[ragingrobot]

Have you seen the sacrifices made to afford those homes? Just because someone owns a home doesn't show the whole picture.

There are plenty of Americans that own homes and are struggling to make ends meet elsewhere.

Home ownership is set up to consume a person. Miss a payment and there are serious repercussions to one's financial well being, so it becomes a priority.

Up to a point, miss a credit card payment and it's extra fees. Miss a utility bill a month, and it's the same. Buy less food and you'll survive, albeit less comfortably.

[apwell23]

> There are plenty of Americans that own homes and are struggling to make ends meet elsewhere.

They need to downgrade then. Not everyone needs to live in 5 bed mcmansion. I know ppl who bought 100k cars are 'struggling to make ends meet'.

[WarOnPrivacy]

> They need to downgrade then.

Seven of us were living in a 3/3 - when I could no longer afford the monthly payments that doubled via insurance increases. What would you have us downgrade to?

> Not everyone needs to live in 5 bed mcmansion.

This seems like a unproductive assumption and one unlikely to be the rule. Why introduce it into the conversation?

[jajko]

This is not unique to US in any way I can see. Also, doing by far the biggest financial decision of a lifetime should expect some serious financial analysis beforehand, and plenty of extra buffer for 'what if' situations. Quadruple that for US due to healthcare (and education for potential children) costs.

But what I see sounds mostly as FOMO and emotional decisions. Having home ain't some basic human right but a luxury, where I come from (central Europe) it was like that for hundreds of years. All generations living in 1 tiny basic house was the default, inheritance with many kids was very tricky and thus often cousins were forced to marry. Maybe there was some period in US where things were significantly cheaper, but what were the reasons? Maybe US wasn't so full of people. Maybe poor blue collar construction workers were squeezed much more harshly so that things were done cheaper. Also, construction got (at least in Europe) massively more complex and thus expensive due to regulations, materials etc. There can be 10,000 other reasons. But it seems otherwise smart folks here are mostly looking for first target to blame.

Cheap housing is a pipe dream in strongly capitalistic society like US. I know everybody not having it wishes for it dearly, at least until the moment they cross the fence to home ownership and then suddenly want to see their biggest investment appreciate sky high. Seems like human nature, me first and then the rest (I am not an exception, but then again stuff above doesn't make me lose sleep, life has way more important qualities than hoarding wealth at other's expense).

[mikhael28]

This is a very smart, level-headed analysis of the current state of affairs.