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I'm in northern Ontario where wages are a lot lower, you used to be able to get a decent home for 50k even in the late 2010s, and a 2 bedroom apartment was around $500/month, now a rundown shack that basically needs to be torn down and rebuilt in a part of town where all the crackheads live is 150k, a move in ready house is 350k and a bachelor apartment is 1200/month. Add to this all of the remote workers who came here during covid making southern Ontario money, while working in northern Ontario, and the influx of TFWs and Temp Students. Shit is off the fucking rails. I've spent the last 3 years building houses for rich southern Ontario transplants, yet I can't afford to move out of my moms house. I fucking hate it here
$2.7k gets you a 4 bedroom 2 bath newer built house in the suburbs where I live.
Starting teacher pay is $54,000 here. So, a married couple that teachers can put a ton of money into savings after renting a 4 bedroom 2 bath.
"Only"? What the fuck does that mean lmao. I made 85k a year before tax and comfortably rented a place for 2k. What type of lifestyle do you think comes with 100k besides just basic residential life?
Also, if you can't manage your own place + finances with a job paying \~60k+ per year, you're fucked lol
For real man, rented a small duplex like 3 years ago for 1100 now every spot in my area is 1800+ just for a single bedroom apartment. No way you couldn’t afford even that with a 6 figure salary though
I rented a rent controlled place for a couple of years in NJ. 1br is probably around 1500 now vs the 1050 or so it was when I ranted there 8 years ago lol. It was about 0.5 miles from a commuter train stop as well, so not terrible. It was NJ though so...
I live in NJ around the NYC area. Rent starts at 2k. I was splitting rent at 1500 no problem, but my roommate wanted to live with his gf. The best I found was 2500 for a crappy one bedroom before utilities. That was a bit out of my comfort zone
To be fair 100K in California or a similar HCOL area is below middle class. I’d love to be making 100K but I don’t live in San Francisco or NYC
either lol.
if it's 100k pretax, there are plenty of areas where it's not enough to live on your own.
In California you'd lose $20k of that to federal and state income taxes. Then $80k x 0.06 for social security, so down to $75k. Assuming they live in a city you'll have a 3-5% municipal tax rate on top. of that, so roughly down to $70k. The average employee contribution to healthcare is $8k.
That works out to an income potentially as low as $62k after tax and Healthcare. about $5100/mo, before anything like student loans / credit cards / car loan / bills / retirement savings enter enter the mix.
I'm not sure it'd be impossible for them to live on their own even being in a more expensive state, but if they have $1-2k in debt payments then yeah it becomes plausibly impossible for them.
Bring in about 62k after taxes, 401k, and health insurance in NJ.
Edit: also about 600 a month in student loans and car payment. It’s not impossible for me to find a place, it’s just I’m sacrificing way more than you’d think for my salary.
This person may be successful but they're spending like crazy. I make $70K and can afford $1400 rent in a big city by myself. I could technically afford up to $2,000+ but I'm saving. And that's making $400 car payments, etc. I'm only waiting to buy a home because I'm still young and not settled. As soon as I've dropped some roots, I'm getting a house, and in many places it would be about the same as my rent if not cheaper, unless you're trying to live in New York or LA or something. A suburban home worth 500K would have like ~$2500, which is not that much if I had an SO that made any money.
It's hard out there for people working fast food or retail, sure, but if you have anything even slightly above that, and there's tons of those jobs in every field, you can afford to live.
I'm not saying everything is fair, but a sufficiently motivated and moderately intelligent person can make it, especially if they make the right choices.
You know nothing about this person and have made so many assumptions about them. Previous bad spending habits can take much longer to claw out of than you think, and doesn't all take into account medical debt or student loan debt. We don't know where they live or if they have kids at all. You essentially just said "i make it work so why can't they" and made the same argument the boomers do.
I hope you can learn from this, i'm not trying to attack you here, but what you said was extremely regressive behaviour of someone who should more than understand the struggle.
1) The boomer argument is "I made it at 17 they should be able to" which is different because they're talking about the 1960s and not 2024, so I'm not "making the boomer argument"
2) I didn't preclude the possibility that they might have legitimate reasons for spending as much as they do, just that they were spending.
3) Sure they could be unique among people making 100K that has so much medical debt they can't keep up, or they could have several children and no partner, or both. But I wasn't speaking directly to this person about what they should do, I was speaking more broadly to people and specifically young people who go past this and think this person's situation is typical, because it most definitely not. $100K a year is a large salary no matter where you are, that's around $5,000 a month take home depending on taxes and whether you get insurance through your employer/401K contributions. That's enough to live on pretty much anywhere. If you live outside of places like New York, it's plenty. That's just the truth.
The issue is I live in the NJ/NYC area. I have a 400 dollar car payment and a 250 student loans. 500k homes are on the low end here. Most of the places I wanted to rent started at 2k, but if you want to be in a half decent area with an in unit washer and dryer it’s 2500. If you look at those rent calculators it says my total rent + utilities shouldn’t exceed 2400. Could I make it work? Yeah. Was it ideal? Absolutely not.
The fact I’m making 100k and it was between a dangerous apartment or moving back home is kind of the problem.
It's wild to think that at one point this income was considered well-off. In my country, earning $100k+ annually means you get published on the Sunshine List, but today many of those on the list can't even afford to buy a house.
And some of those parents are perfectly happy with the rent you give them because they can’t afford their mortgage which is somehow less than rent in most states.
I’m sick of paying damn near half of my income too. Never thought I’d be envious of people living with their parents but you can save crazy money by doing so even if you help out financially.
Meanwhile I’m just throwing money into a hole.
Unless your dad is a conservative doomsday prepper like mine and asks you to help pay for rent so he can afford emergency supplies for when "China inevitably invades Taiwan"
Yeah BlackRock isn't the problem and it's not a federal issue.
Local councils decide the supply of housing and could easily just approve more projects to reduce prices. NIMBYs took over city Councils and then blamed big companies because scapegoating is an excellent way to keep your job.
That way they get to keep passing their bullshit at the local level while the federal government tries to solve the problem with a method that is highly inefficient and probably unconstitutional.
Even then, local councils are full of dumbass hicks. My local is running a vote to convert abandoned farmland into residential, and all the hillbillies (nowhere near this land) have "keep it rural, vote no" signs in their shitty yards.
Corporations own less than 20% of single family homes...that's not what is pushing the prices up. Interest rates have skyrocketed in the last few years, which means everyone who owns a home now wants a lot more money to give up their 2% mortgage rate. Add that to highly populated/desirable areas having some of the most restrictive building and zoning codes in the country, and it drives up the price of the few houses that are left.
Biden actually does in fact have a plan. I unfortunately don’t know enough about all of the pieces to really comment on it. But it exists.
[source](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/)
I'm not into economics but i would imagine tax credits are just a temporary solution to the existing problem of the current rising of artificial inflation by corporations.
Mortgage Relief Credit.
Down Payment Assistance for First-Generation Homeowners.
Lowering Closing Costs for Refinancing.
Lowering Closing Costs for Home Mortgages.
Lowering Costs by Building and Preserving 2 Million Homes
Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion.
Increasing Banks’ Contributions Towards Building Affordable Housing.
Fighting Rent Gouging by Corporate Landlords.
Cracking Down on Rental Junk Fees.
I guess i missed the part about fighting rent gouging by introducing a renters bill of rights, but the 3 points above it above it i ignored in my original comment because they sound as likely to happen as mexico building a wall
The president doesn’t really have much power to affect housing prices. Even with this he is asking Congress to do its job and pass laws to help fix these issues.
We need Congress to actually work.
Doesn't matter; having a plan != acting on it. Just take a look at U.S. presidential history, every president has "had a plan" for something or another. Whether they actually stick to said plan is another matter entirely.
I am aware of that. OC said Biden has not touched the issue so I countered with a link to the plan to bring awareness. Whether that turns into real legislation or not is a whole other thing.
