[kurofune]

Blaming it all on the pandemic is an absolutely hilarious misdiagnosis. Everything seems to be on the brink of collapse all the time, housing prices are absolutely bonkers in most cities and wages are, in the best scenario imaginable, same they were 20 years ago for your average professional who lives paycheck to paycheck. Politicians have no vision, they are just parasitic entities that benefit electorally from violent asinine confrontation between voters on pointless cultural issues that never find any satisfactory or permanent resolution. Mass media are fully immersed in a two decades long psychic war against the general public that only seems to be accelerating.

There are too many structural weakness in our society to point out without having to write a full essay, but this mental health decline is the direct result of our failing political and economic systems and our apparent impossibility to challenge them in any productive way.

[missedthecue]

Why would the price of a single family home make a 13 year old depressed? They've easily got a decade and a half until they need to worry about that.

[kurofune]

Are you sure you can't imagine why the terrible economic situation a family is living in could impact the mental health of a 13yo? We love problem solvers in this site.

[missedthecue]

The economy is not in terrible shape though. And even in horrible economies like Venezuela, we don't see a teenage depression trend that follows GDP chart. I just don't think there is a meaningful correlation.

As a matter of fact, I would hazard a guess that there is more teenage depression in America's wealthiest suburb (Loudoun County, VA) than in inner-city Detroit.

[cudgy]

True. The economy is great … if your wealthy and own/trade bubbling assets. The other 80-90% of people are not fairing better given the scenario described so aptly by an above post. Flat real wages (adjusted for inflation) and soaring fundamental expenses like housing, medical care, education, and now everything else including food and transportation do not bode well for most people. Basic math.

[infiniteL0Op]

Sorry to say, but you are somewhat out of the loop.

The reality is, both Venezuela and Colombia(I have lived in both) are absolutely desolate, it is impossible to know how bad it is there if you have not actually been there(not as a tourist, though even that would give you an idea).

And it's not the first generation in either country that gets their future thrown away because of political corruption and incompetence. Outside of the capitals it is absolutely hopeless and the people can't easily emigrate anywhere.

Forget statistics, go into the real world at times.

It's doesn't take machine learning to realize that the working poor and most middle class are living kg paycheck to paycheck and owning a house will remain a pipe dream for many people around the world if nothing changes.

[manuelabeledo]

Because the pressure it puts on their parents and the consequences of it? I think this one is pretty obvious.

[kurofune]

Off-topic, but love to see a galician surname. Greetings from an asturian neighbour.

[manuelabeledo]

We are everywhere, brother :)

[Valgrim]

Because even if it's their parents that pay for the mortgage, they are still affected by the consequences of high housing prices (longer travel times, less disposable income, lack of space, bad neighborhood, lack of social mobility, etc...)

[mescaline]

13 year olds don't worry about houses, they worry about things shared online by their peers. That's on Silicon Valley, folks. Denial of our own hand in this is real.

[disambiguation]

because it makes the future seem hopeless

"if the adults can't figure it out, what chance do i have?"

[notacoward]

It depends on what you count as part of the pandemic. At its core there's just the disease itself and the risk of catching it. Then there's the chance of knowing someone who has been severely ill from it, and the precautions taken to mitigate that risk. A few kids were fine with remote learning; for many more it absolutely sucked. Then there's the fact that those precautions have precluded many other activities, leaving even more time to read all the doom and gloom online. For high-school seniors (like my daughter) there's the college-admission situation which is an absolute mess right now due to two years of pandemic-related issues. Stressed out parents, cabin fever, contentious battles with friends and neighbors over vaccines and masks ... the list goes on and on.

If you interpret "the pandemic" as just that core, maybe it's a misdiagnosis. If you include all of the secondary and tertiary effects, the case is much stronger.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

> Everything seems to be on the brink of collapse all the time, housing prices are absolutely bonkers in most cities and wages are, in the best scenario imaginable, same they were 20 years ago for your average professional who lives paycheck to paycheck.

Personal income per Capita went from ~$30k to ~$63k in the last 20 years [1]. REAL weekly earnings are at an all time high [2].

Debt service reached an all-time low during the pandemic [3]. Even for new buyers with house prices at their peak, with interest rates where they WERE, mortgage payments were historically quite low.

Now that interest rates have gone up, payments are ~20% higher. But unsurprisingly, the insatiable demand has also dried up.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A792RC0A052NBEA

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

[3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TDSP

I honestly feel sorry for all the people like you who can't see how manipulated prices are and realize that it's a good deal. The market shouldn't be this manipulated (by our government) and confusing. It's screwing over so many people who think common sense still applies.

[disambiguation]

> Personal income per Capita went from ~$30k to ~$63k in the last 20 years

At an inflation rate of 3%, the value of money decreases by half every 25 years.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

That's why I posted the second link that REAL income reached an all-time high during the pandemic, and is still higher than any time 20+ years ago.

[yobbo]

You yourself actually linked to the relevant plot "Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings". If you want to make credible arguments, look for median income.

Q3 2001: $338, Q3 2021: $367, so that's an 8% increase, claimed to be CPI adjusted.

CPI measures price changes for things such as flip flops, snickers bars, and TVs - things you find in Walmarts. What people complain about is the price of housing.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

The price of housing is irrelevant. It's a debt market. The debt service of housing (and property tax and insurance) is what matters.

[Aeolun]

I really don’t understand what you are trying to say.

Are you arguing the buying a home is within reach of the average man anywhere outside of the middle of nowhere?

[onlyrealcuzzo]

It WAS within reach everywhere beside the most desirable parts of the most desirable cities.

You only need to put 3.5% down. When interest rates were at 2.75% and PMI is only .5% for 3 years - the median HH could EASILY afford the median house.

At 2.75% - almost 40% of your mortgage payment is principal - even in the first year.

This made the true cost of your housing absurdly cheaper than rent.

[sjg007]

Uh no, not in the Bay Area… or any place that requires a jumbo loan.

[Der_Einzige]

Owning a house is so much better than renting in Portland and you need jumbo loans here.

It's only places like the bay and other ultra hcol locations where renting is cheaper. I specifically bought my house to escape renting in the bay area when my job went remote. I do not want to rent anywhere near Portland. More than Half the rent price for a third of the home prices...

[sjg007]

Right but you can't do that with 3.5% down.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

You can get places for under $920k in parts of the bay that aren't the Peninsula, Mill Valley, and SF.