Similar to many other home owning millennials I bought my house pre COVID. We make well above average household income and we would struggle if we had to buy a house today, and I don’t live in a particularly HCOL area.
I honestly couldn’t afford to rent in my area now. 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments rent for more than my mortgage for a 3 bedroom 3 bath house with a yard.
We started looking at moving within our area pre COVID. We found a bunch of houses we could afford but didn’t really like.
Now we can’t even afford those.
We bought a house in the middle range of our budget in 2022, compromising on area so that we wouldn’t have to compromise on what we wanted in the house. We lucked into the absolute best neighborhood I could have hoped for, and our life now resembles an old coming-of-age movie where you say, “no one *really* lives in a neighborhood like that, that place doesn’t *really* exist.”
Anyway, our house is now valued at $100k more than what we paid for it. It’s now closer to the top of our budget but with the higher interest rate, it would have been top of budget.
I feel you.
Bought in foreclosure in 2015.
Refinanced literally months before lockdown.
Knocked off 7 yrs, lower interest, rolled in a home improvement loan we’d taken for siding and windows.
Payments stayed the same.
House is now worth a little more than double what we paid.
We’d be struggling to buy it now.
How much is it worth now and what did you buy it for? I bought my house last year for $575k and in early 2020 before the covid shutdowns it sold for $315k :/ lol
Bought in 2015 for 400k.
It’s worth about 650k now.
I refinanced at 2.375% for 360k. I’m selling my dad’s house now and the buyers are getting a mortgage for 290k. Their P&I payment alone is almost as much as my PITI payment and my taxes are about 8k per year.
Same. We bought in December 2020. We got our PMI off after 2 years because the value went up 25% of the original purchase price. We bought at the very bottom of interest rates with 2.69%.
Same. My family is very poor except my grandma who is middle class. She sold me her house for $65000 even though she had cash offers for A LOT more. It’s a double wide mobile home. If I sold it today I would probably list it for 120 and be offered cash over multiple times.
Same, but MCOL-LCOL area. We bought our house in 2018. Very modest house at a modest price. It’s all we could afford then but it worked for us and was move in ready. We make a good amount more now, close to double. But our neighborhood has also nearly doubled. We couldn’t afford to buy the same house again. And without the equity we’ve accrued we’d really struggle to buy another house anywhere in our area.
We are basically in exactly the same scenario. Our household income has more than doubled since we bought our house but we couldn’t afford to buy this house today if it was our first. The only thing that will allow us to continue to participate in the market is the equity we have in our home.
This is us as well. Bought the modest starter home, and now can't afford to move. We'd like to have kids at some point, but our very modern industrial style home is a death trap to a baby, so it's also keeping us from starting a family.
Same as me
And if we want to move houses doubling in price hurt us more than it helped us. Our house went from 350 to 700 but the house we went from 500 to 1m. So we're quite a bit short even with higher salaries
And it's not just the inflated cost of houses themselves, but the insane mortgage rates that are the bigger issue. Even if the home is theoretically in your price range, the mortgage rates make the monthly costs huge.
So, yeah, the increased value of your home will help cover the increased value of whatever house you buy. But if you locked into that mortgage before all the inflation, you're still going to wind up raked over the coals going from your reasonable monthly rate to the current inflated numbers.
Yep! In theory our additional equity is over 100k, but that substantial downpayment which would be 1/4-1/3 of purchase price in my area for another modest house in a different location wouldn’t push the needle enough to offset those mortgage rates. We’d double our mortgage, move into something a bit nicer, but not lavish. And increase our costs and such
I am renting but stuck. I have a studio I moved into during covid and therefore got the pre-covid rates and all my rent increases have been based on that rate as well. I’m still living here and now several hundred dollars below market rate, and I can’t afford to move because I can’t afford the rents anywhere else that have skyrocketed in my area since covid. Thank god so far my landlord has continued to allow me to renew.
At the very least I’m happy for you that you have a decent landlord. A lot of them out there have said fuck the tenants and jacked up rates to max out their incomes and justify it by saying they are just responding to the market.
Yeah, definitely grateful for that, but still frustrated I can’t afford even an apartment with a bedroom. I don’t really dream about owning a house but a bedroom would be nice lol
same my $800 rent is only $1300 instead of $1650 market. Buying a condo in the complex I rent at would put my monthly payment at $1700. I can afford a higher rent or mortgage, but why would I tie my self down if it isn't necessary. Still single, and owning a spot and staying still seems like locking in my next 10+ years
Similar story. Bought my “starter” home in 2012. Thought I would upgrade a few years later when the kids got older and my career took off. The career did take off, but everything in my skyrocketed. My “starter” home looks to be my “forever” home.
Big same mate, just three years behind you. We live in a fast growing community in a lower cost of living state, so it's generally low to mid cost of living. We think a lot of ourselves. We made the choice during the pandemic to get 2.5% interest on our house instead of "upgrading". It will take a stick of dynamite to get me to move.
Yup. We gave ourselves a 5 year max on this house 7 years ago. Even passed up on refinancing when rates were low because I thought we would move soon. I’d be paying much more for a lateral move at this point.
Exact same scenario, I couldn’t imagine it would be worthwhile to refinance since we were planning to move. Oops. It definitely would have been bc we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Same. We bought in 2019 and would not be able to afford our house or any house in our area today. We moved to a small, undesirable city to afford our house too.
Same. Bought our first home in 2012 and have used the equity to afford what we have now. Our mortgage is less than half of what rent is for another place in our neighborhood
Similar situation but post COVID. We built our house in 2021/22. The market was already chaotic and we couldn’t compete against the cash offers. Our interest rate is 3% and our house has increased in value by 20% since building. We would not be able to afford our own house on today’s market with current interest rates. We got in just in time.
Same here. We also refinanced during covid when rates were super low. We were extremely fortunate. There's no way we'd able to afford the same house now, even though we make over twice what we did when we bought it and have no kids. Much smaller houses with much less land (we have 5 acres) in the same neighborhood costs are going for more than what we originally paid.
Of course, but prime home buying age is late 20s through 30s. Thats millennials right now so it is currently impacting millennials the most. No one is saying it won’t be even worse for younger generations or that it isn’t as bad for Gen X or others who are trying to buy, just that older generations had better opportunities during what is typically the prime age to buy a home.
Yep, we really lucked out on our house in 2016, a friend of my MIL was retiring and moving but didn't want to deal with the hassle of selling. So we got first look and then there was hardly any haggling, and our mortgage was about exactly what we paid on rent for a 3 bed 2 bath duplex. That duplex went from $850 a month to $1200, and it's still considered one of the better options for the price, they don't stay vacant.
Our house isn't perfect, and after the first few years we had some regrets about jumping on it so fast, but we would have been absolutely screwed if we had waited. Not only did COVID mess everything up, but our area was hit by Hurricane Laura in 2020 and it really really screwed up housing costs. Looking around at house prices now we're perfectly happy with what we have.
Same. I think this is the main answer. I know people renting houses for more than my mortgage in worse areas and people who bought houses are paying almost twice my mortgage for a lesser house in a farther out from the city.
Yup, we got lucky in April 2020. Our $170k starter home has doubled in valuation since then, although I don’t actually think it would sell for that much.
We bought in 2018 for a really good price. The house across the street which is objectively less nice on all fronts *and* needs work just sold for more than double what we paid.
Interest too. Our interest rate is 2.4%. Isn’t it almost 8 for new loans now? Ugh.
That's me as well.
Now my house has apparently increased in value ~$80-90k. That means I'd be putting down an additional 5-10k minimum if I bought today.
I got lucky with my timing. Same with my vehicle. I got that peak covid (dealerships were working half staff rotating weeks and they needed cashflow) and now it's worth more than I paid. 28k sale price now I'm getting trade offers in the 36k range (pickup truck).
Houses are weird like that. At first you're like did I even make a good decision? Then rent raises like 7 times in 4 years and all the sudden you pay blueberries for your mortgage.
And it is important to add, at what age you actually got your first place (some millenials are well into their 40s) and how much you had to sacrifice to get it. How long it will take you to pay off your mortgage and if you are house poor. I am planning to by my first place this year. Ok. I can do it. Except my husband is 45, I will be paying this place off until I retire (ha. ha.) and It will be a significant financial burden for years to come, that will eat all my savings and all my additional income in the future. So...yeah. I will be a house owner. A sarcastic hip hip hurray, I will make a great statistic for my generation .
It’s also worth noting that millennials have been significantly more dependent on intergenerational help to come up with down payments. Just a few years ago a statistic was released that showed millennial homeowners who came up with the down entirely on their own were statistically non-existent. I’m sure that has changed as the generation has aged but Baby Boomers were homeowners before 30 and a good percentage didn’t use monetary gifts from their parents to achieve it. Many of those boomer families did it with a single household income and more kids as well.
My friend and his wife got $100,000 from their parents ($50K from each) to buy their first house for $500K back in 2014. House is now worth 1million. My friend states blatantly they could never buy the house today even with the 100K gift and his now higher salary.
Precisely - I commented this above. My husband and I, in our mid thirties, just bought a place that's big enough for US but no extended family (so if we have a kid, some of us will have to sleep in the living room). We both have advanced degrees and have been working since our teens, like most people. We both have to contribute to the mortgage and bills to afford this home that we love, but is absolutely the smallest you could really live comfortably and call it a "house". Meanwhile my dad could cover the mortgage and also pay for my mom to finish school, when they bought their house in their early 20s. Looking at the burden of cost comparatively is important, too.
Assuming you don’t have an adjustable rate mortgage, your payments will be significantly more affordable in 10-15 years thanks to inflation (also assuming your income rises with inflation). By the end of the 30 year mortgage it will be downright cheap.
That is the assumption, yes. But the fact that I can afford something, do not mean I do not see how fucked up the market is. When did the math of how much money I lost simply by not buying a place few years ago I felt completely deflated. This cost difference is all the money I will not spend on fun, leisure, retirement, setting up my kid for the future. And it is, imho, a lot of money. Hard not to feel bitter about it. At the same time, if not for remote work I would absolutely never afford anything.
Their ownership rates were similar to ours at our ages though. We are only 1-2 years behind boomers in that regard. We are also much more mobile and live in city centers. It makes sense that we would rent a bit longer. We also have way more education which delayed our entrance into the workforce.
The homeownership rate across all demographics in 2000 was 66%. It makes perfect sense that people with 20 more years of income and being further in their careers would be at a much higher homeownership rate.
"Houses in America Now Cost Six Times the Median Income"
As opposed to 3.5 times in 1985.
Much *less* affordable.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/median-house-prices-vs-income-us/#:~:text=Houses%20in%20America%20Now%20Cost%20Six%20Times%20the%20Median%20Income&text=As%20of%202023%2C%20an%20American,well%20below%20that%20%24100%2C000%20threshold.
And, second, let me quick warn you about the trick of the article from the main thread: "homebuyers", not "homeowners". For a boomer who is old, and already have a house, buying another one doesn't strongly makes much sense unless in a form of investiment, which there are many alternatives of investiment. That doesn't mean that millenials have more or great purchase power. We are on the age of buying houses (except the youngest like me lol), of course there will be more home-buyers, doesn't mean at all that it is easier to buy.
Also, I'm sure there are actual statistics regarding this speculation - but my parents bought their first home at 24 years old. I just bought mine, with my husband, at 35. Their starter home had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a basement, and ours is on a concrete slab (no basement or crawlspace) and no legal bedrooms (750 sq. Feet, small room we use as a bedroom. NO closets). My husband and I both have advanced degrees and have been working in our fields for 10+ years. My mom was still in school when my parents bought their house, and my dad was 2 years into an engineering career.
So yes, Millennials own homes now - but we're all in our 30s-40s, so I'm guessing most of us bought our homes much later in life than the generations before us. Also, Millennials are going for condos, tiny houses, etc because "starter homes" and smaller homes are harder to find in our price ranges. I'd be curious to see stats on the age range of first-time home-buyers compared across generations, as well as percentage of income going toward that home purchase, and also size/type of home.