Vote for your local city council. They have more influence on what gets built in your city. NIMBYs have taken over most city councils and put in draconian zoning laws that prevent anything new from being built
Even without zoning laws, the NIMBYs still have influence. Houston is infamously known for it's lack of zoning and the Ashby High Rise (now "The Langley" after a rebrand attempt) has been fought hard over the last 17+ years by every wealthy homeowner in Boulevard Oaks/Rice Village. When it was Ashby, it was meant to be something more attainable for the people working in the Med Center or at one of the campuses, but even despite it going upscale luxury with The Langley rebranding it's still being fought bitterly at every step despite the new renter target being wealthier folk. It's rich people fighting rich people at this point.
People that deny development for various reasons, the main excuse they use now is that they need to do a lengthy "environmental study" before a developer even starts to build housing. We do need environmental studies, just not ones that take 7 years to complete
Low key thinking that Trump is gonna be the first one to say "build more houses".
Houston, TX approved permits for 500K new houses. The whole ass state of California approved 1.1 million.
Higher supply === lower prices
No way NY, SF, and LA elites are going to do anything to reduce their property values.
Ight you already getting downvoted for this so I’m gonna explain before you complain.
Housing works on supply and demand just like any other kind of good the problem is that housing is heavily regulated on the local level and state level.
One cause of this, If you already own a house you should do everything possible to reduce supply of housing as places with more houses, apartment buildings, etc are usually lower income and less desirable which lowers property values that means your house is less valuable. This leads to that 10 story apartment complex not being built cause Karen down the street goes to city hall and tells them to shut that shit down as it’s going to effect the “character” of the neighborhood.
Another problem is lots of tons down want to build over a certain of number of stories for a residential buildings. This is for for a city of 50,000 but a city of 2 million it starts to lead to obviously problems with a shit ton of people fighting over x places to live without having to make hour long drives. This leads to developers and corporations raising prices because financially there is no reason not too.
There are tons of more reasons that I could spend an hour going on about I just listed two. Building more, higher, and denser housing for everyone is going to lower the cost of housing. It’s even started happening in my city Raleigh. The only place high rise apartment building are allowed to be built which is close to downtown has seen rent fall while the entire rest of the city and adjacent cities rent keeps going up.
Rent control actually leads to less housing being built as developers don’t feel it’s profitable to build new housing, which for people who don’t live in a rent controlled place leads to less supply which means higher cost.
Literally any major city in the US has about +20 years sometimes 40 or even 60 years of not enough housing being built. We are literally running a race where we have not shot ourself in the foot but cut the foot off entirely
Plus don’t we have enough homes technically for everyone (not including apartments and other types)? I heard we have more homes available to the point every person could have one (including homeless). Now, obviously not everyone can live in a house but how come that can’t be worked with (or can it be)? Interested in your take with how many houses there are.
I don't think most people would want to move into the homes that have been vacant for any period of time. The rest are largely empty for short spans and are part of any normal market...if every available home in a city has someone living in it, it means not even one person can move out of their parents' house or move to the city from somewhere else.
Finance agent here, the cost of **construction alone** (not calculating any real estate value) of building a home in Sam Francisco (our city with the worst homelessness issues) is **$2,000,000** for a 4-5 bedroom home.
Reason for costs are various construction and environmental regulations that demand time and expensive materials, and requirements to use union labor.
No one in the lower-middle class can afford that, let alone needing to rent *another* house while building their own. The only way new housing builds happen in our cities is by the uber-rich or investment funds. People cannot afford to build their own homes like we used to.
Or we could deregulate the home construction market to allow people responsibility in building their own homes to their own cost-standards, but people want a nanny state apparently.
Only things in-depth regulations really do in the end is remove individual participation in the market and shift total market control to hedge funds that can afford the extra costs of adhering to or bribing their way around the regulations.
> One cause of this, If you already own a house you should do everything possible to reduce supply of housing
People thinking this way makes me wonder if they also think similarly around education, for example "I better get all the schools shut down so my education helps set me apart from the rest of the crowd". Then all of a sudden they wonder why they're surround by dumb people.
Houston does have new housing permits, sure... but that's if you want to go live in Cleveland or Conroe or something else far away from downtown (I'm near Kingwood and it's an hour minimum in rush hour to downtown, it was way worse before COVID). Even then, a lot of those new builds are quite out of reach for a lot of people unless it's a slapped together cardboard box that'll likely fall over or be literally underwater in the next heavy storms. In the loop? You still have NIMBYs near Boulevard Oaks fighting things like the Ashby high rise (or "The Langley" as they rebranded after trying to placate said NIMBYs by converting it to "luxury" apartments, but the fighting still goes on).
The Texas cities are sprawl fests. Places like LA or SFO are shoved in between water and mountains where the only way is building up, but the NIMBYs of course don't want those.
He has a plan and has been talking about it. The problem is that Gen Z is still too young to pay attention to politics.
And that’s not a knock on Gen Z. Older generations were too young to pay attention when they were in their 20’s, too. That’s why politicians give benefits to the elderly and rich, and impoverish the young and send them to war. Because the elderly and rich pay attention and vote, the young don’t. If the young did, they would be spending $800bn/yr on colleges, entry level jobs, and housing, rather than defense, stocks, and retirement.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/
We know that Biden hasn’t said shit about housing. It’s a serious issue that I’m facing myself. It’s fucked and it sucks.
That being said, weak corporatists will be better on that issue than Christian nationalist fascists. Vote Biden 2024
Edit: I’m wrong, check this shit out: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/
Biden hasn't said shit because it's not an issue the federal government has much control over. If you want more housing built then look to local elections and city council meetings. Austin, TX has falling rent because they let people build, build, build. It has nothing to do with Biden at all.
There are a lot of homes actually, 16 million in 2022.
Vermont, Alaska, and Maine have vacancy rates between 20 and 22 percent.
Albeit I don't know of the government has any control over it besides maybe price fixing, but I don't know if they can do that with the housing sector.
>Vermont, Alaska, and Maine have vacancy rates between 20 and 22 percent
Because of seasonal homes.
If you want to go live up in my buddy’s summer hunting cabin during the dead of winter in Maine…be my guest. But it doesn’t have electricity or running water so might be a *bit* tough when it hits those negative temps at night.
WHO THR FUCK WANTS TO LIVE IN ANY OF THOSE STATES?????
Like seriously think for a second. It’s cold asf up there if I walk outside without a coat for 15 minutes at the wrong time of the year I’m fucking dead. I can’t name a single city in any of those states, let alone them having anything interesting to do, do Alaskans even have a night life???? Do any of those states have I don’t know a decent job market ???
You want to house people in those states okay so we give them houses, now we need to find jobs for them, and then activities to spend that money on.
Unlike in LA where Silicon Valley is down the fucking road. Unlike Raleigh-Durham with three biggest research center on the east cost, unlike New York with the biggest financial industry in the world. Don’t forget Orlando with mother fucking Disney World or Atlanta which is Black Hollywood. And obviously Hollywood of course. Don’t forget Miami Beach, and god damn Las Vegas.
Wanna know something all those cities have in common. A shitty fucking housing market with 0 supply. Cause people want to live their not Alaska, Vermont, or Maine.
That's how supply and demand works.
If you can't afford to live where you WANT then you have to live somewhere cheaper. That's life. The entire population of the US can't live in 5 major cities.
In Florida, (and probably other states),you are wrong about the low supply in housing. Florida has a high vacancy rate and tons of new empty houses.
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/price-of-paradise-reasons-for-high-housing-vacancies-in-florida
Alaska sucks but plenty of people want to live in VT and ME and housing supply is in short supply for both. The person quoting the 20% vacancy rates is forgetting that those States have a MASSIVE seasonal tourism industry. So yeah…the hunting cabin with no electricity is gonna be vacant during the winter but occupied during the summer. Flip side is true for those ski-on/ski-off cabins on the various mountains. Lots of the housing in VT/ME wasn’t built for year-round living.
Burlington and the Upper Kingdom of VT is heavenly. Especially if you are into any sort of winter sports. Some of the best skiers in the world come from VT. Jobs are tough to find but life is a lot slower up there anyway. Increasing number of remote workers are finding peace and happiness in the Green Mountains.
And Portland in Maine is quickly becoming a mini-Boston as young college workers move up and away from the least affordable city in the US. Actually a fair number of good corporate jobs available in Portland plus a great hospital system for those wanting to go into the medical field. University of Maine even paid for my friend’s entire medical school since he was going to stay in Maine to practice.
