“Nowhere is cheap. That’s in part thanks to mortgage rates. The monthly payment on a new home has increased by more than 50 percent in the past three years, as 30-year mortgage rates have climbed from less than 3 percent to nearly 8 percent.”
Our first mortgage was 6.5% on undeveloped rural property over 20 years ago. Partner was in school and I was MAYBE eeking out about 40 grand a year as a software contractor.
Our first house and we’re in our late 30’s.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/buying-house-market-shortage/676088/
In today’s dollars it was $278,000 dollars. It was an awful nightmare but we managed it. I’m still surprised we managed it.
Scary as fuck.
We got lucky on two fronts: the owner of the land needed to get out of debt (the ostrich market “the new meat” had crashed because, it turns out, Americans DIDN’T like the taste of ostrich) and it was just before the dot com boom (not that ANYONE predicted that — certainly not two thirty-somethings).
It was total stress, fear and anxiety.
Add to it the fact that we had to arrrange to get power to the land ($$$) and water (our own physical labor up a half mile of dirt road) and phone line (cell service? This was rural Texas!).
I THOUGHT being a productive hay field would make some money — I didn’t know hay sold at a pittance that many years we lost money.
Reality is a fucker.
We managed to pay off our mortgage in 20 years — only because the economy crashed (despite me losing my job multiple times).
People argue “oh, you had it easy because you were a boomer”
We started out together $25,000 in debt (in today’s dollars) — just not school debt. We paid it off. It took time and we got a lot of nasty phone calls.
At one time we had about $20,000 (in today’s dollars) in credit card debt. We cut up all but one credit card. It took over three decades to get out from under our debt.
Yes, we’re boomers. But neither of us were born with silver spoons.
@feloneouscat 100% agree! That’s the funny thing about people, we all think OUR days were different. Each generation has had its own challenges and each generation has had its own successes. Being a Gen Xer makes me want to point at our wars (including the Cold War), debts, struggles, and accomplishments and elevate them, but empathy is important. The boomers didn’t have it easier and Gen Z isn’t lazy or whiny. You both deserve empathy.
@feloneouscat that’s a great way to put it. I call it the lottery phenomenon. Everyone is told that “they” might win the lottery and so they should act as though they already have. 99% of us are hurt by market forces, yet we are fiercely capitalist, we are all helped by social programs, but are told they are handouts, but the WORST thing they do is pit is against each other over crumbs, while they enjoy the whole fucking meal.
To put it more bluntly: there are millionaires who pay 15% in taxes (or nothing at all).
We are retired on a fixed income (we are NOT millionaires) and pay AT LEAST double that.
Tell me what is wrong with this picture?
@Gambit_1
Agree. My parents had three children before they bought their first home (tell me THAT wasn’t stressful).
The problem people forget is that America is PREDOMINANTLY low income middle class and the poor — the outliers are high income middle class and the astoundingly rich.
What people don’t seem to realize is that Americans are fundamentally being told OTHER Americans are living better — the data doesn’t show it.
It’s part of the Great Lie.