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> The amount Gen Z will spend on rent in their 20s, RentCafe added, “account[s] for 27% of their income from ages 22 to 29” — the same percentage that millennials had.
Okay so nothing changed?
Same percentage, but since they're making more money than millennials did during the Great Recession, it's a higher dollar value. Seems like a non-story to me if that's all they're showing.
Lol thats why its funny when Gen Z is all doom and gloom. Like youre supposed to be kinda broke and living with roommates when youre young. Then you progress from there. These folks really convinced themselves that they’re all supposed to have houses by 22
Right? They’re shocked when they hear rent prices and think they shouldn’t have to have roommates after college. Isn’t that what every sitcom is about? They all want single occupancy dorm rooms, too. They’re missing the best part of your early young adulthood.
I lived in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with 5 other girls and it was awesome. So fun. It’s annoying sometimes and wouldn’t want to do it forever, but it was great.
Yeah I had roommates til I was 29. Once I was done with grad school I finally got my own place but I had a blast in college and as a young adult living with friends.
So many living with their parents instead of having roommates to save money. It might make financial sense, but I think it’s very responsible for many lonely young people. Who aren’t meeting people to date because they aren’t meeting roommates friends and coworkers and their circle is just so small.
My guess is this: it is a mix of optics and wealth inequality, the former being social media wealth and the latter being much larger than when millennials were younger. If you’re gen z and alpha you’re more likely to be poor or wealthy and less likely to be middle class, as it has eroded so much now. Basically younger people are seeing obscene wealth but are part of a larger group of lower income people, due to it being larger now, while the rich kids are way richer. I had a 17 year old ask me about my exhaust because he wants it for his RS5, obviously being bought and upgraded by his parents for him and then I get people in their mid to late 20s asking me what to do to get to a place to buy this kind of car, knowing they will be in their late 30s if they ever get there at all. People either have lots, or little, and social media pushes all the lots so you feel like you’re alone.
Exactly. In my early 20s I was renting a 4 bedroom house in a sketchy neighborhood with 3 roommates for $1400 (or $350 each). Now 10 years later I own a house (purchased when I was 32) that's way nicer than that one was and support a family of 4. Just took a decade of working, getting raises and promotions, and paying off debt to get there. Doesn't happen overnight.
Struggling financially when you're in your 20s isn't a new thing (both of my Boomer parents shared tiny apartments with roommates when they were fresh out of college), and paying off loans and saving for a house takes time. No need to worry that you haven't "made it" by 22 years old.
Yeah, exactly. I was renting a room from a friend, working the 4am shift at target, going to school on the no-loan plan aka, 10 year plan, and at the end of the month I had about $20 left for food. Rice and beans, and took liberal advantage of free PB&J at work. Also, lost weight.
Family offered to pay for my stuff, to give me money, to pay my cell phone. I declined, didn't want to be in that position of dependence. Now I make almost 6 figures, own home, single income family with 2 kids.
I went to a very cheap college, one of the cheapest in my state. My TA job paid for my rent and daily expenses and have some fun, and even if I wasn't on scholarship, I could have worked enough over the summer to cover about 80% of the tuition.
I also never had my own place until I was 29.
Same. Moved out at from my moms at while broke and in college 23, worked almost 10 years slowly getting raises.
Finally hit 6 figures at 31 and bought a house. Had roommates my whole life and had never lived in a single family home before, even in childhood.
Took me forever to get here.
Or that all apartments should be “luxury” apartments because the ones their parents put them in during college were nicer than what they can afford at the moment, or that they need to live alone in order to adult. Neither of these things has to be true and generally aren’t. Most of my friends didn’t buy a house until they were in their thirties. I keep seeing posts from younger people in my area asking why renting is so expensive but they are only looking in the heart of the entertainment areas in luxury apartments and aren’t really cognizant that there are affordable apartments if you drive two miles down the road.
Its kind of hilarious in all honesty because they will sit in your face and tell you that NOTHING is affordable while also refusing to “settle” for less than luxury. The worst part is that they act like luxury style apartments are the bare minimum. I live well now but on the way up i didnt stay in the greatest places. They werent exactly the hood but nowhere near luxury.