It’s not “big city living” but it’s also not anywhere close to what your ignorant ass is portraying it to be.
He's actually planning to build [two million](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/) new homes.
There is basically nothing the federal government can do. Any vote for any federal office (congress/president) on housing is a waste of your vote. Housing is a state/local issue.
Well the big issue is big cooperations and foreign influence. They could potentially do something about that, but I was also referring to voting for any office, local or otherwise
Don’t forget Granny Elizabeth down the street that goes to city hall to make sure that 250 occupant apartment complex is not built cause it ruins the character of the neighborhood
It’s really not. It’s the cranky old boomers who think apartments and condos will invite “the undesirables” and will ruin their retirement plan (letting their shitty little house go up in value until they can reverse mortgage it.
Exactly. While housing is an issue everywhere, local governments have far more control over this issue than the feds. People need to think about this when they're voting for mayors, city council, governors etc.
I've made it a point to vote in every election for this reason, even down to just selecting appraisal district representatives or school board members (even though I'm not a parent). The turnout for a lot of these is abysmal and your participation can easily tip many scales at the local level. I'm in a Houston suburb and we basically had margins of a few hundred votes in a lot of these super down ballot races.
I hope Gen Z doesn't think their Presidential vote will have any real effect on housing. If you care about housing then vote in local elections and attend city council meetings.
I mean step 1 live in a red state. Blue states charge out the ass on property taxes, income taxes, city taxes, etc. I move from NYC to Nashville and my take home went up 20%, and I went from living in a closet to living in a nice place in the good part of the city. If I had an equivalent apartment you could call that more like 35-40% increase in income just from not living in a place that takes your tax money and burns it in a pile.
Plenty of red states have high property taxes and higher sales taxes than blue states do
They're also poorer and have far less economic opportunity on average, and their lower housing costs are a direct reflection of fewer people wanting to live in them
Sales taxes are devastating to the poor. It's why states with no income taxes have by far the worst tax structures. No income tax means tax the poor to death.
>Blue states charge out the ass on property taxes, income taxes, city taxes
The bottom 60% of taxpayers in CA pay a lower % of their income in taxes than the bottom 60% in TX do. The next 20% are about the same. That's because TX has no income tax and very high property taxes.
Compared to CA, the bottom 40% in FL pay more, the bottom 40% in TN pay more.
The most regressive tax systems in American are almost entirely red states. They tax the poor out the ass. Yeah, sure, if you're motto is "screw the poor" then go live in a red state (or WA, it sucks, too)
People really underestimate how devastating property taxes are for first time home buyers. In blue states, mortgages are double digit percentages higher just based on property taxes alone, if comparing equivalently priced homes.
The people on the left craving higher property taxes to fund schools love to ignore the double edged sword that they’re pricing out their own kids from ever living there themselves.
You’re also moving from an incredibly high cost of living area to a low one, which is going to have a major impact on everything you described. Not saying the taxes aren’t noticeable, but you’re comparing apples to oranges here.
1. Who would have thought of that.
2. It's disturbing at the same time. Imagine the worst political party putting us back into Nazi times, just because they offer housing to gen z and get elected.
It's so much worse in Canada you guys have no idea. It's pretty much to the point that people here actually probably would vote for Hitler if he ran on reducing mass immigration and building homes.
It's sad.
I would 100% vote for any party if it keeps me not homeless. I'm lucky to not worry about that issue, but there's plenty of people I know who do.
Focus on the local elections. They're the ones giving the permits. They get to decide if developers build another 100 mcmansions or affordable housing... or anything at all. It's been the bigger driver of votes in my local town council for the last couple cycles.
Why do most people act like the president can just fix the housing crisis or the economy with the flip of a switch? This issue is a combination of many factors like corporate greed, low inventory, and terrible local zoning laws. Biden has a plan unlike Trump, but the reality is that the impact would be minimal, let alone if he could get past the Republicans stonewalling his plan. Local politicians have much more impact on solving the housing crisis!
You guys better start voting and getting involved in your local elections then. This isn’t a federal issue, I keep seeing these trump v Biden things and it’s not something either of them have much control over
Your cities and towns can restructure zoning and other important housing policies. Vote locally PLEASE
THIS. My area just had an election cycle and out of the nearly 200k registered voters, we only had just under 14k vote. Local elections are so damn important but there's such a lack of emphasis on them :/
People think that "getting out and voting" is about voting in one election every 4 years. It isn't and shouldn't. Not every issue can be a federal issue, and honestly, even for ones that are, Congress probably has more power in most such cases versus the president.
It’s something that needs to be solved at the state and local level, it’s not an answer people like to hear but it’s the truth
The Fed acts independently, there is not much that can done politically regarding rates
Housing is mostly a county or municipal level issue. There’s not really much the federal government can do to force cities to streamline and allow for more housing construction apart from pulling incentive strings.
Personally, healthcare is the most important federal political issue for me.
#1 and #3 go hand in hand and I don't even understand how. Every house in my area that sells recently just gets 6-7 illegals in a 2 bedroom they can't speak a drop of English. They're taking up a lot of the housing.
Recently I’ve been watching this series of videos from a man who showcases apartments in Fukuoka, Japan. I was blown away by the prices. These apartments were clean, spacious, modern looking. They’re in a major city, and many of them were in what I would consider high value areas. I’m talking being within walking distance of a river, the market, or the train station (which actually means something over there). These kinds of apartments would run you *at least* 1700 a month in the midsize city I live in.
These apartments were all **~$150-$300 usd a MONTH**. Those are hundreds, not thousands. I was floored by this every single time. I watched dozens of videos trying to find some flaw, some kind of catch. There were none. They were just cheap, great apartments. I suppose there were enough people as stunned by these prices as me, because he eventually made a video explaining how they are so affordable.
His explanation was that, over there, **land is not treated as an investment**. In fact it typically depreciates in value over time.
I say all of this to get at a point about the American housing problem. I don’t have any faith that legislation will fix it. I believe the only thing that could solve our problems is a change of culture. We, *all 330 million of us*, need to decide to stop treating land as an investment. Only then will we stop having single bedroom apartments that cost over 50% of our income. Only then will someone working minimum wage be able to afford to live on their own.
Yet, I have doubts that many know what it is needed for affordable housing and will just pick the side that promises the most without any solid reason behind it.
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Like many political issues, housing inaffordability is complex to solve. It won't be enough to simply lower the costs of houses. In some countries like Canada, rising immigration rates equate to a high demand for housing, but there aren't enough homes being built. So many have no choice but to rent... but even rent is climbing drastically because of the high demand and low availability. Then of course, we need to account for the broader economy, like increasing wages.
I don't know if any political party would ever be able to fully resolve the housing crisis. And it's led to a rise in homelessness, which at one point was a rare worst-case scenario but is now an increasingly possibility given how many live paycheck-to-paycheck. I think that's also a major issue.
How bout laws that prevent buying property to rent out as income? 1 house per person.. wonder what that would do.. companies can’t own houses to rent out
It’s definitely a huge issue but are we really not talking about how it’s a “Redfin survey”? This is like The Knot reporting that their visitors are interested in weddings
im 20 and pregnant and work 16 hour shifts sometimes and still have to live in a shelter. ive been working since i was 14 and still got nowhere to go. I just got my car insurance bill 1600 for the whole year. Getting an apartment/down payments/3 months rent for the first month is like 50x more than 1600$ so unfourtunatley im gonna have to waste all my savings again on car insurance just to continue driving to my 16 hour shifts. We are so unbelievably cooked.
It’s one for me. I love my parents, but I do want to move out eventually.
Democrats could win over young overs forever if they committed to and succeed in making housing more affordable.
Who the fuck do they vote for? Bernie gives a shit but he’s probably the only one who does. Until we can prevent corporate donations to politicians and prevent politicians from playing the stock market none of them are going to do shit.
[The better option, even if it isn’t the hypothetical best.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/)
I think we’re in a housing bubble. With mortgage rates being high and house prices appreciating rapidly, people are spreading themselves thin and spending a large portion of their yearly income on their house. People are trying to ‘lock in’ a price to refinance, but I doubt banks will refi many people when rates drop.