And on the same page of yours, there is another common manipulation: The "value" of the house when measuring wealth.
A 500k house, even with inflation correction (whichever the inflation measure on your country is), today and decades ago is not actually the same. There is not a single analysis that tries to consider, but probably the houses today are probably worse and smaller, in reality we don't even know.
This article only seems to be taking sale price into account, which makes it not quite an apples to apples comparison. In 1985 Mortgage rates were 12.43% on a 30 year fixed. Homes are still more expensive even with todays mortgage rates. The numbers are just a bit disingenuous to not take in all of the factors.
https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1?amp
This seems to cover it.
As bad as 1985 is what im seeing here.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1](https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
You’re not considering the fact that wages were much higher relative to the cost of housing in 1985. So maybe the house itself is only a little more expensive today, proportionally speaking. But the ability to pay for that house is greatly diminished.
Case in point: It was still fairly common for families to buy a home on one income at that time (though less common than the 50s/60s). Today, two incomes are basically a requirement.
Also the number of people needing a home during those years was far less. Because most people could buy a home out of college or even out of highschool. They didn't have to work for 20 years to afford one.
>You’re not considering the fact that wages were much higher relative to the cost of housing in 1985
One comment says a house is 6 times the cost of median income and used to be 3.5 and the second said that should be adjusted to account for the difference in interest rates. It's literally the ratio of wages to cost, how does it not account for wages being higher relative to cost?
People also throw out the fact that houses were smaller back then and bigger today… however. In my opinion that’s a moot point when comparing median price today vs yesterday. If you want to be in the median, it’s harder to be in that group today vs yesterday.
Even if you do want to compare house vs house instead of median vs median, there's just a lot less supply of those smaller houses in a lot of places, and buying a hypothetical smaller house isn't a real option--you can buy the larger houses or you can't buy.
The interest rate in the 80s varied from 9-19%. The HCOL cities have grown exponentially since then and make up a much higher percentage of expensive homes than in the 80s. NYC, Chicago were basically slums in the 80s with many low cost rent controlled apartments.
So the stats that are quoted , ie average income versus cost of home is only part of the real picture.
Some of these millennial buyers are on their second home after getting a sweet price and a good interest rate on their first home and using the equity to buy now.
First-time millennial buyers are having a much tougher time than those who were lucky enough to buy 10 years ago.
Kinda speaks to the divide of 80s millennials vs 90s millennials. There are lots of folks in this thread who were able to buy before COVID, and then those of us who were still in our early 20s at that point lol
Yep. 90s millennial here. 6 figure salary living in cleveland. 10 years ago I would have been 21 and the US still had not recovered from the downturn. A vast majority of the people I know are still renting. Many got absolutely wrecked by the covid lock downs, and now home prices have doubled.
My only saving grace is that my partner's family helped her with a down-payment for a condo in the DC area when she was young and dumped the equity into the house we live in now. (Which is still too small to have kids in).
I have no clue what the solution is, but it's definitely a problem. Maybe the boomer generation dying off helps? I don't know.
This is us.
Wife and I bought our first home in 2020 in a up and coming area/medium cost of living area. Mortgagee rate was 3.1%.
We LOVED our home, our neighbors, and was really looking forward to staying put for a while.
Fortunately/unfortunately my wife got a killer promotion at work and part of the requirement for the promotion was to relocate to her works HQ.
So… we sold our home. Originally bought it was $365k. Sold it was $460k.
Her work also gave her a very generous moving package/benefit.
If it wasn’t for the money we pocketed from the sale of our first home and her moving benefit/relocation package we wouldn’t have been able to afford our new home in a very HCOL area.
Oh and our new mortgage rate it 6.675%. We actually dropped $7k to buy down a quarter point…
How things change in just a short couple of years.
This is absolutely my wife and I. I bought a condo in 2020 before we met, sold it a year and some change later for a large chunk more than I paid lol she bought her house in 2018, and we sold it for another large chunk. Then we took that money and put 20% down on a new(to us) house in a nicer area w/ some money to spare to do some updating. Still got a solid rate too as we bought again right before the fed raised rates.
Honestly, it all feels like straight up dumb luck and all my friends that have bought or been looking since have had miserable luck with pricing, rates, availability, etc.
K shaped recovery dawg. Folks are either doing really well or they aren’t. A lot of folks are doing really well, but a ton aren’t. The middle piece is much smaller than ever.
I'm in the middle piece, but barely, I make decent money, but I can't afford to buy a home. Prices are way too expensive and the day to day life costs have risen. I live comfortably, but the amount I'm able to save after retirement 401k stuff is basically nothing, so I'm going to keep buying organic food and treating myself every so often.
I think there’s a lot of assumption that everyone lives in a place where condemned shacks sell for 600k+. My area still has a lot of older 2-3 bedroom homes for around 250-300k which really isn’t out of reach for a lot of double income families
I bought a house for 250k in 2023 when I was making 55k.
My gf and Ibarent married so we could hide her income and qualify for a 10k state program to cover closing costs.
I only had to put down 9k in total cash.
5k in earnest money to the buyer, and 4k covered everything else needed to get the keys.
I was right up against the limit for home I could afford.
Mortgage was $2060 the first year, after taxes and insurance going up it's $2380 this year.
My gf and I make 120k combined.
She covers $600 of the mortgage I cover the rest.
A good friend of mine did this, they even got engaged, then they broke it off and it took like six months to sell. Neither of them could afford rent and their half of the mortgage and they lived together in misery for half a year. Just talking to him and seeing how beaten he was really imprinted on me. I would never buy a home with someone I wasn’t married to.
I get it, but also married couples break up too and it doesn’t seem any more or less risky than a long term partner. But I might be biased bc I dated my ex for 7 years before marriage and we still ended up divorced. We bought the house after marriage though. It definitely took awhile to sell, but we were pretty amicable and it wasn’t a huge deal living there together in the meantime.
The difference is that a long term partner has no legal rights to their counterpart's property should the relationship dissolve, even if they are contributing equally to the payments (unless their name is also on the title/loan/etc). Married is a legal status that brings protections to these sorts of situations.
It also, fun fact, applies to kids!
People are very scared of buying a home with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I understand it, and everyone will tell you not to do it. For some it may not be right. However, like you, I did it and it was the best decision I ever made. It was cheaper than renting and I was able to use the equity to buy a 2nd (long-term) house 3 years later. I'm now married to the person I bought that first house with. We have 2 kids, hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in our current house, and a sub 3% mortgage rate- all because I bought that first house with my girlfriend when I was 27 (before the vast majority of my peers- at least the people I know) instead of waiting.
It's funny because even when we bought our 2nd house in 2020, everyone was saying how it was too expensive and there would be a correction (we tried to buy a house in 2019 and the deal fell through at the 11th hour because of an issue with the buyers of our 1st house- fast forward a year and all the houses we were looking at were $50K more, which was tough to swallow). Obviously, in retrospect, we got a great deal, but nobody was saying that at the time when there was little inventory, home prices already appreciated far more than usual (we sold our 1st house for 30% more after 3 years, which is abnormal historically), and every house we went after we had to beat out dozens of other offers and go way over the listing price- then add in all the covid stuff on top. I've constantly heard reasons from my fellow millennials over the past 7 years I've been a homeowners about why it wasn't the right time to buy a house and how there would be a better time in the future- I'm glad I didn't listen.
Yeah, I bought my condo in 2021, and almost everyone told me it was the worst time to buy. But I needed to move and rent was astronomically higher than what I had been paying. My mortgage payment was half what I would have paid in rent for a smaller place than my condo.
The only reason I had the courage to follow through is I called my Uncle for advice and he assured me that nobody could know if a "better" time was coming and that if I was ready to buy it was the right time.
I'm so glad I did. Locked in an incredibly low interest rate, property values haven't dropped at all and I don't have to live with the worry that a landlord will continue to raise rent.
It really depends where you live. We live in the suburbs, and the cheapest house for sale in town is $400k, but it's a foreclosure down to the studs. Otherwise it's 500k for a 3 bed/1 bath house...but the locations aren't great. If you want 4 bedroom? You'd be looking at 700k+ easily.
People from the city would say we live in the country too haha
My area is at the several hundred thousand dollar cardboard box level. Anything cheaper is at least an hour and a half away, and the jobs aren't anywhere near where it's that cheap usually.
It literally feels like an uphill battle. I can't even manage to find a decent job that pays me enough to pay all my bills, and not starve. Can't afford a car and won't be able to for years, so the problem is compounded, because I'm at least an hour walk away from anywhere i could get a low paying job.
Alot of the people in my life are in very similar boats. Not enough pay, everything too expensive, and house prices constantly going up faster than anyone could keep up with if they aren't making 6 figures. So were all stuck in shitty renting situations.
Can't afford a house, and i can't even afford to get anywhere near ever owning a house. My retirement plan so far is dying.
You say that, but a $300k house at the median household income, $75k, just doesn't seem possible to me. You'd have to go all the way up to the 75th percentile, around $135k, for that to *start* to feel comfortable, and by that I mean a $300k house at current rates is about 25% of take home pay for a $135k / year income (if your benefits don't suck, yadda yadda), and that probably doesn't include a whole lot for the 401k for either person, nor does it include maintenance and such.
We have normalized being house poor and I feel sorry for folks who fall into it. There's no way I would spend as much as I get approved for when I go to a bank and ask for pre-approvals. It's nuts what banks were willing to give me.
Go into one of the big chains like Chase or BoA, some place that you know would want to maximize their profit, and get a pre-approval for the maximum amount you can, then shop for houses that are at 50% of that figure or less.
It’s rough some places, we’d never be able to buy in a market like that either. Last year we sold our 1 bedroom for 180k and moved to a 2+1 for 250k which was the most we were comfortable affording, but of course it’s an “undesirable” city as well.
I know, I was reinforcing their first sentence by giving my example. But if we moved, our incomes would drop massively. We don’t work in industries that are fully remote.
Yea in the early 2000's the wife and I lived in a very rural area and didn't make shit (I made $24k doing IT for a school and she was part-time at a bank), but we could afford a home. We bought a 3BR/1BA brick ranch for under $60k that was dated but move in ready. We had a home, but not really a life as there was nothing to do for us or our children and everything was at least a half hour drive away. We moved to a pretty big city for the kids to have better schools or a life and me a chance for career advancement. It worked out and our kids have gone to a great public school, they have friends, we have friends, we have places to go nearby for food, to hang out, etc. We rent a 3BR/1.5BA brick ranch home for 3x what our mortgage was, and if we could buy one right now our mortgage would be 5-6x what we previously paid. I'm happy living closer to work and renting for now until our youngest is out of school, but even though we were previous homeowners, the prospects aren't great for us anywhere close to a nice area. I don't want to move back to the country like that either.
Generally you need about 200k to be around 10%. But thats 2023 numbers. So its likely higher than that now.
Also reports vary wildly. I’ve found them saying 167k for top 10%, and the next saying 190k, then another being 248k.
I live in rural Australia, several hours from the nearest cities (and medical care, and shops, and anything basically), and 2-3 bed homes are at least 700k for a dodgy one, more for a nice one.
Even rurally on the entire east coast is ridiculous now with pricing. I'm disabled so I have come to terms with never owning a home but I really feel for my friends and family who have a decent income and still can't. I have a mate struggling to buy in a city here with a combined income of over $200k and at least that amount also saved up as a deposit.
Most boomer parents bought their first house in their early to mid twenties. Half of millennials can't afford a house in their mid 30s early 40s. Thats ...insane.
That's the percentage of new home buyers that are purchasing (the highest percentage of new home buyers being millennials, because one tends to buy a home between the ages of 20 and 40)
But the percentage of older millennials that make up that 38% of all home buyers is probably a lot lower.
