| You're talking about the US economy? The "by any metric" statements seems false. A "not doing fine" does not have 54-year low unemployment rate @ 3.4% [1] US GDP growth for since 2022 Q3 has been in the 5% range (very strong) [2] Median individual income is at an all time high, poverty rate is at a 10 year low (2% decrease from 2014 to now, not huge percentage wise, but that is still 6 million people) On the flip side - yes, home sales are at a low. Increased interest rates and a real estate market that saw a price correction in 2011 and 2020 with the corresponding economic recessions, has not made housing any more affordable at all. > Tech CEOs don't control the interest rates. The interest rate effects their ability to get free and cheap money. True, though that free & cheap money means more people can start companies, grow their companies faster - and that in turn creates bottom-up economics where more people have more disposable income and can then buy homes. My second mortgage is now absurdly expensive.. But yeah, we are seeing the result of the Fed policy to try and _cool_ the economy as much as they can. One of the big levers they have - interest rates. The Fed intentionally made mortgages more expensive. Further yet though, housing inventory is a big factor, which you then need to look at local governments and zoning restrictions for why there is not more housing built. In sum, the wider economy IS doing fine by several metrics. Inflation AFAIK was not really a factor for home prices to increase. That was caused by the Fed, a a deep pandemic-induced recession, and all of the same forces that have caused housing prices to increase since essentially the 70s & 80s [4]. [1] https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2023/02/news-unemployment... [2] https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/gross-domestic-product-fourth-... [3] https://datacommons.org/place/country/USA?mprop=amount&popt=... [4] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS |
So the average working person is in fact worse now economically than they were 2-3 years ago. It's not just a subjective feeling, and the other positive metrics don't change that.