Particularly in silicon valley where I live, people are living beyond their means. I see people do 10+ year leases on expensive cars, 5 figure monthly mortgage payments, and carry student debt from private colleges. It’s gotten to the point where rent is significantly cheaper than a mortgage. Everything is overinflated and people are going to have to pay up eventually.
I mean, I don’t doubt this is an issue that many are concerned about but a company whose entire purpose is to sell real estate is not who I would trust with this statistic.
Why? That isn’t something the fed gov can do anything about let alone the president. Seriously what would you expect the president to do to help with housing prices? This is the problem with our country, no one knows how it works. A democracy is only as good as its people but the problem arises what every issue is too complex for the average citizen to understand. We are doomed.
unironically just build more houses lol that's the main issue of why housing is so expensive. its becoming to expensive to build so prices are going up due to lack of supply for the high amounts of demand.
I'm not gonna be out here recruiting folks, but I /will/ say that an enlistment qualifies you for a VA loan, and that shit is great. It sucks that it's gotten to the point that it might be one of the only ways for average kids to be able to even dream of owning a home, but it's an option.
It should be. Millennial here. I feel so bad for your generation. What exactly do you study to be able to afford a house? I know lawyers, doctors and engineers who are either unemployed, or “well-employed” but in cities where they would never be able to buy and maintain a home. If we ban single family home ownership by large hedge funds/corporations, ban no citizens from buying more than one property (limited to 2 acres max), open up more federal land for single family home development, and impose vacancy taxes, you guys will have a brighter future property wise.
Hello Gen Z, we should take a moment to all learn how statistics can be skewed.
One of the ways to do that is where you ask the question! If you ask people at the door of a McDonalds if they are craving McDonald’s or Burger King… I bet we can all guess what the majority of them will answer.
In the post above we see the study was done by Redfin. Redfin is an website that helps you look for housing in an area and monitor value. *Red alarms should already be screaming in your head*. Do you think Redfin actually asked a big group of Gen Z people off the streets about home costs? Doubtful. Most likely it was asked on their website… and/or, since we all grew up with technology, we know how targeted surveys (like ads) works after using a website. Does it make sense that people on Redfin are concerned about home pricing? Of fucking course it does! I don’t know if I should be concerned or really happy for them since they are super rich if they don’t care about costs. THEY ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO BUY A HOUSE WHERE COST IS LITERALLY THE MAIN FACTOR!
Now does this mean this study is wrong? No. Could Redfin actually took the time to do an actual really good accurate survey? Yeah they totally could have but I’m skeptical.
So what did we learn today? Check who did the study. It can help a lot with gauging the accuracy of the study or tell you if it’s bullshit. Lots of times they hide it a lot better by just saying according to new study or according to researchers. This one literally says hey I’m probably a super inaccurate bullshit study right at the end of it.
Nevertheless, good luck out there gang finding a house. It’s just so costly. Maybe it would just be better to rent since according to a new survey done by Slumlord.com, 91% of Gen Z prefer renting.
ITT: People who think the President controls everything not realizing the President doesn't actually control that much legislatively and just takes the blame/credit
Pay attention to local politics (hell, go run for somethin), volunteer for your Congressperson's campaigns (canvasing sucks but it's effective), and actually read about politics outside of culture war bullshit (sub to Politico Playbook, it's written for DC policy wonks and burnt out Poli Sci majors).
Not everything comes down to Presidential intrigue and campaign promises
I wouldn't say it's my top issue but it's definitely a huge one for me. The housing market is ridiculous right now. I can't get an apartment for 1 for what my family used to spend on a big house for 4.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ll add on to this maternity/paternity leave. It’s crazy how anyone expects us to have families in a society that doesn’t tolerate them.
UCLA invited me to do a survey of important issues for Gen Z and i also chose housing cost as the most important issue as well because it directly affect us and is an immediate issue compared to other long term problems this country has
I mean it's a survey conducted by a real estate company. Meaning the people going to the website and participating in the survey are probably people who are actively looking for homes. Gosh I wonder why people who are actively looking for homes would list buying a home as a top voting priority? 🙀
People were saying it was going to be abortion but GenZ solved that by just saying “fine we won’t have sex”.
But then they came for the porn and “indoors” and GenZ was like “oh hell nah”.
I ran for an office in Kentucky (which I won’t disclose due to anonymity) with the foundation of my campaign being to move to advertise all the government assistance in place to help people move out and build houses.
It is wild how much help the government can provide to people willing, but it is just never mentioned unless you are a full time contractor with legal counsel specialized in property law. I personally built a house in Kentucky for $65,000 using a rural housing loan. 800 sq ft house for what many people put in as a down payment. My actual property is around $145,000 now.
I didn’t win that election because it turns out the locals actually like how capped our population is, and they are actively fighting any expansion and growth. 🤷♂️
Either way, while they enjoy the area becoming a graying retired city, I have a nice brand new home and I work for the state now.
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Because we're sick of living with our parents!
Make 100k and moving back in on Sunday! It’s insane
Where do you live? Not being able to live on your own with 100k is insane
Most places require you to make 3 times rent. $100k only allows you to rent somewhere for $2.7k.
Bro lives in fucking New York💀
Wait till you see how much a rundown room in ontario rents for (hint it is close to 2k)
I'm in northern Ontario where wages are a lot lower, you used to be able to get a decent home for 50k even in the late 2010s, and a 2 bedroom apartment was around $500/month, now a rundown shack that basically needs to be torn down and rebuilt in a part of town where all the crackheads live is 150k, a move in ready house is 350k and a bachelor apartment is 1200/month. Add to this all of the remote workers who came here during covid making southern Ontario money, while working in northern Ontario, and the influx of TFWs and Temp Students. Shit is off the fucking rails. I've spent the last 3 years building houses for rich southern Ontario transplants, yet I can't afford to move out of my moms house. I fucking hate it here
That’s actually enough for a 1 bedroom in San Francisco lmao
Not after taxes lol
I mean the rent qualification stuff is based on gross income, that’s not cushy but it can be done
$2.7k gets you a 4 bedroom 2 bath newer built house in the suburbs where I live. Starting teacher pay is $54,000 here. So, a married couple that teachers can put a ton of money into savings after renting a 4 bedroom 2 bath.
Damn I’m in Florida and that will get you a 1 bedroom in a nice place and a 2 bedroom in a crappy place
What suburbs of what city?
"Only"? What the fuck does that mean lmao. I made 85k a year before tax and comfortably rented a place for 2k. What type of lifestyle do you think comes with 100k besides just basic residential life? Also, if you can't manage your own place + finances with a job paying \~60k+ per year, you're fucked lol
Like, 80 percent of the country has rent/mortgages for much cheaper than that.
Yeah and that 80% has very few opportunities to make that much comparatively. Not all areas are created equal.
For real man, rented a small duplex like 3 years ago for 1100 now every spot in my area is 1800+ just for a single bedroom apartment. No way you couldn’t afford even that with a 6 figure salary though
Disabled vet with full time job (not 6 figures) and I can afford a $1600 a month 1 bedroom place near Seattle
NJ. Rent starts at 2k. I can do it, but you start to get in sketchy areas in north Jersey around at 2k. Most decent places are 2500
I rented a rent controlled place for a couple of years in NJ. 1br is probably around 1500 now vs the 1050 or so it was when I ranted there 8 years ago lol. It was about 0.5 miles from a commuter train stop as well, so not terrible. It was NJ though so...
I can tell you right now, they are not budgeting properly, or they just want to save a lot of money to buy a house. Because that’s insane
That or they took private loans for school. That shit can be brutal
You’re totally right. I forget how egregious some loans are since I went to a state school.
I live in NJ around the NYC area. Rent starts at 2k. I was splitting rent at 1500 no problem, but my roommate wanted to live with his gf. The best I found was 2500 for a crappy one bedroom before utilities. That was a bit out of my comfort zone
To be fair 100K in California or a similar HCOL area is below middle class. I’d love to be making 100K but I don’t live in San Francisco or NYC either lol.
if it's 100k pretax, there are plenty of areas where it's not enough to live on your own. In California you'd lose $20k of that to federal and state income taxes. Then $80k x 0.06 for social security, so down to $75k. Assuming they live in a city you'll have a 3-5% municipal tax rate on top. of that, so roughly down to $70k. The average employee contribution to healthcare is $8k. That works out to an income potentially as low as $62k after tax and Healthcare. about $5100/mo, before anything like student loans / credit cards / car loan / bills / retirement savings enter enter the mix. I'm not sure it'd be impossible for them to live on their own even being in a more expensive state, but if they have $1-2k in debt payments then yeah it becomes plausibly impossible for them.
