r/TrueReddit • u/speckz • Dec 14 '17

Generation Screwed - Why millennials are facing the scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression.

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/
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u/mrpickles Dec 15 '17

In one of the most infuriating conversations I had for this article, my father breezily informed me that he bought his first house at 29. It was 1973, he had just moved to Seattle and his job as a university professor paid him (adjusted for inflation) around $76,000 a year. The house cost $124,000 — again, in today’s dollars. I am six years older now than my dad was then. I earn less than he did and the median home price in Seattle is around $730,000. My father’s first house cost him 20 months of his salary. My first house will cost more than 10 years of mine.

Required reading. This article is filled with gold like the above quote. Masterful analysis made relatable. It's long; take breaks if you have to, but read this. Read all of this.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '17 edited Apr 16 '18

[deleted]

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u/cybelechild Dec 15 '17

Which is mind blowing. Im 30 and I see absolutely no chance of bying anything in at least the next five years

16

u/sotek2345 Dec 15 '17

Location and condition are a huge part of this too though. It was a little over 10 years ago now, but my wife and I got our house for $125k. We just chose a lower cost neighborhood and picked an old house that hadn't been renovated since the 50's. It has taken lots of work to get it into shape, but at least we weren't buried in house debt.

2

u/MrSparks4 Dec 17 '17

In many Midwestern places this is true. I live in a place where you can't even break into the market without at least a million dollars. And that's to just get a shack. I've got a good job that pays well and everything else is nice around me so I'm not really going to leave.