Conspiracy theorys, where do you stand?

[Telemark]

I don't think millennials and Gen Zers want the same houses Boomers and Gen X want/wanted. Tying up $400K+ in a 3500+ sq.ft. home in suburbia isn't what they're looking for. Builders/developers need to figure that out.

It wasn't until Covid. The pandemic freaked out a lot of urban millennials, and they started moving out to suburbs. They were also starting to have children about that time, and remote work was becoming more common, which fueled their migration from urban apartments to the suburbs.

 

[BenA]

I don't think we have a housing or food shortage. We just have a bunch of people that want to live on credit or think frivolous things are necessities. They line up at fast food joints, pay to have food delivered, stay in Airbnbs, vacation all over the world, buy the latest clothes, etc. But, people keep paying for stuff they don't need, so the prices keep going up. Supply and demand.

 

[Telemark]

That’s good because I don’t know of any market where that’s even a possibility. 3500 ft.² for $400,000 has gone the way of the dodo bird. Now it’s 1500 ft.² for $400,000 in way out of town, secondary markets.

That's brutal. What metropolitan region is that?

 

[Telemark]

I don't think we have a housing or food shortage. We just have a bunch of people that want to live on credit or think frivolous things are necessities. They line up at fast food joints, pay to have food delivered, stay in Airbnbs, vacation all over the world, buy the latest clothes, etc. But, people keep paying for stuff they don't need, so the prices keep going up. Supply and demand.

We don't have a food shortage, but we do have a housing shortage of around 2.5 million units.

Wasteful spending on things like Doordash are definitely a problem, and a symptom of the same underlying issues causing other problems for millennials. They don't want or know how to do things for themselves. It's also why they tend to be liberal even as they age.

 

[Maddog66]

Mine isn’t within 200 miles of anything you could consider metropolitan.

Try finding a good builder out in the boonies these days. They’re around but none of them need to screw with 1500 foot houses. That’s spec home territory.

Custom builders here have a 2 year backlog and an almost unlimited supply of Boomers with cash money.

 

[BenA]

We don't have a food shortage, but we do have a housing shortage of around 2.5 million units.

Wasteful spending on things like Doordash are definitely a problem, and a symptom of the same underlying issues causing other problems for millennials. They don't want or know how to do things for themselves. It's also why they tend to be liberal even as they age.

There are houses for sale all over the place. Affordability of them is another thing.

 

[Mortenson]

There are houses for sale all over the place. Affordability of them is another thing.

I just did a quick look at what's on the mls in my county. 200-300K can get you many options of nice homes here. 400K gets you a very nice, large home. Kinda a donut hole area where Chicagoland, Bloomington, Peoria, and Quad cities are all within about an hour+.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

That's brutal. What metropolitan region is that?

Outside of Nashville. It’s crazy. 1 plus out and your are still $100k for a 1.5 acre lot

 

[BenA]

I just did a quick look at what's on the mls in my county. 200-300K can get you many options of nice homes here. 400K gets you a very nice, large home. Kinda a donut hole area where Chicagoland, Bloomington, Peoria, and Quad cities are all within about an hour+.

About the same here. Lots of inventory, and the average price for a nice house is in the 300K range.

 

[Telemark]

Mine isn’t within 200 miles of anything you could consider metropolitan.

Try finding a good builder out in the boonies these days. They’re around but none of them need to screw with 1500 foot houses. That’s spec home territory.

Custom builders here have a 2 year backlog and an almost unlimited supply of Boomers with cash money.

Labor shortage is another huge problem, and it's another reason why millennials are at such a disadvantage. If they could learn some skills, they could do their own home over time.

For our vacation home in Canada, we contracted to have a shell built. We did the drywall, flooring, kitchen, and bathrooms ourselves. Saved a lot of money and have no mortgage and a LOT of positive equity. I was lucky enough to be born to conservative boomers, so they taught me a lot of skills, and I'm learning new ones all the time.

My sister basically did her entire home renovation herself when she and her family moved back to Ohio. They couldn't afford the $500,000+ houses in the area they wanted to live, so they waited until a fixer-upper had a price reduction and pounced. My sister was even offered a job by an electrician because she ran all the wire and mounted the fixtures herself. She just hired in the electrician to inspect it and hook it up. Apparently there is a major labor shortage, and the electrician is constantly turning away business. When the plumber came to give an estimate for a new gas water heater, he told them what the cost would be, and said they would be better off doing it themselves if they knew how. My BIL and I watched some Youtube videos and did the whole thing ourselves. Saved them thousands. We had never worked with gas before, but we learned.

Another great thing about being one of the millennials who DOES have home repair skills is that you have a lot of leverage in the fixer-upper sector of the real estate market, and you can afford a LOT more home than people who need or want something turnkey.

 

[Telemark]

I just did a quick look at what's on the mls in my county. 200-300K can get you many options of nice homes here. 400K gets you a very nice, large home. Kinda a donut hole area where Chicagoland, Bloomington, Peoria, and Quad cities are all within about an hour+.

If I were a young person, that's where I would go. Then I would buy myself a used Toyota for the commute and find some podcasts I like. I'd spend the next few years investing for retirement and throwing any leftover cash at my mortgage. After a few years of working hard and paying down my principle, I'd ask the bank to recast my mortgage and drop my monthly payment so I had a bit more free cash for fun stuff.