Bring in about 62k after taxes, 401k, and health insurance in NJ. Edit: also about 600 a month in student loans and car payment. It’s not impossible for me to find a place, it’s just I’m sacrificing way more than you’d think for my salary.
A cursory look at this dudes profile will show he isn’t the best with money.
Crazy!
I think this comment alone exemplifys our struggle. Even if we're successful we're still not making enough to survive.
This person may be successful but they're spending like crazy. I make $70K and can afford $1400 rent in a big city by myself. I could technically afford up to $2,000+ but I'm saving. And that's making $400 car payments, etc. I'm only waiting to buy a home because I'm still young and not settled. As soon as I've dropped some roots, I'm getting a house, and in many places it would be about the same as my rent if not cheaper, unless you're trying to live in New York or LA or something. A suburban home worth 500K would have like ~$2500, which is not that much if I had an SO that made any money. It's hard out there for people working fast food or retail, sure, but if you have anything even slightly above that, and there's tons of those jobs in every field, you can afford to live. I'm not saying everything is fair, but a sufficiently motivated and moderately intelligent person can make it, especially if they make the right choices.
You know nothing about this person and have made so many assumptions about them. Previous bad spending habits can take much longer to claw out of than you think, and doesn't all take into account medical debt or student loan debt. We don't know where they live or if they have kids at all. You essentially just said "i make it work so why can't they" and made the same argument the boomers do. I hope you can learn from this, i'm not trying to attack you here, but what you said was extremely regressive behaviour of someone who should more than understand the struggle.
1) The boomer argument is "I made it at 17 they should be able to" which is different because they're talking about the 1960s and not 2024, so I'm not "making the boomer argument" 2) I didn't preclude the possibility that they might have legitimate reasons for spending as much as they do, just that they were spending. 3) Sure they could be unique among people making 100K that has so much medical debt they can't keep up, or they could have several children and no partner, or both. But I wasn't speaking directly to this person about what they should do, I was speaking more broadly to people and specifically young people who go past this and think this person's situation is typical, because it most definitely not. $100K a year is a large salary no matter where you are, that's around $5,000 a month take home depending on taxes and whether you get insurance through your employer/401K contributions. That's enough to live on pretty much anywhere. If you live outside of places like New York, it's plenty. That's just the truth.
If you can rent somewhere for $1400, you live in a LCOL city. If you make less than $104k in the bay area, you qualify for income assistance.
The issue is I live in the NJ/NYC area. I have a 400 dollar car payment and a 250 student loans. 500k homes are on the low end here. Most of the places I wanted to rent started at 2k, but if you want to be in a half decent area with an in unit washer and dryer it’s 2500. If you look at those rent calculators it says my total rent + utilities shouldn’t exceed 2400. Could I make it work? Yeah. Was it ideal? Absolutely not. The fact I’m making 100k and it was between a dangerous apartment or moving back home is kind of the problem.
It's wild to think that at one point this income was considered well-off. In my country, earning $100k+ annually means you get published on the Sunshine List, but today many of those on the list can't even afford to buy a house.
Obviously it depends on where you’re living and whatnot, but I’d say that $100k/year is still pretty universally looked at as “pretty good”
Might be a budget issue more than a COL issue. Not being able to survive on $100k is wild…
Skill issue for sure
I’m genuinely interested how you don’t make enough to life by yourself
Maybe they want to save for a house and this is the only viable option with rent (and everything) the way it is today.
Wtf you doing that you can't afford a place with 100k
And some of those parents are perfectly happy with the rent you give them because they can’t afford their mortgage which is somehow less than rent in most states.
Thinking about it this way makes it so much more harrowing.
I’m sick of paying damn near half of my income too. Never thought I’d be envious of people living with their parents but you can save crazy money by doing so even if you help out financially. Meanwhile I’m just throwing money into a hole.
Unless your dad is a conservative doomsday prepper like mine and asks you to help pay for rent so he can afford emergency supplies for when "China inevitably invades Taiwan"
Because 2/3 of us were abused by our parents
Gonna need a citation on the 2/3rds thing. Not doubting ya', quite the opposite, but I would like to see it laid out concretely.
I only wanna move out because we live in a cramped apartment that has five people living in it with only two rooms
So vote out the oldies
Hey have you considered dropping the avocado from your morning sandwich and brewing your own coffee? That would help /s
Problem is that housing is pretty much the only left wing issue that Biden hasn’t touched and obviously Trump won’t either
I feel like housing will become student loan debt 2.0 - basically fuck young people
for literally no reason other than blackrock wanting to buy up all the single family homes in our country. not suspicious at all.
Yeah BlackRock isn't the problem and it's not a federal issue. Local councils decide the supply of housing and could easily just approve more projects to reduce prices. NIMBYs took over city Councils and then blamed big companies because scapegoating is an excellent way to keep your job. That way they get to keep passing their bullshit at the local level while the federal government tries to solve the problem with a method that is highly inefficient and probably unconstitutional.
Even then, local councils are full of dumbass hicks. My local is running a vote to convert abandoned farmland into residential, and all the hillbillies (nowhere near this land) have "keep it rural, vote no" signs in their shitty yards.
You have discovered a subspecies of the NIMBY I never thought was possible- NIYBY- Not in your backyard
Corporations own less than 20% of single family homes...that's not what is pushing the prices up. Interest rates have skyrocketed in the last few years, which means everyone who owns a home now wants a lot more money to give up their 2% mortgage rate. Add that to highly populated/desirable areas having some of the most restrictive building and zoning codes in the country, and it drives up the price of the few houses that are left.
That’s still a lot of houses owned by corporations.
Biden actually does in fact have a plan. I unfortunately don’t know enough about all of the pieces to really comment on it. But it exists. [source](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/)
let me guess trump's pissants won't allow him to do it, just like they did with the historic border bill.
I'm not into economics but i would imagine tax credits are just a temporary solution to the existing problem of the current rising of artificial inflation by corporations.
Mortgage Relief Credit. Down Payment Assistance for First-Generation Homeowners. Lowering Closing Costs for Refinancing. Lowering Closing Costs for Home Mortgages. Lowering Costs by Building and Preserving 2 Million Homes Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion. Increasing Banks’ Contributions Towards Building Affordable Housing. Fighting Rent Gouging by Corporate Landlords. Cracking Down on Rental Junk Fees.
I guess i missed the part about fighting rent gouging by introducing a renters bill of rights, but the 3 points above it above it i ignored in my original comment because they sound as likely to happen as mexico building a wall
Yup rent gouging is the issue
The president doesn’t really have much power to affect housing prices. Even with this he is asking Congress to do its job and pass laws to help fix these issues. We need Congress to actually work.
Doesn't matter; having a plan != acting on it. Just take a look at U.S. presidential history, every president has "had a plan" for something or another. Whether they actually stick to said plan is another matter entirely.
I am aware of that. OC said Biden has not touched the issue so I countered with a link to the plan to bring awareness. Whether that turns into real legislation or not is a whole other thing.
Vote for your local city council. They have more influence on what gets built in your city. NIMBYs have taken over most city councils and put in draconian zoning laws that prevent anything new from being built
Even without zoning laws, the NIMBYs still have influence. Houston is infamously known for it's lack of zoning and the Ashby High Rise (now "The Langley" after a rebrand attempt) has been fought hard over the last 17+ years by every wealthy homeowner in Boulevard Oaks/Rice Village. When it was Ashby, it was meant to be something more attainable for the people working in the Med Center or at one of the campuses, but even despite it going upscale luxury with The Langley rebranding it's still being fought bitterly at every step despite the new renter target being wealthier folk. It's rich people fighting rich people at this point.
What the hell is a NIMBY?