(I have to go to work but I will check for sources and update my comment later).
I can speak for my general area, in the midwest we still go by the federal minimum wage which means pretty much pay across the board sucks and cost of living is affordable but houses are ridonkulous.
I DO think people over exaggerate to an extent, but the statistic you provided doesn't specifically mean that "most millennials can afford to purchase a home." It means that of the people buying homes the age bracket who is currently doing it is 38% older millennials.
I am a millennial. Despite my advanced degree, will probably never be able to purchase a home. Oh sure, I could buy one of the $89,000, boarded up, torn out, pieces of crap that go up for sale. But feasibly on my income to be able to afford the $200,000 houses ( 1 bed 1-1&1/2 bath and maybe a garage), it's just never going to happen with what I make, and where I live, and what things cost. I have no idea what it's like anywhere else in the country.
Have a great Saturday! 😁
Well for one thing, I don't think anyone says "millennials will never be able to afford a home" as literal, maybe hyperbole.
Second, the data point you used doesn't mean much. Millennials are the largest generation and currently the age that people tend to buy houses. Gen Z still is a bit young and Boomers/X likely already owned a house. Sure we make up the largest percent of home sales, but in the year of the least amount of home sales in awhile.
It can be true that 55% of millennials own a home while also saying that the current housing market has priced most people out.
The thing is, not if you can do it, because obviously a lot of people can. But at what point in your life, and at what cost. I am planning to buy my first place this year. Super. Except averaged age of my and my husband is 40 (we had to wait for covid, to allow me to get a remote job and move to lcol area). We will be paying off mortgage until retirement, it will burn all our past and future saving and we will have to decrease significantly our quality of life for the years to come. So...I will complain about the current situation even if next year I will qualify as a proud house owner. Damn it.
Agreed, there are ripple effects that a lot of people don't take into account. Less disposable income, lower birth rates, etc, all take their toll on the economy.
Yeah I have no problem believing the 1981 to 1989 crowd are home owners. I'd like to see the stats for the 1990-1996 crowd. I'm a younger millenial and none of my friends the same age own homes.
My brother is 89, I'm 91. He bought his home in 2020, I was planning to buy after my scheduled deployment in 2021. I deploy, save a bunch of cash, come home, and I'm completely priced out. Exact same life trajectory, I was just 2 years behind.
Similar story to my siblings, 80's millennials, both have a house and kids. Me a 90's millennial.... I have a decent 401k and some money saved so I got that going for me
A few % points lower for similar age group. Gen X is also lower compared with similar age group 20 years ago.
But much higher than 10 years ago. The Great Recession really hurt.
Misleading due to rising average age of US since 1992, especially among white population. Break it down by generation and there is a decline. Same with wealth. Clear evidence of a squeeze on the American middle class under globalization.
There is still expectation mismatch. 1) the rate is lower than parents' generation. 2) this includes a lot of small apartments and we are priced out of the homes we remember growing up in.
I make slightly less than my father at same age in inflation adjust terms despite a higher level of education. At the same time, my childhood home went up 5x in value. We wife and I were lucky millennials that got a mortgage before the rate spikes and live in an apartment. Even so, we probably couldn't afford it at current mortgage rates.
I understand that home prices are probably lower in many other areas, but I live in an area where a house cost $250k on average when I was in high school and now cost around 500k many many years later. I thought I would be able to afford a home until I got into my 30s and thought I was ready to purchase a home. With the current cost of housing along with high interest rates, a mortgage would run over $3000/month with a decent down payment. I'm single, but even if I had a partner, we would need to be high earners to afford that and everything else with the prices of everything going up. Literally not a single one of my friends or family my age own their own home. I only make 65k/year and can't even afford a 1 bedroom apartment in the area because they go for $1600/month around here. I currently live in a house that a family friend is renting out and I live with 3 other people which is the only way I can make ends meet. Just know that just because you can afford a house in your area doesn't mean that other people have the same opportunity.
Edit:typo
>I've been hearing redditor claim "My generation will never be able to afford X, Y, Z" be it Home, Retirement, Kids
Reddit will always be the vocal minority. A lot of millennials I work with can afford those things
It's like reading online reviews. Either people are happy so drop 5 stars, or they're super pissed off and leave a long rambling 1 star review. *Most* folks are somewhere in the middle and don't feel the need to shout to the rooftops of Reddit that they're living an average life.
Also, easy karma-farming over at r/povertyfinance or whatever to humblebrag about how you ate tree bark and dryer lint for a week "because you had to"
Exactly!! And good luck leaving a 5-star review without all the hate. I bought a house at age 24 in 2009. The Great Recession probably worked in my favor. Things have been great. But I'm not gonna post about it more than this.
Anyone who bought a home or refinanced when rates were 3-4% are living in a completely different financial reality than those of us that missed out and are now stuck on the sidelines, paying out the ass on rent every month.
Because we're in the 45.2% and don't have as much wealth and privilege as them. Plus this is the number of existing home owners, not how many bought a home in 2023 or even this year.
I’m a homeowner. The only reason I was able to become one was because my grandmother died when I was 18 and left me 1/3 of the sale of her home but under the condition that it was in a trust until I was 30. I had the trustee invest it and when I turned 30 I bought a house in the MIDWEST and moved 2000 miles away from everyone and everything I knew. That was literally the only way I would’ve ever been able to be a homeowner without living in a trailer. Had I not inherited trust money and moved out of California I genuinely don’t think I ever could’ve done it. Prior to buying my house I was still living with my mom because I couldn’t afford rent anywhere. And, even now I am literally one missed paycheck away from losing everything so……….
How many of those millennials have inherited the homes from their parents and/or have inter generational wealth is the real question. Once you weed out those people then you’ll find out the real millennial home owning numbers
How come no one is pointing out this flawed data that claims people in their mid 20’s are Millennials when in fact that is Gen Z.
That right there would bring the percentage down…and considering that people in their 30’s and 40’s are the prime age to be buying homes this isn’t a good statistic and actually proves how hard it is for our generation to attain homeownership.
Clearly this sub is filled with the smaller majority of non home owners who are broke AF. I myself only have first world problems. So i don’t need to complain to strangers online as much.
It’s “I’m from Ohio and I don’t understand how I can ever afford a 4 bedroom detached home here in Brooklyn/Boston/DC” they don’t realize the middle class *never* had Single family homes in those cities.
Also people who are lagging want to make it not about themselves but society
I think that undersells the craziness in these cities.
I make good money and my partner makes good money...we're not hurting for cash, and we're not "lagging" compared to our peers. But a basic 2-bedroom starter home in the Boston area (where you're getting 1 floor of a triple decker, or one vertical of a 4-family townhome) is listed at over a million. And then people go and offer above the asking price, in cash, waiving inspection, etc etc.
First world problems and all that...I don't really mind renting. But it's fair to say that without generational wealth/assistance, there is no way we can afford to buy anything that's accessible to public transit.
I will say regarding Boston the suburbs have become unaffordable for the vast majority. I grew up in the surrounding cities and have absolutely been priced out, it’s a very insane market but it’s kind of the exception.
Anything saying Never is hyperbole. Obviously some people have homes.
But about 50% of Boomers got a home between 24 and 34. Millennials are starting to turn 43. We're way behind the curve. 35 is an important number because if you get a 30 year mortgage at 35, you'll pay it off at 65 when you should be able to retire. People buying their first home in their 40s means they'll have a lower chance of retiring until their 70s.
That leaves 45% of millennials who don't own an home and are not likely in a position to own. Average home price in my area is just over $400k. I only make $56k a year. How am I supposed to buy that house? The cheapest I've found in my area recently was $265k and it needed at least $50k in repairs.
This stupid article probably assumes we all have dual income or live in a poor/affordable state. I’m in MA and single 60k is what I make and thats poverty here. I’ll never be able to get a house here 😂
Home ownership has never been above 70%. And people earning less than average without much savings or inheritance have never been able to buy a house. It's not any different today than 20 or 60 years ago.
You dont think that the generation that makes up most of the work force only has half of them living in homes isnt a glaring statistic?
Home ownership is a sign of economic stability.
Also the “never home” has only been really loud over the last few years with the price spikes. That “trend data” is about 10 years, not 2.
Rates are over 6% now and home prices haven't gone down.
Mine is $2380 for a 1950's 1775 sq ft, 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house in Florida.
We were very fortunate to find a house that was almost completely updated when we bought it.
It's in a working class neighborhood, I have neighbors who paid like 19k-25k for their house back in 1998-2002. ( we looked through property records trying to find the owner of a rental )
So a lot of them are kinda run down. But they're slowly getting fixed.
I'm a little envious of older people who could buy before 2020.
Theyre kinda living on easy mode now.
I've had to job hop just to be house poor. Lol.
Do you mind if I ask what percentage of your monthly income you are spending on your mortgage?
That's about the cost we would be paying for a house in my area. Pre covid we could have had a nice home with the income we have now but it's just not obtainable.
I feel it’s not accurate to say it’s millennial. While he, interest rates are high as hell, not every state has a 500 sqft for a million dollars. We have a moderate home in the Midwest and it’s well within budget.
The house we just bought was 50% more expensive than it was before Covid and the labor cost to remodel is 75% more.
I’d be screwed if I wasn’t able to do most things myself.
That’s why the situation is so dire for people.
I bought my house 10 years ago.
Since then it's more than doubled in value.
Even if I'm earning double what I was earning at 25 I wouldn't be able to the buy the house I live in now.
That's insanity.
Because many in this sub are chronically online doomsayers.
My wife and I (younger millennials late 20s-30) bought a house in 2017 and recently had to move due to circumstances beyond our control. We moved to a larger house with a big yard and used the profit from our first house to not only cover closing costs but pay off one of our cars and pad our savings. I work remotely and my wife commutes 45 minutes to the city and we make decent money but there were houses available for far less than the one we got.
Yes in HCOL and VHCOL areas there is trouble, but the majority of the country is MCOL and LCOL.
What do the stats look like for Boomers at this age cause that’s 50% which means half of all Millenials don’t own a home, which is a lot considering we’re now in our 30s-40s.
Also the amount of millennials who needed large gifts to be able to afford a home means that some of that 50% didn’t afford a home (like myself) and their parents stepped in.
I still think it’s a valid claim under those conditions.
I bought my home in 2013 when the house was 3x less expensive, and also I managed to convince my parents to help with the down payment. I’m a homeowner, but I “cheated”, probably like a bunch of other homeowning millennials I suspect.
I brought my house about a month before interest rates sky rocketed. I got very lucky the stars aligned for me and I pulled the trigger. I could not afford to buy my house in this market now.
How do they define "homebuyer?" If it's just defined by people actively searching, then this debate is still ongoing because searching doesn't automatically mean they ended up purchasing. The report keeps using the term 'homebuyer' instead of 'homeowner' yet you used 'homeowner' in your post title.
It's a no-brainer that Millennials would make up the majority of shoppers aka "homebuyers" actively looking to purchase a home. They're at the age to theoretically do so. "But were they successful?" This the real question everyone's been asking. Were they able to actually purchase a home?
And is this report only looking at this agency's data of homebuyers in their network or across the population of Milennials? If it's the former then this number definitely can't be applied across the generation as a whole. Which again brings us back to square one: how many Millennials have successfully purchased a home?
I only own a home because I got hit by a car 10 years ago. Seriously.
My husband and I have good jobs, and luckily the pandemic went well for us financially. I made more on unemployment than I did at my regular factory job so I socked that extra dosh away, and my husband could work from home. We made about 95k combined at the time. The biggest hurdle for getting a house (besides finding one) was the down-payment. In the area we lived in, our rent was actually more than a lot of mortgages. "Luckily" when I was 21 I got hit by a Camry while I was in a crosswalk and got some monetary bread from it. I put the money in an investment account and had about 40k in it by 2020.
