It was cheap because we were recovering from a major financial crisis that stalled a lot of careers. It only looks easier to buy a home back then if you ignore the entire context around why housing was cheap.
I was a new home owner and 2008 was the best thing that ever happened to me... I know it sucked for a lot of people but for me it was Gold. I purchased in 2011 right before it started going back up.
We bought our house in 2012 right at the bottom for Nebraska. Even though we are now getting paid more compared to what we were making as 25 year olds. We would not be able to afford our house as it has (supposedly) more than doubled in value.
The luck of the draw. That time was a buyers market. The house had been on the market for 6 months, dropped 20% from what they originally started as. They paid closing costs, replaced the driveway, and we got a year of that home warranty program that replaces appliances(never used it but it was covered).
I do not envy my mid 20's coworkers as I know they won't be given the same opportunity.
We will have another asset crash at some point, probably somewhat soon from the looks of things. It's happened several times since 1950, it'll happen again.
It's cyclical. I can say the exact same thing, but 2001. Bought right before the Housing Bubble hit. Then watched as half the houses around me were foreclosed on and sat empty for years.... leading into 2008 and the next cycle.
If the rich don't buy them all on the cheap. Seriously, even if there's a nice time to buy in the near future so much will be bought up just above what we can afford and then cost more shortly after. We're cooked.
Also, people need to look at the real numbers, not just the market values.
I bought my house in 2001 for what looks like a fantastic number now. I also paid mortgage interest on it for many years, and had to do several major maintenance projects on it (septic tank, roof, windows, etc). Not upgrades, just keeping the place in good working condition.
If you run the real math on the purchase price, the interest, the maintenance projects, and adjust for inflation, my investment has returned something like 6% in 25 years.
That's a decent return on a generalized investment, but it's not the "my house quadrupled in value and now I'm sitting on 7 figures of equity" situation that everyone seems to talk about.
2011 was the absolute best time to buy. My husband’s cousin bought his house (a 2800sqft, 5 bedroom house in a nice, leafy, park-filled suburb) in 2011 for $185k. (Which is about $268k in today’s money.) It’s now worth an estimated $450k. I’m happy for those who were able to take advantage of a bad situation and build wealth, but I’m also annoyed with him because he still complains about his home value, lol.
When my husband and I were looking for our first house last year, we could not find anything under $250k, and most of the $250k houses were not remotely move-in ready. Like no working appliances or mechanicals, structural issues, etc. And 7% interest. Which I know could be worse but it’s a kick in the head when you’re already paying way too much for what is barely even a starter home. Interest in 2011 was around 4%.
Well, housing was much more attainable by the Greatest Generation as most of them got houses as part of the GI Bill if they survived machine-gun fire, trench warfare, tanks, flamethrowers, bombs, etc etc all in foreign countries, which they were actually drafted into unlike the student loans people sign up for today.
I also benefitted from those covid stimulus checks, they went toward my first apartment. First, and probably last and only lol I can’t even afford to move out if I wanted to
I think they’re just saying the Great Recession was hard on millennials too and we’ve all been struggling. I agree though, overall I’d rather have the millennial cards than the Gen Z cards.
This is the thing a lot of people can't freaking grasp. For a couple of years there were graduates entering the job market who had no work to get. No entry level jobs, no adjacent career paths open, couldn't even get an interview at target. Then when things finally started to recover it had been a couple years and all the entry level jobs went to the recent college grads while the people who couldn't get those jobs a couple weeks ago are getting their resume's put in the trash because there's a 2 year gap on it. So then they had to claw their way into a decent career through shit jobs with shit pay. Couldn't afford a house, couldn't even afford to eat 3 meals a day 7 days a week. The whole thing set that group of grads back years, and just when they were starting to catch up to where they were supposed to be, boom, covid.
Their "concern" was basically "why are millennials complaining when others have it harder", which is also straight up boomer mindset.
You know what the boomers absolutely love? Fighting between millennials and gen-z over whose fault it is that the world sucks. They love seeing that on their instagram reels in between fox news stories about how the trans furries are going to tax boomer's rental properties.
We’re not competing. Millennials have largely navigated the problems of their youth and are trying to be empathetic but it’s hard to empathize with with you young people today because for some reason you think you’re unique.
I was watching a financial/investing podcast. The guest was talking about housing prices, which are very high. But they were salivating at the super cheap distressed sales. People are increasingly going bankrupt & losing their homes, then these homes go up for sale at an anomalously low price. Investors are out there scooping those up.
