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Posted on 01/15/2026 8:42:09 AM PST by Angelino97
I can't afford to buy a home!
I hear this lament often, especially from young folks. Boomers often respond, saying, "Quit buying $6 lattes and ordering Uber Eats, and maybe you could save for a house."
It might just be me, but it seems like that may oversimplify things a tad.
I mean, there's no doubt a lot of young people would benefit from budgeting lessons. However, that doesn't change the fact that there is a significant home affordability problem here in the U.S.
Last year, the average age of a first-time homebuyer in the U.S. climbed to 40 for the first time, according to the National Association of Realtors.
"The historically low share of first-time buyers underscores the real-world consequences of a housing market starved for affordable inventory," NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research Jessica Lautz said in a statement. "The share of first-time buyers in the market has contracted by 50 percent since 2007—right before the Great Recession."
The median sale price of an existing home rose from $392,800 to $426,800 between 2022 and the end of Q3 2025. That represents an 8.7 percent increase in just three years. In 2016, the median sale price of an existing home was $274,400.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates climbed from just over 3 percent to over 7 percent between 2022 and 2023.
Boomers can lament youngsters' spending habits all they want. That's an easy target. However, the reality is that Boomers came of age in a different world.
They lived in a world where their money worked.
We Have a Money Problem
It's not so much that we have a housing problem as we have a money problem.
The federal government broke the money, and the incessant inflationary pressure from its monetary malfeasance is one of the most significant factors driving housing prices into the stratosphere.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the stage in the 1930s when he revalued gold and tried to confiscate metal from the public to facilitate money creation. President Richard Nixon put the final nail in the dollar's coffin in 1971 when he severed the dollar's last connection with the gold standard, making it a purely free-floating fiat currency.
When he announced the closing of the gold window, Nixon said, "Let me lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation," and promised, "Your dollar will be worth just as much as it is today."
This was clearly a lie.
According to the Consumer Price Index data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the dollar has lost well over 80 percent of its value since Nixon's fateful decision. Meanwhile, the dollar value of gold has gone from $35 an ounce to about $4,400.
This monetary destruction has driven significant socio-economic shifts, decimating the middle class. It has also turned the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare.
Turning Houses into Savings
Homeowner hopefuls say the price of houses needs to fall. However, people who already own homes want no part of housing deflation. And can you blame them? Many older Americans have most of their wealth tied up in their houses. Younger generations accuse Boomers and Xers of being selfish when they say they don't want to see home values drop, but what choice did they have?
This raises a question I'm probably not supposed to ask: Why in the world did we turn houses into savings accounts?
I know the answer.
It's because our money won't preserve our wealth.
If you hold dollars, you are losing at least 2 percent of your purchasing power every single year – by design. And over the last few years, it's been much worse than that.
Two percent might not seem like much, but over time, it adds up quickly. In five years, you've lost 10 percent of your purchasing power (It's actually 10.4 percent when you factor in compounding).
Economist Saifedean Ammous summed it up.
"Our monetary system is so broken that people have to preserve their wealth in their houses instead of in their money."
Historian Tom Woods parsed out the ramifications.
"This means the demand for housing includes an artificial component that would not exist under a system of sound money. In other words, some portion of the demand for housing comes from a desire to store wealth, since our present money is unsuitable for this purpose."
If the government didn't print so much money, housing prices wouldn't rise so much. If the government stopped driving interest rates to artificially low levels, housing bubbles wouldn't blow up. And if we didn't have so many people chasing home ownership to preserve (and in some cases grow) their wealth, that segment of demand would likely fall and prices along with it.
Simply put, if our money weren't broken, we wouldn't have to buy a house to preserve our wealth.
Sadly, very few people with power want to fix the money. They depend on monetary debasement to fuel big government. The inflation tax is the price you pay for government borrowing and spending. So, don't count on the money printing going away any time soon – or ever. (It will only end when the fiat system implodes, which it undoubtedly will.