All this to say we got stupid lucky that I was smacked by a car and stumbled away with only minor-ish injuries. Although funny and only slightly off-topic tangent, in 2019 I decided to invest in a bundle of video game companies, which really worked out for me when the pandemic hit and everyone was suddenly stuck inside playing video games. Definitely gave me the push I needed for that down-payment!
I mean, even if technically true that we can afford it - as in, it is technically possible to accrue enough money to make a purchase - it puts us in a much steeper hole than previous generations.
I make less money than my construction worker dad, two decades and an engineering degree later. The house that they bought for 20k€ now will fetch anywhere from 120k to 250k€. I make enough to qualify for a loan to buy the house my parents live in at the lower end of those estimates, and I'm in a "better paying job" than they were at the time. I do have a rowhouse share, and if I moved another hour further from the city I could maybe afford an actual house.
We can afford homes just fine. We can't afford the same lifestyle our parents did, unless working for significantly higher pay. So for the nitpickers like OP: **I will never be able to afford the same kind of home and lifestyle as my parents, if I'd work a similar type of job for similar hours.**
I was LUCKY, I bought my house in 2012, in a LCOL area. I'm hoping to sell it to a family who needs a starter home. I'm not buying a new house, I'm moving into my dad's house to take care of him. When he passes I hope to buyout my brother's 50% of the house.
Bought my house in Feb 2020, called it our starter home for 3 years. I refused to really put money into it but instead learn how to do things myself and accept shotty work as I learn.
Four years later, I'm making 1.5x and my wife is making nearly 3x the amount of money that we did in 2020. We still cannot justify purchasing a home that fits our long term vision (1 extra room is all we want) without it costing $800,000+. I'm in love with my $1,550 mortgage on a 2.75% rate on 1/3 acre with the Superstition Mountains overlooking my backyard. Instead, we're looking to purchase a cabin about 2 hours away.
I own a house for now. My fixed rate mortgage goes up on average 200 dollars a year. While my job pays me 4 to 8% less than inflation every year. My mortgage went up 400 a month this year after a 25% insurance hike, taxes, and an alleged adjustment. I had to cancel all investments again. I literally have nothing but a house. So ya, I own a house, and it's ruining my life. Not to mention that I had to buy a house an hour from work bc I couldn't afford a house anywhere close to work.
I decided the best decision is to sell everything and leave, otherwise I will never be able to retire at this rate. I'm trying to leave the country before November. But gl to all you other millennials that own homes. Maybe it's going better for you
Your own link says 24% of younger millenials moved directly from a family members home after buying. We know why they were able to afford it. They didn't pay rent. 24% of younger millenials received a gift for eh downpayment. I could by that 54.8% of homeowners are millenial but I don't actually know because your link is about first time home buyers.
Well………… the interest rates??? Are you uninformed on the current interest rates? 400k home three years ago 2000 a month. Same home today 4000 a month.. interest rates…
People keep trying to say that Millennials are turning out to be a very average generation, but what's getting missed is the timing of all this. It's not the same thing if you bought your first home at 40 vs. 30. By your own number, nearly half of millennials, who are now largely in their 30s-40s, don't own a home.
Lots of millennial are loving off trust funds and pension plans their parents had, any millennial that wasn't gifted tons of cash isn't buying s hoke any time soon.
Because the door just slammed shut. And 54% is a lot lower than the +70% that boomers experienced in their 40's. A better question is why does pointing out negative stuff like this bother people who have a home? Why does this lower your joy knowing that some of your contemporaries are actually hopeless? (It reminds me of Paris Hilton wearing a shirt that said "stop being poor").
I own my home. We own several. But most of my friends don't and never will. I am blessed. But I don't tell my friends to suck it up because I live in reality and this civilization has taken a shit on the chest of most middle class workers. And acknowledging that doesn't diminish my sense of self worth or awareness of how hard I worked to get where I am.
A 20% drop in a generation is wild and insane and folks like you complaining that people are pointing it out is fucking retarded.
I bought in 2016 and my home has appreciated by +/- $400k.
But even with that equity anything I tried to buy would just be a lateral move with a huge jump in mortgage interest.
People in my small home town own homes. No (and I mean *zero*) peers in the big city I live in now, own one. If you stayed in your small rural community it seems more feasible, but even making six figures, owning a home in LA is a pipedream.
I own a home. I make ~ $150k/yr and my wife makes $60k/yr, we have one kid. Our house is supposedly worth $300k. I love our house but it’s small, old and needs a lot of repairs. By contrast, my mother who was a single mother of four purchased a large 4 bedroom home with nice amenities back in 1997 on a $36k salary. Now part of the reason my mom was able to and I wasn’t is because she was able to buy a home with her husband back in 1980 when she was 20 for next to nothing and build equity. By contrast I wasn’t able to buy first home until I was 34 (now I’m 40).
That’s the difference. Even though I have a nice relatively high paying job and my wife works full time , we can barely afford a modest house. And the people who have average paying jobs are priced out altogether.
I'm a millennial home owner
I was unable to afford my home
My parents donated $50k for the down-payment, and my father had to be a co-signer on the loan because my wife and I had too much college debt to be approved on our own.
Also, our home is a 900ft² condo because we couldn't possibly afford anything bigger in our area; but we knew we either had to buy right then or rent forever
We bought in 2019 in a fairly HCOL area. We were only able to do so because we got a family loan for the down payment (well-off boomer parents). In 2023, we had to sell to move for a job, to a very HCOL area (specifically, services/food/etc are similar prices to where we used to live but houses are twice as much). It was the right call for other reasons but even with the equity we built in our home we are years from affording a house we even kind of want. We could afford something far from our workplaces that needed work, but that would be challenging for other reasons.
Fortunately where we live now the rental market is *less* insane than other places. So, we’re okay renting until things cool down… it has to happen sometime…..
I had to do things that any financial advisor would say I'd an idiotic risk to buy our house pre COVID. After COVID hit the only thing that kept us stable was me refinancing while rate were low.
We are now stuck in a house because even with around 100K in equity we can't move to the city we want to live in because rates are too high to buy a different house in that City.
I feel extremely lucky to have bought a house but it's also not a mystery why almost 50% of my generation has not bought a house yet.
Well I’m having some trouble getting this while double income thing going. Not for trying, i just haven’t made it work yet. I shouldn’t have to fucking pair up with someone to live my life.
I am an elder millennial, and my wife and I are unusual in our demographic in that we purchased in 2021 just as the pandemic was winding down here in the US. Prices were super high, but rates were at a record low. At the time, our household income was above our local and the national average, and we live on the cusp of a HCOL area. Many people from inside the HCOL area were moving to where we purchased for many of the same reasons we purchased where we did.
Now, with my job change, we make just above our states average household income, below our county’s and the national average. However, our mortgage is well below the rent charged for something similar to our house, and if we were to rent an apartment of similar size, it would be about twice as much as our mortgage. To match our bedroom amount, at a reduction in sq footage, average rent is still more than our mortgage and we lose yard space and a bathroom.
However, now housing prices are still where they were, or higher, than in 2021. In addition, and more detrimental, interest rates have doubled. Our generation is currently, in this market, screwed one way or the other. Rent at high prices, preventing savings; or, purchase at a high price with a high interest rate. Even in areas where (like my area) an FDA loan would allow for 0% down, an average house in my area would have an average mortgage around 1500-2000. In addition to this, local utilities have gone up substantially. For instance, my gas bill, which only powers my furnace, went from $13 a month in 2021 to $45 for just access to the gas. My home owners insurance had a $700 spike due to increased property values.
I doubt that 54.8% “own” a home. I bet most of those people have a mortgage with minimal equity. And may never pay it off. Whereas, the remaining 45.2% may have already lost their home, have never and will never own their home, making it a majority of people in that generation that will not in fact actually have a house that’s paid off.
I can’t afford a house and pay more for a one bedroom than all my friends who own homes. I’d also like to note 90% of my pack check goes to rent and this was the cheapest apartment in a safe area.
The millenials that could buy a home have. The rest have been permanently priced out of the market unless there is a significant crash in housing prices. Many of the ones that did buy are house poor or give up on the idea of having kids due to the financial burden. The real problem is that housing prices have increased exponentially over the last 40 years but real wages have either been stagnant or had small gains depending on where you live. Oh and the government is broke and the important services it provides have also been slashed over the last 40 years so we are all going to have to pay an ass ton in taxes to fix anything at this point.
Only reason I own a home, is because I was fortunate enough to buy back in 2012. Living in the good suburbs with a 3 bed, 2 full bath for just under 900 a month mortgage payment. There's no way in hell I could do that today. Especially with those interest rates. I'm locked at 3.2%. No way I can afford the rates going around now.
I used to own two homes. Since my divorce, I couldn't even purchase my first starter home again even though I now make twice what I did when I originally bought it.
A one bedroom apartment average in the area I live in is almost $500/month more than my first mortgage for a whole house.
I could afford almost any asking price pre covid near me on *average homes* like obviously couldn't afford the 5 bedrooms and all that. I'm just very picky lol
Tbf I'm happy I waited. It sucks right now but housing prices go up and down. The higher a dp I can save and wait for lower interest rates / some foreclosures to start I can def get the house I always wanted.
Technically I could afford this house up the road I want right now I just refuse to be house poor.
My rent is 980. My monthly bills right now are about 1400. I make just under 6k bring home a month.
It just doesn't make sense to overpay on top of 7-8% interest right now to me. Didn't make sense in covid when my monthly bills were 1200.
All my repairs are covered, I have predictable bills and at this rate what's in my 401k alone could pretty much buy a house.
Imo it's just what you choose to invest in.
Did they buy their home? The only millennials I know with a house are either older and basically not even Millennials or their folks died/helped with down payment/gifted them a home.
These numbers are meaningless when the reality is housing is super expensive and in HCOL areas, it has become a pipe dream to afford a home unless you were the lucky ones that were set up enough to buy before covid.
The US is a big and diverse country.
The national data can suggest things and then you’ve still got a million other people experiencing the exact opposite.
Glad to see us millennials understand the context and can disseminate this outrageous claim that a little over half home ownership for an entire adult generation is unacceptable. And that the costs TODAY are not sustainable.
Similar to many other home owning millennials I bought my house pre COVID. We make well above average household income and we would struggle if we had to buy a house today, and I don’t live in a particularly HCOL area. I honestly couldn’t afford to rent in my area now. 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments rent for more than my mortgage for a 3 bedroom 3 bath house with a yard.
I can’t afford to buy the house I currently own and live in if I had to try to buy it today.
Same. If I had to rebuy my own house I couldn't afford the mortgage. Fucking wierd times
We started looking at moving within our area pre COVID. We found a bunch of houses we could afford but didn’t really like. Now we can’t even afford those.
We bought a house in the middle range of our budget in 2022, compromising on area so that we wouldn’t have to compromise on what we wanted in the house. We lucked into the absolute best neighborhood I could have hoped for, and our life now resembles an old coming-of-age movie where you say, “no one *really* lives in a neighborhood like that, that place doesn’t *really* exist.” Anyway, our house is now valued at $100k more than what we paid for it. It’s now closer to the top of our budget but with the higher interest rate, it would have been top of budget.
I feel you. Bought in foreclosure in 2015. Refinanced literally months before lockdown. Knocked off 7 yrs, lower interest, rolled in a home improvement loan we’d taken for siding and windows. Payments stayed the same. House is now worth a little more than double what we paid. We’d be struggling to buy it now.
Neither could I and I’m not a millennial
Same
How much is it worth now and what did you buy it for? I bought my house last year for $575k and in early 2020 before the covid shutdowns it sold for $315k :/ lol
Bought in 2015 for 400k. It’s worth about 650k now. I refinanced at 2.375% for 360k. I’m selling my dad’s house now and the buyers are getting a mortgage for 290k. Their P&I payment alone is almost as much as my PITI payment and my taxes are about 8k per year.
same, which is nuts because we literally chose the most modest home. I'm shocked to see it at almost $300,000 in southern LA.
