If you were born in 1990, how do you plan on ever affording a house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young x-er/late millennial who is lucky to have rich parents who paid for law school and then my husband and i both ended up in much better career trajectories than our friends. Some was hard work and smarts on our part, but some was just luck (including our smarts - not everyone has that). We are in a $1.4m house with 60% equity.

All that said, i have no idea how regular people with regular jobs born in 1990 are ever going to be able to afford a house in DC without an outrageous comment. It's BS when people say stuff like "I bought next to a crack house; i lived for two years with my parents; i didn't eat out for 5 years".

So you're making $50k out of college. Sure, some college kids make more than that. Most don't. Jobs out of college are shitty for most kids these days. Even if you live with your parents and literally do not spend a penny of your money for 5 years (no savings, no 401k, etc), you end up with $150k after 5 years. But that's not anyone's reality. You need to save, and have a 401k, and eat, and pay for a car and/or commute. So in reality, in some insanely frugal world, you save $10k-$15k a year. After 5 years of socking that away, that doesn't buy you a 1 bedroom apartment in a safe part of DC. More likely on $50k, you're saving about $5-10k a year.

The comments about not eating out or having room mates or expecting granite are red herrings. That's not the difference between being able to buy and not.

I just did a search and found many nice, older condos and coops in NW DC for $250k and up. That is absolutely affordable at current interest rates for the $50k earner saving $5k or more per year! That said, when I bought in '93, I was making 65k and my Courthouse / Arlington condo was $150k, brand new, lovely. I never should have sold it, but was nervous about renting it out.

22:24 here - mortgage rates were also 8% in '93, not 4% like today, so there's that.

Go look up inflation back then, too. Look at both the all items CPI and how wages and salaries grew and how home prices grew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

Yeah I'm 33 but baby brother is 23. Everything will be massively more expensive for him and I feel for the other kids in this age group.

I'm sorry, I don't get this. I graduated from college in 1991. After getting my Master's Degree, I made a whopping $15K a year. Houses were $150-$200K in bad neighborhoods. That might as well have been $3M. Felt the same as you feel now. People were buying in PG County then b/c it was much cheaper, just like it is now. It's all relative.

What did you major in? All the kids I know are majoring in practical fields ie comp sci, finance, pre med or dental, engineering. If you major in something thats hard and youre compensated well - it should be a stepping stone towards a decent middle class life.

I majored in economics with a master's in public policy. I worked on Capitol Hill. Not unusual. It paid off. I later went to law school. The point is that I made no money and I didn't have anyone to buy a house for me or bail me out. I had to make the sacrifices to do it myself. There was no golden era in DC.

An econ grad who worked on the Hill and here totally glosses over the variability in circumstance and its impact on peoples' ability to buy a house? Unintentionally demonstrates the role of luck in these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

The mean Gen Xer is mad because his boss will be a millennial one day.

It's going to happen to all of them because we're going to be the dominant generation pretty soon. If we voted more, nothing could stop us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

The mean Gen Xer is mad because his boss will be a millennial one day.

It's going to happen to all of them because we're going to be the dominant generation pretty soon. If we voted more, nothing could stop us.

Yep. Millennials are already coming in like bats out of hell and reshaping so many things. We're also much more adept with the internet- we grew up using it, arguing online, etc- so we can hold our own. And I think that really bothers certain types (who probably long for the days when you could spout off nonsense statistics and no one could google it and demonstrate that you're lying)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

The mean Gen Xer is mad because his boss will be a millennial one day.

It's going to happen to all of them because we're going to be the dominant generation pretty soon. If we voted more, nothing could stop us.

Yep. Millennials are already coming in like bats out of hell and reshaping so many things. We're also much more adept with the internet- we grew up using it, arguing online, etc- so we can hold our own. And I think that really bothers certain types (who probably long for the days when you could spout off nonsense statistics and no one could google it and demonstrate that you're lying)

My hope is that once we get to the age to be in positions of power, we will fight to change the fundamentals.

Alternatively we could just tell our kids to F off when they complain about not being able to afford a $5,000,000.00 studio in Manassas on their 100k salary. Gee Junior when I was young, we dreamed of having such a salary! Never mind the housing prices, adjusted CPI index, and COL! Just move to Mississippi!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

The mean Gen Xer is mad because his boss will be a millennial one day.

It's going to happen to all of them because we're going to be the dominant generation pretty soon. If we voted more, nothing could stop us.

Yep. Millennials are already coming in like bats out of hell and reshaping so many things. We're also much more adept with the internet- we grew up using it, arguing online, etc- so we can hold our own. And I think that really bothers certain types (who probably long for the days when you could spout off nonsense statistics and no one could google it and demonstrate that you're lying)

My hope is that once we get to the age to be in positions of power, we will fight to change the fundamentals.