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Work. Save. Deny yourself immediate gratification. Do stuff you don’t like. Expect less, like we had Formica not granite and marble. Do it yourself. We are boomers and couldn’t afford the labor portion of part of our renovation. My 61 year old hubby did it himself. You can too. Develop a skill set you don’t have. My grandparents went through the depression and WW2 and then bought their VERY modest homes years later. Cry me a river. One is still alive at 95 and we are taking care of her. I no longer expect that from kids. Above all, learn how to be patient and wait.
2. Unfortunately the government, which was elected put additional requirements on homes. Leason, be careful who you elect.
3. Same government elected allow 20 million illegals into the USA, they had to live somewhere. Think supply and demand!
So, work hard, spend your money carefully and vote correctly (ie not by feelings or promises which will be broken)!
It’s a combination of too many people and the gov inflating the dollar via a number of ways.
A few things I’ve noticed:
There are MANY young people who managed to purchase a home, moaning and regretting their purchase because there are **GASP** home repairs that need to be done. Even a brand new build doesn’t stay “turn key” forever which these young people are incredulous to find out.
These same new homeowners were blasting the “eeeeeevvvvil, greeeeeeedy landlords before they became homeowners but now want to go back to renting. LOL
I have a vacancy right now. Brand new remodeled, new EVERYTHING including major mechanicals, electric service, etc. About 96% of people inquiring have a credit score below 600 even though a high credit score is easier than ever to attain (medical debt isn’t counted, etc)
I can only surmise that young people since C19 have been doomspending—waiting on universal basic income to take care of all their needs.
No, we have a RESPONSIBILITY crisis.
Money management is the biggest failure of our education system. Kids are told by tv ads that they should be forever buried in debt. When their car gets paid off it’s time to buy a new one. We all know people who live like that.
My parents also went through the depression and WW2. It is my MIL who is still alive at 95.
I remember when a fancy home was $50,000.00.
Of course, I also remember when candy bars were a nickel.
Part of the problem is these local planning/permitting boards who actively, through policy, discourage single family homes and encourage multi family housing.
They think they are doing the world a favor.
And they are deeply entrenched.
We had six in a two-bedroom 800 sqft home till I was about ten.
Bkmk
Supply & demand make it a money problem that was created by an availability problem. When you let in 10s ofmillions of people in a short period of time the availability problem raises the prices creeating the money problem that follows the availability problem that preceded it.
We were married ten years before we purchased a house. Many in the current generations think they should have had houses yesterday or that houses should be given to them outright.
Instant gratification is right
When the value of the house goes up and/or mortgage goes down, remove the $56 PMI. And refinance when the young couple's credit score is better (say 5 years in for the remaining 25 years) and the payment is $966/month.
IMHO that's do-able for a young couple even in low-cost of living (and perhaps lower wages) Alabama.
“Of course, I also remember when candy bars were a nickel.”
Buying a 5 cent coke at work was a treat for my father. He quit when they raised it to 6 cents. He drank water with his lunch after that.
So, you worked, you saved and you denied. And in your 60s you still can’t afford? Did it occur to you that that model may be broken?
Building regulations have driven housing costs exponentially. I built a 2000 square foot house with my own labor beginning in 2013 for $120k in rural Minnesota. It took me 2 years. I was not allowed to build my own septic, which would have cost $3k but instead cost $15k. New laws required me to hire a “septic designer” and “licensed installer” to install a mound system, even though I am miles from surface water.
It basically comes down to “I can’t afford what I want”. There are cheaper houses available. They just don’t want to live there. When we moved a few years ago, we sold a house in a hot market and moved to a house in a slow market. We went from a 3500 sq ft split level on 1 acre to 6000 sq ft with 1 level living on 12 acres. We also made enough to get rid of the mortgage. I was working remotely so I could live anywhere. I see nice houses on Zillow every day for less than $300k.
Adding: our house is a 1300 sq. ft., 3 bedroom bungalow in a small town. It is NOT fancy, but we own it. My husband is okay with maintenance, but we should have had tge house sided before our retirement
My parents were married 15 years before they built a house.
I remember these vending machines in New York City subways when I was a kid.
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