A Net Full of Jello said:

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We bought our first house in October of 2011. It was just over 2200 square feet in an Austin suburb and we paid right around $120,000 for it. Today, that home is appraised at $334,425. It went up 277% in 13 years. That's obscene.

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My house on Redfin today is 32% higher than what I paid when I closed on the house in 2020. It's not even a full 4 years yet.

akm91 said:

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A Net Full of Jello said:

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We bought our first house in October of 2011. It was just over 2200 square feet in an Austin suburb and we paid right around $120,000 for it. Today, that home is appraised at $334,425. It went up 277% in 13 years. That's obscene.

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My house on Redfin today is 32% higher than what I paid when I closed on the house in 2020. It's not even a full 4 years yet.

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Ours on Redfin is 94% higher than what we paid in July 2018.

hedge said:

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I would rather work smarter than harder. I also have two jobs so I do work weekends as well

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Successful people are trying to give you advice on how to get ahead, but you keep doing the same things over and over again, after years of admitting how lazy and entitled you are, refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell you what it takes to truly succeed, and keep posting about how unfair life is to you.

Seriously man, you're not a bad dude and you're not as dumb as you make it seem. You aren't going to get anywhere working for someone else, minimum hours, and an entitled attitude. You have to either create something valuable others want, be more productive than your peers, be far smarter than your peers, or a combination of the three.

Based on your posting history, you seem to think you should do the minimum amount of work, at the minimum effort, and have someone willing to pay you what they pay people who are more productive with a higher work ethic. I'm telling you, you aren't going to get anywhere that way. Please take the advice here, not as an insult to you, but as legitimate advice. Because if you listen, put your head down and grind, I promise.. opportunities will pop up and you will be in high demand. And you might even learn something you can take a risk and do on your own for even higher reward.

Wowzers, too bad everything else has gone up just as much so you can't even profit off selling the house.

MemphisAg1 said:

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Quote:

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I am a 37yo "millennial" who is happily paying a mortgage already but I feel like the older crowd is way out of touch on this issue. Your options as a youngster today are to pay out the nose to live somewhere safe and close to work, to live somewhere in BFE to meet the safe and affordable combo, or to roll the dice on safety and live somewhere close but sketchy. Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem.

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I'm not saying that the housing market today isn't tough for younger folks, but that bolded statement about people not facing this problem before is categorically false. I remember as a teenager living in Huntsville, TX when my best friend's dad worked out of Houston but commuted roughly 70 miles each way because of affordability. That was 1978-82. Several years earlier when I lived in Conroe, TX, my friends' parents lived there and commuted 40 miles to Houston, again in the name of affordability.

The "live close but expensive" or "further out and cheaper" is a dynamic that's been around for awhile.

Brings to mind another guy I knew around 2000 who lived in Pennsylvania and commuted 2 hours each way into NYC for work. Four hours on trains/buses each day just to afford a place for his family!

I feel for the younger crowd, but you're not the Lone Ranger here either.

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It's still not on the same scale, regardless of anecdotes. Yes, every generation faced problems. Yes, some commuted far. Yes, some paid out the ass and were house poor just to make it work.

But no, you don't have to spend as much of a percent of your income back then as now to get the same quality in the same location. It just mathematically is very easy to prove. There's simply less options now and you have to sacrifice distance or percent of income at a higher level now than back then. What my parents did is just not feasible for me even though I actually have a higher paying job (inflation adjusted) than them. The same house would cost me significantly higher in percent of my income and I could not afford it despite more income.

The houses in or even within an hour of any decent job market simply have gone up quicker than wages.

BrazosDog02 said:

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hedge said:

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I think more people realize that there is more to life than working for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

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Ding ding ding. This guy gets it.

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Yes and no. There is a crapload of study data that indicates most people are most satisfied when they are completing meaningful tasks and progressing towards meaningful goals, and when they feel they have accomplished something productive with their time and effort. It isn't having things, actually. It is the idea that you are successfully moving towards the things you intend to have or to accomplish with your efforts that creates the gtrestest sense of satisfaction, and meaningful work is a large component of that for most people.

People simply have to feel that their tasks have a purpose and are moving them towards personal goals. Yes everyone e joys indulging in some leisure time but very few people feel satisfied in doing that all the time. They become often bored and even destructive.

BrazosDog02 said:

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hedge said:

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I think more people realize that there is more to life than working for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

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Ding ding ding. This guy gets it.

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Does he? If you don't work as hard as past generations, don't expect to have as much.