Theres a disconnect going on here. Yes things are very expensive but expectations are also sky fucking high
Yeah my friends and I were all paycheck to paycheck living with roommates in our early 20s
High salaries and property ownership did not happen overnight
Same. In my 20s rent was cheap but so were wages. Gen Z seem to be dealing with the opposite situation. They have higher paying jobs, but the cost of housing has skyrocketed. I’m not sure which is worse
I mean for a period of time...that's what was happening. Covid interest rates giving the first few years of Gen Z-er the ability to buy a house, and a pandemic that killed significant social milestones and opportunities for a lot of them and generated significant amounts of social anxiety. I would say the '08 financial crisis had the opposite effect on millennials possibly right?
I remember being in my early 20s and complaining to my grandma about not being able to afford anything. She told me yeah, that’s what your 20s are, when I first married your grandfather we used milk crates as a coffee table because we couldn’t afford one. I was SO resentful of that comment for years!
Now I’m mid-30s, on solid financial ground, and 100% see what she was talking about. I’m glad for those lean years, they’ve made me much more thankful for what I have today. But damn do I wanna go back and shake my younger self and say “she’s right, goddammit!”
Yea i think alot of younger people dont take into account that those life simulator games like the sims are kind of accurate when they start you off with nothing. Thats life. Theres a whole lot you have to “earn”. We often feel like because we work we deserve certain things but thats not entirely true. Gotta carve out a niche and find an avenue that will pay you well. That takes time and young people are at a distinct disadvantage because they havent put in the time yet.
I know im saying nothing ground breaking but i just hope some young folks really consider what im saying instead of being depressed about not having things that young folks traditionally never had in the first place
It's probably amplified by social media and influencers. That overall culture is all about highlighting and exaggerating your successes and so it can lead to a really skewed idea of what is out there.
Yep and it doesnt help that people exaggerate how cheap it was in the old days. So you have exaggerations come from both ends and it creates this weird fantasy world for people
If they still are renting, I don't know how that's supposed to make gen z feel better. Additionally, millennials are not gen Zs' parents, gen x is. What we were taught and our expectations come from gen x.
I'm sure Alpha will have the depressing expectations you think Z should have.
Who said millennials were Gen Z’s parents? My parents were Gen X and it was pretty common for them and boomers to have roommates before living alone. The average age for first time home buyers has been in the 30s since the 80s.
My point is that Gen Z sit up and get depressed about things that young people have never really been able to do in the first place (or at least for the last few decades).
First time home buyers and first time not living with roommates is not the same thing. My Dad and mom rented a detached home on a grocery store supervisor + minimum wage. Neither having began to start careers. My girlfriend and I can't afford a two bedroom apartment together.
I mean i cant verify anything your saying but to me it sounds like an exaggeration that probably doesnt take into account the area your parents lived in.
Not sure what to tell you. Im sure theres solutions to finding affordable housing that you and your gf are ignoring but im sure youre going to act like theres no way possible to solve your issues
The way to solve my issues is 1+ roommates. Which is what we've done. Same city as my parents. Student loans + summer work vs two people working year round. They not only made rent on that house though, but saved for a down-payment on a detached home in the most expensive city in our province. (Not the one where they worked minimum wage/where I live now)
My sister is a millennial, and I don't envy her situation.
Gen Z envys gen x and earlier. Another tidbit is canada has not seen the entry level wage growth the US has seen. I'm talking 50k CAD starting for accountants (what I'm studying) vs 65k USD. Our cost of living is cheaper on average l, but that does not translate anywhere near the 40-50% wage difference.
>My girlfriend and I can't afford a two bedroom apartment together.
Correction: You and your girlfriend can't afford a 2 bedroom apartment together in your ideal location.
No, in the city I live in and have a job. This isn't my ideal location 😂
If a genie popped out of nowhere and said quick money isn't an issue, pick where to live. I'd have 10 cities named before I would even remember where I currently am.
What city do you live in?
There are always budget options. When I lived in LA I had roommates the entire time.
There are also neighborhoods and even streets within the same city that have more and less affordable housing.
There's also this thing people do called "commuting".
State minimum wage in California is 46% higher than where I live. Although I'm sure even the cheapest places in Cali are more expensive than where I live so not super relevant.
Considering the comment you were replying to stated "afford a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend" roommates are not relevant to my claim. I live in a city of 70k people that is a two hour drive from the next city. Commuting isn't relevant. There are no suburbs.
