Posted on 02/03/2026 3:38:26 AM PST by Mount Athos
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Plenty who aren’t (including my oldest who is about as level headed,hard working and budget conscious as anyone of any age)
Home prices have outpaced wage growth tremendously
Anyone can say this is their fault but it’s going to be a major issue in the very near future
Are these homes PAID FOR,or, are they still paying a mortgage ?
Review
If you were to remove condos it would be worse.
Very few 30 year old were in the top bracket in 1950.
The two factors are related.
IF you get married and have kids you move to the suburbs to raise them. IF you get married and DO NOT have kids you stay in the city and rent or buy a condo.
Starting with the people who are now in their 40s the amount of children decreased significantly. There are many people who are delaying getting married. Then it is too late to have kids in many cases. My daughter(41) and her husband are classic examples. They got married in their late twenties. Bought their first starter home. Then moved a few years later to a bigger house with more land but never had kids.
Now it is too late.
I see this ALL the time now.
I my generation we got married, some had kids and half of us got divorced. I got divorced before we had a kid(Thank you Jesus). Two of my buddies have the ex from Hell. One has had to go back to court twice since divorce for alimony. She wanted more money when he made more.
The number one reason to buy a SINGLE FAMILY home is having children. If you do not have kids then there is no reason to have the house, yard, better schools, safety, etc. Unless your kids are the Golden Retriever or Doodle.
A single dwelling home with a yard, a garage, a driveway, a garden and some trees in a nice neighborly suburb, with even a pool and a hot tub for those with the income, away from the inner city and not away from city life and stores and shopping, is a good life for a single man, and for a male it is a chick magnet.
Must include people want immediate gratification so spend their savings willy nilly with no thought to their futures.
As a mortgage broker for many hears starting in 1991 I observed that young people nowadays tend to live right up to the highest lifestyle they can afford and do not tend to save for a down payment.
In addition they think their first home should be as big and nice as their parents home. They turn their noses up at starter homes or fixer uppers. That contributes to their lack of home ownership.
They turn their noses up at starter homes or fixer uppers.
One of the issues is that neighborhoods with “affordable” houses, or fixer-uppers, are too crime-ridden to be worth it.
Property taxes were 2 weeks of income in the 90s, today in the same house and same job with promotions and raises are 4 months of income.
Love your work!
Great reads, every one!!
If you look around you can find fixer uppers in Safe neighborhoods. I use that term lightly in Atlanta where its not really safe anywhere. 😉
A house like Casa Griffin could be built for about $50,000.
There are some people with a lot of money but without knowledge of things could and should cost.
Many people are fleeing California after selling their single-family home.
Since California law allows four dwelling units on a single-family lot, many of these refugees can often pay $1 million for another house.
Many other people have bought stock in companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia.
The Pelosis have made huge amounts of money in the stock market. MTG can afford to quit a job that pays over $200,000/year and that could easily pay for her children’s health insurance premiums.
There’s a lot of stock wealth floating around. Some of it is flooding into the housing market.
The mansions of the 1920s reflect the wealth of the then booming stock market.
Education regarding building material and building labor costs, especially for high-asset folks and mortgage lending officers, is needed so house prices are not placed wildly out of reach.
So many 30 year olds today are just fine with living in moms basement, playing video games and getting high all day. Society used to shun people like that. Not now.
The American dream is what you make it.
Well, along with federal government loans ....
Now overlay that with a graph of rising feminism, or women getting college degrees....which also relates to home prices (fewer marriages, more homeowners, scarcity) and wages not rising (larger workforce).
Me and the wife were married 5 years before buying our fist house. 4 years in the air force and then a year of renting.
Lordy, that kind of rent has to hurt to fork out every month.
That is about right for our area. There were similar homes going for over $2500 a month.
I just checked...you can get a little cheaper (like $1900 a month) if you can put up with 1300 SF or a house on a main drag. $2200 is still on the low end for three bedrooms.
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