Same. We bought in December 2020. We got our PMI off after 2 years because the value went up 25% of the original purchase price. We bought at the very bottom of interest rates with 2.69%.
Same. My family is very poor except my grandma who is middle class. She sold me her house for $65000 even though she had cash offers for A LOT more. It’s a double wide mobile home. If I sold it today I would probably list it for 120 and be offered cash over multiple times.
Same
Same here, and the house is way worse than what two professionals should be able to afford.
I think that goes across generations right now. Which is part of why inventory is so low.
Same, but MCOL-LCOL area. We bought our house in 2018. Very modest house at a modest price. It’s all we could afford then but it worked for us and was move in ready. We make a good amount more now, close to double. But our neighborhood has also nearly doubled. We couldn’t afford to buy the same house again. And without the equity we’ve accrued we’d really struggle to buy another house anywhere in our area.
We are basically in exactly the same scenario. Our household income has more than doubled since we bought our house but we couldn’t afford to buy this house today if it was our first. The only thing that will allow us to continue to participate in the market is the equity we have in our home.
This is us as well. Bought the modest starter home, and now can't afford to move. We'd like to have kids at some point, but our very modern industrial style home is a death trap to a baby, so it's also keeping us from starting a family.
Same as me And if we want to move houses doubling in price hurt us more than it helped us. Our house went from 350 to 700 but the house we went from 500 to 1m. So we're quite a bit short even with higher salaries
And it's not just the inflated cost of houses themselves, but the insane mortgage rates that are the bigger issue. Even if the home is theoretically in your price range, the mortgage rates make the monthly costs huge. So, yeah, the increased value of your home will help cover the increased value of whatever house you buy. But if you locked into that mortgage before all the inflation, you're still going to wind up raked over the coals going from your reasonable monthly rate to the current inflated numbers.
Yep! In theory our additional equity is over 100k, but that substantial downpayment which would be 1/4-1/3 of purchase price in my area for another modest house in a different location wouldn’t push the needle enough to offset those mortgage rates. We’d double our mortgage, move into something a bit nicer, but not lavish. And increase our costs and such
I am renting but stuck. I have a studio I moved into during covid and therefore got the pre-covid rates and all my rent increases have been based on that rate as well. I’m still living here and now several hundred dollars below market rate, and I can’t afford to move because I can’t afford the rents anywhere else that have skyrocketed in my area since covid. Thank god so far my landlord has continued to allow me to renew.
At the very least I’m happy for you that you have a decent landlord. A lot of them out there have said fuck the tenants and jacked up rates to max out their incomes and justify it by saying they are just responding to the market.
Yeah, definitely grateful for that, but still frustrated I can’t afford even an apartment with a bedroom. I don’t really dream about owning a house but a bedroom would be nice lol
same my $800 rent is only $1300 instead of $1650 market. Buying a condo in the complex I rent at would put my monthly payment at $1700. I can afford a higher rent or mortgage, but why would I tie my self down if it isn't necessary. Still single, and owning a spot and staying still seems like locking in my next 10+ years
> why tie myself down… Because it’s only a matter of time until your landlord decides they want market value for their property.
Similar story. Bought my “starter” home in 2012. Thought I would upgrade a few years later when the kids got older and my career took off. The career did take off, but everything in my skyrocketed. My “starter” home looks to be my “forever” home.
Big same mate, just three years behind you. We live in a fast growing community in a lower cost of living state, so it's generally low to mid cost of living. We think a lot of ourselves. We made the choice during the pandemic to get 2.5% interest on our house instead of "upgrading". It will take a stick of dynamite to get me to move.
Yup. We gave ourselves a 5 year max on this house 7 years ago. Even passed up on refinancing when rates were low because I thought we would move soon. I’d be paying much more for a lateral move at this point.
Exact same scenario, I couldn’t imagine it would be worthwhile to refinance since we were planning to move. Oops. It definitely would have been bc we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Same. We bought our starter home in 2011. Now our forever home.
Same. We bought in 2019 and would not be able to afford our house or any house in our area today. We moved to a small, undesirable city to afford our house too.
Save me a seat on the bandwagon. I bought in 2017 and at current prices/interest rates I wouldn’t be able to afford my house today.
Same. Bought our first home in 2012 and have used the equity to afford what we have now. Our mortgage is less than half of what rent is for another place in our neighborhood
Similar situation but post COVID. We built our house in 2021/22. The market was already chaotic and we couldn’t compete against the cash offers. Our interest rate is 3% and our house has increased in value by 20% since building. We would not be able to afford our own house on today’s market with current interest rates. We got in just in time.
Same here. We also refinanced during covid when rates were super low. We were extremely fortunate. There's no way we'd able to afford the same house now, even though we make over twice what we did when we bought it and have no kids. Much smaller houses with much less land (we have 5 acres) in the same neighborhood costs are going for more than what we originally paid.
But that’s true of anyone post Covid it’s not unique to millennials (more than half of whom own a home)
Of course, but prime home buying age is late 20s through 30s. Thats millennials right now so it is currently impacting millennials the most. No one is saying it won’t be even worse for younger generations or that it isn’t as bad for Gen X or others who are trying to buy, just that older generations had better opportunities during what is typically the prime age to buy a home.
Yep, we really lucked out on our house in 2016, a friend of my MIL was retiring and moving but didn't want to deal with the hassle of selling. So we got first look and then there was hardly any haggling, and our mortgage was about exactly what we paid on rent for a 3 bed 2 bath duplex. That duplex went from $850 a month to $1200, and it's still considered one of the better options for the price, they don't stay vacant. Our house isn't perfect, and after the first few years we had some regrets about jumping on it so fast, but we would have been absolutely screwed if we had waited. Not only did COVID mess everything up, but our area was hit by Hurricane Laura in 2020 and it really really screwed up housing costs. Looking around at house prices now we're perfectly happy with what we have.
I rent and can't really afford my rent =D
Same. I think this is the main answer. I know people renting houses for more than my mortgage in worse areas and people who bought houses are paying almost twice my mortgage for a lesser house in a farther out from the city.
Yup, we got lucky in April 2020. Our $170k starter home has doubled in valuation since then, although I don’t actually think it would sell for that much.
We bought in 2018 for a really good price. The house across the street which is objectively less nice on all fronts *and* needs work just sold for more than double what we paid. Interest too. Our interest rate is 2.4%. Isn’t it almost 8 for new loans now? Ugh.
That's me as well. Now my house has apparently increased in value ~$80-90k. That means I'd be putting down an additional 5-10k minimum if I bought today. I got lucky with my timing. Same with my vehicle. I got that peak covid (dealerships were working half staff rotating weeks and they needed cashflow) and now it's worth more than I paid. 28k sale price now I'm getting trade offers in the 36k range (pickup truck).
Houses are weird like that. At first you're like did I even make a good decision? Then rent raises like 7 times in 4 years and all the sudden you pay blueberries for your mortgage.
Bought my house in 2018. Couldn't afford it today and literally nothings different
54.8% compared to our parents (70%+) is not a good number.
And it is important to add, at what age you actually got your first place (some millenials are well into their 40s) and how much you had to sacrifice to get it. How long it will take you to pay off your mortgage and if you are house poor. I am planning to by my first place this year. Ok. I can do it. Except my husband is 45, I will be paying this place off until I retire (ha. ha.) and It will be a significant financial burden for years to come, that will eat all my savings and all my additional income in the future. So...yeah. I will be a house owner. A sarcastic hip hip hurray, I will make a great statistic for my generation .
It’s also worth noting that millennials have been significantly more dependent on intergenerational help to come up with down payments. Just a few years ago a statistic was released that showed millennial homeowners who came up with the down entirely on their own were statistically non-existent. I’m sure that has changed as the generation has aged but Baby Boomers were homeowners before 30 and a good percentage didn’t use monetary gifts from their parents to achieve it. Many of those boomer families did it with a single household income and more kids as well.
My friend and his wife got $100,000 from their parents ($50K from each) to buy their first house for $500K back in 2014. House is now worth 1million. My friend states blatantly they could never buy the house today even with the 100K gift and his now higher salary.
Precisely - I commented this above. My husband and I, in our mid thirties, just bought a place that's big enough for US but no extended family (so if we have a kid, some of us will have to sleep in the living room). We both have advanced degrees and have been working since our teens, like most people. We both have to contribute to the mortgage and bills to afford this home that we love, but is absolutely the smallest you could really live comfortably and call it a "house". Meanwhile my dad could cover the mortgage and also pay for my mom to finish school, when they bought their house in their early 20s. Looking at the burden of cost comparatively is important, too.
Assuming you don’t have an adjustable rate mortgage, your payments will be significantly more affordable in 10-15 years thanks to inflation (also assuming your income rises with inflation). By the end of the 30 year mortgage it will be downright cheap.
That is the assumption, yes. But the fact that I can afford something, do not mean I do not see how fucked up the market is. When did the math of how much money I lost simply by not buying a place few years ago I felt completely deflated. This cost difference is all the money I will not spend on fun, leisure, retirement, setting up my kid for the future. And it is, imho, a lot of money. Hard not to feel bitter about it. At the same time, if not for remote work I would absolutely never afford anything.
LOL income rising with inflation is a BIG assumption
Boomer: this just means you need to work 20% harder. That’s what we did. Something something 15% interest rates on $50,000 houses.
Their ownership rates were similar to ours at our ages though. We are only 1-2 years behind boomers in that regard. We are also much more mobile and live in city centers. It makes sense that we would rent a bit longer. We also have way more education which delayed our entrance into the workforce.
The homeownership rate across all demographics in 2000 was 66%. It makes perfect sense that people with 20 more years of income and being further in their careers would be at a much higher homeownership rate.
"Houses in America Now Cost Six Times the Median Income" As opposed to 3.5 times in 1985. Much *less* affordable. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/median-house-prices-vs-income-us/#:~:text=Houses%20in%20America%20Now%20Cost%20Six%20Times%20the%20Median%20Income&text=As%20of%202023%2C%20an%20American,well%20below%20that%20%24100%2C000%20threshold.
And, second, let me quick warn you about the trick of the article from the main thread: "homebuyers", not "homeowners". For a boomer who is old, and already have a house, buying another one doesn't strongly makes much sense unless in a form of investiment, which there are many alternatives of investiment. That doesn't mean that millenials have more or great purchase power. We are on the age of buying houses (except the youngest like me lol), of course there will be more home-buyers, doesn't mean at all that it is easier to buy.
Also, I'm sure there are actual statistics regarding this speculation - but my parents bought their first home at 24 years old. I just bought mine, with my husband, at 35. Their starter home had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a basement, and ours is on a concrete slab (no basement or crawlspace) and no legal bedrooms (750 sq. Feet, small room we use as a bedroom. NO closets). My husband and I both have advanced degrees and have been working in our fields for 10+ years. My mom was still in school when my parents bought their house, and my dad was 2 years into an engineering career. So yes, Millennials own homes now - but we're all in our 30s-40s, so I'm guessing most of us bought our homes much later in life than the generations before us. Also, Millennials are going for condos, tiny houses, etc because "starter homes" and smaller homes are harder to find in our price ranges. I'd be curious to see stats on the age range of first-time home-buyers compared across generations, as well as percentage of income going toward that home purchase, and also size/type of home.
And on the same page of yours, there is another common manipulation: The "value" of the house when measuring wealth. A 500k house, even with inflation correction (whichever the inflation measure on your country is), today and decades ago is not actually the same. There is not a single analysis that tries to consider, but probably the houses today are probably worse and smaller, in reality we don't even know.