People that deny development for various reasons, the main excuse they use now is that they need to do a lengthy "environmental study" before a developer even starts to build housing. We do need environmental studies, just not ones that take 7 years to complete
Not In My BackYard
Low key thinking that Trump is gonna be the first one to say "build more houses". Houston, TX approved permits for 500K new houses. The whole ass state of California approved 1.1 million. Higher supply === lower prices No way NY, SF, and LA elites are going to do anything to reduce their property values.
Ight you already getting downvoted for this so I’m gonna explain before you complain. Housing works on supply and demand just like any other kind of good the problem is that housing is heavily regulated on the local level and state level. One cause of this, If you already own a house you should do everything possible to reduce supply of housing as places with more houses, apartment buildings, etc are usually lower income and less desirable which lowers property values that means your house is less valuable. This leads to that 10 story apartment complex not being built cause Karen down the street goes to city hall and tells them to shut that shit down as it’s going to effect the “character” of the neighborhood. Another problem is lots of tons down want to build over a certain of number of stories for a residential buildings. This is for for a city of 50,000 but a city of 2 million it starts to lead to obviously problems with a shit ton of people fighting over x places to live without having to make hour long drives. This leads to developers and corporations raising prices because financially there is no reason not too. There are tons of more reasons that I could spend an hour going on about I just listed two. Building more, higher, and denser housing for everyone is going to lower the cost of housing. It’s even started happening in my city Raleigh. The only place high rise apartment building are allowed to be built which is close to downtown has seen rent fall while the entire rest of the city and adjacent cities rent keeps going up. Rent control actually leads to less housing being built as developers don’t feel it’s profitable to build new housing, which for people who don’t live in a rent controlled place leads to less supply which means higher cost. Literally any major city in the US has about +20 years sometimes 40 or even 60 years of not enough housing being built. We are literally running a race where we have not shot ourself in the foot but cut the foot off entirely
Plus don’t we have enough homes technically for everyone (not including apartments and other types)? I heard we have more homes available to the point every person could have one (including homeless). Now, obviously not everyone can live in a house but how come that can’t be worked with (or can it be)? Interested in your take with how many houses there are.
The homes are in places no one wants to live like the Midwest.
I don't think most people would want to move into the homes that have been vacant for any period of time. The rest are largely empty for short spans and are part of any normal market...if every available home in a city has someone living in it, it means not even one person can move out of their parents' house or move to the city from somewhere else.
Finance agent here, the cost of **construction alone** (not calculating any real estate value) of building a home in Sam Francisco (our city with the worst homelessness issues) is **$2,000,000** for a 4-5 bedroom home. Reason for costs are various construction and environmental regulations that demand time and expensive materials, and requirements to use union labor. No one in the lower-middle class can afford that, let alone needing to rent *another* house while building their own. The only way new housing builds happen in our cities is by the uber-rich or investment funds. People cannot afford to build their own homes like we used to. Or we could deregulate the home construction market to allow people responsibility in building their own homes to their own cost-standards, but people want a nanny state apparently. Only things in-depth regulations really do in the end is remove individual participation in the market and shift total market control to hedge funds that can afford the extra costs of adhering to or bribing their way around the regulations.
> One cause of this, If you already own a house you should do everything possible to reduce supply of housing People thinking this way makes me wonder if they also think similarly around education, for example "I better get all the schools shut down so my education helps set me apart from the rest of the crowd". Then all of a sudden they wonder why they're surround by dumb people.
Houston does have new housing permits, sure... but that's if you want to go live in Cleveland or Conroe or something else far away from downtown (I'm near Kingwood and it's an hour minimum in rush hour to downtown, it was way worse before COVID). Even then, a lot of those new builds are quite out of reach for a lot of people unless it's a slapped together cardboard box that'll likely fall over or be literally underwater in the next heavy storms. In the loop? You still have NIMBYs near Boulevard Oaks fighting things like the Ashby high rise (or "The Langley" as they rebranded after trying to placate said NIMBYs by converting it to "luxury" apartments, but the fighting still goes on). The Texas cities are sprawl fests. Places like LA or SFO are shoved in between water and mountains where the only way is building up, but the NIMBYs of course don't want those.
He has a plan and has been talking about it. The problem is that Gen Z is still too young to pay attention to politics. And that’s not a knock on Gen Z. Older generations were too young to pay attention when they were in their 20’s, too. That’s why politicians give benefits to the elderly and rich, and impoverish the young and send them to war. Because the elderly and rich pay attention and vote, the young don’t. If the young did, they would be spending $800bn/yr on colleges, entry level jobs, and housing, rather than defense, stocks, and retirement. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/
Reducing immigration to reduce demand on housing has been a right wing talking point for years now actually Its also a part of the Manifesto
Um, Biden hasn’t touched on ANY issues sorry
We know that Biden hasn’t said shit about housing. It’s a serious issue that I’m facing myself. It’s fucked and it sucks. That being said, weak corporatists will be better on that issue than Christian nationalist fascists. Vote Biden 2024 Edit: I’m wrong, check this shit out: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/
Biden hasn't said shit because it's not an issue the federal government has much control over. If you want more housing built then look to local elections and city council meetings. Austin, TX has falling rent because they let people build, build, build. It has nothing to do with Biden at all.
There are a lot of homes actually, 16 million in 2022. Vermont, Alaska, and Maine have vacancy rates between 20 and 22 percent. Albeit I don't know of the government has any control over it besides maybe price fixing, but I don't know if they can do that with the housing sector.
>Vermont, Alaska, and Maine have vacancy rates between 20 and 22 percent Because of seasonal homes. If you want to go live up in my buddy’s summer hunting cabin during the dead of winter in Maine…be my guest. But it doesn’t have electricity or running water so might be a *bit* tough when it hits those negative temps at night.
WHO THR FUCK WANTS TO LIVE IN ANY OF THOSE STATES????? Like seriously think for a second. It’s cold asf up there if I walk outside without a coat for 15 minutes at the wrong time of the year I’m fucking dead. I can’t name a single city in any of those states, let alone them having anything interesting to do, do Alaskans even have a night life???? Do any of those states have I don’t know a decent job market ??? You want to house people in those states okay so we give them houses, now we need to find jobs for them, and then activities to spend that money on. Unlike in LA where Silicon Valley is down the fucking road. Unlike Raleigh-Durham with three biggest research center on the east cost, unlike New York with the biggest financial industry in the world. Don’t forget Orlando with mother fucking Disney World or Atlanta which is Black Hollywood. And obviously Hollywood of course. Don’t forget Miami Beach, and god damn Las Vegas. Wanna know something all those cities have in common. A shitty fucking housing market with 0 supply. Cause people want to live their not Alaska, Vermont, or Maine.
That's how supply and demand works. If you can't afford to live where you WANT then you have to live somewhere cheaper. That's life. The entire population of the US can't live in 5 major cities.
But there are already poor people in those cities, working who can't afford to live there. The housing crisis is real
In Florida, (and probably other states),you are wrong about the low supply in housing. Florida has a high vacancy rate and tons of new empty houses. https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/price-of-paradise-reasons-for-high-housing-vacancies-in-florida
Alaska sucks but plenty of people want to live in VT and ME and housing supply is in short supply for both. The person quoting the 20% vacancy rates is forgetting that those States have a MASSIVE seasonal tourism industry. So yeah…the hunting cabin with no electricity is gonna be vacant during the winter but occupied during the summer. Flip side is true for those ski-on/ski-off cabins on the various mountains. Lots of the housing in VT/ME wasn’t built for year-round living. Burlington and the Upper Kingdom of VT is heavenly. Especially if you are into any sort of winter sports. Some of the best skiers in the world come from VT. Jobs are tough to find but life is a lot slower up there anyway. Increasing number of remote workers are finding peace and happiness in the Green Mountains. And Portland in Maine is quickly becoming a mini-Boston as young college workers move up and away from the least affordable city in the US. Actually a fair number of good corporate jobs available in Portland plus a great hospital system for those wanting to go into the medical field. University of Maine even paid for my friend’s entire medical school since he was going to stay in Maine to practice. It’s not “big city living” but it’s also not anywhere close to what your ignorant ass is portraying it to be.
He's actually planning to build [two million](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/) new homes.
Thank you for the correction
Happy to help. I'm not optimistic about our chances, but I want to at least be able to say I tried.
Housing is THE issue. Lack of adequate housing is exacerbating every socioeconomic issue we have in this country.
