re: The Medium income Amercan Family now earns 1/2 the income needed to buy the avg home.

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My first home after marriage in 1979 was a fixed 30 year at 13.4% interest 30% down.

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and you had three times the buying power then we do now, so your point is invalid.

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This generation is going to have to learn to suffer and save.

Not a new concept.

My first home after marriage in 1979 was a fixed 30 year at 13.4% interest 30% down.

We got through it small flat roof to save money on construction and small bedrooms on large lot compared to today.


Suffering in an honest debt builds a family.

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This is absolutely the most retarded thought process that almost always gets said at some point on any housing related thread.

Your position in the game in 1979 is DRAMATICALLY different than 2025.

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Affording homes *in decent/good areas is impossible for most people.

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By “most people,” we mean most young people? Or something else?

Homeownership rates don’t seem to support the “impossible for most people.”

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You do realize you don't have to guess. A simple Google search will show you just how stable homeownership rate has been for like 50 years. So literally nothing you just said is relevant

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I'd recommend using that Google search to add nuance by observing trends in year over year home sales and how they correlate with the low interest rates of the last decade.

2023 saw fewer home sales than 2008 & 2009, despite 10s of millions of additional Americans. People ain't buying and it's because the market sucks right now.

The median house size needs to go back to 1600 - 1800 square feet instead of 2600. Especially with the average family size being smaller.

Statista Mortgages by Existing Inventory

Several of the points mentioned in this thread are summarized at the bottom, including the large spike in homeownership thanks to low rates in 2021 & the subsequent decrease after mortgage rates increased.

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The smaller homes comparable to 1974 housing are in less than desirable areas, to be nice

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The median home in 1974 was 1510 sqft and $36K. That translates to 1510 sq ft at $250K today.

The Ocean Springs neighborhood where we bought our 2nd home is not a "less than desirable area." I just looked it up. 1600 sq ft / $249K.

You're more familiar w/ La prices/value than I am, but here are some examples from there.

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personal debt levels are higher than ever

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Bad choices have consequences.

Man some of you get some cheap housing still. Where we live here's a 1400sq-ft house, keep in mind this isnt even in Atlanta, it's just outside in a suburb

1400sq-ft, $445k

For reference my wife and I bought our 2400 sq-ft built in 2004 townhome in this area for $275k back in 2017. We refi'd $248k back in 2020 when lates were low and now on a 15 year 2.375% mortgage now we pay $2,150 now (includes tax/insurance).

People put houses like that up in our area and I'm wondering who the hell is buying a 1400-sqft (may not include their basement space) previous rental house with some cheap LVT flooring, cheap stainless steel appliances nearly 65 year old house for almost $450k. On a 30 year at 6.5% right now even with 20% down (that's $89k on this house), thats about a $2.7k/mo payment. If you only have 5% down maybe first time home buyer, the payment jumps up to $3.4k with PMI added on.

Thats a starter home for a couple wanting to have a kid around here.

Another thing to consider is people also want slightly larger houses now than even just a decade ago simply due to the hybrid or remote work that people do now. My wife can work anywhere, chooses to mostly work at a WeWork but works from home a day or two a week. I work from home almost all week very rarely (1-2x a month) go into a small satellite office my company has nearby us. If you have 2 people working from home a good bit, you want somewhat dedicated work spaces for that. Not fun to shack up on the kitchen table per se and try and knock out a 8-9-10 hour day. Despite us having just 1 kid, we are looking to move to single family now and have more dedicated spaces. I work in our basement which is just 1 big open room, no big deal to me, but a big reason my wife doesnt work much from home is her setup is in our kids room (we only have 2 actual bedrooms), not a fun place for her to work necessarily. So just want to have more space that's conducive to better work environment basically without the distractions necessarily.