Anonymous wrote:Buying in DC in late 90s was a big gamble, it was a declining area. Folks lucked out because 9/11 triggered a boom here. Without that, I expect we would be more like Albany than Manhatten.

+1 We thought the people spending insane amount on houses in the early 2000s because "housing never goes down in value" were idiots. Looking back at our property assessments, our house had declined in value for over 6 yrs before buying it at the bottom of the market in the mid-90s. And this was a 4-bedroom house a few blocks from the Orange Line. Yes, our timing was purely luck. But we also went into the purchase not expecting a lot of appreciation so we were cautious about not spending too much, esp. because interest rates were high.

Buying in DC in late 90s was a big gamble, it was a declining area. Folks lucked out because 9/11 triggered a boom here. Without that, I expect we would be more like Albany than Manhatten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, that PP's description is atypical for GenX too. Things weren't as cheap in the early to mid 1990s as you may think. When I was 22 (1995) I was still a law student, paying 35k per year for tuition and room & board. As another PP said starting salaries for people who had recently finished college were well under 40K. Even as a lawyer at biglaw in the late 90s, starting salaries were under 100k. The only people I know who bought houses within a year of finishing school had parental help for the downpayment.

+1. When I moved to the DC area after college in 1996 I was 22 and I had an exempt position requiring a college degree that paid $27k and required long hours and travel.

I think you're missing the point though. I graduated late 90s, so I don't really have a dog in this fight (economy was still good and jobs were plentiful). But post-recession my heart really went out to the young people just graduating into that dismal economy. You might have had low-paying and demanding jobs in the early 90s, but they literally had no jobs. It was so disheartening to see super smart kids from top schools applying in droves to unpaid internships...and then having to do multiples of those for years to have any hope of ever getting a paid job.

Everyone works hard and struggles, but I truly do think it was extremely rough for people who graduated in late 2007-2010-ish (and it's not like it was much better even later, since there were jobs, but you were competing with people who had just spent 3 years doing unpaid internships to get experience).

I do agree that the young people during that time period had it pretty rough. My company has these departments that are traditionally made up of high school graduates that process a lot of transactions, do data entry, etc. When I look at those departments today almost all of them are staffed with millennials with 4 year degrees. That was NOT the case in the 90s. I am thankful we graduated into a better economy and at least had a few years to get settled before things went downhill. The main differences I see the millennials I work with struggling with that weren't exactly the same in our situation are student loans and housing. Rent has definitely gone up, but they are creative about that and work around it by having a couple more roommates than we did. The student loans thing is a problem, but we had them too and had to eat ramen noodles and Hunts spaghetti sauce every night for dinner until they were paid off making salaries in the high 20s and living in the DC area. That's just how it goes. The size of some of the loans they have is a bit on the shocking side though. I think that is the fault of selling them the idea that education is a good investment and good debt without thinking it completely through. In our day if you screwed up and wasted a year in college it was bad, but not the end of the world since a year at private was, what, like $15k? Now you have to be much more focused and have a better plan. Even better to stick to state schools and/or do a couple years at a lower cost institution and then transfer in. I also think culture and reality television is a larger factor in their lives than we give it credit for. I think a larger number of millennials feel that the norm is to have a $100 a month phone bill and a latte from Starbucks every morning whereas we would never have spent that much money on those things. Granted, the phones weren't really available yet, but I just have this sense from the millennials I work with that they all feel they should be living like the Kardashians but on a Sanford and Son budget.

Anonymous wrote:But you didn't have to have 20% back then and you weren't saddled with exorbitant student loan debt. Mortgages were spec and no DP and college was reasonable. You were entering the work force and adulthood in an economic boom. WE entered in the worst financial climate since the Great Depression. Not saying you guys didn't work but you did NOT have the hurdles back then that we do now.

There have ALWAYS been hurdles. Even after the Great Depression.

I did buy in 1999 as well - I was a single mom making about $30K a year. I bought a 2 BR 1.5 bath condo for $100K, It wasn't fancy - but it was in a decent neighborhood and I got in with 3% down (FHA). There are STILL low downpayment options being offered by FHA, VA and USDA at fairly low interest rates. I also knew I couldn't afford a single family home on my income. I was able to buy one later when my income increased - I also paid extra on my mortgage to lower the principal, thus building additional equity. I also chose not to run up credit card debt or live beyond my means. I have friends that did (and still do). I don't judge them - it is just different choices you make. YOU choose to take on student loans (did you go to a cc then transfer to a state school? that is one way to do college affordably). My daughter is doing that so she doesn't incur debt (we have had long conversations about how crippling debt can be to get out from). There are condos available in the suburbs for reasonable prices. In the old days, they were called 'starter homes'. Not everyone buys a $500,000 house as their first home.

I'm a Gen X er and my starting salary was 25k. My first house was one of my biggest financial mistakes. Should never have bought it. Market went down and never came back up and we sold it 6 years later, paying cash at closing to get out of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, that PP's description is atypical for GenX too. Things weren't as cheap in the early to mid 1990s as you may think. When I was 22 (1995) I was still a law student, paying 35k per year for tuition and room & board. As another PP said starting salaries for people who had recently finished college were well under 40K. Even as a lawyer at biglaw in the late 90s, starting salaries were under 100k. The only people I know who bought houses within a year of finishing school had parental help for the downpayment.

+1. When I moved to the DC area after college in 1996 I was 22 and I had an exempt position requiring a college degree that paid $27k and required long hours and travel.

I think you're missing the point though. I graduated late 90s, so I don't really have a dog in this fight (economy was still good and jobs were plentiful). But post-recession my heart really went out to the young people just graduating into that dismal economy. You might have had low-paying and demanding jobs in the early 90s, but they literally had no jobs. It was so disheartening to see super smart kids from top schools applying in droves to unpaid internships...and then having to do multiples of those for years to have any hope of ever getting a paid job.

Everyone works hard and struggles, but I truly do think it was extremely rough for people who graduated in late 2007-2010-ish (and it's not like it was much better even later, since there were jobs, but you were competing with people who had just spent 3 years doing unpaid internships to get experience).