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

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Anonymous wrote:When you get to be 75 years old and are living on a fixed income, let us know how you feel about giving up a low cost mortgage payment so that some whiny shithead will feel better

I love you

-- Gen X on a fixed income

+3

OP, you will never understand, because it will never be enough for you. People age out of their houses, and in most cases, leave it to their children, or their children move in with them, or some variation thereof.

My friends all started in group houses, then tiny condos, then maybe a small townhouse, then maybe a small house - all of which took decades. No one gave them anything. Their parents had to both work (full time, and sometimes more than one job each, so not even teacher schedules) and buy what they could. The people in my neighborhood building $4m new builds are in their 30's, some have kids and some do not. Why don't you go after the latter for creating bidding wars, buying up all the land, and building the expensive houses?

Besides, any "used" houses, or houses probably not good enough for you anyway, are scooped up by builders off market, for cash. So you are obviously not doing that part right, either. Did it occur to you to move further out, and suck it up, and commute for a bit? Or buy a smaller or less expensive home, without renovations (quel horreur!). What kind of sacrifices have you been making? Did you even pay for your own college? Talk to us when you know what the word "sacrifice" means.

I am wondering if these posts are the same troll, because a grown arse adult could not possibly this naive, entitled and spoiled.

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Anonymous wrote:If it was economically feasible for them to downsize, more would have been doing it. They face the same constraints the rest of us do if they try to downsize. Limited availability of small houses, hassle of selling / buying, and the price difference between their large “as is” sale and a small dwelling in same area doesn’t make financial sense for them. It’s the lack of housing options that keeps them in place.

Oh they have options….they just don’t want to pay for it. Don’t want to pay capital gains on home sale. Don’t want to pay more for less square footage, despite being newly renovated or in a better location.

Boomers want Big.

I really don't get the criticism here. So people who are retired or are nearing retirement don't want to (i) lose a lot of money in taxes, or (ii) increase their housing costs. And this is somehow . . . bad? They should be doing something different? Seems responsible to me.

Can you explain how they are doing something wrong?

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.

Of course you have the opportunity, you’re just not willing to sacrifice the way boomers did.

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

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Anonymous wrote:I just think millennials really don't understand how money works, but also they seem to have no concept of delayed gratification. Marriage, babies, etc., are only ok when they have the jobs, wealth and trappings of what middle aged people had in the 90s, so they think we all started this way. We didn't.

I think the delayed gratification may be the biggest issue more than anything else. How many Boomers and older GenX lived in tiny, unrenovated homes for YEARS before any renovations or upgrades were made. Every house that turns over in our neighborhood is bought for a super high price by millenials who then essentially also have the cash to gut and renovate immediately. There was also a recent post about how Millenials travel extensively more than prior generations. How many Boomers took their kids on luxury vacations every year or every school break. Many people with young families seem to want to live the same lifestyles their parents currently live.

No, I think it's that the housing market has fundamentally changed! I'm a millennial who moved around a lot for work and grad school in my 20s, so we weren't settled enough to buy until 2020 (believed the conventional wisdom that you shouldn't buy unless you expect to stay put for 5-10 years). We bought an unrenovated, tiny, old rowhome as a "starter house," planning to eventually move up to something bigger with a yard.

That strategy isn't going to work anymore. We were looking at a $1000/month difference in payments between the smaller house and single family homes back in 2020. That difference has *at least* tripled. The attached "starter homes" haven't appreciated at the rates of SFHs either, so equity doesn't help much. What has happened to prices and rates in the last 3 years has made the idea of starting small and moving up unrealistic for a lot of us (we are not in fields where you can quadruple your salary from your 30s to 40s - most aren't). Yeah, I absolutely wish I hadn't bought into the "start small and move up" narrative you're pushing.

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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.

Yeah, people who discount this don't understand how it works. And the PP who mentioned that many Boomers amassed small fortunes with no or little skill is right, which is one reason Boomers are so susceptible to this-- many have no clue how to protect their money from being gobbled up by elder and end-of-life care.

Also, don't laugh, but scammers are a genuine concern. They are getting more aggressive and clever, there are more of them, and they know Boomers are sitting on piles of cash. I know of two Boomer men who recently got scammed out of thousands this way. It could have been a lot more.

And to be fair, what is the special skill that the younger generations have? They can make a mean pivot table and slide deck? Most people aren't sitting at the top in a leadership position, they are sitting somewhere in the middle bored and daydreaming.

Also some of the jobs boomers have had successfully - nurses, teachers, etc, we still need desperately today. Are you knocking those positions? Are you being condescending to people who work low wage jobs?