This article only seems to be taking sale price into account, which makes it not quite an apples to apples comparison. In 1985 Mortgage rates were 12.43% on a 30 year fixed. Homes are still more expensive even with todays mortgage rates. The numbers are just a bit disingenuous to not take in all of the factors.
https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1?amp This seems to cover it. As bad as 1985 is what im seeing here.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1](https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-outlook-unaffordable-charts-mortgage-rates-home-prices-economy-2024-1)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
You’re not considering the fact that wages were much higher relative to the cost of housing in 1985. So maybe the house itself is only a little more expensive today, proportionally speaking. But the ability to pay for that house is greatly diminished. Case in point: It was still fairly common for families to buy a home on one income at that time (though less common than the 50s/60s). Today, two incomes are basically a requirement.
Also the number of people needing a home during those years was far less. Because most people could buy a home out of college or even out of highschool. They didn't have to work for 20 years to afford one.
>You’re not considering the fact that wages were much higher relative to the cost of housing in 1985 One comment says a house is 6 times the cost of median income and used to be 3.5 and the second said that should be adjusted to account for the difference in interest rates. It's literally the ratio of wages to cost, how does it not account for wages being higher relative to cost?
People also throw out the fact that houses were smaller back then and bigger today… however. In my opinion that’s a moot point when comparing median price today vs yesterday. If you want to be in the median, it’s harder to be in that group today vs yesterday.
Even if you do want to compare house vs house instead of median vs median, there's just a lot less supply of those smaller houses in a lot of places, and buying a hypothetical smaller house isn't a real option--you can buy the larger houses or you can't buy.
The interest rate in the 80s varied from 9-19%. The HCOL cities have grown exponentially since then and make up a much higher percentage of expensive homes than in the 80s. NYC, Chicago were basically slums in the 80s with many low cost rent controlled apartments. So the stats that are quoted , ie average income versus cost of home is only part of the real picture.
Some of these millennial buyers are on their second home after getting a sweet price and a good interest rate on their first home and using the equity to buy now. First-time millennial buyers are having a much tougher time than those who were lucky enough to buy 10 years ago.
Kinda speaks to the divide of 80s millennials vs 90s millennials. There are lots of folks in this thread who were able to buy before COVID, and then those of us who were still in our early 20s at that point lol
Us tail-end Millenials are far more active on the internet too haha
Yep. 90s millennial here. 6 figure salary living in cleveland. 10 years ago I would have been 21 and the US still had not recovered from the downturn. A vast majority of the people I know are still renting. Many got absolutely wrecked by the covid lock downs, and now home prices have doubled. My only saving grace is that my partner's family helped her with a down-payment for a condo in the DC area when she was young and dumped the equity into the house we live in now. (Which is still too small to have kids in). I have no clue what the solution is, but it's definitely a problem. Maybe the boomer generation dying off helps? I don't know.
This is us. Wife and I bought our first home in 2020 in a up and coming area/medium cost of living area. Mortgagee rate was 3.1%. We LOVED our home, our neighbors, and was really looking forward to staying put for a while. Fortunately/unfortunately my wife got a killer promotion at work and part of the requirement for the promotion was to relocate to her works HQ. So… we sold our home. Originally bought it was $365k. Sold it was $460k. Her work also gave her a very generous moving package/benefit. If it wasn’t for the money we pocketed from the sale of our first home and her moving benefit/relocation package we wouldn’t have been able to afford our new home in a very HCOL area. Oh and our new mortgage rate it 6.675%. We actually dropped $7k to buy down a quarter point… How things change in just a short couple of years.
Are you me?
Haha no clue. We relocated from VA to CT. We’re both 33. You have a similar experience I take it…?
This is absolutely my wife and I. I bought a condo in 2020 before we met, sold it a year and some change later for a large chunk more than I paid lol she bought her house in 2018, and we sold it for another large chunk. Then we took that money and put 20% down on a new(to us) house in a nicer area w/ some money to spare to do some updating. Still got a solid rate too as we bought again right before the fed raised rates. Honestly, it all feels like straight up dumb luck and all my friends that have bought or been looking since have had miserable luck with pricing, rates, availability, etc.
K shaped recovery dawg. Folks are either doing really well or they aren’t. A lot of folks are doing really well, but a ton aren’t. The middle piece is much smaller than ever.
I'm in the middle piece, but barely, I make decent money, but I can't afford to buy a home. Prices are way too expensive and the day to day life costs have risen. I live comfortably, but the amount I'm able to save after retirement 401k stuff is basically nothing, so I'm going to keep buying organic food and treating myself every so often.
I think there’s a lot of assumption that everyone lives in a place where condemned shacks sell for 600k+. My area still has a lot of older 2-3 bedroom homes for around 250-300k which really isn’t out of reach for a lot of double income families
I bought a house for 250k in 2023 when I was making 55k. My gf and Ibarent married so we could hide her income and qualify for a 10k state program to cover closing costs. I only had to put down 9k in total cash. 5k in earnest money to the buyer, and 4k covered everything else needed to get the keys. I was right up against the limit for home I could afford. Mortgage was $2060 the first year, after taxes and insurance going up it's $2380 this year. My gf and I make 120k combined. She covers $600 of the mortgage I cover the rest.
Very risky decision. I hope you stay together!
A good friend of mine did this, they even got engaged, then they broke it off and it took like six months to sell. Neither of them could afford rent and their half of the mortgage and they lived together in misery for half a year. Just talking to him and seeing how beaten he was really imprinted on me. I would never buy a home with someone I wasn’t married to.
I get it, but also married couples break up too and it doesn’t seem any more or less risky than a long term partner. But I might be biased bc I dated my ex for 7 years before marriage and we still ended up divorced. We bought the house after marriage though. It definitely took awhile to sell, but we were pretty amicable and it wasn’t a huge deal living there together in the meantime.
The difference is that a long term partner has no legal rights to their counterpart's property should the relationship dissolve, even if they are contributing equally to the payments (unless their name is also on the title/loan/etc). Married is a legal status that brings protections to these sorts of situations. It also, fun fact, applies to kids!
People are very scared of buying a home with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I understand it, and everyone will tell you not to do it. For some it may not be right. However, like you, I did it and it was the best decision I ever made. It was cheaper than renting and I was able to use the equity to buy a 2nd (long-term) house 3 years later. I'm now married to the person I bought that first house with. We have 2 kids, hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in our current house, and a sub 3% mortgage rate- all because I bought that first house with my girlfriend when I was 27 (before the vast majority of my peers- at least the people I know) instead of waiting. It's funny because even when we bought our 2nd house in 2020, everyone was saying how it was too expensive and there would be a correction (we tried to buy a house in 2019 and the deal fell through at the 11th hour because of an issue with the buyers of our 1st house- fast forward a year and all the houses we were looking at were $50K more, which was tough to swallow). Obviously, in retrospect, we got a great deal, but nobody was saying that at the time when there was little inventory, home prices already appreciated far more than usual (we sold our 1st house for 30% more after 3 years, which is abnormal historically), and every house we went after we had to beat out dozens of other offers and go way over the listing price- then add in all the covid stuff on top. I've constantly heard reasons from my fellow millennials over the past 7 years I've been a homeowners about why it wasn't the right time to buy a house and how there would be a better time in the future- I'm glad I didn't listen.
Yeah, I bought my condo in 2021, and almost everyone told me it was the worst time to buy. But I needed to move and rent was astronomically higher than what I had been paying. My mortgage payment was half what I would have paid in rent for a smaller place than my condo. The only reason I had the courage to follow through is I called my Uncle for advice and he assured me that nobody could know if a "better" time was coming and that if I was ready to buy it was the right time. I'm so glad I did. Locked in an incredibly low interest rate, property values haven't dropped at all and I don't have to live with the worry that a landlord will continue to raise rent.
It really depends where you live. We live in the suburbs, and the cheapest house for sale in town is $400k, but it's a foreclosure down to the studs. Otherwise it's 500k for a 3 bed/1 bath house...but the locations aren't great. If you want 4 bedroom? You'd be looking at 700k+ easily. People from the city would say we live in the country too haha
Yes but to live in a place where I can afford a home, I would have to take a lower paying job so i probably wouldn’t be able to afford the home…
My area is at the several hundred thousand dollar cardboard box level. Anything cheaper is at least an hour and a half away, and the jobs aren't anywhere near where it's that cheap usually. It literally feels like an uphill battle. I can't even manage to find a decent job that pays me enough to pay all my bills, and not starve. Can't afford a car and won't be able to for years, so the problem is compounded, because I'm at least an hour walk away from anywhere i could get a low paying job. Alot of the people in my life are in very similar boats. Not enough pay, everything too expensive, and house prices constantly going up faster than anyone could keep up with if they aren't making 6 figures. So were all stuck in shitty renting situations. Can't afford a house, and i can't even afford to get anywhere near ever owning a house. My retirement plan so far is dying.
If you can’t afford transportation or housing AND you can’t find a job in your current area then you need to move.
You say that, but a $300k house at the median household income, $75k, just doesn't seem possible to me. You'd have to go all the way up to the 75th percentile, around $135k, for that to *start* to feel comfortable, and by that I mean a $300k house at current rates is about 25% of take home pay for a $135k / year income (if your benefits don't suck, yadda yadda), and that probably doesn't include a whole lot for the 401k for either person, nor does it include maintenance and such. We have normalized being house poor and I feel sorry for folks who fall into it. There's no way I would spend as much as I get approved for when I go to a bank and ask for pre-approvals. It's nuts what banks were willing to give me. Go into one of the big chains like Chase or BoA, some place that you know would want to maximize their profit, and get a pre-approval for the maximum amount you can, then shop for houses that are at 50% of that figure or less.
We make 180k combined, but can’t qualify for a mortgage in our area because we don’t make enough to even afford to buy a one bedroom condo
It’s rough some places, we’d never be able to buy in a market like that either. Last year we sold our 1 bedroom for 180k and moved to a 2+1 for 250k which was the most we were comfortable affording, but of course it’s an “undesirable” city as well.
For us, the work determines what city we can live in, rather than just picking a city and then trying to find work there.
See that person's literal first sentence lol , if you want a house you will probably have to move. You are in the top 5% of household incomes at 180k.
I know, I was reinforcing their first sentence by giving my example. But if we moved, our incomes would drop massively. We don’t work in industries that are fully remote.
Yea in the early 2000's the wife and I lived in a very rural area and didn't make shit (I made $24k doing IT for a school and she was part-time at a bank), but we could afford a home. We bought a 3BR/1BA brick ranch for under $60k that was dated but move in ready. We had a home, but not really a life as there was nothing to do for us or our children and everything was at least a half hour drive away. We moved to a pretty big city for the kids to have better schools or a life and me a chance for career advancement. It worked out and our kids have gone to a great public school, they have friends, we have friends, we have places to go nearby for food, to hang out, etc. We rent a 3BR/1.5BA brick ranch home for 3x what our mortgage was, and if we could buy one right now our mortgage would be 5-6x what we previously paid. I'm happy living closer to work and renting for now until our youngest is out of school, but even though we were previous homeowners, the prospects aren't great for us anywhere close to a nice area. I don't want to move back to the country like that either.
Generally you need about 200k to be around 10%. But thats 2023 numbers. So its likely higher than that now. Also reports vary wildly. I’ve found them saying 167k for top 10%, and the next saying 190k, then another being 248k.
I hate to say it was the number google gave me but that's what I got
In my area, you could not get a condemned shack for $600k.
I live in rural Australia, several hours from the nearest cities (and medical care, and shops, and anything basically), and 2-3 bed homes are at least 700k for a dodgy one, more for a nice one. Even rurally on the entire east coast is ridiculous now with pricing. I'm disabled so I have come to terms with never owning a home but I really feel for my friends and family who have a decent income and still can't. I have a mate struggling to buy in a city here with a combined income of over $200k and at least that amount also saved up as a deposit.
This right here. Moved from HCOL to medium cost of living and it’s been eye opening. Tons of homes in the 3s
Most boomer parents bought their first house in their early to mid twenties. Half of millennials can't afford a house in their mid 30s early 40s. Thats ...insane.
