Here in NJ, the housing prices aren’t the problem; the property taxes are. Potential buyers don’t like the idea of paying $15K in property taxes alone if they bought the house for cash tomorrow. Those of us who bought here have to suck it up; those who didn’t, won’t. As jobs flee to lower-tax environments, those who own homes are stuck with them, while those who are able follow the jobs.
FWIW, the same dynamic will explain why so few people in their early twenties now will ever have children later; they know the rug can be pulled out from under their feet at any time (as is happening everywhere now), and they don’t intend to be in the same position as us older folks.
You bring up some very pertinent and valid points. A big, big problem in the U.S. right now is that people have forgotten what it means to own property. Years ago, it was one’s own castle, or spot on earth. That was the value, not some “spin the wheel of house flipping and see if we get rich” scam that it is of late. As such, few care about their communities enough to build them up, resulting in a transient society.
I feel for those who are upside down, because they may not have known what was coming, although all the signs were there. My father’s late father’s rule (he’d be nearly 100 now and the rule was once a common adage) of thumb, was that anything over double one’s gross salary, is more than someone can afford a mortgage on. For over 100 years, that has held true (the most comprehensive study was a 116 year period from 1890 to 2006). Only in very recent years have existing homes been so high in price (and rising until the late 2000’s) that they were unaffordable in price to the common man, but manipulated through currency manipulation and easy credit.
I hope it was unintended, but whether or not, a big consequence to that bubble is the bankrupting of those in the middle class who were unfortunate enough to not see the signs. My parents, thankfully did in about 2003 and got out of the city while the getting was good. I feel bad for the innocent caught up in the fray, but pray they’ll teach their children that the biblical proverb is still true that truly the borrower is servant to the lender.
And as an end note, property taxes have got to go before we become even more of a fuedal system than we already are becoming.
You’re half correct: the parasite class will have children regardless of their prospects because we all pick up the tab for them and they’re satisfied raising them in government subsidized pig pens. Sadly, they’re raised with the values of their parents and the problem compounds itself. Meanwhile, responsible people delay child bearing because of severe economic uncertainty or lack of funds.