The irony is that you just proved our point: there are Boomers who have amassed small fortunes by having a career as a teacher, nurse, firefighter, low wages jobs, etc. They were able to buy property near job centers, had low cost for education (teacher or nurse), maybe a pension, decent 401K match.

Not at all possible today for similar jobs held by Millennials or Gen Z to amass significant assets as Boomers who held the same professions. This is the story!

My spouse and I are Millennials doing very well. Much better off than my own Boomer parents, and probably on par with spouse’s Boomer parents.

But - we moved from our hometown early, prioritized savings and paying off debt young, and have been willing to take career opportunities that have necessitated several moves since then.

I am so sick of the constant whining of my generation and those younger. It’s still very possible to have a nice life. You just have to work for it and BE PATIENT.

I agree with this approach and it's what we are doing. You know who complains the most about the fact that we don't live in a big house and drive multiple luxury cars and take expensive vacations every year? My Boomer dad. If I listened to him, I'd be bankrupt, because he is MUCH more focused on us displaying outward signs of success than actually making smart financial choices.

Millenials didn't invent entitlement, impatience, poor money skills, lack of financial literacy. If people actually think Millenials whine more than other generations (I don't, I think everyone is the same), then ask yourself who raised these people. The apple never falls far from the tree.

My mom hassled me for years to step up from my new 3 BR "starter" TH to a 4 BR SFH. Never did. First kid going to college this fall. I don't have to downsize now plus I avoided 20 years of lawnwork and major home repair. Win!

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know where those fictional people live where $612 includes taxes and insurance but it isn’t around here. I also don’t understand why it’s so difficult to process why people living on a fixed income with a paid off mortgage don’t want to leave their homes that they spent years paying for and enjoying.

Places like Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, upstate NY, etc. Aka, Flyover Country. They have very few natural disasters, home prices have been very low until the COVID years, and jurisdictions often have caps on property tax increases that leave Boomers paying only a fraction of the fair market value on taxes compared to young families that recently purchased.

And the Boomers who live there who were upper income and corporate may also have real pensions of the type that ended in the 1990s.

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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.

Then vote for the people who will improve the economy.

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).

Anonymous wrote:I just think millennials really don't understand how money works, but also they seem to have no concept of delayed gratification. Marriage, babies, etc., are only ok when they have the jobs, wealth and trappings of what middle aged people had in the 90s, so they think we all started this way. We didn't.

I think the delayed gratification may be the biggest issue more than anything else. How many Boomers and older GenX lived in tiny, unrenovated homes for YEARS before any renovations or upgrades were made. Every house that turns over in our neighborhood is bought for a super high price by millenials who then essentially also have the cash to gut and renovate immediately. There was also a recent post about how Millenials travel extensively more than prior generations. How many Boomers took their kids on luxury vacations every year or every school break. Many people with young families seem to want to live the same lifestyles their parents currently live.

Anonymous wrote:When you get to be 75 years old and are living on a fixed income, let us know how you feel about giving up a low cost mortgage payment so that some whiny shithead will feel better

I love you

-- Gen X on a fixed income

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Wow you people are nuts. Boomers actually bought real 3/2 simple starter homes and coped with 18% interest rates in the 1980s. Oh, actual gas SHORTAGES too.

We did have a break and college tuition compared to today, but most of us went to community colleges or state colleges. We didn't feel entitled to go to Yale.

We worked our way up, we worked long hours and paid our dues.

Young people today aren't interested in starting at the bottom.

This. Our first two homes were small townhouses before we could afford a single family house. Our first home interest rate was in the double digits. Boomers didn't graduate college and immediately go into large single family homes the way you fantasize. In our last neighborhood it was the younger gen z buying the largest, most expensive homes.

Work your way up in the housing market the way everyone else does. And while you're at it start seeing a therapist to work out your issues if you're the same person who keeps posting these boomer real estate rantings.

JHC. You still don’t get it. Half of Millennials won’t buy one home, let alone trade up multiple times. You can’t even recognize that the opportunities you were given no longer exist for young families.

This is exactly why we derisively say “OK, B00mer.”

I can’t believe you typed all that out without a hint of self reflection at your own fortunate circumstances

Over decades. I'm sure you'd prefer we live in a cardboard box somewhere under a bridge. Get over yourself.

We have plenty of millennials and now Gen Z in our neighborhood- regular jobs, student debt, 1 or 2 kids. No great wealth to do it. Our neighborhood is older, houses aren't sexy or iG ready. They are in their late 20s and early 30s.