All that said, you have to work harder now just to get the same house.

But there's also the flip side where you work less to get more in other areas.

Simply put, home prices just out paced wages. Some other things come easier and more freely than past generations. Working 40 hours 30 years ago was actually considered a blessing. Don't forget, many had to work 6-7 16 hour days just to put food on the table and have a roof over their head. The basic necessities, with little to no luxury. Our work life balance now is probably better than at any point in human history, if we are being perfectly honest. That doesn't mean we can't still strive for even further improvement, but it's just the truth.

But again, all of that said, the housing market just simply out paced wages and means you have to work harder or more hours now for the same thing you got for less 20 years ago. Even 5 years ago, of course.

Heineken-Ashi said:

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hedge said:

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I would rather work smarter than harder. I also have two jobs so I do work weekends as well

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Successful people are trying to give you advice on how to get ahead, but you keep doing the same things over and over again, after years of admitting how lazy and entitled you are, refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell you what it takes to truly succeed, and keep posting about how unfair life is to you.

Seriously man, you're not a bad dude and you're not as dumb as you make it seem. You aren't going to get anywhere working for someone else, minimum hours, and an entitled attitude. You have to either create something valuable others want, be more productive than your peers, be far smarter than your peers, or a combination of the three.

Based on your posting history, you seem to think you should do the minimum amount of work, at the minimum effort, and have someone willing to pay you what they pay people who are more productive with a higher work ethic. I'm telling you, you aren't going to get anywhere that way. Please take the advice here, not as an insult to you, but as legitimate advice. Because if you listen, put your head down and grind, I promise.. opportunities will pop up and you will be in high demand. And you might even learn something you can take a risk and do on your own for even higher reward.

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This. So this.

I'm currently working a PT job and doing side hustle jobs to save up for a food trailer. I sold the food I'll sell later at FB games when I was a teacher (we were allowed to do fundraisers to raise $$ for our classroom). It was extremely well received - I still get people asking em if I've opened my food trailer yet.

In my current FT job, I get around 7 weeks of paid time off + 3 weeks of sick time per year. So, once I save up enough, I'll have plenty of time to work the food trailer and make a profit (I enjoy cooking, etc).

akm91 said:

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Wowzers, too bad everything else has gone up just as much so you can't even profit off selling the house.

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Yeah, nope, I can't. The only way may be to buy one cheap land and get a modular home, but even the , it would just be a lower mortgage overall, but probably about the same payment due to interest rates.

I disagree. My first house payment was ~$500/mo->principal, interest, insurance. My take home was ~$900

Don't slightly more than doubled in 25 years?

I bought my first home in Bryan (Austin's Colony) in 1997. It was $95K. I bet today that same house is more than $300.

I bought a new single can 2WD 3/4ton diesel pickup in 1993. It was $21K all in. Those too have tripled or close to it.

While I find the housing prices to be a serious burden as it compares to salaries, I'm not sure they are incredibly out of wack relative to other increases.

jja79 said:

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You're the envy of 99% of Americans.

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may be so but I'm surround by folks with much more and in better positions (I think). It's not like I live in Westlake, Highland Park, or Southlake.

It was more of an example to show that... doing what most would consider pretty normal upper middle class things (1 nice vacation a year, own 2 cars, aggie football games, very reasonable country club membership etc.) still seems insanely unaffordable unless you're in the top 1% of earners.

I'd like to hunt more, have a lease, maybe a lake place, maybe be able to get my wife to stop working... but with increase in cost to everything, we'd have to make some significant lifestyle adjustments with my higher salary.

We've got multiple sets of friends that are teachers and I don't know how they do it. Well, I do. They live paycheck to paycheck and don't put anything back into savings. Even in lower cost of living places like exurbs of major texas cities, times are super tough.

We, fortunately, completely lucked out on the housing thing and built right as COVID hit (locked in price in Jan2020) and mortgage at absolutely historic all time lows (2.5% on a jumbo). Fast forward just 3 years and our home is worth 50% more and a purchase of this home at today's rates would be more than twice as much on a mortgage

Sucks but that's how quickly some people are getting priced out. We aren't going anywhere because well... we can't.

Heineken-Ashi said:

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hedge said:

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I would rather work smarter than harder. I also have two jobs so I do work weekends as well

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Successful people are trying to give you advice on how to get ahead, but you keep doing the same things over and over again, after years of admitting how lazy and entitled you are, refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell you what it takes to truly succeed, and keep posting about how unfair life is to you.