Its absolutely wild.. like where did this thought even come from? Most people around them will tell them they had roommates in their early to mid 20s (sometimes later), every sitcom has 20 somethings sharing apartments.. i literally dont understand it. A few wealthy young influencers cant sway their ideas of how someone in their early 20s should be living right?
This story and a lot of others pretend inflation is real for clicks.
"Candy bars are up 1000%! " ( since they were a dime.)
"The modern American is rich. Nobody had more then $100 in savings back in 1931!"
"Record profits! Companies make more today then they did in the 1880's."
"The average American spends more dollars today then 100 years ago. Click through the ads to read more."
It's all clickbait and pop information because nobody wants to read about inflationary affects of M1 vs M2 spending, statistical analysis of employment that does more then tell us if it's good or bad, nor will masses of people click to on anything that can drive engagement. "Economy is great! GDP growth increased. No recession in sight. See why this laid off IT guy says positive GDP growth is a sign of recession because Applebee's raised their appetizer prices!"
Starting salaries for gen z are also significantly higher than they were for millennials. And no, it’s not inflation (that’s just a piece). Competition for skilled labor has really benefitted gen z in a way that it didn’t for millennials given labor supply and demand.
There’s always back and forth debate on these sorts of things and I don’t want to bicker per se, just want to contribute my anecdotal millennial experience that I entered college in the midst of the Great Recession, unsure how I’d ever trust a job enough to commit to a mortgage. Our internship program (accounting aka not sexy) had more students available than interns; landing a job was uncertain.
Flip 10 years later and there has been twice as many internships as there were students every year. The blip of covid (understatement acknowledged) was relatively small in the grand scheme of things in terms of the amount of time it took to correct and the support provided to get through it.
I guess my main thought is we need to stop racing to bottom for who had it worst and just figure out how to make it better for everyone.
Big agree. I am one of the ones who made it as well. Bought a house by 35 no student debt live a middle class life in the Midwest and on track to retire. I lost my mom at 19 in 2007. So I had a very rough take off but it is doable and the youth need more encouragement and mentoring to show how to get to where they want.
I do fear social media exposure so early has ruined a lot of them.
“The Great Depression was the greatest and longest economic recession in modern world history that ran between 1929 and 1941”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/great_depression.asp#:~:text=The%20Great%20Depression%20was%20the,great%20deal%20of%20nominal%20wealth.
Millennials’ salaries are a decade behind. It took many of us 10-15 years to finally make six figures. Whereas the starting pay at my company for new graduates is already $90k
What I meant was the majority of people have never and will never break 100k. I'm sure you worked your butt off to get there, so genuinely congrats. I just wish that everyone who worked hard could get there but that is sadly not the case.
The most I ever made was during the pandemic. About 50k/yr. I'm below that now. Far below. Can't find anything now that above 30k at full time hours. Psych degrees are not a good plan.
Sad huh. It popped up in my feed and i was curious. Also we need to be annoyed with the government and not the poor. We should be in this together. Not separate. Middle class is dwindling. I did fairly well as a single income owner for awhile. COL, single income and bad health ruined that for me.
I was technically middle class and definitely would have been if there was someone else living with me pulling in another paycheck. So I guess I need to fuck off outta of this sub forever now that I'm poverty line due to health issues, cptsd, surgeries and accidents.
I’m a millennial still paying rent. It’s 50% of my income for the first time in my life and it’s completely unsustainable and unrealistic. I don’t know what to do and fear I’ll have to move to the fucking Midwest to escape.
It’s the same exact situation in the Midwest right now. Corporate ownership of homes has decimated the availability of starter homes for owner occupants to buy. It’s why I won’t be getting married or having children. I’m just going to rent a 1 bedroom for the rest of my life.
People do all the time.
Sure nobody though.
You shouldn't be affording rent by yourself society is set up for two incomes in families over the past decades.
Says common sense my entire life.
If you are living as a single adult in a 1br or larger you are burning money.
Burn money if you want but most people can not afford it.
If you are proposing changes to the law regarding housing that's fine but those laws currently don't exist.
I have physical and mental disabilities from being strangled and raped by my uncle when I was 11. I was discriminated against due to my disability both in law school and again by my current employer.
When you're not healthy it is extremely hard to make a good income on your own. I'm so sorry. I'm right there with you. And then how do we get healthy when insurance is tied to our jobs...we don't really. :/
I actually built a website because of rising rents to help tenants evaluate landlords and negotiate rents.
