Why can't young people afford houses?

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J.R.
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 9:46a, 4/20/26
Redbrickbear said:
J.R. said:
Daughter and hubby just bought their first house in Dallas. Daughter is preggers so that preferred a home instead of rental...


Congrats on the house for her and the good news about the baby!

Thank you Red, good sir!
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Redbrickbear
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11:04p, 4/20/26
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Doc Holliday
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In reply to boognish_bear • 10:30a, 4/21/26
boognish_bear said:

Yep and most people under 50 barely make 6 figures even with dual income. They can't even afford $450k with $10k in yearly property taxes.

Hell my property taxes and insurance is higher than my mortgage lol. I couldn't imagine a 6.5% loan. Most people trying to get in a basic home are probably looking at $3500-$5000k a month between their mortgage, insurance and property taxes.
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boognish_bear
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10:36a, 4/21/26


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cowboycwr
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 1:37p, 4/21/26
Redbrickbear said:

I know this is anecdotal evidence but I can relate to this. It took me a single man years to save up enough to have a down payment for a house.

I was also a little different in that I did not buy a "starter" house. I bought one that could have been our forever home if we hadn't moved for work. Because of not wanting to buy a starter home I sort of delayed my home buying process as I could have bought a smaller starter home with a smaller down payment, or even no down payment when some companies were giving those type of loans out, but I didn't want that.

But I had lots of friends that were getting married and buying homes and didn't seem to comprehend why I wasn't buying but forgetting that I had one salary.
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cowboycwr
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In reply to Doc Holliday • 1:39p, 4/21/26
Doc Holliday said:
boognish_bear said:

Yep and most people under 50 barely make 6 figures even with dual income. They can't even afford $450k with $10k in yearly property taxes.

Hell my property taxes and insurance is higher than my mortgage lol. I couldn't imagine a 6.5% loan. Most people trying to get in a basic home are probably looking at $3500-$5000k a month between their mortgage, insurance and property taxes.

Very true.

Add in that just a few years ago the home values were basically half that so people had saved up maybe about 20K for a down payment that would have been 10-20% (depending on house value) but now it is much, much higher and many loan companies want a minimum of 20%.
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cowboycwr
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In reply to boognish_bear • 1:40p, 4/21/26
boognish_bear said:



If you get on Zillow, realtor, etc. and search there are a ton of new construction homes that have been done with construction for a year or more that the builder has just been sitting on.
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Doc Holliday
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2:03p, 4/21/26
Pro tip:

Look for new builds in neighborhoods that are mostly built out and buy near the end of the quarter from a builder that's about to exit.

I've seen a Mattamy home first listed for $700k, one of the last four homes they had left. Price was negotiated down to $579k. 3,800 square feet! They just wanted it off the books.
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boognish_bear
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5:53p, 4/21/26
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Redbrickbear
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In reply to Doc Holliday • 6:22p, 4/21/26
Doc Holliday said:
Pro tip:

Look for new builds in neighborhoods that are mostly built out and buy near the end of the quarter from a builder that's about to exit.

I've seen a Mattamy home first listed for $700k, one of the last four homes they had left. Price was negotiated down to $579k. 3,800 square feet! They just wanted it off the books.


That is a dang good idea!

And a good price drop on that example you gave
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boognish_bear
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5:06p, 4/23/26
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7:46p, 4/23/26
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Redbrickbear
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In reply to boognish_bear • 1:11p, 4/24/26
boognish_bear said:


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boognish_bear
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12:08a, 4/25/26
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Redbrickbear
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In reply to boognish_bear • 9:06a, 4/25/26
boognish_bear said:


I'm sure that has nothing to do with young people not making enough money to keep up with inflation making their earnings worth less and housing being ridiculously expensive….

The olds are not gonna have any young people in the future to buy their over priced homes at this rate.

Gotta have kids born today…to have new home buyers 30 years from now.
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boognish_bear
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3:02p, 4/25/26
No backdoor?

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Redbrickbear
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In reply to boognish_bear • 3:31p, 4/25/26
boognish_bear said:
No backdoor?



Honeslty that is pretty ideal for college/student housing!

Specially now with flat screen tvs that go on the wall and laptops for study/work.

All a young person really needs.

And it works as a form of rental in a city (short term work stays or young adult people just moving to town) it's good as well. The whole 6 month leases to 1 year leases.

But if that is where we are headed for mature adult housing because the middle and working class have been priced out of life…and this type of update shotgun house is the best we can do for them…then man is that bleak ;(
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cowboycwr
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 9:06a, 4/28/26
Redbrickbear said:
boognish_bear said:
No backdoor?



Honeslty that is pretty ideal for college/student housing!

Specially now with flat screen tvs that go on the wall and laptops for study/work.

All a young person really needs.

And it works as a form of rental in a city (short term work stays or young adult people just moving to town) it's good as well. The whole 6 month leases to 1 year leases.

But if that is where we are headed for mature adult housing because the middle and working class have been priced out of life…and this type of update shotgun house is the best we can do for them…then man is that bleak ;(

Agreed. This is perfect for a college student or recent grad.

The problem I see is that too many builders push things like this or the "tiny homes" in an attempt to build lots of them and sell them. They partner with influencers, magazines, etc. to push the benefits of tiny homes and then build more because they can make more off these than larger houses.

To me it is the same as the shift I once read a good study about from houses with normal good sized yards to the decreasing yard size because developers wanted to sell more houses and not yards. So they partnered with the above people to push the benefits of the smaller yard and the "wants" of society changed from wanting a yard to the size of the house and people stopped caring about the yard size.
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Redbrickbear
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6:39p, 4/28/26
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cowboycwr
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 8:28p, 4/28/26
Redbrickbear said:


I don't know much about this bill. Would this also impact the homes being built in high "tourist" areas where lots of homes are built just to be Airbnb or VRBO rentals? Like beaches, ski towns, places like Broken Bow, Gatlinburg, etc. where it's of cabins, small houses or even extra large houses are built but never intended to be actually used as housing?
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boognish_bear
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9:09p, 4/28/26
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10:33a, 4/29/26
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Redbrickbear
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1:35a, 5/2/26
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Chipoople
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 10:45a, 5/2/26
The house my folks bought about 25 years ago was $90k. Now it's "valued" at $450k.

I guarantee the house I bought for $350k in 2018 isn't going to be worth $1.5 million in 17 years.
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boognish_bear
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Redbrickbear
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In reply to Redbrickbear • 8:17p, 5/3/26
Redbrickbear said:


I can't believe how long it's taking for prices to come down when nothing is moving. Sellers are dug in I guess.
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boognish_bear
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cowboycwr
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In reply to boognish_bear • 9:55a, 5/4/26
boognish_bear said:
Redbrickbear said:


I can't believe how long it's taking for prices to come down when nothing is moving. Sellers are dug in I guess.

They are very dug in. An in my opinion it seems realtors aren't adjusting well either. Plus the way of pricing houses using "comps" based simply on square footage doesn't seem to help in times like this. Just because another house with the same square footage sold for a certain amount does not mean another house that has not been updated in this bad market is worth the same.
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Redbrickbear
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8:34p, 5/6/26
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boognish_bear
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10:18a, 5/7/26
Some signs of hope of prices coming down

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