Seriously man, you're not a bad dude and you're not as dumb as you make it seem. You aren't going to get anywhere working for someone else, minimum hours, and an entitled attitude. You have to either create something valuable others want, be more productive than your peers, be far smarter than your peers, or a combination of the three.

Based on your posting history, you seem to think you should do the minimum amount of work, at the minimum effort, and have someone willing to pay you what they pay people who are more productive with a higher work ethic. I'm telling you, you aren't going to get anywhere that way. Please take the advice here, not as an insult to you, but as legitimate advice. Because if you listen, put your head down and grind, I promise.. opportunities will pop up and you will be in high demand. And you might even learn something you can take a risk and do on your own for even higher reward.

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This is the most real post from one of the best posters on this website. Take heed, hedge.

I'm under contract for my first home purchase. After putting 15% down I'm looking at repaying $435K at 6.9%. It's more than I wanted to pay but it was the second cheapest single family home in the neighborhood and my commute will be about 15 mins.

I hope to have it paid off within six years, but even with aggressive payments I am still looking at paying $90K in interest.

To each their own. If Hedge wants to work where he is now because he likes his job more, has a better work life balance, and it brings him/her happiness/fulfillment more so than a higher paying job might, there is nothing wrong with that. But there are trade offs, and you shouldn't expect to be able to buy the same home someone who works harder and/or smarter than you do.

But the facts are posted on the previous page. ON AVERAGE, it takes a higher percentage of own's income now than it did back previous years. It's really hard to ignore facts. You can say find another job, work harder, more hours, sacrifice other things, etc. But it really doesn't change that fact. It's still frustrating how much they have gone up compared to wages.

All that said, the luxuries of today are higher than in the past, too. So while home buying is harder, other things come easier and more luxurious. You have to determine if you are willing to trade off some of that stuff to get into a home. It's all choices one can make. MOST people can afford to get into a home.

That's fine. No one says there aren't any examples of people spending more of their income back then as opposed to now. But the data is listed on the previous page. You are free to interpret that data how you wish.

But again, I think if people were willing to sacrifice some things that many see as needs but are truly wants, more could get into homes now. But on average, it's still higher now than before.

this thread is absolute greatness!

lots of posters cannot seem to wrap their heads around which cohort they belong in. going to same college and likely having the a similar IQ does not put you in the same SES cohort others similar.

We all take different directions in life. I am always amazed when i see people absolutely earning ... and then absolutely spending like a dumbass.

rilloaggie said:

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Owlagdad said:

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I Just wonder how much a house these days might cost if it was built like a boomers first house:

Built with no 10-16 ft ceilings.
Lower pitch to roof-- no high roofs with enough attic space for another whole floor
LOL, no "office"
Linoleum and carpet-- no wood floors or laminate or tile floors, they got your floors done in one day! Just roll it out!
Tub and shower combo if you were lucky-- No "master" ( Realtors cant say that now) retreat and spa. No jets in bathtub, unless you had to bathe in same water as your brother to save money, and he farted. No tile separate shower
Slide in stove, no double ovens
No double entry doors.
Paneling!! No extra tape and mud of drywall.
Lots more insulation these days.
No three car garage. 22x22 was huge!
Fomica and not granite or quartz on counters.
no wifi wiring
no folding area in laundry room- space for washer and dryer about it.
No sodded yards and landscaping-- you did that.
And of course boomers didnt have Blackrock and Chinese buying up houses for rentals and crowding out young people.
At new wages, even for illegals, you are putting more labor money along with putting more material in a house.

Not discounting pain of kids today. Heck I couldn't afford new house. And i know what my wife would say if I asked her to live in the above house

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I've responded to posts similar to this before. The notion that consumerism/fomo alone is driving the affordability issue is nonsense. I work in construction currently and used to work in the volume builder world. The cost of the things you've listed as upgrades are pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. Some of the things you listed(insulation) aren't even optional due to building codes. Even ditching things like high ceilings and 3 car garages which would have a fair impact, housing costs are stupid these days. LGI probably builds homes as efficiently as anybody out there these days and Century Communities is one of their competitors. Here are a few of their current models. In my opinion, you truly can't build a house much cheaper than these unless you are swinging the hammer yourself.

https://www.lgihomes.com/texas/houston/freeman-ranch/bridgeland
3/2 - 1,366 SF - Starting at $289,900. These homes have "fancy" granite that is about 1cm thick and the rest of the finishes will be basically the same as any low end apartment. LGI targets 45 days from pouring the slab to handing over the keys. Did I mention efficiency lol? Subdivision is 40 miles from downtown Houston.

https://www.centurycommunities.com/find-your-new-home/texas/houston-metro/brookshire/laurel-farms/lots/010522-3906-glory-green-drive-324887cd/
3/2 - 1,288 SF - Starting at $279,990. 40 miles from downtown. Same quality and "amenities" as above.