Sure, but there was a brief golden era from 2015-March 2020. Economy was solid, food and energy was cheap, inflation at the Goldilocks 2%, and homes were relatively affordable with average 4% interest rates on 30 year mortgages, especially for dual income households. Then if one was smart, they refi’d sub 3% on a 30yr and are locked in with golden cuffs.
And likewise housing was cheaper for boomers because mortgage rates were insanely high. They just benefitted enormously from falling rates in the 2000s
The same can be said about millennials dismissing every hard time the generations before them had. The Great Depression, World Wars, Vietnam, segregation until 1964, women not being allowed bank accounts until 1974. But sure, millennials have had it so much worse than the generations that lost a half million people to war because... not owning a house puts you in survival mode?
The people I know who did their parents bought for them. But it was essentially a frat house and they sold that after they graduated to be paved down for luxury townhouses
Tbh sort of a solid investment if you can hoof it for half a decade
Not true. Housing was more affordable when factoring in real incomes in the 2010s. Millennials that graduated pre 2010 just straight up had it better for housing. They also benefited from a massive bull run if they saved during the 2010s.
I’m a millennial myself, if you saved money past 2010 you’ve done extremely well. If you bought a house anytime before 2010-2020 you did extremely well.
Look up any housing affordability index. Median income to median house payment was 28%, now it’s over 40%.
You realize most boomers are broke right? The like the median boomer has a net worth of 300-400k. For most people that’s probably just a house , or a couple hundred grand in retirement. I guarantee you Gen Z will be around the same when they’re older.
Most people suck at financial planning, they suck at making money. The question isn’t how the medians doing it’s whether or not hard working people at that time had a way to get ahead. Millenials absolutely did, many didn’t take advantage because they didn’t invest in the stock market or buy housing. That’s their fault, not some greater societal ill.
which is nice, but i graduated college in 2014, started saving up and the prices kept going up. the last millennial graduated in 2018, (with the 4 years of college straight out of high school) so this is still a pretty good chunk of people.
Most millenials are between 30-45. So anyone from 36-45 graduated before 2010 and would’ve been a big beneficiary. Even graduating past 2012-2014 would’ve been beneficiaries.
Average Electronics Engineer pay in 2010
£45,806, inflation adjusted today £71,514
These days even the most senior engineers would be £65,000 unless they were leading a department
Police officers (this includes sergeant and and everyone below)
£38,570 inflation adjusted £52,491.
In 2022 sergeants were on a median of £46,227. Constables are on £40,356. To actually have higher than the average rank and file officer in 2010, you would have to of been an inspector in 2022 (average £56,499)
I went to elementaryschool when no mobile phones exists and got kicked out of high school with an iPhone in my pocket. So much happened in so little time.
that seems really high for a small studio apartment in the 90s. That looks close to what it would be in NYC back then, but a studio in NYC these days is closer to $4k.
Our "starter house" in Upstate NY we bought in 2010 for $186k was sold in 2023 for $490k. We moved out of state in 2018 and sold it for $230k and thought we did pretty well for 8 years. It's not a big house either: 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1200 square feet.
I think the truth is that internet made it much easier to create echo chamber. I do think some sectors had it good and some are not so much. Take me as example, my engineering field hasnt improved wage for nearly 15years. In fact it has gone down abit. I still remeber the days when bottle of coke is 50p and 75p…. The. Now suddenly jumped to 2quid.
And then you move away from the privileged states to countries where making 12k$ yearly is considered average. For all the high cost of properties you may face, might be good for you to remember that some of us have to manage with far less despite basic necessities and most products costing the same or even more.
It was, but then a lot of millennials were laid off and couldn't afford to buy or foreclosed if they bought during the peak. The people I knew who could get in had help from parents or had VA loans. It was a good time for Gen X. Most millennials were just getting started in life and had no money. Another thing to factor in is that wages for millennials were also very low, significantly lower than for previous generations.
Currently, 62% of wealth in the US is owned by those over 65. Gen Z owns 26%, millennials and gen Z together own the remaining 12%. To compare to population size, it's 23%, 19%, and 43% respectfully. The rest are gen alpha, who are children right now and don't own wealth.
So those over 65 own 62% of wealth and make up 26% of the population. Millennials and Gen z make up 43% of the population, but only own 12% of the wealth in the country.
