re: I think people need to accept that the housing window has closed

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Basically what you are arguing is that starter home ownership really isn't feasible until you are making the median household income in the US.

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It is below median, and the numbers support that.

If you make 30k/year and save 3k of it then in 7 years you have enough to buy a 200k home. You are 25.

Now, paying the note on that home....I get that you can't.

But after 7 years if you haven't started making more money then it isn't society working against you.

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Renovations make zero financial sense for first time homebuyers unless you have the knowledge and time to complete them substantially themselves

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This, as a blanket excuse, is bullshite.

As with anything, it depends on the numbers. Not all deals will make sense but there are deals to be had that absolutely make sense, and those numbers are growing now that we ended the bullshite forbearance and foreclosures are hitting the markets again. Go look at Xome, Auction.com, Equator, and Servicelink auctions and you will see the activity increase of foreclosures. Many of those are also listed on the MLS so you don't have to have cash for the auctions those sites host and can get an FHA rehab loan.

It also depends on how extravagant you want something. You don't need to drop big money on a faucet from Rohl. A good ole Moen off the shelf of Home Depot will do just fine.

There will be a glut of fixer-uppers soon as boomers die off. Just be prepared to get some nicotine stains off the walls

1. There are another 50 million people in America than 30 years ago, only half of them legal. That leaves a big mark on the housing market.

2. Homeowners are generally more law abiding and invested in the community than renters. We want a society of mainly homeowners.

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All joking aside, what I have seen that is changing is people are not planning to temporarily settle. They want the nice 3-4 beds, 2+ baths, in a nice neighborhood right away

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And what you really mean is not what you're seeing in real life but what you're making up out of thin air

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Neither of which is harder or makes your life worse.

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spoken like someone who doesn't have kids or isn't an active parent.

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Neither of which is harder or makes your life worse.
spoken like someone who doesn't have kids or isn't an active parent.

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Ha. Wrong.

I don't live in a major metro. You don't have to either. If you do that's on you. There' plenty of opportunities to live a great life without having to live in a major metro like DFW or Atl.

People that live in those places just seem to feel like that's their only option. That's on them.

I will say this, I dont' know about in Louisiana, but in Florida I've seen a lot of drops in insurance this year. Some drastic, 1/2 or close to it.

This should help with "affordability" to some degree but the purchase prices may be adjusted at some point.

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They'd need their income to roughly go up to $70k to afford that $200k house, which the house is also going to be going up in those 7 years. Again, this is why people are stuck. It is the heart of the issue.

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If your income in your early 20's isn't rapidly beating inflation you have again, fricked up.

For as little income as 30k/year you can have yourself in a position to buy a 200k house in 7 years. If you fail to advance yourself in those 7 years I highly doubt you were able to save money anyway.

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which the house is also going to be going up in those 7 years.

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Meh...that depends.

It took 11 years for houses to climb back to their 2006 peak after the 2007-08 crash.

Housing is pretty flat right now and we are seeing a correction in certain markets.

This week on the poli board, I was discussing a thread I made a few years ago, and Slidellcajun posted in that old thread which caught my eye so I asked ChatGPT to create this

If you bought in Slidell less than 3 years ago, you would have negative equity, not counting any progress made on the principal of the loan, and looking at a 39-month break-even point to refinance to today's lower rate

I partied a lot and failed out of LSU in my 20s. Didn’t know what to do and ended up getting a job as a contractor at a plant at 23 years old making $16 an hour, living pay check to pay check, working 12 hour shift work, and living in an apt with 2 other friends. I continued partying a lot but I worked hard at my job and always showed up. I “ate shite” and did that from 23 to 29 years old, thinking I’d be stuck like that forever. Eventually my hard work paid off and I got hired on as an operator essentially doubling my pay. I was immediately able to buy a starter home for $200k right before I turned 30. Fast forward to today, 6 years later, and I’ve made my way up to $200k a year, got married, quit drinking, have travelled the world, and am currently in the market to upgrade to a $600k forever home. If you would have told my 29 year old self this is where I’d be in 7 years I would have never believed you. I remember standing outside our shitty apt in 2017 right after LSU lost the national championship in baseball to Florida smoking a cig with my buddy saying “I really wanted to have a house at 30 but looks like that’s not happening”.

This may not be the ideal path for everyone, but working hard and always showing up still has its place in this world, and more often than not it will pay off eventually. I don’t regret all the fun I had in my 20s, but a part of me wonders how much further ahead I’d be if I had dialed back the partying and got serious about that operator position sooner. But I think everything happens for a reason, and if I’d had gotten that position any earlier in life I probably would have blown it.