If you want to live closer to town...
https://www.lgihomes.com/texas/houston/wayside-village/atticus
3/2 - 1,076 SF - Starting at $240,900. This house will shave 30-45 minutes off your commute(each way) and will likely shave years off your life ... https://crimegrade.org/violent-crime-77016/ Hope you don't have kids also, because the HS that this hood is zoned to proudly graduates 75% of their students and 9% are proficient in math! https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/texas/districts/houston-independent-school-district/north-forest-high-school-147684

I am a 37yo "millennial" who is happily paying a mortgage already but I feel like the older crowd is way out of touch on this issue. Your options as a youngster today are to pay out the nose to live somewhere safe and close to work, to live somewhere in BFE to meet the safe and affordable combo, or to roll the dice on safety and live somewhere close but sketchy. Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem. Plenty of affordable and safe neighborhoods, close to high number of well paying jobs existed back then. Now it's a pick 2 situation for most.

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This is a fantastic post. Thank you for it.

Yup. He definitely does. This is almost a blueprint for "keeping up with the Joneses."

Why..OH EFFING WHY...do these threads always devolve into "kids these days." Every effing time. And I'm sorry boomers, but if we were to poll the audience (and don't even think about giving me an induvial anecdote, we are talking MACRO here) boomers when they were kids acted the same way just in slightly different flavors. Kids are kids, and have been that way for along time. Boomers didn't have near the college debt, housing price in relation to wages and interest rates that is occurring now. Flat out, it was easier then than now. Just look at the data EFFING READ IT.

Can individual things be done to get it to work? Of course. Individual sacrifice, yes. That has always been a prerequisite. But this fails in comparison to the MACRO economics at play. Just look at Helsinki's data. Look at it. Read it. Understand it.

The boomers just can't let go of the fact that they had it easier in this regard. AND moreover, created the economic environment they now blame their kids for. What a joke.

beerad12man said:

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MemphisAg1 said:

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Quote:

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I am a 37yo "millennial" who is happily paying a mortgage already but I feel like the older crowd is way out of touch on this issue. Your options as a youngster today are to pay out the nose to live somewhere safe and close to work, to live somewhere in BFE to meet the safe and affordable combo, or to roll the dice on safety and live somewhere close but sketchy. Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem.

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I'm not saying that the housing market today isn't tough for younger folks, but that bolded statement about people not facing this problem before is categorically false. I remember as a teenager living in Huntsville, TX when my best friend's dad worked out of Houston but commuted roughly 70 miles each way because of affordability. That was 1978-82. Several years earlier when I lived in Conroe, TX, my friends' parents lived there and commuted 40 miles to Houston, again in the name of affordability.

The "live close but expensive" or "further out and cheaper" is a dynamic that's been around for awhile.

Brings to mind another guy I knew around 2000 who lived in Pennsylvania and commuted 2 hours each way into NYC for work. Four hours on trains/buses each day just to afford a place for his family!

I feel for the younger crowd, but you're not the Lone Ranger here either.

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It's still not on the same scale, regardless of anecdotes. Yes, every generation faced problems. Yes, some commuted far. Yes, some paid out the ass and were house poor just to make it work.

But no, you don't have to spend as much of a percent of your income back then as now to get the same quality in the same location. It just mathematically is very easy to prove. There's simply less options now and you have to sacrifice distance or percent of income at a higher level now than back then. What my parents did is just not feasible for me even though I actually have a higher paying job (inflation adjusted) than them. The same house would cost me significantly higher in percent of my income and I could not afford it despite more income.

The houses in or even within an hour of any decent job market simply have gone up quicker than wages.

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I'm not disputing that housing costs now are higher than several years ago. The data is pretty clear that's the case.

I reacted to the categorical statement "Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem."

That's a broad and inaccurate statement, as the examples I provided, plus many more out there, highlight that people have struggled with the commute-vs-cost dilemna for decades.

It's one thing to say "man, housing costs are tough right now. Worse than they've been in a long time." I'll say "hallelujah brother, I feel for you and want to help where I can." But when that changes to "you never had to deal with commute-vs-cost before," that's when you get the push back.

