When I hear the current generation crying about housing I call ********.
I bought my first house when I was 23. It was 65km from work and cost me 6x my annual salary. It took me 4 years to save for a 10% down payment -- which I made by delivering pizzas in the evening after returning from my full time job. My mortgage was at 13% interest, I rented out 2 rooms and kept the pizza job for 3 more years and still struggled to meet my monthly PIT payments of $1300 because that was 75% of my full time job paycheque.
I didn't have money for twice year overseas vacations, I drove an 8 year old Dodge Omni -- not a BMW, and when I could afford beer it was black swish I made in my basement.
It wasn't easy but I made it happen -- so did a lot of my friends. So, if your're wallowing in sorrow, cut the vacations, dump the Bimmer, live in a ****** apartment with 2 roommates, work you butt off with a day and part time pizza jobs for a few years to drum up a down payment. Then move into your little house an hour outside the city for a few years, keep your room mates and pizza job till you build some equity.
In 30 years you can tell your story to whiny kids born in 2030. You can tell it to them from the deck overlooking your backyard pool, the front seat of your Bimmer, or while sipping decent rum in a swanky all inclusive in the Carribean.
We have been through this before in the other thread. It is far harder for younger people to get into the market now. Not everyone takes 2 vacations a year or drives a BMW unless you have rich parents.
I had a conversation with a couple last week. They are in their early-mid 60s.
They bought their house in Woodbridge in 1981 for 90K, $262500 in todays money.
They were making 30K each back then (87K in todays money). I didnt ask them what they do but they certainly didnt look like Professionals, they would have been in their early to mid 20s in 1981.
They told me the house closed 12 months after they purchased it and in that time they were able to pay $50K (downpayment + 1 years savings).
Good luck even paying anywhere near 55% of a house today in 1 year.
It took you 4 years to save 10% down. Didnt you buy in the 80s? I think you mentioned your kids are late 20s. Housing was far cheaper, 10% of those prices is peanuts.
Your story doesnt really line up with the countless older people Ive talked to, including my family and extended family.
If everyone in the 70s and 80s were working 2 jobs they would be shoving it down young peoples throats. But they dont, because 99% of them didnt, whereas many people have full time and a part time job now.
Just like 90% of them left school at age 18 yet were able to buy houses, trucks, boats, cottages, get married and raise young children by the time they were 30 and only 60% of woman were working in 1981.
Interest rates are neg correlated with prices. Your house was 6x your salary, today its 16x. Your generation had the advantage of falling interest rates which the younger generation can never have, they cant really go much lower from here.
Your generation didnt have to compete with rich foreigners for jobs or real estate either. I know many of them who are here from Asia and Africa whose parents bought them houses, cars and paid for their expensive education. Most of them have never had a job until they turned 25.
I know because I went to school with them.
fish is good.
