Are people in your area having a tough time finding housing?

[Pea-n-Me]

I am in MA also. Things are out of control. I have two twenty-something’s myself and worry about how they will afford to live, and eventually buy something here. Both are currently renting in situations affordable to them. (One has a roommate and one rents our in law apt.)

Not discounting how expensive things are today, but I also think that common sense things apply today that have always applied. Preparing for a good job; frugality; finding ways to increase income; not having a car payment; not having credit card debt, keeping college debt low, eating at home, etc. Is it difficult to do? Yes it is, just as it always was! But there are people doing it!

I work with many young people and they are managing to afford rent - often with roommates - and even buy houses here in the $600K range - often with a spouse or future spouse. For the most part they are sensible young people who know how to manage their money and make sacrifices to get what they want, like driving an older car, brown bagging their meals, getting married in their own backyard, etc.

I also know young people who have no savings but drive new cars with high and long payments (one person recently told me their car payment is $659/month for SEVEN YEARS for a Toyota RAV4), one has a motorcycle payment, also, in addition to the large car payment; regularly drive into the city to eat at fancy, expensive restaurants with $25 or more parking fee; hold thousands in credit card debt; have substantial school loans; regularly vacation and go on expensive outings; upgrade to newest electronics, etc.

This is not everybody. Experiences are all over the place. But my point is that some people are able to get by even though things are super expensive right now. Those who buy homes now will no doubt enjoy equity in the future, too. My niece who just turned 40 is in that category. The home she managed to buy ten years ago has increased in value nicely since then. That’s how it is and why people like to invest their money in real estate.

We are still in the first home we bought. Sure, it’s gone up in value quite a bit. But I’m not sure we’ll really ever benefit from that as we’ll probably live in it until we pass. We started from literally having zero money in the bank. (Used our last $3K on our wedding, which, in retrospect, was dumb.) We both worked two jobs at different times - once, I had three. The car I drove was so rusty my foot went through the floorboard one night and all my lights went out. DH and I are of retirement age but still working at strenuous jobs. We made a lot of mistakes in our lives financially but we were doing the best we could keeping our heads above water many years. But thankfully, growing up with depression-era parents, we were mostly frugal, even though it seemed like bills got away from us sometimes. Finally, we’re in a better place. Sad to see that some here seem to hold that against us now.

I still see a lot of articles out there geared toward younger folks in helping them see how to get ahead despite how difficult things are today. It’s not easy, but it can be done, and some are doing it. Kudos to them.

 

[mistysue]

But thankfully, growing up with depression-era parents, we were mostly frugal, even though it seemed like bills got away from us sometimes. Finally, we’re in a better place. Sad to see that some here seem to hold that against us now.

It's not about holding it against anyone. The fact is that being frugal is different than being frugal was back then. Now people who are solidly median income can barely afford what was difficult for low income "way back when." Now two full time jobs can barely afford just rent alone- forget about utilities, upkeep, food, clothing, a car, the insanely more expensive and required insurances, etc. Most of the young 20's people I know can't afford a car (usually because of the insurance) because their jobs basically cover rent and not starving to death while eating at home all the time- or else they have to live at home because they can't afford not to.

One of the easier ways for people to see the differences in living cost is pointing out that even as recently as the 80's, a person could work a full time minimum wage job and pay for most, if not all, of college while doing it. Now your minimum wage job covers like half of tuition and the dorm. People saying "we made sacrifices but did it" with housing is not far off from telling a kid today "well I worked a job and paid my own college, you can too". It's not looking down on what you went through, it's pointing out it's not the same situation they are faced with now.

It's fair to point out how lucky your generation got with economic timing, and if the economy hadn't shifted the way it did not only would your sacrifices not have amounted to as much, but people wouldn't have that much more of an uphill climb today. Not everyone steps in at the same time, so not everyone gets that huge boost. A lot of younger gen X/very early millennials got totally hosed by timing with the housing crisis right in their prime years to get set up for future fortune like the boomers were. A lucky few jumped in just after and got lucky too. Pointing it out is not the same as holding it against you. I mean kids today are still better off than young adults during the great depression, but compared to both boomers had amazing timing.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It's not about holding it against anyone. The fact is that being frugal is different than being frugal was back then. Now people who are solidly median income can barely afford what was difficult for low income "way back when." Now two full time jobs can barely afford just rent alone- forget about utilities, upkeep, food, clothing, a car, the insanely more expensive and required insurances, etc. Most of the young 20's people I know can't afford a car (usually because of the insurance) because their jobs basically cover rent and not starving to death while eating at home all the time- or else they have to live at home because they can't afford not to.

One of the easier ways for people to see the differences in living cost is pointing out that even as recently as the 80's, a person could work a full time minimum wage job and pay for most, if not all, of college while doing it. Now your minimum wage job covers like half of tuition and the dorm. People saying "we made sacrifices but did it" with housing is not far off from telling a kid today "well I worked a job and paid my own college, you can too". It's not looking down on what you went through, it's pointing out it's not the same situation they are faced with now.

It's fair to point out how lucky your generation got with economic timing, and if the economy hadn't shifted the way it did not only would your sacrifices not have amounted to as much, but people wouldn't have that much more of an uphill climb today. Not everyone steps in at the same time, so not everyone gets that huge boost. A lot of younger gen X/very early millennials got totally hosed by timing with the housing crisis right in their prime years to get set up for future fortune like the boomers were. A lucky few jumped in just after and got lucky too. Pointing it out is not the same as holding it against you. I mean kids today are still better off than young adults during the great depression, but compared to both boomers had amazing timing.

I was always taught you make your own luck. I believe it still holds true today. Nothing magical about it.

There are “boomers” who cannot retire today because they didn’t handle things well, and they freely admit it. Where was their “luck”?

You are kidding yourself if you think anyone got ahead by luck.

How are many young folks ‘making it’ today?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A lot of younger gen X/very early millennials got totally hosed by timing with the housing crisis right in their prime years to get set up for future fortune like the boomers were. A lucky few jumped in just after and got lucky too.

It was 1000% luck that my husband and I got a house when we did. It was a buyer's market in 2014 when we had our house built, mid-way through it was starting to switch and in 2015 officially went to a seller's market and has been ever since. The housing here was still recovering from the Recession primarily in the worker shortage aspect as the builders share between the two states in our metro workers, homes were taking longer than previous for that reason, home builders like Pulte had completely left the metro during the Recession and they weren't the only ones. In 2023 and 2024 homes were taking approximately double what they were to build in 2014 and they are all custom homes (technically ours would be considered that).

I will shout it to the rooftops my husband and I lucked out, we had student loan debt, he had a car payment as well but we both had very good credit scores and plopped into the market at the right time. There is no way else to describe it. And when we were building our house the rental house we were in the landlords attempted to try and sell it and couldn't and that's why they put it back on for rentals. That house was a starter house (of which doesn't really exist here anymore). It took a bit but a few years after we moved out they were able to sell it and for a decent amount more than they attempted to sell in in early 2014.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

There are “boomers” who cannot retire today because they didn’t handle things well, and they freely admit it. Where was their “luck”?

The luck is that they (general they) had the means and usually for quite a lot of years to get to the point where they are just now running into issues at the point of retirement or after retirement when what they had saved for their whole lives now are running into inflation, medical and housing increases beyond what was thought to be. To understand that the younger generations were stalled out almost from the onset of adulthood is to then understand the luck aspect. You cannot measure luck from near the end or end point, you have to look at how they got there to see the general overall pattern.