On the narrow topic of housing, costs are clearly more now than several years ago. Fully agree with you. On a total budget conversation, I suspect there's much more today going to entertainment and luxuries than in previous generations. Don't have the data with a link to prove or disprove it, but when I think back to what my parents spent money on -- and even my wife and I when we raised kids -- we didn't spend money on the things you see today. Lol, I won't harp on $5 SBUX coffees, but there's a lot of extras today that squeeze the budget when trying to deal with higher housing cost. I see a lot of that in the poster above making $400k and his budget he shared on this thread.

What are interest rates right now? Mine was 16.5%?

TXAGBQ76 said:

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What are interest rates right now? Mine was 16.5%?

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What was the home price relative to wages?

READ HELSINKI'S DATA. Gawd yall are dense.

TXAGBQ76 said:

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What are interest rates right now? Mine was 16.5%?

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You'l get a chance to get that again. Just ba patient.

Which majors are those? My son is starting finance at Mays in the fall, want to make sure he hasn't missed something.

I made $9K/y per year, my first home was $49,950. My house payment and insurance was ~ 60% of my monthly take home.

Now I did not have a $1600 phone, I didn't drink $7 cups of coffee, I didn't join a country club, I didn't take fancy vacations, I didn't own fancy cars, I didn't buy more house than I could afford, etc. but those were personal choices.

It was as hard for me and a bunch of others as it is today. But if you need me to feel bad for you I will.

beerad12man said:

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MemphisAg1 said:

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Quote:

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I am a 37yo "millennial" who is happily paying a mortgage already but I feel like the older crowd is way out of touch on this issue. Your options as a youngster today are to pay out the nose to live somewhere safe and close to work, to live somewhere in BFE to meet the safe and affordable combo, or to roll the dice on safety and live somewhere close but sketchy. Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem.

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I'm not saying that the housing market today isn't tough for younger folks, but that bolded statement about people not facing this problem before is categorically false. I remember as a teenager living in Huntsville, TX when my best friend's dad worked out of Houston but commuted roughly 70 miles each way because of affordability. That was 1978-82. Several years earlier when I lived in Conroe, TX, my friends' parents lived there and commuted 40 miles to Houston, again in the name of affordability.

The "live close but expensive" or "further out and cheaper" is a dynamic that's been around for awhile.

Brings to mind another guy I knew around 2000 who lived in Pennsylvania and commuted 2 hours each way into NYC for work. Four hours on trains/buses each day just to afford a place for his family!

I feel for the younger crowd, but you're not the Lone Ranger here either.

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It's still not on the same scale, regardless of anecdotes. Yes, every generation faced problems. Yes, some commuted far. Yes, some paid out the ass and were house poor just to make it work.

But no, you don't have to spend as much of a percent of your income back then as now to get the same quality in the same location. It just mathematically is very easy to prove. There's simply less options now and you have to sacrifice distance or percent of income at a higher level now than back then. What my parents did is just not feasible for me even though I actually have a higher paying job (inflation adjusted) than them. The same house would cost me significantly higher in percent of my income and I could not afford it despite more income.

The houses in or even within an hour of any decent job market simply have gone up quicker than wages.

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Interest rates are still half what they were in the late 70's early 80's.

People are more entitled now than ever before. They want 10-ft ceilings, granite counters, 5 subscription services that cost $200/mo., newer cars/trucks/subv's, newest iPhone every 24-months, Starbucks 5x a week, eat out all the time, etc.

My wife and I did not have cable TV, hardly went out to eat, stopped going to movies, owned a 5 year old Honda and 10 year old car, a 30-year old home with formica counters and old painted cabinets, etc. when we started our family b/c she wanted to be a stay at home mom. There were times when she'd have to make a grocery list based on how much money we had, bill that were due, and when my next paycheck was coming and leave stuff off the list b/c money was too tight.

Now, I will agree, housing has gone up a lot, and the cost that used to average about 30-35% of your salary is now above 40%. But it' snot impossible. Stop *****ing and find a way to make it work.

Not me. I am very happy with my house, it suits our needs perfectly. I love living debt free and paying cash for everything, I worked hard to achieve that 30 years ago. Thank heavens!

No kidding, that is the definition of a spending problem. There is about 3-4 grand in wants, not needs, that can be cut fast if they are worried about cash or savings. Hell, my mortgage and the note on a rental I own is less than what he is paying on car/rv payments and storage.

I'm in agreement with you.

