"The High Cost and Sheer Horror of Trying to Buy a Place to Live"
The Doug Kenney article is a good read too. He's buried someplace near my house.
Posted on 02/28/2022 9:56:22 AM PST by Signalman
Roughly two-thirds of the country owns a home in the United States:
For those in this group who have owned their home for the past year or more, they’re sitting on some pretty nice gains.
When you combine rising home prices with ultra-low mortgage rates1, you could argue homeowners have never had it better.
A fixed rate mortgage with housing prices rising 20% over the past year has been the best inflation hedge you could ask for in the current environment.
You could make the case the current housing environment has benefitted the bottom 50% of households more than even the top 1% on a relative basis:
Obviously, the top 1% owns most of the financial assets along with some real estate. But on a relative basis, the bottom 50% has the majority of their net worth tied up in their primary residence.
While this has been a wonderful environment for those who currently own a home, it’s probably going to make it much worse going forward for those in the bottom 50% who don’t own a home but would like to someday.
The median home sale price was up 15% year over year to $354,762. This was up 30% from the same time in 2020. The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 16% year over year to an all-time high of $381,000. This was up 26% from the same time in 2020.
The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price rose to an all-time high of $1,997. This was up 27% from a year earlier when mortgage rates were 2.73%, and was up 31% from the same period in 2020 when rates were 3.47%.
(Excerpt) Read more at awealthofcommonsense.com ...
Well, these things fluctuate.
So where is my guarantee that the value of my house will never go down?
I celebrate green privilege.
The bible verse which predicted this development is Daniel 2:42-44
42And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another, but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay.
44In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.
How obtuse do you have to be to think you have the right to own a home and that it is some grave injustice you don’t.
Home ownership is at a historical high.
So what? The bottom 51% also pay no Federal income taxes, which means their income is very low or they are cheating on their taxes. Assuming they don't cheat, they have low incomes. If that's the case, making housing for all is a stupid policy because it doesn't address the underlying problem: Low income. The real issue: What can the low income earners do to raise their income enough to buy a home? Simple: educate/retrain for a job that pays a higher income. For those who say they can't afford a college degree, that may not be the answer anyway. The largest under-utilized training program in the country is the US military. Use that as a stepping stone.
"The High Cost and Sheer Horror of Trying to Buy a Place to Live"
The Doug Kenney article is a good read too. He's buried someplace near my house.
What is to be worried about.
Biden voters do not have to pay rent.
Your taxes pay that now.
Thank you for the Word of God. Whether or not this verse is a reflection of the topic of this thread remains to be seen but your post reminds all of us that we all need to be thinking about The Lord a lot more.
People can also did what we boomers did when we wanted to buy a house. Work a full time job. Take a second part time job. Sacrifice on silly stuff like phones and cable. Eat cheap. Buy used cars. Most importantly, cut up the credit cards.
Was that a spontaneous utterance?
joking...
Anyone that works full time should be able to afford an apartment and that is often not the case even if commuting 2 hours away from many cities. And it continues to get worse.
Shelter is one of the most basic needs. Service and society in general will continue to decline if people doing all these essential jobs cannot afford the minimal basics.
When I entered the work force it was possible to buy a small home and have kids in NYC working as a waitress or taxi driver. Every job had dignity and people had energy. Not longer the case when they cant afford the basics. Something is very wrong and it needs our attention...
Middle class and below people, are being left out or blocked out the housing market by the new high prices of homes.
In my community, a friend of ours put her house on the market asking for $359,000, and a bidding war ensued, where she will be getting close to $500,000. Quite a jump from when she bought the house originally for about $230,000 8 years ago. Her house is 1867 sq ft in size.
Equality? Equity? Yeah, but not for those wanting to become new home owners.
I’m stuck in my house now, I would have to pay a lot more for houses that would cost a lot more than I could sell my house for, even though I was looking to downsize. Only option would be moving to a cheaper housing market out of state. Tampa, where I’m at, used to be very desirable (still is) and very affordable.
Tampa had the largest increase in housing prices in the last year. I believe it was in the 35% range.
Typically, that is not a sustainable price increase.
At least it never has been before.
When the correction comes you do not want to be the person who paid anywhere near the top.
The problem throughout the country now is that the inventory of available homes to purchase is down on average 31%. With some markets down almost 50%.
I’ll never own a house. I’ll have to live my last days in a tiny, dingy studio in a crime-ridden neighborhood as the only white man for 20 miles radius. I’ll have bad health and look awful and have to eat what comes out of a dumpster.
I am so screwed.
After 45 years of home ownership and 3 real estate crashes, my housing has been very, very good to me. And my non-housing real estate has been even better.
No joke. One of my walking trails takes me by the cemetery he is buried in.
If you compare housing costs in the 50s and 60s, adjusted for inflation, and also look at wages and salaries, adjusted for inflation, it becomes clear that buying a house or condo apartment is out of reach for more people than in past decades.
What we as a society should do about that, is another story.
Just for the numbers...
An average home was about $12,000 in 1960.
Average family income was about $5600.
The average home cost in 2021 was $293,349
The average family income is about $79,900
Yep, the housing market is overvalued. If it were at the 1960 level, the average home price would be about $170,000 or over 40% less than current levels.
This could get ugly.
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