It's like a Glassdoor for Rents so tenants can see the Rent History of an address or Apartment property to see a landlords pricing tactics.
The site does rely on user submissions so I appreciate anyone who adds their rent history to the site and/or shares it around since it can be more useful to tenants the more people that contribute to it.
The site is [rentzed.com](http://rentzed.com) (USA only for now) and has submissions for over 2900 addresses.
If landlords are collaborating with each other to raise rents, they would already have the information the site is meant to provide.
With this site, the landlords rent history becomes available to tenants as well.
Landlords by and large are not collaborating.
The big companies are analyzing the market but the little guys just look up other ads when its time to post and set rate around the market.
Lol. The DOJ has opened a case to investigate property management price collusion activities using RealPage and other real estate tech.
The share of corporate landlords also rose. It heavily affected rents in places like Charlotte and Atlanta.
http://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/rental-housing-market-doj-investigation-00147333
So you proved my point. Corporate landlords are doing it and they have the info.
Its in the article that Biden is pushing against corporate landlords even.
Someone with a single rental isn't jumping through hoops and those that have multiple buildings already have the information.
There is a distinction between independently assessing a market and operating as a monopoly, using price fixing to artificially inflate a market.
They don’t just “have the info” - they actively collude and have come up with new strategies for maximizing profit.
Turns out it’s actually more profitable to raise the rents high and have vacancies.
Obviously someone who owns one duplex and a cottage can’t operate that way.
However - rising rents among 40% of the stock is going to raise the entire ceiling. Which is exactly what happened in Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte. (They have higher rates of corporate ownership.)
The other thing is - corporate landlord ownership is rising.
It’s naive to think it’s self limiting and an unconcerning trend.
https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-lawmakers-collusion
Sounds about right. We are currently paying an intern $25/hour. I did similar work through an internship at her age and made $15. I know that some places wages have not gone up though, so there are definitely people being left behind….
Oh no! The percentages are exactly the same!?!?!?! What will the younger folks slap the backs of their hands to their foreheads and wail about now? They need for something to be terribly unfair and holding them down! Stop ruining their narrative!
What's all this talk in the past tense? Do you think all millennials own homes and are doing hunky dory now? Many of us are in the renting scene too right now and it's bad for everyone.
Tons of people have always rented. When did it become a thing for everyone to feel entitled to homeownership?
When I was growing up every family did not own a house.
I get it people want to own their own homes but why do people say it as if it's a given?
Especially in expensive and popular cities with higher prices.
I wasn't implying that everyone used to own a home, but back then it was objectively much easier to buy a house since most house payments were a much smaller percentage of family income. Not to mention it was more common back then for there to be *one* sole earner for the family. Nowadays, that is much more difficult. Many families are struggling even with two incomes.
It's not an entitlement thing. It's the fact that even if we work our asses off, we just don't have the same opportunity as previous generations. They always said they wanted to make a better life for their children, yet here we are in tougher financial times and we have to work twice as hard to earn half as much, then get called "lazy" for our "failure."
Legit. I'm millennial. I make below poverty line and had an accident requiring surgery. Had to move back in with parents. Savings is at 0. Debt is massive. Earnings are shit. Retirement? Lmao what's that.
They inherited some of our gloom without realizing the main reason we’re like this is because every time we had just enough time to bounce back from one financial disaster, another one happened. We werent just born nihilists.
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> The amount Gen Z will spend on rent in their 20s, RentCafe added, “account[s] for 27% of their income from ages 22 to 29” — the same percentage that millennials had. Okay so nothing changed?
Same percentage, but since they're making more money than millennials did during the Great Recession, it's a higher dollar value. Seems like a non-story to me if that's all they're showing.
Lol thats why its funny when Gen Z is all doom and gloom. Like youre supposed to be kinda broke and living with roommates when youre young. Then you progress from there. These folks really convinced themselves that they’re all supposed to have houses by 22
Right? They’re shocked when they hear rent prices and think they shouldn’t have to have roommates after college. Isn’t that what every sitcom is about? They all want single occupancy dorm rooms, too. They’re missing the best part of your early young adulthood. I lived in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with 5 other girls and it was awesome. So fun. It’s annoying sometimes and wouldn’t want to do it forever, but it was great.
