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by panaffa 1655 days ago
Back in the 60s, people were buying homes in their early 20s or even late teens because it was that affordable. Obviously that is a bit of a historical anomaly, but it's almost a necessary complement to the idea you're supposed to become an adult and mature and grow up after age 18.
3 comments
cheese_van 1655 days ago
Perhaps we ran in different social classes but in the 60's most believed that you had to save a good portion of one's life to afford a home and worked towards that end. Home ownership was not a given - it was considered an enormous investment that took much of one's life to prepare for.

However, the affordable rental market greatly mitigated that and allowed "delayed" home ownership until a suitable nest egg was constructed.

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basisword 1655 days ago
They also had things a lot harder in many ways than we do. The 60’s is over 50 years ago now. The world changes a lot in that time. Basing your expectations on the 60’s is unrealistic.
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panaffa 1655 days ago
Yes you're right. We do have many modern conveniences and information they didn't have. So why would we go backwards on this key metric of home prices and rent? Or housing as a percentage of household income? It is an economic, social, and moral failure (see the situation in Los Angeles)
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long_time_gone 1655 days ago
> Basing your expectations on the 60’s is unrealistic.

We use historical standards to measure progress all the time. The thing we should be exploring is "why has home ownership become so expensive?" and "what can be done to alleviate that impact?" Anything else is a distraction.

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the-dude 1655 days ago
Up to the 1990s it was possible to buy a home on a single income in NL.
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gruez 1655 days ago
Source? At least in the US mortgage payments (adjusted for interest rates and inflation) have been trending down since the 90s.

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/...

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the-dude 1655 days ago
No sources, purely anecdotal :

Our parents were single earners and home owners

I have peers who bought houses in the late 90s on a single income

You can use Dutch bank's mortage calculators to see you can't buy a shed on a single income

I read on a Dutch news site this year that even for double earners, home ownership is not feasible in some cases

Banks won't give out mortages for say € 700 / month, forcing these individuals to rent on the private market at € 1000+ a month.

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