But if homes aren't affordable, then why are new home construction and home ownership at all-time highs? Why is there no demand for small, "affordable" houses, but a huge demand for McMansions?
New home construction is at an all-time high so people can get away from...
...the neighborhoods with small, "affordable" houses where homeownership is at an all-time high mainly because 20 people can move in and split the mortgage payment 20 times.
The McCmansions are relatively cheap to build compared to the value of the soil in which they are being built. A 6,000 square foot lot where I live is selling for 300,000 grand- Do you know many professions including medicine that can afford a mortgage of 600,000 dollars if they have to purchase the investment without the help of mommy and daddy- which I suspect is how many of the flamers on this board "earned" the houses that they live.
So what we have is a large mass of the population that managed to trade up before the bubble or who have lived here for many years. The new flux of professionals can not afford to buy- without some creativity and will.
But if homes aren't affordable, then why are new home construction and home ownership at all-time highs? Why is there no demand for small, "affordable" houses, but a huge demand for McMansions?""
Because the people who are BUILDING the new MCMansions are moving out of and leaving behind the 35 + y/o homes that are affordable for the younger persons.
The biggest thing I read here is that the people just coming our of college just don't get that they cannot START at the top of the living standard. You have to WORK your way to that status.
Oh, I forgot, too many of them have the Dobie Gillis gene and they don't want to work. They think that the "work" it took for them to get a paper degree from a college somewhere automatically exempts them from a lifetime of productive work for money which they then can spend on their standard of living. They all have $45,000 + SUV's, mega bucks stereo systems and HD TV's ETC, but they don't have a clue how to own a home.
The change in the capital gains tax laws is driving this to some extent, but that in turn is also creating jobs for the building industry and it's suppliers.
I would like to see some figures on blue collar ownerhip. I can't prove it, but I have a hunch that in the last 40 years, home ownership amongst blue collar families has fallen off markedly.
But if homes aren't affordable, then why are new home construction and home ownership at all-time highs? Why is there no demand for small, "affordable" houses, but a huge demand for McMansions?
I think it's like the internet bubble collapse. When these people are literally living from pay check to pay check it'll get really tiresome when they hit 45 yrs of age from burn out trying to keep up with all the bills and the Jones next door. Tragic fools