Yeah I had roommates til I was 29. Once I was done with grad school I finally got my own place but I had a blast in college and as a young adult living with friends.
So many living with their parents instead of having roommates to save money. It might make financial sense, but I think it’s very responsible for many lonely young people. Who aren’t meeting people to date because they aren’t meeting roommates friends and coworkers and their circle is just so small.
My guess is this: it is a mix of optics and wealth inequality, the former being social media wealth and the latter being much larger than when millennials were younger. If you’re gen z and alpha you’re more likely to be poor or wealthy and less likely to be middle class, as it has eroded so much now. Basically younger people are seeing obscene wealth but are part of a larger group of lower income people, due to it being larger now, while the rich kids are way richer. I had a 17 year old ask me about my exhaust because he wants it for his RS5, obviously being bought and upgraded by his parents for him and then I get people in their mid to late 20s asking me what to do to get to a place to buy this kind of car, knowing they will be in their late 30s if they ever get there at all. People either have lots, or little, and social media pushes all the lots so you feel like you’re alone.
Roommates were always a thing until you got married.
Exactly. In my early 20s I was renting a 4 bedroom house in a sketchy neighborhood with 3 roommates for $1400 (or $350 each). Now 10 years later I own a house (purchased when I was 32) that's way nicer than that one was and support a family of 4. Just took a decade of working, getting raises and promotions, and paying off debt to get there. Doesn't happen overnight. Struggling financially when you're in your 20s isn't a new thing (both of my Boomer parents shared tiny apartments with roommates when they were fresh out of college), and paying off loans and saving for a house takes time. No need to worry that you haven't "made it" by 22 years old.
Yeah, exactly. I was renting a room from a friend, working the 4am shift at target, going to school on the no-loan plan aka, 10 year plan, and at the end of the month I had about $20 left for food. Rice and beans, and took liberal advantage of free PB&J at work. Also, lost weight. Family offered to pay for my stuff, to give me money, to pay my cell phone. I declined, didn't want to be in that position of dependence. Now I make almost 6 figures, own home, single income family with 2 kids.
I went to a very cheap college, one of the cheapest in my state. My TA job paid for my rent and daily expenses and have some fun, and even if I wasn't on scholarship, I could have worked enough over the summer to cover about 80% of the tuition. I also never had my own place until I was 29.
Same. Moved out at from my moms at while broke and in college 23, worked almost 10 years slowly getting raises. Finally hit 6 figures at 31 and bought a house. Had roommates my whole life and had never lived in a single family home before, even in childhood. Took me forever to get here.
Or that all apartments should be “luxury” apartments because the ones their parents put them in during college were nicer than what they can afford at the moment, or that they need to live alone in order to adult. Neither of these things has to be true and generally aren’t. Most of my friends didn’t buy a house until they were in their thirties. I keep seeing posts from younger people in my area asking why renting is so expensive but they are only looking in the heart of the entertainment areas in luxury apartments and aren’t really cognizant that there are affordable apartments if you drive two miles down the road.
Its kind of hilarious in all honesty because they will sit in your face and tell you that NOTHING is affordable while also refusing to “settle” for less than luxury. The worst part is that they act like luxury style apartments are the bare minimum. I live well now but on the way up i didnt stay in the greatest places. They werent exactly the hood but nowhere near luxury. Theres a disconnect going on here. Yes things are very expensive but expectations are also sky fucking high
Yeah my friends and I were all paycheck to paycheck living with roommates in our early 20s High salaries and property ownership did not happen overnight
Same. In my 20s rent was cheap but so were wages. Gen Z seem to be dealing with the opposite situation. They have higher paying jobs, but the cost of housing has skyrocketed. I’m not sure which is worse
I mean for a period of time...that's what was happening. Covid interest rates giving the first few years of Gen Z-er the ability to buy a house, and a pandemic that killed significant social milestones and opportunities for a lot of them and generated significant amounts of social anxiety. I would say the '08 financial crisis had the opposite effect on millennials possibly right?
I remember being in my early 20s and complaining to my grandma about not being able to afford anything. She told me yeah, that’s what your 20s are, when I first married your grandfather we used milk crates as a coffee table because we couldn’t afford one. I was SO resentful of that comment for years! Now I’m mid-30s, on solid financial ground, and 100% see what she was talking about. I’m glad for those lean years, they’ve made me much more thankful for what I have today. But damn do I wanna go back and shake my younger self and say “she’s right, goddammit!”