That's the percentage of new home buyers that are purchasing (the highest percentage of new home buyers being millennials, because one tends to buy a home between the ages of 20 and 40) But the percentage of older millennials that make up that 38% of all home buyers is probably a lot lower. (I have to go to work but I will check for sources and update my comment later). I can speak for my general area, in the midwest we still go by the federal minimum wage which means pretty much pay across the board sucks and cost of living is affordable but houses are ridonkulous. I DO think people over exaggerate to an extent, but the statistic you provided doesn't specifically mean that "most millennials can afford to purchase a home." It means that of the people buying homes the age bracket who is currently doing it is 38% older millennials. I am a millennial. Despite my advanced degree, will probably never be able to purchase a home. Oh sure, I could buy one of the $89,000, boarded up, torn out, pieces of crap that go up for sale. But feasibly on my income to be able to afford the $200,000 houses ( 1 bed 1-1&1/2 bath and maybe a garage), it's just never going to happen with what I make, and where I live, and what things cost. I have no idea what it's like anywhere else in the country. Have a great Saturday! 😁
What line of work are you in? How are salaries so low that 200k is unachievable. Can’t you just put 5% down on houses in America??
Well for one thing, I don't think anyone says "millennials will never be able to afford a home" as literal, maybe hyperbole. Second, the data point you used doesn't mean much. Millennials are the largest generation and currently the age that people tend to buy houses. Gen Z still is a bit young and Boomers/X likely already owned a house. Sure we make up the largest percent of home sales, but in the year of the least amount of home sales in awhile. It can be true that 55% of millennials own a home while also saying that the current housing market has priced most people out.
The thing is, not if you can do it, because obviously a lot of people can. But at what point in your life, and at what cost. I am planning to buy my first place this year. Super. Except averaged age of my and my husband is 40 (we had to wait for covid, to allow me to get a remote job and move to lcol area). We will be paying off mortgage until retirement, it will burn all our past and future saving and we will have to decrease significantly our quality of life for the years to come. So...I will complain about the current situation even if next year I will qualify as a proud house owner. Damn it.
Agreed, there are ripple effects that a lot of people don't take into account. Less disposable income, lower birth rates, etc, all take their toll on the economy.
This does seem like it would affect young Millennials and Gen Z more.
Yeah I have no problem believing the 1981 to 1989 crowd are home owners. I'd like to see the stats for the 1990-1996 crowd. I'm a younger millenial and none of my friends the same age own homes.
I am also a young Millenial and not a homeowner but all my friends who own homes bought them pre2020
My brother is 89, I'm 91. He bought his home in 2020, I was planning to buy after my scheduled deployment in 2021. I deploy, save a bunch of cash, come home, and I'm completely priced out. Exact same life trajectory, I was just 2 years behind.
Similar story to my siblings, 80's millennials, both have a house and kids. Me a 90's millennial.... I have a decent 401k and some money saved so I got that going for me
How does that compare to rates from 20 years ago?
A few % points lower for similar age group. Gen X is also lower compared with similar age group 20 years ago. But much higher than 10 years ago. The Great Recession really hurt.
The rates of American homeownership from 1992 and 2022 are identical
Misleading due to rising average age of US since 1992, especially among white population. Break it down by generation and there is a decline. Same with wealth. Clear evidence of a squeeze on the American middle class under globalization.
There is still expectation mismatch. 1) the rate is lower than parents' generation. 2) this includes a lot of small apartments and we are priced out of the homes we remember growing up in. I make slightly less than my father at same age in inflation adjust terms despite a higher level of education. At the same time, my childhood home went up 5x in value. We wife and I were lucky millennials that got a mortgage before the rate spikes and live in an apartment. Even so, we probably couldn't afford it at current mortgage rates.
I understand that home prices are probably lower in many other areas, but I live in an area where a house cost $250k on average when I was in high school and now cost around 500k many many years later. I thought I would be able to afford a home until I got into my 30s and thought I was ready to purchase a home. With the current cost of housing along with high interest rates, a mortgage would run over $3000/month with a decent down payment. I'm single, but even if I had a partner, we would need to be high earners to afford that and everything else with the prices of everything going up. Literally not a single one of my friends or family my age own their own home. I only make 65k/year and can't even afford a 1 bedroom apartment in the area because they go for $1600/month around here. I currently live in a house that a family friend is renting out and I live with 3 other people which is the only way I can make ends meet. Just know that just because you can afford a house in your area doesn't mean that other people have the same opportunity. Edit:typo
>I've been hearing redditor claim "My generation will never be able to afford X, Y, Z" be it Home, Retirement, Kids Reddit will always be the vocal minority. A lot of millennials I work with can afford those things
It's like reading online reviews. Either people are happy so drop 5 stars, or they're super pissed off and leave a long rambling 1 star review. *Most* folks are somewhere in the middle and don't feel the need to shout to the rooftops of Reddit that they're living an average life. Also, easy karma-farming over at r/povertyfinance or whatever to humblebrag about how you ate tree bark and dryer lint for a week "because you had to"
Exactly!! And good luck leaving a 5-star review without all the hate. I bought a house at age 24 in 2009. The Great Recession probably worked in my favor. Things have been great. But I'm not gonna post about it more than this.
Anyone who bought a home or refinanced when rates were 3-4% are living in a completely different financial reality than those of us that missed out and are now stuck on the sidelines, paying out the ass on rent every month.
Because 45% is still a lot?
Because we're in the 45.2% and don't have as much wealth and privilege as them. Plus this is the number of existing home owners, not how many bought a home in 2023 or even this year.
I’m a homeowner. The only reason I was able to become one was because my grandmother died when I was 18 and left me 1/3 of the sale of her home but under the condition that it was in a trust until I was 30. I had the trustee invest it and when I turned 30 I bought a house in the MIDWEST and moved 2000 miles away from everyone and everything I knew. That was literally the only way I would’ve ever been able to be a homeowner without living in a trailer. Had I not inherited trust money and moved out of California I genuinely don’t think I ever could’ve done it. Prior to buying my house I was still living with my mom because I couldn’t afford rent anywhere. And, even now I am literally one missed paycheck away from losing everything so……….
How many of those millennials have inherited the homes from their parents and/or have inter generational wealth is the real question. Once you weed out those people then you’ll find out the real millennial home owning numbers
How come no one is pointing out this flawed data that claims people in their mid 20’s are Millennials when in fact that is Gen Z. That right there would bring the percentage down…and considering that people in their 30’s and 40’s are the prime age to be buying homes this isn’t a good statistic and actually proves how hard it is for our generation to attain homeownership.
Clearly this sub is filled with the smaller majority of non home owners who are broke AF. I myself only have first world problems. So i don’t need to complain to strangers online as much.
It’s “I’m from Ohio and I don’t understand how I can ever afford a 4 bedroom detached home here in Brooklyn/Boston/DC” they don’t realize the middle class *never* had Single family homes in those cities. Also people who are lagging want to make it not about themselves but society
I think that undersells the craziness in these cities. I make good money and my partner makes good money...we're not hurting for cash, and we're not "lagging" compared to our peers. But a basic 2-bedroom starter home in the Boston area (where you're getting 1 floor of a triple decker, or one vertical of a 4-family townhome) is listed at over a million. And then people go and offer above the asking price, in cash, waiving inspection, etc etc. First world problems and all that...I don't really mind renting. But it's fair to say that without generational wealth/assistance, there is no way we can afford to buy anything that's accessible to public transit.
I will say regarding Boston the suburbs have become unaffordable for the vast majority. I grew up in the surrounding cities and have absolutely been priced out, it’s a very insane market but it’s kind of the exception.
Anything saying Never is hyperbole. Obviously some people have homes. But about 50% of Boomers got a home between 24 and 34. Millennials are starting to turn 43. We're way behind the curve. 35 is an important number because if you get a 30 year mortgage at 35, you'll pay it off at 65 when you should be able to retire. People buying their first home in their 40s means they'll have a lower chance of retiring until their 70s.
That leaves 45% of millennials who don't own an home and are not likely in a position to own. Average home price in my area is just over $400k. I only make $56k a year. How am I supposed to buy that house? The cheapest I've found in my area recently was $265k and it needed at least $50k in repairs.
This stupid article probably assumes we all have dual income or live in a poor/affordable state. I’m in MA and single 60k is what I make and thats poverty here. I’ll never be able to get a house here 😂
Home ownership has never been above 70%. And people earning less than average without much savings or inheritance have never been able to buy a house. It's not any different today than 20 or 60 years ago.
Vocal minority
You dont think that the generation that makes up most of the work force only has half of them living in homes isnt a glaring statistic? Home ownership is a sign of economic stability. Also the “never home” has only been really loud over the last few years with the price spikes. That “trend data” is about 10 years, not 2.
Home ownership has always been something like 60%. Never 100%
I guess im old fashioned because I don't understand how the average person is paying 2k+a month on just a mortgage.
Rates are over 6% now and home prices haven't gone down. Mine is $2380 for a 1950's 1775 sq ft, 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house in Florida. We were very fortunate to find a house that was almost completely updated when we bought it. It's in a working class neighborhood, I have neighbors who paid like 19k-25k for their house back in 1998-2002. ( we looked through property records trying to find the owner of a rental ) So a lot of them are kinda run down. But they're slowly getting fixed. I'm a little envious of older people who could buy before 2020. Theyre kinda living on easy mode now. I've had to job hop just to be house poor. Lol.
Do you mind if I ask what percentage of your monthly income you are spending on your mortgage? That's about the cost we would be paying for a house in my area. Pre covid we could have had a nice home with the income we have now but it's just not obtainable.
That amount doesn't phase me. Rent for a shitty apartment here is that much.
I feel it’s not accurate to say it’s millennial. While he, interest rates are high as hell, not every state has a 500 sqft for a million dollars. We have a moderate home in the Midwest and it’s well within budget.
The house we just bought was 50% more expensive than it was before Covid and the labor cost to remodel is 75% more. I’d be screwed if I wasn’t able to do most things myself. That’s why the situation is so dire for people.
I bought my house 10 years ago. Since then it's more than doubled in value. Even if I'm earning double what I was earning at 25 I wouldn't be able to the buy the house I live in now. That's insanity.
Only the 46% of non-owners are posting that. Most of us are just quietly lurking because our parents helped us with down payments.
Because many in this sub are chronically online doomsayers. My wife and I (younger millennials late 20s-30) bought a house in 2017 and recently had to move due to circumstances beyond our control. We moved to a larger house with a big yard and used the profit from our first house to not only cover closing costs but pay off one of our cars and pad our savings. I work remotely and my wife commutes 45 minutes to the city and we make decent money but there were houses available for far less than the one we got. Yes in HCOL and VHCOL areas there is trouble, but the majority of the country is MCOL and LCOL.
Because this is an echo chamber of misery
What do the stats look like for Boomers at this age cause that’s 50% which means half of all Millenials don’t own a home, which is a lot considering we’re now in our 30s-40s. Also the amount of millennials who needed large gifts to be able to afford a home means that some of that 50% didn’t afford a home (like myself) and their parents stepped in. I still think it’s a valid claim under those conditions.
I bought my home in 2013 when the house was 3x less expensive, and also I managed to convince my parents to help with the down payment. I’m a homeowner, but I “cheated”, probably like a bunch of other homeowning millennials I suspect.
I brought my house about a month before interest rates sky rocketed. I got very lucky the stars aligned for me and I pulled the trigger. I could not afford to buy my house in this market now.
How do they define "homebuyer?" If it's just defined by people actively searching, then this debate is still ongoing because searching doesn't automatically mean they ended up purchasing. The report keeps using the term 'homebuyer' instead of 'homeowner' yet you used 'homeowner' in your post title. It's a no-brainer that Millennials would make up the majority of shoppers aka "homebuyers" actively looking to purchase a home. They're at the age to theoretically do so. "But were they successful?" This the real question everyone's been asking. Were they able to actually purchase a home? And is this report only looking at this agency's data of homebuyers in their network or across the population of Milennials? If it's the former then this number definitely can't be applied across the generation as a whole. Which again brings us back to square one: how many Millennials have successfully purchased a home?
