The average age of homebuyers in the US is now 56
The median age of first-time buyers is 38 (up from 34 last year)
The share of first-time buyers dropped from 32 to 24%
The median home price is now $435,000, which is up THIRTY NINE PERCENT since 2020
This is so astoundingly fucked
@14mission @chartier At least in my area builders build only 4 things:
Apartment complexes, expensive condos, old folks homes, and 4+ bedroom homes. If they’re stuck with one tiny lot you might get a 3 BR.
Want a starter house? They were all built in the 60s or before and are snapped up in minutes if they even appear on the market.
The ASP is so high not because only people with money can afford to buy. It’s because there’s nearly nothing less than $450k. I’m in an ‘affordable’ area.
@obscurestar I live very close to some very nice small 3 BR places built early 2000s. I don’t need/want 3BR, but I think after 2008 I might’ve been able to afford one, but it would have been tight. They were in the $250k range? But I was young with my first real job. Didn’t seem the time.
They’re now $550k or more. Snapped up very fast when they go up. Totally unaffordable despite advancing a lot in my career in 15 years.
Crazy.
@foobarsoft Our house is 800sqft. Enough space for two.
It's terrible out there. The rents are ridiculous now compared to what we were paying prior to buying. We could rent out our home, RV around the country, and still be putting a small amount in savings at the current rent rates. It's madness.
@14mission @chartier I don't have the numbers - alas - but I really would like to see a proper analysis on this. Because seeing how many homes are bought by people who already have one (or more) properties, I have a strong feeling that a lot of this price gauge is driven by "investment" buyers, pushing young families out of the market and into rental.
One reason why it makes sense to make buying houses for investment a lot more expensive.
@14mission @bwebster @chartier all hail Mitch McConnell, the saviour of the poor :-) yes obviously, Harris' plan to build more houses is very bad. Trump's plan of removing unspecified regulations way more solid.
I always wondered how obvious grifters got elected, but every day I witness how insanely naive ppl are.
@bwebster @JorisMeys @14mission But if we’re talking sheer number of houses, I keep seeing stats like this—that we have *millions* of empty houses and around 550K homeless.
It sounds like we have enough, but the problem is that most of them are owned by the wrong people. Is that a decent reading of the situation?
@chartier @JorisMeys @14mission Adam Conover has a great podcast episode about this topic if you want to do a deep dive: https://mastodon.social/@adamconover/113160466382837321
The short version is: an empty home is not necessarily a home that could help a homeless person. 1) it may not be where the homeless person is, and moving them there would take them away from a community they need to survive 2) there may not be jobs available for that person where that empty house is 3) (continued)
@chartier @JorisMeys @14mission 3) many empty homes are for sale. You need a small percentage of empty homes to make it possible for people to move without relying on someone dying to free up a home
The government could seize vacation homes and forcibly re-locate homeless people across the country to put them in these homes in areas with no jobs, but there are better ways to solve the housing crisis (like building more housing)
@bwebster @14mission @chartier you mean investment dropped after the housing market crashed. It's indeed a multi faceted story, and you should look at vacancy rates vs houses on the markets as well.
The US could benefit from more affordable housing, but such socialist ideas are frowned upon. Building for the poor is not as profitable as scaring them with Mexicans eating cats.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-vacant-homes-are-there-in-the-us/
It's not just the US. As a percentage of disposable income, it's even worse in Canada and Australia (and by no means do I mean to say that things are good in the US).
1. The commodification of housing by private equity hedge funds. Blackrock. Blackstone.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/mar/15/in-shift-44-of-all-single-family-home-purchases-we/
https://slate.com/business/2021/06/blackrock-invitation-houses-investment-firms-real-estate.html
2. Money laundering using residential housing. Housing is a safety deposit box for the corrupt & criminal.
https://www.occrp.org/en/news/report-us-real-estate-is-no-1-destination-for-laundered-dirty-money
3. Price fixing of rents reduce capacity to save for a home
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/5/2244971/-FBI-raid-on-real-estate-company-linked-to-Harlan-Crow-s-RealPage-rental-price-fixing
@Npars01 @chartier FWIW the US has become arguably the best destination for money laundering due to a toxic combination of "pro-business" legislation and lax enforcement.
Casey Michel's excellent book "American Kleptocracy" takes a deep dive into the problem, and its startling geopolitical implications (remember Paul Manafort? case in point).
@chartier we’re not building enough homes. We’re too restrictive with allowing new homes to be built. This lack of housing supply is how private equities even manage to make a profit off the real estate market https://www.tiktok.com/@divasunglasses/video/7442753920696618286
When I say build more housing, I’m not even talking about 5 over 1s on every street corner through sudden intensification, but building missing middle housing through incremental development https://www.tiktok.com/@jonjon.mp4/video/7354822685605612842
Welcome to neoliberal capitalism where few own all and most own nothing.
And yet the American voter has chosen, with the help of manipulation, a leader that will further help to dumb down America and serve a clan of billionaires only.
Noah S.
David Chartier
Sojourner00
14mission
Michael Cook
obscurestar
Qob
Joris Meys
Brandon Webster
💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱
Joshua Byrd
Thomas Ponnet
mickymorse
Joefrey Kibuule, MD
victorvonvortex
Nicole Parsons
klausfiend has moved
Finitum
Kevin Karhan 
ℹ️❤️🖥 aka Compy-chan
xs4me2
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐
🪑Dr Rockstar ♫
Corb_The_Lesser
Timothy Wolodzko
Urzl
Dean Johnson
noplasticshower
Stanley Black-Decker
Luna chan