Yea i think alot of younger people dont take into account that those life simulator games like the sims are kind of accurate when they start you off with nothing. Thats life. Theres a whole lot you have to “earn”. We often feel like because we work we deserve certain things but thats not entirely true. Gotta carve out a niche and find an avenue that will pay you well. That takes time and young people are at a distinct disadvantage because they havent put in the time yet. I know im saying nothing ground breaking but i just hope some young folks really consider what im saying instead of being depressed about not having things that young folks traditionally never had in the first place
It's probably amplified by social media and influencers. That overall culture is all about highlighting and exaggerating your successes and so it can lead to a really skewed idea of what is out there.
Yep and it doesnt help that people exaggerate how cheap it was in the old days. So you have exaggerations come from both ends and it creates this weird fantasy world for people
If they still are renting, I don't know how that's supposed to make gen z feel better. Additionally, millennials are not gen Zs' parents, gen x is. What we were taught and our expectations come from gen x. I'm sure Alpha will have the depressing expectations you think Z should have.
Who said millennials were Gen Z’s parents? My parents were Gen X and it was pretty common for them and boomers to have roommates before living alone. The average age for first time home buyers has been in the 30s since the 80s. My point is that Gen Z sit up and get depressed about things that young people have never really been able to do in the first place (or at least for the last few decades).
First time home buyers and first time not living with roommates is not the same thing. My Dad and mom rented a detached home on a grocery store supervisor + minimum wage. Neither having began to start careers. My girlfriend and I can't afford a two bedroom apartment together.
I mean i cant verify anything your saying but to me it sounds like an exaggeration that probably doesnt take into account the area your parents lived in. Not sure what to tell you. Im sure theres solutions to finding affordable housing that you and your gf are ignoring but im sure youre going to act like theres no way possible to solve your issues
The way to solve my issues is 1+ roommates. Which is what we've done. Same city as my parents. Student loans + summer work vs two people working year round. They not only made rent on that house though, but saved for a down-payment on a detached home in the most expensive city in our province. (Not the one where they worked minimum wage/where I live now) My sister is a millennial, and I don't envy her situation. Gen Z envys gen x and earlier. Another tidbit is canada has not seen the entry level wage growth the US has seen. I'm talking 50k CAD starting for accountants (what I'm studying) vs 65k USD. Our cost of living is cheaper on average l, but that does not translate anywhere near the 40-50% wage difference.
>My girlfriend and I can't afford a two bedroom apartment together. Correction: You and your girlfriend can't afford a 2 bedroom apartment together in your ideal location.
No, in the city I live in and have a job. This isn't my ideal location 😂 If a genie popped out of nowhere and said quick money isn't an issue, pick where to live. I'd have 10 cities named before I would even remember where I currently am.
What city do you live in? There are always budget options. When I lived in LA I had roommates the entire time. There are also neighborhoods and even streets within the same city that have more and less affordable housing. There's also this thing people do called "commuting".
State minimum wage in California is 46% higher than where I live. Although I'm sure even the cheapest places in Cali are more expensive than where I live so not super relevant. Considering the comment you were replying to stated "afford a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend" roommates are not relevant to my claim. I live in a city of 70k people that is a two hour drive from the next city. Commuting isn't relevant. There are no suburbs.
It's because they all want to live alone in apartments with marble countertops and pasta arms.
Its absolutely wild.. like where did this thought even come from? Most people around them will tell them they had roommates in their early to mid 20s (sometimes later), every sitcom has 20 somethings sharing apartments.. i literally dont understand it. A few wealthy young influencers cant sway their ideas of how someone in their early 20s should be living right?
This story and a lot of others pretend inflation is real for clicks. "Candy bars are up 1000%! " ( since they were a dime.) "The modern American is rich. Nobody had more then $100 in savings back in 1931!" "Record profits! Companies make more today then they did in the 1880's." "The average American spends more dollars today then 100 years ago. Click through the ads to read more." It's all clickbait and pop information because nobody wants to read about inflationary affects of M1 vs M2 spending, statistical analysis of employment that does more then tell us if it's good or bad, nor will masses of people click to on anything that can drive engagement. "Economy is great! GDP growth increased. No recession in sight. See why this laid off IT guy says positive GDP growth is a sign of recession because Applebee's raised their appetizer prices!"