Found this in the back of an old newspaper clipping stashed in a closet of my house.

Really helps out things into perspective. Compare these homes to those LGI "homes". This was available in 1989, 9 mos before I graced the Earth with my presence.

I thank God every day for my 2.95% interest rate and we're never moving. Married 33 YO with one kid so far and total gross income around $275

I am referring to the total payment, which includes the interest rates. It's just the mortgage payment per a percent of income. That's all I'm focused on.

We are in full agreement that the average American has FAR more now than 20 years ago, and things people went without 20 years ago, some see as needs now. So there are tradeoffs.

I'd also say that prices aren't really too much reflected in the granite countertops, the 10 foot ceilings, etc, but the value of the lot itself. You can sacrifice a lot of the bells and whistles, and still end up paying more of a percent of income now to live 3 feet from your neighbor than you could to have a half an acre 20 years ago.

And FWIW, I'm not b******, but I don't find tying up 45-50% of my income to be worth it nor a good financial move. I've said about 5 times on this thread it's possible for most to buy now, if they wish for that tradeoff.

TXAGBQ76 said:

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I made $9K/y per year, my first home was $49,950. My house payment and insurance was ~ 60% of my monthly take home.

Now I did not have a $1600 phone, I didn't drink $7 cups of coffee, I didn't join a country club, I didn't take fancy vacations, I didn't own fancy cars, I didn't buy more house than I could afford, etc. but those were personal choices.

It was as hard for me and a bunch of others as it is today. But if you need me to feel bad for you I will.

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READ THE EFFING DATA. Seriously, read it. what does it say? Can you read? Can you understand it?

No need to feel bad for me, man.

agracer said:

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beerad12man said:

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MemphisAg1 said:

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Quote:

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I am a 37yo "millennial" who is happily paying a mortgage already but I feel like the older crowd is way out of touch on this issue. Your options as a youngster today are to pay out the nose to live somewhere safe and close to work, to live somewhere in BFE to meet the safe and affordable combo, or to roll the dice on safety and live somewhere close but sketchy. Folks who bought prior to 2000 didn't really face this problem.

---

I'm not saying that the housing market today isn't tough for younger folks, but that bolded statement about people not facing this problem before is categorically false. I remember as a teenager living in Huntsville, TX when my best friend's dad worked out of Houston but commuted roughly 70 miles each way because of affordability. That was 1978-82. Several years earlier when I lived in Conroe, TX, my friends' parents lived there and commuted 40 miles to Houston, again in the name of affordability.

The "live close but expensive" or "further out and cheaper" is a dynamic that's been around for awhile.

Brings to mind another guy I knew around 2000 who lived in Pennsylvania and commuted 2 hours each way into NYC for work. Four hours on trains/buses each day just to afford a place for his family!

I feel for the younger crowd, but you're not the Lone Ranger here either.

---

It's still not on the same scale, regardless of anecdotes. Yes, every generation faced problems. Yes, some commuted far. Yes, some paid out the ass and were house poor just to make it work.

But no, you don't have to spend as much of a percent of your income back then as now to get the same quality in the same location. It just mathematically is very easy to prove. There's simply less options now and you have to sacrifice distance or percent of income at a higher level now than back then. What my parents did is just not feasible for me even though I actually have a higher paying job (inflation adjusted) than them. The same house would cost me significantly higher in percent of my income and I could not afford it despite more income.

The houses in or even within an hour of any decent job market simply have gone up quicker than wages.

---

Interest rates are still half what they were in the late 70's early 80's.

People are more entitled now than ever before. They want 10-ft ceilings, granite counters, 5 subscription services that cost $200/mo., newer cars/trucks/subv's, newest iPhone every 24-months, Starbucks 5x a week, eat out all the time, etc.

My wife and I did not have cable TV, hardly went out to eat, stopped going to movies, owned a 5 year old Honda and 10 year old car, a 30-year old home with formica counters and old painted cabinets, etc. when we started our family b/c she wanted to be a stay at home mom. There were times when she'd have to make a grocery list based on how much money we had, bill that were due, and when my next paycheck was coming and leave stuff off the list b/c money was too tight.

Now, I will agree, housing has gone up a lot, and the cost that used to average about 30-35% of your salary is now above 40%. But it' snot impossible. Stop *****ing and find a way to make it work.

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Where do boomers get this idea that we all drink Starbucks every day, eat out every day and go on luxurious vacations all the time.

I understand what my situation was and many other of my classmates and friends.