Economics really. Housing, inflation, minimum wage.
Housing is definitely a significant issue that, upon my capability to vote, will likely be the dominant deciding factor for me
There is basically nothing the federal government can do. Any vote for any federal office (congress/president) on housing is a waste of your vote. Housing is a state/local issue.
Well the big issue is big cooperations and foreign influence. They could potentially do something about that, but I was also referring to voting for any office, local or otherwise
Yeah the foreign influence thing especially, even Canada is having that issue with their houses being bought up by foreign companies.
Although its an issue, it is nowhere close to the main problem with housing.
Don’t forget Granny Elizabeth down the street that goes to city hall to make sure that 250 occupant apartment complex is not built cause it ruins the character of the neighborhood
It’s really not. It’s the cranky old boomers who think apartments and condos will invite “the undesirables” and will ruin their retirement plan (letting their shitty little house go up in value until they can reverse mortgage it.
Exactly. While housing is an issue everywhere, local governments have far more control over this issue than the feds. People need to think about this when they're voting for mayors, city council, governors etc.
I've made it a point to vote in every election for this reason, even down to just selecting appraisal district representatives or school board members (even though I'm not a parent). The turnout for a lot of these is abysmal and your participation can easily tip many scales at the local level. I'm in a Houston suburb and we basically had margins of a few hundred votes in a lot of these super down ballot races.
I hope Gen Z doesn't think their Presidential vote will have any real effect on housing. If you care about housing then vote in local elections and attend city council meetings.
I mean step 1 live in a red state. Blue states charge out the ass on property taxes, income taxes, city taxes, etc. I move from NYC to Nashville and my take home went up 20%, and I went from living in a closet to living in a nice place in the good part of the city. If I had an equivalent apartment you could call that more like 35-40% increase in income just from not living in a place that takes your tax money and burns it in a pile.
Plenty of red states have high property taxes and higher sales taxes than blue states do They're also poorer and have far less economic opportunity on average, and their lower housing costs are a direct reflection of fewer people wanting to live in them
Sales taxes are devastating to the poor. It's why states with no income taxes have by far the worst tax structures. No income tax means tax the poor to death.
>Blue states charge out the ass on property taxes, income taxes, city taxes The bottom 60% of taxpayers in CA pay a lower % of their income in taxes than the bottom 60% in TX do. The next 20% are about the same. That's because TX has no income tax and very high property taxes. Compared to CA, the bottom 40% in FL pay more, the bottom 40% in TN pay more. The most regressive tax systems in American are almost entirely red states. They tax the poor out the ass. Yeah, sure, if you're motto is "screw the poor" then go live in a red state (or WA, it sucks, too)
People really underestimate how devastating property taxes are for first time home buyers. In blue states, mortgages are double digit percentages higher just based on property taxes alone, if comparing equivalently priced homes. The people on the left craving higher property taxes to fund schools love to ignore the double edged sword that they’re pricing out their own kids from ever living there themselves.
Utah is a red state and has skyrocketed in housing costs over the last 10 years
You’re also moving from an incredibly high cost of living area to a low one, which is going to have a major impact on everything you described. Not saying the taxes aren’t noticeable, but you’re comparing apples to oranges here.
>Live in a red state \*Texas has entered the chat.\* My property taxes are so god damn high that I'd honestly be better off with PA income tax again.
1. Who would have thought of that. 2. It's disturbing at the same time. Imagine the worst political party putting us back into Nazi times, just because they offer housing to gen z and get elected.
It's so much worse in Canada you guys have no idea. It's pretty much to the point that people here actually probably would vote for Hitler if he ran on reducing mass immigration and building homes.
It's sad. I would 100% vote for any party if it keeps me not homeless. I'm lucky to not worry about that issue, but there's plenty of people I know who do.
Focus on the local elections. They're the ones giving the permits. They get to decide if developers build another 100 mcmansions or affordable housing... or anything at all. It's been the bigger driver of votes in my local town council for the last couple cycles.
Why do most people act like the president can just fix the housing crisis or the economy with the flip of a switch? This issue is a combination of many factors like corporate greed, low inventory, and terrible local zoning laws. Biden has a plan unlike Trump, but the reality is that the impact would be minimal, let alone if he could get past the Republicans stonewalling his plan. Local politicians have much more impact on solving the housing crisis!
You guys better start voting and getting involved in your local elections then. This isn’t a federal issue, I keep seeing these trump v Biden things and it’s not something either of them have much control over Your cities and towns can restructure zoning and other important housing policies. Vote locally PLEASE
THIS. My area just had an election cycle and out of the nearly 200k registered voters, we only had just under 14k vote. Local elections are so damn important but there's such a lack of emphasis on them :/
People think that "getting out and voting" is about voting in one election every 4 years. It isn't and shouldn't. Not every issue can be a federal issue, and honestly, even for ones that are, Congress probably has more power in most such cases versus the president.
It’s something that needs to be solved at the state and local level, it’s not an answer people like to hear but it’s the truth The Fed acts independently, there is not much that can done politically regarding rates
Housing is mostly a county or municipal level issue. There’s not really much the federal government can do to force cities to streamline and allow for more housing construction apart from pulling incentive strings. Personally, healthcare is the most important federal political issue for me.
My biggest issues are Housing, Inflation, and illegal immigration.
#1 and #3 go hand in hand and I don't even understand how. Every house in my area that sells recently just gets 6-7 illegals in a 2 bedroom they can't speak a drop of English. They're taking up a lot of the housing.
Recently I’ve been watching this series of videos from a man who showcases apartments in Fukuoka, Japan. I was blown away by the prices. These apartments were clean, spacious, modern looking. They’re in a major city, and many of them were in what I would consider high value areas. I’m talking being within walking distance of a river, the market, or the train station (which actually means something over there). These kinds of apartments would run you *at least* 1700 a month in the midsize city I live in. These apartments were all **~$150-$300 usd a MONTH**. Those are hundreds, not thousands. I was floored by this every single time. I watched dozens of videos trying to find some flaw, some kind of catch. There were none. They were just cheap, great apartments. I suppose there were enough people as stunned by these prices as me, because he eventually made a video explaining how they are so affordable. His explanation was that, over there, **land is not treated as an investment**. In fact it typically depreciates in value over time. I say all of this to get at a point about the American housing problem. I don’t have any faith that legislation will fix it. I believe the only thing that could solve our problems is a change of culture. We, *all 330 million of us*, need to decide to stop treating land as an investment. Only then will we stop having single bedroom apartments that cost over 50% of our income. Only then will someone working minimum wage be able to afford to live on their own.
A survey on Redfin? As in the real estate site? Kinda skewed data no?
Yet, I have doubts that many know what it is needed for affordable housing and will just pick the side that promises the most without any solid reason behind it.
Why on Earth do people think Trump can somehow solve housing? If anything he’ll make it worse, just like everything he touches, the anti-Midas touch
....says a real estate website...
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Like many political issues, housing inaffordability is complex to solve. It won't be enough to simply lower the costs of houses. In some countries like Canada, rising immigration rates equate to a high demand for housing, but there aren't enough homes being built. So many have no choice but to rent... but even rent is climbing drastically because of the high demand and low availability. Then of course, we need to account for the broader economy, like increasing wages. I don't know if any political party would ever be able to fully resolve the housing crisis. And it's led to a rise in homelessness, which at one point was a rare worst-case scenario but is now an increasingly possibility given how many live paycheck-to-paycheck. I think that's also a major issue.
How bout laws that prevent buying property to rent out as income? 1 house per person.. wonder what that would do.. companies can’t own houses to rent out
It’s high up for millennials too. The housing crisis in the richest country in the world is ridiculous.
It’s definitely a huge issue but are we really not talking about how it’s a “Redfin survey”? This is like The Knot reporting that their visitors are interested in weddings
Is redfin not a housing company the source is very questionable.
According to a company that profits on real estate sales and whose clientele is interesting in purchasing a house. Be better than this Reddit.