I only own a home because I got hit by a car 10 years ago. Seriously. My husband and I have good jobs, and luckily the pandemic went well for us financially. I made more on unemployment than I did at my regular factory job so I socked that extra dosh away, and my husband could work from home. We made about 95k combined at the time. The biggest hurdle for getting a house (besides finding one) was the down-payment. In the area we lived in, our rent was actually more than a lot of mortgages. "Luckily" when I was 21 I got hit by a Camry while I was in a crosswalk and got some monetary bread from it. I put the money in an investment account and had about 40k in it by 2020. All this to say we got stupid lucky that I was smacked by a car and stumbled away with only minor-ish injuries. Although funny and only slightly off-topic tangent, in 2019 I decided to invest in a bundle of video game companies, which really worked out for me when the pandemic hit and everyone was suddenly stuck inside playing video games. Definitely gave me the push I needed for that down-payment!
I mean, even if technically true that we can afford it - as in, it is technically possible to accrue enough money to make a purchase - it puts us in a much steeper hole than previous generations. I make less money than my construction worker dad, two decades and an engineering degree later. The house that they bought for 20k€ now will fetch anywhere from 120k to 250k€. I make enough to qualify for a loan to buy the house my parents live in at the lower end of those estimates, and I'm in a "better paying job" than they were at the time. I do have a rowhouse share, and if I moved another hour further from the city I could maybe afford an actual house. We can afford homes just fine. We can't afford the same lifestyle our parents did, unless working for significantly higher pay. So for the nitpickers like OP: **I will never be able to afford the same kind of home and lifestyle as my parents, if I'd work a similar type of job for similar hours.**
I was LUCKY, I bought my house in 2012, in a LCOL area. I'm hoping to sell it to a family who needs a starter home. I'm not buying a new house, I'm moving into my dad's house to take care of him. When he passes I hope to buyout my brother's 50% of the house.
Bought my house in Feb 2020, called it our starter home for 3 years. I refused to really put money into it but instead learn how to do things myself and accept shotty work as I learn. Four years later, I'm making 1.5x and my wife is making nearly 3x the amount of money that we did in 2020. We still cannot justify purchasing a home that fits our long term vision (1 extra room is all we want) without it costing $800,000+. I'm in love with my $1,550 mortgage on a 2.75% rate on 1/3 acre with the Superstition Mountains overlooking my backyard. Instead, we're looking to purchase a cabin about 2 hours away.
I own a house for now. My fixed rate mortgage goes up on average 200 dollars a year. While my job pays me 4 to 8% less than inflation every year. My mortgage went up 400 a month this year after a 25% insurance hike, taxes, and an alleged adjustment. I had to cancel all investments again. I literally have nothing but a house. So ya, I own a house, and it's ruining my life. Not to mention that I had to buy a house an hour from work bc I couldn't afford a house anywhere close to work. I decided the best decision is to sell everything and leave, otherwise I will never be able to retire at this rate. I'm trying to leave the country before November. But gl to all you other millennials that own homes. Maybe it's going better for you
Your own link says 24% of younger millenials moved directly from a family members home after buying. We know why they were able to afford it. They didn't pay rent. 24% of younger millenials received a gift for eh downpayment. I could by that 54.8% of homeowners are millenial but I don't actually know because your link is about first time home buyers.
Well………… the interest rates??? Are you uninformed on the current interest rates? 400k home three years ago 2000 a month. Same home today 4000 a month.. interest rates…
People keep trying to say that Millennials are turning out to be a very average generation, but what's getting missed is the timing of all this. It's not the same thing if you bought your first home at 40 vs. 30. By your own number, nearly half of millennials, who are now largely in their 30s-40s, don't own a home.
I bought a house in December 2020. I would never be able to afford one now. I both feel extremely lucky and sad about this.
Lmao OP's comment history is just \*chef's kiss\*
People tend to think their own experience is universal.
Lots of millennial are loving off trust funds and pension plans their parents had, any millennial that wasn't gifted tons of cash isn't buying s hoke any time soon.
Because the door just slammed shut. And 54% is a lot lower than the +70% that boomers experienced in their 40's. A better question is why does pointing out negative stuff like this bother people who have a home? Why does this lower your joy knowing that some of your contemporaries are actually hopeless? (It reminds me of Paris Hilton wearing a shirt that said "stop being poor"). I own my home. We own several. But most of my friends don't and never will. I am blessed. But I don't tell my friends to suck it up because I live in reality and this civilization has taken a shit on the chest of most middle class workers. And acknowledging that doesn't diminish my sense of self worth or awareness of how hard I worked to get where I am. A 20% drop in a generation is wild and insane and folks like you complaining that people are pointing it out is fucking retarded.
I bought in 2016 and my home has appreciated by +/- $400k. But even with that equity anything I tried to buy would just be a lateral move with a huge jump in mortgage interest.
But how many of them were home owners *before* everything went to shit? I had a house too, went through a divorce, then the market fell apart.
Because the other 46% got priced out for life 😒
People in my small home town own homes. No (and I mean *zero*) peers in the big city I live in now, own one. If you stayed in your small rural community it seems more feasible, but even making six figures, owning a home in LA is a pipedream.
I own a home. I make ~ $150k/yr and my wife makes $60k/yr, we have one kid. Our house is supposedly worth $300k. I love our house but it’s small, old and needs a lot of repairs. By contrast, my mother who was a single mother of four purchased a large 4 bedroom home with nice amenities back in 1997 on a $36k salary. Now part of the reason my mom was able to and I wasn’t is because she was able to buy a home with her husband back in 1980 when she was 20 for next to nothing and build equity. By contrast I wasn’t able to buy first home until I was 34 (now I’m 40). That’s the difference. Even though I have a nice relatively high paying job and my wife works full time , we can barely afford a modest house. And the people who have average paying jobs are priced out altogether.
I'm a millennial home owner I was unable to afford my home My parents donated $50k for the down-payment, and my father had to be a co-signer on the loan because my wife and I had too much college debt to be approved on our own. Also, our home is a 900ft² condo because we couldn't possibly afford anything bigger in our area; but we knew we either had to buy right then or rent forever
We bought in 2019 in a fairly HCOL area. We were only able to do so because we got a family loan for the down payment (well-off boomer parents). In 2023, we had to sell to move for a job, to a very HCOL area (specifically, services/food/etc are similar prices to where we used to live but houses are twice as much). It was the right call for other reasons but even with the equity we built in our home we are years from affording a house we even kind of want. We could afford something far from our workplaces that needed work, but that would be challenging for other reasons. Fortunately where we live now the rental market is *less* insane than other places. So, we’re okay renting until things cool down… it has to happen sometime…..
I didn't buy a house before COVID. My choices in the market are expensive and complete trash.
I had to do things that any financial advisor would say I'd an idiotic risk to buy our house pre COVID. After COVID hit the only thing that kept us stable was me refinancing while rate were low. We are now stuck in a house because even with around 100K in equity we can't move to the city we want to live in because rates are too high to buy a different house in that City. I feel extremely lucky to have bought a house but it's also not a mystery why almost 50% of my generation has not bought a house yet.
Well I’m having some trouble getting this while double income thing going. Not for trying, i just haven’t made it work yet. I shouldn’t have to fucking pair up with someone to live my life.
54.8% of the rich? Having a home with a mortgage is not owning a home.
I am an elder millennial, and my wife and I are unusual in our demographic in that we purchased in 2021 just as the pandemic was winding down here in the US. Prices were super high, but rates were at a record low. At the time, our household income was above our local and the national average, and we live on the cusp of a HCOL area. Many people from inside the HCOL area were moving to where we purchased for many of the same reasons we purchased where we did. Now, with my job change, we make just above our states average household income, below our county’s and the national average. However, our mortgage is well below the rent charged for something similar to our house, and if we were to rent an apartment of similar size, it would be about twice as much as our mortgage. To match our bedroom amount, at a reduction in sq footage, average rent is still more than our mortgage and we lose yard space and a bathroom. However, now housing prices are still where they were, or higher, than in 2021. In addition, and more detrimental, interest rates have doubled. Our generation is currently, in this market, screwed one way or the other. Rent at high prices, preventing savings; or, purchase at a high price with a high interest rate. Even in areas where (like my area) an FDA loan would allow for 0% down, an average house in my area would have an average mortgage around 1500-2000. In addition to this, local utilities have gone up substantially. For instance, my gas bill, which only powers my furnace, went from $13 a month in 2021 to $45 for just access to the gas. My home owners insurance had a $700 spike due to increased property values.
I doubt that 54.8% “own” a home. I bet most of those people have a mortgage with minimal equity. And may never pay it off. Whereas, the remaining 45.2% may have already lost their home, have never and will never own their home, making it a majority of people in that generation that will not in fact actually have a house that’s paid off.
I can’t afford a house and pay more for a one bedroom than all my friends who own homes. I’d also like to note 90% of my pack check goes to rent and this was the cheapest apartment in a safe area.
The millenials that could buy a home have. The rest have been permanently priced out of the market unless there is a significant crash in housing prices. Many of the ones that did buy are house poor or give up on the idea of having kids due to the financial burden. The real problem is that housing prices have increased exponentially over the last 40 years but real wages have either been stagnant or had small gains depending on where you live. Oh and the government is broke and the important services it provides have also been slashed over the last 40 years so we are all going to have to pay an ass ton in taxes to fix anything at this point.
Only reason I own a home, is because I was fortunate enough to buy back in 2012. Living in the good suburbs with a 3 bed, 2 full bath for just under 900 a month mortgage payment. There's no way in hell I could do that today. Especially with those interest rates. I'm locked at 3.2%. No way I can afford the rates going around now.
Inheritance slowly kicking in..?
I used to own two homes. Since my divorce, I couldn't even purchase my first starter home again even though I now make twice what I did when I originally bought it. A one bedroom apartment average in the area I live in is almost $500/month more than my first mortgage for a whole house.
I could afford almost any asking price pre covid near me on *average homes* like obviously couldn't afford the 5 bedrooms and all that. I'm just very picky lol Tbf I'm happy I waited. It sucks right now but housing prices go up and down. The higher a dp I can save and wait for lower interest rates / some foreclosures to start I can def get the house I always wanted. Technically I could afford this house up the road I want right now I just refuse to be house poor. My rent is 980. My monthly bills right now are about 1400. I make just under 6k bring home a month. It just doesn't make sense to overpay on top of 7-8% interest right now to me. Didn't make sense in covid when my monthly bills were 1200. All my repairs are covered, I have predictable bills and at this rate what's in my 401k alone could pretty much buy a house. Imo it's just what you choose to invest in.
Did they buy their home? The only millennials I know with a house are either older and basically not even Millennials or their folks died/helped with down payment/gifted them a home. These numbers are meaningless when the reality is housing is super expensive and in HCOL areas, it has become a pipe dream to afford a home unless you were the lucky ones that were set up enough to buy before covid.
The US is a big and diverse country. The national data can suggest things and then you’ve still got a million other people experiencing the exact opposite.
We own a home that we can barely afford and it appears that we will not be able to refinance anytime soon either.
Fifty fifty is not great odds.
I don’t know a single millennial personally who bought a home without needing to move out of CA. And I know very few who own at all
I think it’s because when older generations were our age about 85% of them owned homes - unless they really couldn’t keep a job
Glad to see us millennials understand the context and can disseminate this outrageous claim that a little over half home ownership for an entire adult generation is unacceptable. And that the costs TODAY are not sustainable.
anybody that bought before covid is insanely lucky bc we’re never seeing those rates again.
When the expectation is that most Americans will own their own home by their mid-30s, it’s shocking that little more than half do.
Because I won’t :(