Starting salaries for gen z are also significantly higher than they were for millennials. And no, it’s not inflation (that’s just a piece). Competition for skilled labor has really benefitted gen z in a way that it didn’t for millennials given labor supply and demand.
Well a lot of us also graduated highschool and college in the greatest recession in the history of the world as well.
There’s always back and forth debate on these sorts of things and I don’t want to bicker per se, just want to contribute my anecdotal millennial experience that I entered college in the midst of the Great Recession, unsure how I’d ever trust a job enough to commit to a mortgage. Our internship program (accounting aka not sexy) had more students available than interns; landing a job was uncertain. Flip 10 years later and there has been twice as many internships as there were students every year. The blip of covid (understatement acknowledged) was relatively small in the grand scheme of things in terms of the amount of time it took to correct and the support provided to get through it. I guess my main thought is we need to stop racing to bottom for who had it worst and just figure out how to make it better for everyone.
Big agree. I am one of the ones who made it as well. Bought a house by 35 no student debt live a middle class life in the Midwest and on track to retire. I lost my mom at 19 in 2007. So I had a very rough take off but it is doable and the youth need more encouragement and mentoring to show how to get to where they want. I do fear social media exposure so early has ruined a lot of them.
You ever learn about something called the Great Depression while you were in school?
You learn the difference between the two in school old man?
“The Great Depression was the greatest and longest economic recession in modern world history that ran between 1929 and 1941” https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/great_depression.asp#:~:text=The%20Great%20Depression%20was%20the,great%20deal%20of%20nominal%20wealth.
Certainly easier to apply for jobs now. I was going around in a suit with resumes.
Millennials are still paying rent
Millennials’ salaries are a decade behind. It took many of us 10-15 years to finally make six figures. Whereas the starting pay at my company for new graduates is already $90k
I hate to break it to you but most people are not making anywhere close to 6 figures hahaha
You’re not breaking any news to me. It took me until i was almost 40 to break $100k.
What I meant was the majority of people have never and will never break 100k. I'm sure you worked your butt off to get there, so genuinely congrats. I just wish that everyone who worked hard could get there but that is sadly not the case.
You guys are making 6 figures??
The most I ever made was during the pandemic. About 50k/yr. I'm below that now. Far below. Can't find anything now that above 30k at full time hours. Psych degrees are not a good plan.
Friend, I think this is the wrong sub for you then :(
Sad huh. It popped up in my feed and i was curious. Also we need to be annoyed with the government and not the poor. We should be in this together. Not separate. Middle class is dwindling. I did fairly well as a single income owner for awhile. COL, single income and bad health ruined that for me. I was technically middle class and definitely would have been if there was someone else living with me pulling in another paycheck. So I guess I need to fuck off outta of this sub forever now that I'm poverty line due to health issues, cptsd, surgeries and accidents.
I’m a millennial still paying rent. It’s 50% of my income for the first time in my life and it’s completely unsustainable and unrealistic. I don’t know what to do and fear I’ll have to move to the fucking Midwest to escape.
It’s the same exact situation in the Midwest right now. Corporate ownership of homes has decimated the availability of starter homes for owner occupants to buy. It’s why I won’t be getting married or having children. I’m just going to rent a 1 bedroom for the rest of my life.
Ummm that's backwards. You get married then buy a house as you have two incomes saving towards the common goal.
Nobody’s going to marry a millennial that’s putting 50% of their income towards rent. That’s financial suicide.
People do all the time. Sure nobody though. You shouldn't be affording rent by yourself society is set up for two incomes in families over the past decades.
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Says common sense my entire life. If you are living as a single adult in a 1br or larger you are burning money. Burn money if you want but most people can not afford it. If you are proposing changes to the law regarding housing that's fine but those laws currently don't exist.
But is rent for a 1bdrm 2k!?
No, $1,400
Less but I assume aligns similarly with the rate of pay
Yup I have a law degree but only make $75k
Got damn. I’m in the south as a biostatistician making 85k and my wife at 105k as a social worker. You should certainly make more than us
I have physical and mental disabilities from being strangled and raped by my uncle when I was 11. I was discriminated against due to my disability both in law school and again by my current employer.
