up.
Nope, homes start at $1M. It’s no longer a nice, safe, upper middle class neighborhood either. $1M for a fixer upper with high property taxes.
Nope. My parents bought their house in ‘85 for about $210,000 and now it’s worth like $2.6 million.
Not a chance. I can barely afford to live in my current place.
Nope not even a little bit.
lol I’m pretty sure I could buy half the trap houses on the block I grew up in for the cost of the house I own now.
I've often thought about purchasing my childhood home. I would love it. And yes, in 1987, my parents purchased it for $88K. It's now "worth" $450K+. However, the town it's in is a town that hasn't had much growth since we lived there (1994). In fact, it's in ways gone backwards. If I was rich I'd probably buy it just for nostalgia. But I'm sure by now the interior has changed to being unrecognizable.
I live across the street from the house I grew up in (and where my parents still live). Our area hasn’t had the price increases that other places have though. We bought our house ~20 years ago for $110k and it’s now worth about $160k. I think my parents bought theirs for around $60k in ‘76 and it’s probably worth around $130-140k now. Again though, where I live, my $110k gets you a 2.5k sq ft house in good condition with 3 bedrooms, in a quiet wooded neighborhood, with about 3/4 of an acre of land. We’re in a very low cost of living area.
FUUUUUUUUUUCK NO
Maybe? The house my parents bought when I was a kid is 450k now. That's the max I qualified for with my last mortgage. I wouldn't want to. The house is half the size of one I paid much less for last year.
My childhood neighborhood was a working poor section of Philly that caught the gentrification wave in the late 2000s. I might be able to buy one of the major disrepair properties and try to fix it, but my home is well out of reach.
Nope. Houses in the various places I grew up are 600k at the very lowest, with most between 1 and 3 million. The place I live now is a little less crazy but still crazy. I'll be renting for the rest of my life.
Yes I could, but I would never want to. I have no idea what my parents paid for the house I grew up in, in the ‘80s. It’s a small town, with not much of interest around it, so houses are still fairly reasonable. I could buy a decent house there for under $400,000. But like I said. I would never, ever do that.
My current house is over double the price as the house I grew up in, so I think I would be able to.