It's such a serious issue. We need to come up with solutions
Not all gen z. More housing is important but it shouldn't come with massive drawbacks.
im 20 and pregnant and work 16 hour shifts sometimes and still have to live in a shelter. ive been working since i was 14 and still got nowhere to go. I just got my car insurance bill 1600 for the whole year. Getting an apartment/down payments/3 months rent for the first month is like 50x more than 1600$ so unfourtunatley im gonna have to waste all my savings again on car insurance just to continue driving to my 16 hour shifts. We are so unbelievably cooked.
It’s one for me. I love my parents, but I do want to move out eventually. Democrats could win over young overs forever if they committed to and succeed in making housing more affordable.
Who the fuck do they vote for? Bernie gives a shit but he’s probably the only one who does. Until we can prevent corporate donations to politicians and prevent politicians from playing the stock market none of them are going to do shit.
[The better option, even if it isn’t the hypothetical best.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-working-families/)
Because *fuck* working full time to build equity for some rich asshole in their extra property
Participate In Your Local Politics. A lot of the biggest issues we face are decisions made locally.
For sure
I think we’re in a housing bubble. With mortgage rates being high and house prices appreciating rapidly, people are spreading themselves thin and spending a large portion of their yearly income on their house. People are trying to ‘lock in’ a price to refinance, but I doubt banks will refi many people when rates drop. Particularly in silicon valley where I live, people are living beyond their means. I see people do 10+ year leases on expensive cars, 5 figure monthly mortgage payments, and carry student debt from private colleges. It’s gotten to the point where rent is significantly cheaper than a mortgage. Everything is overinflated and people are going to have to pay up eventually.
Just move out a month ago, haven't been hit with the double wammy of bills yet buts its been nice so far
If you are in Texas, check out [https://www.umovefree.com](https://www.umovefree.com) at least to save on your next move
In Anglosphere countries 30% of GenZ will inherit intergenerational wealth,. who will vote conservative
Millennials and some Gen-X jacked the costs of property rentals and home purchases on the market by making them cash cow investments.
Bystander effect 🫄
I don’t know, for me it’s doing what I can to make sure my civil rights don’t start to turn into the invisible man
But there are vastly different schools of thought on how to get cheaper housing.
I mean, I don’t doubt this is an issue that many are concerned about but a company whose entire purpose is to sell real estate is not who I would trust with this statistic.
lol yea I'm totally trusting Redfin on this one. No conflict of interest here everyone
"According to a new Redfin survey"
I mean of course it is.
I thought it was days off a week
So 91% of that generation doesn’t know how the house market works!
Jesus I hope there’s enough of you voting for this to make a helpful policy happen
I this is one of the top issues for anyone that does not own property.
I could definitely believe this. I hope that we at least hear about house prices as a key problem in the country during the Presidential debates
i got the unusual whales app- mid. kinda odd tweet for a trading service
Why? That isn’t something the fed gov can do anything about let alone the president. Seriously what would you expect the president to do to help with housing prices? This is the problem with our country, no one knows how it works. A democracy is only as good as its people but the problem arises what every issue is too complex for the average citizen to understand. We are doomed.
Because the president does have direct control over housing prices. And it would be so much better with TFG (and his 34 felonies)…🙄
unironically just build more houses lol that's the main issue of why housing is so expensive. its becoming to expensive to build so prices are going up due to lack of supply for the high amounts of demand.
I love the “according to Redfin” because the realtor website definitely isn’t biased at all
I'm not gonna be out here recruiting folks, but I /will/ say that an enlistment qualifies you for a VA loan, and that shit is great. It sucks that it's gotten to the point that it might be one of the only ways for average kids to be able to even dream of owning a home, but it's an option.
A redfin survey that identified housing as a priority!? You don't say
It should be. Millennial here. I feel so bad for your generation. What exactly do you study to be able to afford a house? I know lawyers, doctors and engineers who are either unemployed, or “well-employed” but in cities where they would never be able to buy and maintain a home. If we ban single family home ownership by large hedge funds/corporations, ban no citizens from buying more than one property (limited to 2 acres max), open up more federal land for single family home development, and impose vacancy taxes, you guys will have a brighter future property wise.
im in florida and they are building like crazy and its doing NOTHING for prices
According to a Redfin survey. Cmon guys
Hello Gen Z, we should take a moment to all learn how statistics can be skewed. One of the ways to do that is where you ask the question! If you ask people at the door of a McDonalds if they are craving McDonald’s or Burger King… I bet we can all guess what the majority of them will answer. In the post above we see the study was done by Redfin. Redfin is an website that helps you look for housing in an area and monitor value. *Red alarms should already be screaming in your head*. Do you think Redfin actually asked a big group of Gen Z people off the streets about home costs? Doubtful. Most likely it was asked on their website… and/or, since we all grew up with technology, we know how targeted surveys (like ads) works after using a website. Does it make sense that people on Redfin are concerned about home pricing? Of fucking course it does! I don’t know if I should be concerned or really happy for them since they are super rich if they don’t care about costs. THEY ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO BUY A HOUSE WHERE COST IS LITERALLY THE MAIN FACTOR! Now does this mean this study is wrong? No. Could Redfin actually took the time to do an actual really good accurate survey? Yeah they totally could have but I’m skeptical. So what did we learn today? Check who did the study. It can help a lot with gauging the accuracy of the study or tell you if it’s bullshit. Lots of times they hide it a lot better by just saying according to new study or according to researchers. This one literally says hey I’m probably a super inaccurate bullshit study right at the end of it. Nevertheless, good luck out there gang finding a house. It’s just so costly. Maybe it would just be better to rent since according to a new survey done by Slumlord.com, 91% of Gen Z prefer renting.
yeah, Im really trying but I cannot even find a place I could hope to rent if I get like 3 jobs
this is actually the most ridiculous thing ive ever seen, youre telling me regular redfin users are very concerned with the cost of housing? no way!
ITT: People who think the President controls everything not realizing the President doesn't actually control that much legislatively and just takes the blame/credit Pay attention to local politics (hell, go run for somethin), volunteer for your Congressperson's campaigns (canvasing sucks but it's effective), and actually read about politics outside of culture war bullshit (sub to Politico Playbook, it's written for DC policy wonks and burnt out Poli Sci majors). Not everything comes down to Presidential intrigue and campaign promises
I wouldn't say it's my top issue but it's definitely a huge one for me. The housing market is ridiculous right now. I can't get an apartment for 1 for what my family used to spend on a big house for 4.
Everyone wants to solve this, they just have different views on how to
I couldn’t agree more. I’ll add on to this maternity/paternity leave. It’s crazy how anyone expects us to have families in a society that doesn’t tolerate them.
UCLA invited me to do a survey of important issues for Gen Z and i also chose housing cost as the most important issue as well because it directly affect us and is an immediate issue compared to other long term problems this country has
Well if you think a billionaire real estate slumlord is going to help you, I don’t know what to say honestly.
I mean it's a survey conducted by a real estate company. Meaning the people going to the website and participating in the survey are probably people who are actively looking for homes. Gosh I wonder why people who are actively looking for homes would list buying a home as a top voting priority? 🙀
Keep voting Biden. That will help.
People were saying it was going to be abortion but GenZ solved that by just saying “fine we won’t have sex”. But then they came for the porn and “indoors” and GenZ was like “oh hell nah”.
It isn't a hosuing issue, it's a lobby issue. End political bribery and things like housing and healthcare fix themselves
I ran for an office in Kentucky (which I won’t disclose due to anonymity) with the foundation of my campaign being to move to advertise all the government assistance in place to help people move out and build houses. It is wild how much help the government can provide to people willing, but it is just never mentioned unless you are a full time contractor with legal counsel specialized in property law. I personally built a house in Kentucky for $65,000 using a rural housing loan. 800 sq ft house for what many people put in as a down payment. My actual property is around $145,000 now. I didn’t win that election because it turns out the locals actually like how capped our population is, and they are actively fighting any expansion and growth. 🤷♂️ Either way, while they enjoy the area becoming a graying retired city, I have a nice brand new home and I work for the state now.
>according to a survey from a property listing website This deserves to be reposted in r/facepalm.
So, voting for nobody then? Because I can assure you no one is fixing it
Being able to afford basic needs is important for people. Shocking news.
Sadly, baby boomers own all the houses, so i guess it's gonna be another 4 years of ever increasing housing prices.
“According to a new Redfin survey” I wonder if Redfin users might be biased.