What "current economic situation"? Aside from what the doomers in news media and social media get paid to tell you, what's wrong with the economy, jobs, salaries?
I'm convinced that the mortgage rate problem is not about the rates themselves, but about the second derivative. That is, the rate at which the mortgage rates themselves have changed. In particular, the giant spike from ~2% to ~8% in a couple years.
If they are stable at 6%-7% for the next 20 years, you're right, they will absolutely be "totally within reason". But it's a big distortionary problem that a huge number of people have fixed rates at ~2.5% with almost three decades left on them, while the current rate is more than double that. It's super hard to eat an almost 5% rate increase to do the kind of normal nearly like-for-like home sale that usually comprises a big portion of housing turnover.
Enshitification. And the associated rise of the rent seeking economies. The jobs are good. Salaries are not nearly as fluid as the rate at which rates of rent (housing and all other services) fluctuate. I have four kids between 20 and 28. I feel for them. Especially the ones who have kids already, man has having kids gotten expensive.
I'm on team "the economy is really good right now, actually!", but, relevant to this thread, I think it's pretty clear that it's hard for people to feel good about things when interest rates are way higher than they were in very recent memory, because it makes the housing market more expensive (and also way more static), and makes things like car payments higher.
I think a good lesson to learn from this period is "people are very sensitive to gas prices and the rates on mortgages and car loans".
I make about 2 times the median income in my area, that puts me in the top 5% nationally. I can 'afford' the bottom 10-15% of housing. It's already a shitty proposition for me with 16 years experience and career progress. I can't blame young people for saying fuck this shit.
im assuming you live in SF or something, which means you need to understand you are a complete and total outlier to begin with.
Either way, it has never been the case that the average person is able to afford to live in the city and raise a family. why do you think that everyone moves out to the suburbs to buy a house.
The town your parents moved to was not as built up when they moved there as it is now. The city expanded. We just have to accept that we'll probably have to move a lot farther out from the city which is really the same equivalent that your parents did.
The CA housing market is just totally distorted by Prop 13. It is by design meant to screw new home buyers. And has been doing this for 46 years, with absolutely no end in sight.
I guess my point is that CA folks shouldn't generalize the issues with the housing market to the rest of the US/world just because they have a dogshit law on their books.
> im assuming you live in SF or something, which means you need to understand you are a complete and total outlier to begin with.
No, this is true almost everywhere. Wages are low in comparison to housing cost. If the poster was living and working where houses are cheaper than SF, then his salary would also be lower and he would still be limited to bottom tier housing on his income.
The only way possible right now is to own real estate by inheritance or by having been born earlier to get in before those people who decided to be born later. Either that or you have to find a way to get your income from somewhere different to where you live, so that you can afford property. With WFH normalised I'm predicting massive migration waves as the younger generations from expensive towns, cities and countries move away to where they can afford to live.
the nation is not completely homogeneous. In the situation where you are looking to purchase housing, the only comparison is in the immediate region (such as the county or at most, the state), as only others in the region competes with you, not somebody in a faraway state whose wages are much lower.