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California Home Sales Dive, Prices Hit Wall, Millennials Blamed
Wolf Street ^ | 13 September 2014 | Wolf Richter

Posted on 09/15/2014 12:32:49 PM PDT by Lorianne

This must be part of the explanation why home sales in the expensive parts of California, which is where most people live, are collapsing: according to a Harris Poll on behalf of electronic broker Redfin, 92% of millennials who don’t already own a home do not plan on buying one in the future. Ever.

These people, now between 25 and 34, are in their peak home-buying age. They’re the much sought-after first-time buyers. They’re the foundation of the market. But not this generation. Homeownership rate among them, according to the Commerce Department, already plunged from 41% in 2008 to 36% currently; as opposed to 65% for all Americans [Here’s the Chart that Shows Why the Housing Market Is Sick].

These folks are not “pent-up demand” accumulating on the sidelines, as the wishful thinkers have proclaimed.

“Millennials who flock straight from college to San Francisco and other expensive cities are making a choice to spend their income on quadruple-digit rents and eight-dollar gourmet hot dogs from trendy food trucks,” explained Redfin San Francisco agent Mark Colwell. “This means they’re not saving for a down payment, further removing them from the housing market.”

(Excerpt) Read more at wolfstreet.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: California
KEYWORDS: millennials
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To: Lorianne

Why are half the posts here making it sound like the Millennials are at fault for making a bad decision here? They can’t freaking afford to buy a house. Isn’t that obvious? This article makes it sound like a lifestyle choice. It isn’t. They are poor because of government policies that take income away from them and force them to buy healthcare and pay taxes etc. They are the screwed generation.


61 posted on 09/15/2014 3:04:19 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: Lorianne

Millennials can be blamed for a lot. This isn’t one of them. The ostrich heads in the sand over tax policy is the only real problem.


62 posted on 09/15/2014 3:15:38 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (You all can go to hell, I'm going to Texas.)
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To: Beagle8U

From our front gate to the front door is 4 and 5/8ths miles. From the front gate to the back gate is just under 14 miles.


63 posted on 09/15/2014 4:13:13 PM PDT by Dusty Road (")
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To: RipSawyer
I hear you. I just purchased my third new home in CA in 13 years. Each one doubling the cost of the previous. I also have a millennial nephew in the in tech industry living in San Fran. and many friends that have purchased in the city as well as suburbs there. It is crazy! Still. They will find a way to start purchasing. Even if it is group purchasing (the whole group thing being very millennial.)

When the babies arrive and marriages start settling in either they will purchase some how some way or the generation below them will start scooping them up as eventually all the boomers will be dead and my Gen. X crew might actually sell to them ;). We Gen Xers are the beneficiaries of the millennials' inability to purchase.

We are more patient and strategic at knowing how to get into these expensive CA homes.

I saw the formula the day I moved to the state in 2000. Buy nice neighborhood at a barely affordable price but still affordable, live in long enough to get value back and then some, buy higher priced home, sit on it and enjoy life, sell and move up. Now I am in my dream home 4 times the value of my first new home in CA. It only took three homes to do it.

Patience, wise investment, and timing, works here. Also doing the right sort of updates that inspire millennials to buy help such as major tech revamps of the home (Sonos systems, stealth speakers, pools, cool spaces indoor and out) and making a home a relaxation, group friendly place as well makes these kids want to buy their own space one day. We all get old eventually.

64 posted on 09/15/2014 4:46:02 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: CA Conservative

There are still a lot of kids that grew up in the mid west with those fundamental values and other states that want marriage and children. They may do it differently but they will crave loyalty of love eventually even if it means several marriages.


65 posted on 09/15/2014 4:48:12 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: Lorianne

They’re being told by employers to move to where the jobs are and to always be ready to move again.


66 posted on 09/15/2014 4:51:08 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: cva66snipe

Gotta feed that ‘unfunded liability’ machine called BIG FAT PENSIONS. Professors get students to fund their retirement. That balloon is about to pop.


67 posted on 09/15/2014 5:17:40 PM PDT by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Nervous Tick

I have 3 kids who make fat 6 digit salaries in San Francisco area that won’t buy there because they will eventually return to the Countryside where they were raised

They’re paying off student loan debt and investing in real estate here in the foothills of California

There they willown here with their fellow conservatives

In the mean time they hate what they have to do but is the price they pay. They will live well when they return.


68 posted on 09/15/2014 5:35:58 PM PDT by jcon40
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To: Lorianne

You don’t need an impossible mortgage to buy “eight-dollar gourmet hot dogs”. To hell with borrowing money!


69 posted on 09/15/2014 5:43:12 PM PDT by Theophilus (Be as prolific as you are pro-life.)
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
Gotta feed that ‘unfunded liability’ machine called BIG FAT PENSIONS. Professors get students to fund their retirement. That balloon is about to pop.

It's that and paying for P.C. Garbage extras. A major university near me required students buy some guys book on Global Warming and attend his lecture on same. Their major didn't matter. The persons profession who was giving the lecture was not even a scientist nor in any science field. Used to be from what I've heard that was a major no no in colleges for someone to lecture outside their vocation. It's also a college that waste money on Sex Week and Frat house held a butt chugging party.

An Engineer usually has at least four or five years college to go through. Knock out the unrelated courses and it likely could be reduced to three years or less. A win for the student in cost and a more educated worker for future employers as well. The student would be focused on the actual major/major related courses and not Trash courses.

Colleges and universities of today do not deserve the tuition they charge. There are also way too many BLOAT programs in the Admin itself aimed at so called special groups. Deans of Diversity, Sexuality, etc should be among the first ones fired. Yes a good pop or boycott might bring correction.

The best bargain for the buck in education is likely smaller community or specialty colleges that simply offer a good career focused curriculum.

A community college nearby started up a Law School a few years back. The big "U" Law School about 50 miles away liked to had a coronary LOL.

70 posted on 09/15/2014 5:48:28 PM PDT by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: CodeToad

That’s true. I spent a great deal of time addressing it myself, but the more brilliant among us at the time, couldn’t hear a damn word of it.


71 posted on 09/15/2014 6:04:18 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: wrench

And you know Wrench, that’s why we know Economic Collapse II is around the corner.

Everything is being done to collapse the economy. We can’t support this nation if nobody is working.

Sure they can give out loans, but too few people will be paying them back.


72 posted on 09/15/2014 6:07:02 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: Dusty Road

Now THAT is what I need, but it would be a little pricey in this area.


73 posted on 09/16/2014 5:31:45 AM PDT by Beagle8U (If illegal aliens are undocumented immigrants, then shoplifters are undocumented customers.)
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To: SZonian

I kick myself in the a$$ every time I remember that I had the chance to buy the 77 acres next to mine 24 years ago for....$35,000 on a land contract, with no money down.

A friend bought it really cheap and didn’t really want it. He offered it to me after he found out I bought this. I wish I would have known then how much the price of farmland was going to go up, crop rent alone would have paid for it in less than 7 years.


74 posted on 09/16/2014 5:53:39 AM PDT by Beagle8U (If illegal aliens are undocumented immigrants, then shoplifters are undocumented customers.)
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