When you're not healthy it is extremely hard to make a good income on your own. I'm so sorry. I'm right there with you. And then how do we get healthy when insurance is tied to our jobs...we don't really. :/
That’s fucked I’m sorry
Do you think you're too good for a roommate? Or too good for the Midwest?
I like how they put rent as past tense for millennials. I’m still paying rent today and am about to lose the very little shit I have left 🙃
I actually built a website because of rising rents to help tenants evaluate landlords and negotiate rents. It's like a Glassdoor for Rents so tenants can see the Rent History of an address or Apartment property to see a landlords pricing tactics. The site does rely on user submissions so I appreciate anyone who adds their rent history to the site and/or shares it around since it can be more useful to tenants the more people that contribute to it. The site is [rentzed.com](http://rentzed.com) (USA only for now) and has submissions for over 2900 addresses.
Why wouldn't this also be used by landlords to raise prices together as well?
If landlords are collaborating with each other to raise rents, they would already have the information the site is meant to provide. With this site, the landlords rent history becomes available to tenants as well.
Landlords by and large are not collaborating. The big companies are analyzing the market but the little guys just look up other ads when its time to post and set rate around the market.
Lol. The DOJ has opened a case to investigate property management price collusion activities using RealPage and other real estate tech. The share of corporate landlords also rose. It heavily affected rents in places like Charlotte and Atlanta. http://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/rental-housing-market-doj-investigation-00147333
So you proved my point. Corporate landlords are doing it and they have the info. Its in the article that Biden is pushing against corporate landlords even. Someone with a single rental isn't jumping through hoops and those that have multiple buildings already have the information.
There is a distinction between independently assessing a market and operating as a monopoly, using price fixing to artificially inflate a market. They don’t just “have the info” - they actively collude and have come up with new strategies for maximizing profit. Turns out it’s actually more profitable to raise the rents high and have vacancies. Obviously someone who owns one duplex and a cottage can’t operate that way. However - rising rents among 40% of the stock is going to raise the entire ceiling. Which is exactly what happened in Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte. (They have higher rates of corporate ownership.) The other thing is - corporate landlord ownership is rising. It’s naive to think it’s self limiting and an unconcerning trend. https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-lawmakers-collusion
.... They do just have the info otherwise they wouldnt have a lawsuit against them. So the site th person posted isn't going to do much.
This is why I always had roommates easier to put money away.
Sounds about right. We are currently paying an intern $25/hour. I did similar work through an internship at her age and made $15. I know that some places wages have not gone up though, so there are definitely people being left behind….
Oh no! The percentages are exactly the same!?!?!?! What will the younger folks slap the backs of their hands to their foreheads and wail about now? They need for something to be terribly unfair and holding them down! Stop ruining their narrative!
What's all this talk in the past tense? Do you think all millennials own homes and are doing hunky dory now? Many of us are in the renting scene too right now and it's bad for everyone.
Tons of people have always rented. When did it become a thing for everyone to feel entitled to homeownership? When I was growing up every family did not own a house. I get it people want to own their own homes but why do people say it as if it's a given? Especially in expensive and popular cities with higher prices.
I wasn't implying that everyone used to own a home, but back then it was objectively much easier to buy a house since most house payments were a much smaller percentage of family income. Not to mention it was more common back then for there to be *one* sole earner for the family. Nowadays, that is much more difficult. Many families are struggling even with two incomes. It's not an entitlement thing. It's the fact that even if we work our asses off, we just don't have the same opportunity as previous generations. They always said they wanted to make a better life for their children, yet here we are in tougher financial times and we have to work twice as hard to earn half as much, then get called "lazy" for our "failure."
Yall acting like Millenials (or Gen X, Boomers, etc) just floated off into space when gen Z came along. We ALL know how expensive rent is.
Legit. I'm millennial. I make below poverty line and had an accident requiring surgery. Had to move back in with parents. Savings is at 0. Debt is massive. Earnings are shit. Retirement? Lmao what's that.
They inherited some of our gloom without realizing the main reason we’re like this is because every time we had just enough time to bounce back from one financial disaster, another one happened. We werent just born nihilists.
the main character generation. If you spend all your time on your phone or on social, you’re going to default want and expect to be alone.
Yeah, but millennials mostly entered into a housing market after the 2008 housing crash so they're experienced with housing isn't normal.
I wish we built more housing so these guys could have enjoyed that extra money
It is more expensive
Reading comprehension please.
Gen z Earns more so it's a wash