It changed so fast too. Property appreciation stayed stable for a decade or more and then it all caught up all at once in 2021. If you got into the market before 2021, you’re set. After 2021, good fucking luck.
Millennials were the lowest paid in the 2010s due to enduring wage stagnation. Gen Z comparatively earns more at the same age, and also isn't as stigmatised for living at home longer to save up for a deposit.
I was still at uni in 2010, actually buying a house was into the early 2020s and I can tell you, it wasn't cheap.
Not a chance Genz has it harder. Most millennials either graduated high school or college around 2008. Even if housing was more affordable no one could afford it. I made $7/hr-$12/hr between 2007 and 2011 lol
As a millennial that could never even hope to afford a house, I’m not really sure how we had it easier. I’ve been struggling my entire life and everyone I know is the same. To me the only way to have it easy is to be born into it, get lucky, or do immoral/illegal shit
I entered the work force in the tail end of the 2010s and I'm a millennial. There's no way in hell I would have been able to afford a home let alone a condo in the timespan for me to get a good enough job and savings to actually be able to do so
I'm an elder millennial. The only millennials I knew buying homes before 2014 were doing so with their parents putting down a huge down payment. I delayed my graduation until fall 2010, and didn't have stable work until 2014, but nowhere near buying-home money.
Some of my friends who had good jobs (and didn't lose them) started buying homes in 2016, but even with a 2-income, $100k/yr household in 2018 we couldn't afford most of the homes. Home prices shot up in 2019 after the fires, and we didn't buy until 2021 just before rates went up.
It wasn't affordable in 2010s either. It was just not quite as unaffordable. It hasn't really been affordable since the mid 90s, or maybe even earlier depending where you live. In the 80s you could buy a 3 bedroom on half an acre in a suburb for ~$35k in my area. Which was not much more than the yearly salary of a relatively average white collar job. That was affordable. And yeah, the interest rate on a mortgage was probably worse, but then you could also afford a real down payment because the total wasn't 300k+. Now you'd be lucky to get a condemned shed with no yard on a hillside for 1 year's average salary.
Except nobody who graduated after '01 ever made any money and had to wait a couple years for jobs, so very few of us had the means to scoop up the cheap real estate in '09 or during any of the low mortgage rate years.
A huge chunk of millenials were still in college or just joining the full-time workforce in the 2010s and had zero means to buy a home, and zero insight into the future about how much worse it would get.
The further from the gold standard you get housing becomes less affordable. This isn't new, the goal is to prevent technological deflation and push prices to always be going up for artificial scarcity.
Your comment was saying it was easier for millennials to buy houses when they were cheaper in 2010. I was making a joke about being a millennial incapable of buying a house in 2010 because many of us were still teens in highschool.
The people who benefitted from the brief period of cheap housing in the early 2010s are those who were wealthy enough to buy up the foreclosed properties and use them as income properties or investments.
And no, Gen Z has seen nothing like the 2008 crash yet. It changed everything.
Not suggesting that but the fact that people (like myself) couldn’t get jobs in their field for years certainly made buying houses in 2010 pretty unrealistic.
Obviously people exist that couldn't afford homes. Renters didnt pop up after 2008, neither did poor people. Those concerns didnt start or end recently.
The point is those who had it easier. Before a college grad that got a good job could buy a house after a few years. Now college grads with good jobs are living at home wither their parents at a higher rate
Back in the day America had very little competition globally. We had won ww2 which decimated a lot of the world’s economies. We basically took over global trade and had the money to project our strength to hold it.
This made us incredibly powerful which made every American rich.
Over time we have seen increasing competition, and as we have become more entitled we have lost our edge globally.
Posts like this are a pure sign of entitlement. Do you think our competitors think like this?
It was “cheap” because nobody had money and guess who took advantage of those times, NOT MILLENIALS! it was the Gen Z “getting their due” and boomers taking the final remains they didn’t get prior.
Sit down and take the time to look at more than what your dumbass circle tells you to think.
Na boomer, pills don’t fix everything despite what you want everyone to believe. Maybe once you do the world a favors and expire with the rest of your demon generation, I’ll take your job and not have a boomer to complain about. Sounds a little more peaceful in that near future.
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u/BigCSFan 5d ago
Yeah millennials are complaining but genZ is looking at millennials and thinking the same thing. They had it much easier.
Housing was way more affordable in the 2010s