Alternatively we could just tell our kids to F off when they complain about not being able to afford a $5,000,000.00 studio in Manassas on their 100k salary. Gee Junior when I was young, we dreamed of having such a salary! Never mind the housing prices, adjusted CPI index, and COL! Just move to Mississippi!

Construct a makeshift shack out of cardboard and buy a plot of land in the middle of the everglades swamp, where land goes for super cheap. Not good enough for you? You entitled prat!!

[Anonymous]

Most prices in the metro area are still below where they were in 2005.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a young x-er/late millennial who is lucky to have rich parents who paid for law school and then my husband and i both ended up in much better career trajectories than our friends. Some was hard work and smarts on our part, but some was just luck (including our smarts - not everyone has that). We are in a $1.4m house with 60% equity.

All that said, i have no idea how regular people with regular jobs born in 1990 are ever going to be able to afford a house in DC without an outrageous comment. It's BS when people say stuff like "I bought next to a crack house; i lived for two years with my parents; i didn't eat out for 5 years".

So you're making $50k out of college. Sure, some college kids make more than that. Most don't. Jobs out of college are shitty for most kids these days. Even if you live with your parents and literally do not spend a penny of your money for 5 years (no savings, no 401k, etc), you end up with $150k after 5 years. But that's not anyone's reality. You need to save, and have a 401k, and eat, and pay for a car and/or commute. So in reality, in some insanely frugal world, you save $10k-$15k a year. After 5 years of socking that away, that doesn't buy you a 1 bedroom apartment in a safe part of DC. More likely on $50k, you're saving about $5-10k a year.

The comments about not eating out or having room mates or expecting granite are red herrings. That's not the difference between being able to buy and not.

I just did a search and found many nice, older condos and coops in NW DC for $250k and up. That is absolutely affordable at current interest rates for the $50k earner saving $5k or more per year! That said, when I bought in '93, I was making 65k and my Courthouse / Arlington condo was $150k, brand new, lovely. I never should have sold it, but was nervous about renting it out.

PITI on those older condos are $1200, and often have significant condo fees (which are generally not listed on zillow/redfin) -- let's say $500 which is pretty conservative. So you are looking at $1700 payment on condo per month. Out of a gross of $4100 a month. 40%of gross income for a condo.

And note, older condos are cheap because ... AGAIN CONDOS MAKE TERRIBLE STARTER HOMES BECAUSE THEY DON"T APPRECIATE.

I made 400K on my last condo, but I'm a genXer, so generally smarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

This is an internet Meme

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X doesn't want to hear your complaining. Gen X is tired of your bitching.

Not. Speaking. For. Me. At. All.

-Gen Xer

Thank you.

The mean Gen Xer is mad because his boss will be a millennial one day.

It's going to happen to all of them because we're going to be the dominant generation pretty soon. If we voted more, nothing could stop us.

Yep. Millennials are already coming in like bats out of hell and reshaping so many things. We're also much more adept with the internet- we grew up using it, arguing online, etc- so we can hold our own. And I think that really bothers certain types (who probably long for the days when you could spout off nonsense statistics and no one could google it and demonstrate that you're lying)

My hope is that once we get to the age to be in positions of power, we will fight to change the fundamentals.

Alternatively we could just tell our kids to F off when they complain about not being able to afford a $5,000,000.00 studio in Manassas on their 100k salary. Gee Junior when I was young, we dreamed of having such a salary! Never mind the housing prices, adjusted CPI index, and COL! Just move to Mississippi!

As said each generation before you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most prices in the metro area are still below where they were in 2005.

That's only if you consider condos (which never recovered which is why builders switched to apts) and 'metro' arrea includes Wv and Harrisburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most prices in the metro area are still below where they were in 2005.

That's only if you consider condos (which never recovered which is why builders switched to apts) and 'metro' arrea includes Wv and Harrisburg.

The full CSA includes Baltimore, too.

And for this discussion, change in earnings is as relevant as house prices. I'd agrue changes in net worth are also key, and if you're in the 90-something percentile of wealth it's gone up since 2005, for everyone else it's gone down, putting homes further out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Millenial here. I do think many millenials are big whiners and complainers. I putchased a home in Sterling Virginia. My husband commuted each day to Crystal City at the ass crack of dawn. I went into tysons. It took a good year until each of us could find good jobs closer to home in Reston and Herndon.

Most millenials would scoff at the idea of living outside the beltway in a less than perfect home. Weve built up equity and moved up into a nicer, laeger home with better schools. Were happy and are building wealth with a mortgage lower than going rents.

Sprry folks, you just wont be able to stay on Arlington. There's no vintage craftsman in your future.