The median Boomer has a housing cost of $612. That includes taxes and insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously dumb criticism. Every generation nearing death had, has and will have relatively low housing costs. Their expenses were incurred earlier in life.

But food news for whining millennials. They will inherit these assets en masse.

The real estate gains are mostly unique to Boomers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously dumb criticism. Every generation nearing death had, has and will have relatively low housing costs. Their expenses were incurred earlier in life.

But food news for whining millennials. They will inherit these assets en masse.

The real estate gains are mostly unique to Boomers.

Real estate gains for Boomers JUST LITERALLY HAPPENED in the last few years. This is how it works- for every generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the boomer hate?

Undereducation, pure and simple

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The premise is dumb. Of course housing costs are lower because boomers are older and many have paid off their mortgages. When they were in their 30’s they had big mortgages (helped by much higher interest rates than today).

Boomers and elder Gen ZX had a much lower income-home price ratio throughout their child raising and home buying years than pretty much any other generation:
https://www.longtermtrends.net/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/

Mortgage payment to household income ratio is at historic highs:
https://twitter.com/Barchart/status/1618079832730132482

Look, it was easier for Boomers - especially white Boomers - to get rich and acquire assets. There’s no shame in admitting that. Even during the Volcker years - the high interest rates still didn’t outweigh the low principal balances for homes back then relative to today.

This. May parents bough my childhood home with a 14% interest rate in 1981. But it was a 60k house they bought with an income of 45k (with a SAHM). Yes, that's a high interest rate, but it was actually possible for them to buy because they only needed 12k for a down payment (not a small sum back then but not some crazy sum either) and the monthly payment was not onerous even with multiple kids. AND it was in a good school district AND it was a safe, walkable neighborhood. It wasn't this horrible burden.

They sold that house for 500k 20 years later. They still had 10 years left on the mortgage but it didn't matter because they were getting over 400k in equity. Their next home was a custom build that they did not finance -- built for about 350k including land, they sold it for over 600k in 2006. Then another custom build (about 500k for land and construction) that my dad still talks about them "losing" money on because they wound up selling after the subprime cash for about 1.1m (it is now worth upwards of 2.5m). They downsized and invested, which worked out great. They recently bought what I think is probably their last house, for 850k in cash. They've got millions in the bank and it's largely from real estate and investment proceeds -- my mom has never worked and my dad has never had a salaried position that paid more than 100k. I'm happy for them, that's great.

But they cannot understand why I haven't been able to do the same thing despite low interest rates. They are confused as to why we still live in our "starter home" which needs some updates we can't presently finance, mediocre schools, more crime than we like. The reason is that we can't afford the upgrade. We are 15 years in on our mortgage and it's manageable, but even if we pulled out all our equity, we can't actually afford either the same house in a better school district, or a nicer house in the same school district. There's just no point. We'll stay and keep paying it down, and I do think in the next 10 years or so we'll be able to move (we pretty much have to by the time our kid hits high school). But we're not amassing a fortune based on real estate -- the market does not work that way anymore, but my parents don't understand that because it's all they've ever known.

What was the 45k income from? I bought a house in 1981. 2 incomes- teacher ( 13 k) and computer engineer (22k) Suburban DMV. If there was 45k income on one salary, that was higher income.

Your problem is
1. What you think a "good" school system is. And that is pretty loaded, btw .
2. What you think a house is.

Buy a house, you can do it, and your salaries are MUCH higher in 2024. Too bad you missed lower rates by thinking it was all the wrong places and wrong houses.

[Anonymous]

Depends, OP. My dh is technically a boomer at 60, and out monthly mortgage payment is 3k. If you ever have to move for work, your current mortgage goes out of the window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in Texas recently. Lots of new construction homes being built.

The irony of red states generally having less restrictive zoning.

https://www.newsweek.com/blue-states-housing-market-crisis-1877226

Like that’s a bad thing? Can’t have it both ways, NIMBY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the boomer hate?

You must be new here. They blame Boomers for everything.

Not a Boomer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously dumb criticism. Every generation nearing death had, has and will have relatively low housing costs. Their expenses were incurred earlier in life.

But food news for whining millennials. They will inherit these assets en masse.

No we won’t. Our parents are going to have to spend down everything they ever saved (if they saved) in end of life care that can run $5k+ a month. Boomers are going to live for a long time, this will easily drain most of the “inheritance” the average Boomer might’ve accumulated.

Enough of the end-of-life care scare. Not everyone will experience such costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

Read an interesting report that US public education scores have been steadily declining as more individual technology is provided to students. The poster may be in the last generation of Americans with critical thinking skills and should use them to resolve parental issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

Who do you think is going to inherit the houses and 401k balances of boomers?

The elder care industry.

Made up of hardworking Africans and some Hispanics who deserve to be paid for taking care of folks that are ignored

The next generation is having fewer kids and will really be a drain on the industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need to build more houses to satisfy demand. That’s not happening.

It’s a great point that the article only barely grazed. One commenter pointed out:

The implosion in home building since the financial crash deserves much more than a sentence here.

According to data from the St. Louis Fed, in the 16 years before the crash (1992-2007), an average of 1.26 million single family homes were completed in the US each year.

In the 16 years after the crash (2008-2023), an average of 0.74 million single family homes were completed in the US each year.

That's a reduction of more than 41%.
That might have something to do with housing prices and supply.

We need a President who will commit to building at least 1.5m housing units per year. It needs to be a nationwide effort in urban, suburban, ex-urban, and rural communities. Most importantly we need existing homeowners to get the hell out of the way so we can get these homes built near job centers. It’s going to require upzoning in all areas of the country. Even in rural areas, you have intense opposition to ANY multi family residential development.

There’s commitment and there’s doing. Arlington adopted an Expanded Housing Opportunity policy with no idea how to implement it. Private developers had to show them how to make the policy work. Why not? They are benefiting the must from the policy.

[Anonymous]

Not a boomer and haven’t read this whole thread, but those who complain about younger people not having an opportunity to build wealth must be ignoring the fact that today’s job market is better than ever. The opportunities to build wealth are just as great or greater than ever before in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the boomer hate?

Jealousy. The green eyed monster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

Who do you think is going to inherit the houses and 401k balances of boomers?

Real answer: private equity and asset management firms that own housing vulture funds, nursing homes, hospital networks, and physician practices.

Nope. Our multimillions will be going to our two millennial kids. We bought LTC insurance. DH and I inherited nothing from our parents. We know many families like ours. The kids will be alright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously dumb criticism. Every generation nearing death had, has and will have relatively low housing costs. Their expenses were incurred earlier in life.

But food news for whining millennials. They will inherit these assets en masse.

The real estate gains are mostly unique to Boomers.

Not at all. My Greatest Gen dad and Silent Gen mom bought their house for $45,000 in 1968. It's worth close to $2mil and they never did a renovation.