Yukon Cornelius said:
backintexas2013 said:
They look livable. They are basic homes with carpet, linoleum floors, not upscale but livable for a starter home. Tax rate in Hays County isn't too high.
With all due respect I think you are missing the entire point. It costs you NOTHING to have a little symptathy for the younger generation's economic uphill battle.
In regards to the houses, property taxes are up, utilities are up, interest rates are up, maintenance costs are up. Every single metric you look at cost of home ownership is skyrocketing. And if you refer to the chart I shared earlier you can see that in the age o first time home buyers skyrocketing.
And this is all talking about two incomes, which prohibits family growth.
This is simple math and the math doesnt work. We are going to have millions upon millions of young men unable to economically provide for raising a family. Historically when weve seen that before those people become incredibly extreme politically and often times violent.
Again it costs you nothing to have a little sympathy.
I have empathy for the younger folks. I've got three sons in their mid 30's who are carving out their own lives.
One thing missing in your graph is the median size of homes. You will see that has increased sharply over the past several decades. What you are calling a starter home today is not the same starter home from years ago. Mine at age 34 was 1200SF with two window unit ACs and no garage. Linoleum floor in the kitchen and formica countertops. Cheap carpet in the bedrooms. And a 7.5% mortgage rate.
That's not me saying I don't care. Those are just the facts. Expectations for a starter home have radically changed. That's not your fault, or mine, or anybody's. Just is what it is.
I see my sons and many other young people navigating this challenging environment and doing fine. They are making very adult decisions and on a path to better financial security in their 40's and potentially strong wealth in their 50's. Not really that different than my story. Getting started in life is difficult, and getting the nice things you want takes time for most people. I do agree with another poster's comments that the youngsters today who show a strong work ethic and ability to delay gratification are on a much better path than those who don't.
As for those housing costs, it's going to take a long time for them to normalize back to the mean on an inflation-adjusted basis. The root cause for cost escalation was the Fed pushing interest rates to artificially low levels to stimulate economic activity and juice the stock market. That allowed much bigger and nicer homes to be built, and buyers could still tote the note due to low interest rates. Now that interest rates have normalized, the note on those homes is out of reach for many younger people.
Offsetting this for those who save and invest is the stock market. If young people have been living beneath their means and investing some of their earnings in 401ks, IRA's, HSA's... they are killing it in these markets. Much more so than some of the prior generations who didn't have as much access to those savings vehicles. There are data points in the media that millennials are accumulating wealth at a rate faster than older generations. Somewhat squeezed on cash flow with housing costs, but banking it for the long term in their retirement accounts.
