[MainlyMortal]

U.K. view here... and I'd guess this applies the the majority of the world too.

I was born in, grew up in and currently live in a location that the HN community never even thinks about. Most people in here have no idea of how the regular 99% live and then base their whole world view on expensive capital cities and hold the strangest views of housing.

I bought my current house in the 2010s, my mortgage is still half the price of renting and I could manage to pay for everything by myself even if I were on a minimum wage. The problem isn't anything to do with housing it's to do with your own warped view on the world.

I don't say this to be contrarian or to necessarily make a point. I want you to look up the minimum wage of your country and think about how literally everyone else happily lives without thinking twice about these things. You all live a massively privileged life yet these things concern you more than they should.

[rpigab]

You bought your house in 2010, if today in 2024 you had no house and had to buy one, could you? Haven't the mortgages and house prices increased a lot more than most salaries even in the remote countryside? (Just like the article says)

Also, remote countryside is cheap in most countries, but unless you can do 100% remote, they are very few jobs there.

[renjimen]

Maybe for your location, but not in Canada. I live in a rural town in Canada that is several hours of travel away from any big city. You will typically pay at least $1200 USD a month for rent. A mortgage for a cheap house will cost around $2000 USD a month. For reference, minimum wage after tax is around $1700 USD. Home ownership here is simply out of reach for many people now, and even renting is a struggle.

[Ladywood]

I think many people are missing your point, but I agree with you. I lived in London for 6 years after university. I am a Software Engineer, my wife is a Lawyer. Whilst we could afford to just about rent in the city, we couldn't buy towards the lifestyle we wanted to lead. So we moved to Leeds, 2hrs north by train.

Suddenly, the 1.5 bed flat we could afford in a good area of London became a 5 bed detached in the best area of Leeds - 15 minutes from the centre. We have huge parks, cinemas, waterfalls, cafes, public transport, swimming pools, yoga studios etc. all within 10 minutes of our house. This is the exact same stuff that I would crave and pay a premium for in London (or any other world city). However, I also have neighbours who are on minimum wage, also affording houses a few roads away from mine, getting to live that amazing lifestyle too. I would arguably say they are living better lifestyles than the majority of my peers in London who are finance bros, consultants, techies but stuck in flats or house shares in Peckham or wherever. This was a massive eye opening realisation for me, and I've recently come across the term 'Deano' to describe it.

Anyway - the answer in my opinion to the housing crisis is decentralisation. Make it feasible to continue to achieve at high levels, but in regional areas. Improve public transport to increase the effective population of these cities so businesses have larger talent pools to choose from, and thus it is more viable for them to relocate. STOP centring so much of global media/films/tv/culture on these fantasy worlds set in New York and help people build fantasy imagines of nice lives by setting them in LCOL areas.

Take the pressure off the big cities, share the wealth, the opportunities, and everyone will be better off for it.

[feoren]

Hot take: already own a house and live somewhere with a livable minimum wage. You are the one who sounds like you are completely unaware of your own privilege.

You just said that where you live, if you were on minimum wage, you could "manage to" pay for half the price of renting. Think hard about what you just said here. You are saying that someone on minimum wage can't nearly afford to rent. But their problem is their own warped view of the world. The warped view that someone working full time should not be forced into homelessness? How warped!

[Izkata]

I think the warped view is that renting is always cheaper than owning. You jumped straight there yourself, only arguing about cost of renting and not even touching ownership.

For example in Chicago in the US, at least in the early 2010s, it was also flipped like in GP's area: My monthly mortgage payment was around a third of the rent I had been paying, for a far far better place.

[dukeyukey]

> I think the warped view is that renting is always cheaper than owning.

I'm not sure that view really exists. Like, on a day-to-day basis early in your mortgage, _maybe_, but that's about it.