re: For all the Millennials crying about housing costs, here you go

Look at all these affordable houses you avocado toast eating, macha latte drinking millennials could be the owners of but you’re too spoiled!

With the avg. price of $323,973 on these 32 homes listed in Metairie, that are probably anywhere from 30-60 years old and surely won’t have any maintenance issues, and with a low down payment of $32.3k, you’re looking at an affordable monthly note in the ballpark of $2,250!
(Including property taxes and insurance)

This gets you a 3 bed 2 bath (maybe) 1,500 sq. ft. 40 year old home in today’s economy, just feel lucky because when boomers bought their first home, their interest rate was about 15%!!!

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A lot of these are really bad examples of affordable homes lol.

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Yep. I know.
They always are really bad examples.
Always.

So ... $250K-$300K homes are now out-of-range because ... well ... just because ... and ... you know ...like ... there are people on TikTok ... like ... doing selfies from nicer homes.

Look, I hate all the generational stereotyping, because as with any stereotypes, there are often stark outliers. But since this is yet another thread going that direction, here's the deal JK:

Home prices back in the überutopian 1975-1995 timeframe were influenced by several things by comparison to 2006-2026. Among those factors were higher interest rates, smaller house size, far poorer construction and materials, and piss poor homeowner income by today's standards.

By comparison, the ZIRP decade (2009-19) provided an unprecedented period of home affordability. The affordability effect hit "starter homes" in particular. Millennial interest in social-urban lifestyle increased, and interest in suburban ownership waned, and with it demand vs supply declined.

That all changed during Covid, when urban lifestyle became a social "drag."

Millennials flocking to suburbia pushed house demand for the first time in a decade. Unfortunately, inflation hit concomitantly. As demand pushed home prices higher, inflation pushed home loan interest rates higher as well.

So suddenly, midway through the Biden administration, plummeting home affordability was a real and legitimate problem. That remains the case today.

Your OP home is absurdly priced.
No question about it.
Likewise, your arm observations about the price per square foot of homes in the current list are not unreasonable. We are currently in a housing bubble. It is not a great time for buyers in any category. But it is particularly difficult for first time buyers. At the same time, insinuating that $850,000 is a "starter home" nowadays is silly. That was the point of my response.

But GenY had its bite at the Apple and decided against taking it. During the decade of affordability, GenY stereotypically chose social experiences over being "house poor." They also delayed other life decisions on the same premise, for example, pushing marriage back, or eliminating it altogether from their game plan.

All that is fine and good, but it predictably came with future financial ramifications. Millennials uniquely seem to have been unconcerned about those ramifications. Now when the chickens have come home to roost, there are loud wails, complaints of unfairness, and intergenerational penis envy.

My empathy goes to GenZ, currently exposed to 10% unemployment, and a house-price bubble in the aftermath of the ZIRP period, which they, unlike millennials, never had an opportunity to take advantage of.

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Rates should have raised during Obama second or trumps first term but the fed sat on their arse

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You may not be familiar with Fed actions during T45. IIRC the Fed increased rates 7 times from Trump's election to the outset of COVID. Those actions were relatively independent of inflation, and effectively put brakes on economic growth which would otherwise have accompanied T45's economic program.

Also cut rates 3 times before 2020’s cut

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A Boomer bought that house in 1985 for $80,000 and sold it in 2024 for $730,000

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Hell yea

not gonna be any “wealth transfer” when I die. I’ll donate the house to someone to run a dog shelter, and bounce my last check at the funeral home

“give someone else a chance!!!!”

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That's not a very good argument

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sure it is. You have to live somewhere

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And that same $80,000 invested at the S&P historical rate of return of 10% would have been worth over $3,000,000 by 2024. That's not a very good argument.

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Sweet jesus