4 ms·

> "We believe the delay in homeownership is due to tighter credit standard and lifestyle changes [...]" Being priced completely out of the market is another wa

> "We believe the delay in homeownership is due to tighter credit standard and lifestyle changes [...]" Being priced completely out of the market is another way to say that, given the housing market in the UK. A lack of guaranteed long-term disposable income explains most of the others; diamonds, annual gym membership contracts.

stuaxo 9y ago
Indeed - people in all industries that need people to have disposable income, should be lobbying for solutions to these issues.
danzig13 9y ago
I believe this is true in the United States also. I definitely have constant post code envy and look up houses all the time. Housing costs a fortune for anything move in ready in any city/town that is desirable and I'm looking in the Southeast which would have been traditionally pretty cheap.
christophilus 9y ago
I don't know if it's that simple. I align with this study, but have a decent income. - Home-ownership is a giant pain and often a poor financial choice - The diamond industry is corrupt, filled with human misery, and has artificially inflated prices - Why pay for a gym when I can go hiking, walking, do yoga, and all the other exercises I like on my own for free?
- actsasbuffoon 9y ago
  > Home-ownership is a giant pain and often a poor financial choice Yeah, this probably doesn't get discussed enough. I've had my house for a little under a year, and it's required a new roof, a gas stove for a finished basement that turned out to be severely under-heated, problems with electrical wiring, and a few little odds and ends that weren't up to code, which I had to fix to get home owners insurance. I'm saving a bundle when you only consider the difference between my old rent and my new mortgage, but home ownership comes with many incidental one-off costs.
  - IshKebab 9y ago
    You shouldn't just consider the difference between your rent and mortgage. Mortgage eventually ends. Rent doesn't.
    - iheartmemcache 9y ago
      You still have the overhead of maintenance. Live in a cold region in a home built before natural gas was piped to your region? Heating suddenly fails in February? That $95 dollar proprietary, mechanical zone-controller from Honeywell is going to cost you $120 after markup and another $600 in labor. That heating tech also saw some "green death" on that copper, so you're going to have to call a plumber. I'm fine with that but I went through vetting three heating techs before I found one that one which knew his industry well enough to answer my fairly baseline questions.[0] Eventually the guy I settled with explained the mechanical properties of both zone-control unit designs, and why one brand is more popular in the region[2]. He then mentioned what he observed as the more reliable Taco lines "always go with the gold series controllers, the green ones are poorly constructed especially if not installed properly". All in all, I probably spent ~20 hours on top of the labor. In my NYC co-op, all of that would have been dealt with and paid with the co-op fees (which are more than reasonable). On the flipside, I'm perfectly fine with the home maintenance issues-- but it's ultimately the vetting process for a well informed[3] tradesman that takes the bulk of the time[4]. -- [0] Generally, I get on some forum with trade masters[1] I found the answers to after about half an hour of researching on a master plumber forum [1] (i.e., "so how often do these units fail? How does the Tacos compare to the Honeywells?"). [1] For EE, the EEVblog is usually second to none. Need a copy of the firmware for a 1984 HP sig-an? Some dude will have it. Other trades have similar sites- Hvac-talk in this case, absolutely high quality discourse. The great thing is that most of the time these guys will have in their vBulletin signatures their qualifications like "Master Certified ..., 1984 ". Similarly, practicalmachinist is great for certain things. Contractor-talk IIRC was very helpful as well. [2] It turns out Honeywell is out of Rhode Island so there was some local brand loyality developed out of buying local + the sales reps hit western MA pretty hard. [3] I.e., this 55 year old chap informed me that you apparently want to have the unit head pointing up and positioned vertically and mounted in-line with horizontal (not vertical) piping. This mistake is fairly common apparently and can lead to significant issues down the line. So while I paid more for his labor, his industrial knowledge was effective "preventative maintenance". [4] If you don't want to/don't have the time to perform due diligence, having a friend who is informed enough to vet the quality of work with you is worth it. A buddy of mine is a contractor who knows all of the corner that are often cut, the indicators of quality workmanship, etc.

stuaxo 9y ago

Indeed - people in all industries that need people to have disposable income, should be lobbying for solutions to these issues.

danzig13 9y ago

I believe this is true in the United States also. I definitely have constant post code envy and look up houses all the time. Housing costs a fortune for anything move in ready in any city/town that is desirable and I'm looking in the Southeast which would have been traditionally pretty cheap.

christophilus 9y ago

I don't know if it's that simple. I align with this study, but have a decent income. - Home-ownership is a giant pain and often a poor financial choice - The diamond industry is corrupt, filled with human misery, and has artificially inflated prices - Why pay for a gym when I can go hiking, walking, do yoga, and all the other exercises I like on my own for free?

actsasbuffoon 9y ago
> Home-ownership is a giant pain and often a poor financial choice Yeah, this probably doesn't get discussed enough. I've had my house for a little under a year, and it's required a new roof, a gas stove for a finished basement that turned out to be severely under-heated, problems with electrical wiring, and a few little odds and ends that weren't up to code, which I had to fix to get home owners insurance. I'm saving a bundle when you only consider the difference between my old rent and my new mortgage, but home ownership comes with many incidental one-off costs.
- IshKebab 9y ago
  You shouldn't just consider the difference between your rent and mortgage. Mortgage eventually ends. Rent doesn't.
  - iheartmemcache 9y ago
    You still have the overhead of maintenance. Live in a cold region in a home built before natural gas was piped to your region? Heating suddenly fails in February? That $95 dollar proprietary, mechanical zone-controller from Honeywell is going to cost you $120 after markup and another $600 in labor. That heating tech also saw some "green death" on that copper, so you're going to have to call a plumber. I'm fine with that but I went through vetting three heating techs before I found one that one which knew his industry well enough to answer my fairly baseline questions.[0] Eventually the guy I settled with explained the mechanical properties of both zone-control unit designs, and why one brand is more popular in the region[2]. He then mentioned what he observed as the more reliable Taco lines "always go with the gold series controllers, the green ones are poorly constructed especially if not installed properly". All in all, I probably spent ~20 hours on top of the labor. In my NYC co-op, all of that would have been dealt with and paid with the co-op fees (which are more than reasonable). On the flipside, I'm perfectly fine with the home maintenance issues-- but it's ultimately the vetting process for a well informed[3] tradesman that takes the bulk of the time[4]. -- [0] Generally, I get on some forum with trade masters[1] I found the answers to after about half an hour of researching on a master plumber forum [1] (i.e., "so how often do these units fail? How does the Tacos compare to the Honeywells?"). [1] For EE, the EEVblog is usually second to none. Need a copy of the firmware for a 1984 HP sig-an? Some dude will have it. Other trades have similar sites- Hvac-talk in this case, absolutely high quality discourse. The great thing is that most of the time these guys will have in their vBulletin signatures their qualifications like "Master Certified ..., 1984 ". Similarly, practicalmachinist is great for certain things. Contractor-talk IIRC was very helpful as well. [2] It turns out Honeywell is out of Rhode Island so there was some local brand loyality developed out of buying local + the sales reps hit western MA pretty hard. [3] I.e., this 55 year old chap informed me that you apparently want to have the unit head pointing up and positioned vertically and mounted in-line with horizontal (not vertical) piping. This mistake is fairly common apparently and can lead to significant issues down the line. So while I paid more for his labor, his industrial knowledge was effective "preventative maintenance". [4] If you don't want to/don't have the time to perform due diligence, having a friend who is informed enough to vet the quality of work with you is worth it. A buddy of mine is a contractor who knows all of the corner that are often cut, the indicators of quality workmanship, etc.