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While not as bad off as the US, we are still seeing similar trends. They still can't afford to buy apartments until their 30s if they have good jobs, while the
by Deestan 8y ago
While not as bad off as the US, we are still seeing similar trends. They still can't afford to buy apartments until their 30s if they have good jobs, while their parents bought houses at the age of 20 working as factory drones.
- viach 8y agoI think their parents got mortgages which they were paying off all their factory drone lives, not bought these houses.
- sideshowb 8y agoAnd the kids get mortgages in their 30s too presumably
- usrusr 8y agoOnly those who either expect to stay employed in the same geographic area for the remainder of their working life (this has dropped from "almost everybody" to "hardly anybody" where I live) or who simply do not care (I presume that this has stayed constant over generations)
- sideshowb 8y agoHere in the UK you can port mortgages from one house to another... (Or at current interest rates let out the old place)
- s3m4j 8y agoCounterpoint, to take a loan you have to trust the system to both do right by you, and not collapse from under you. It might be difficult now to trust those two things.
- maxerickson 8y agoWhat's the downside of having a loan when the system collapses? Just walk away from the property and there you go. The worse the collapse the easier that is.
- growlist 8y agoPeople have been calling a property market crash here in the UK for many many years, with others making £100ks out of property over the same period. Anyone that is sage enough to call the housing market should start a private equity company and make billions.
- endymi0n 8y agoIn most cities in western / northern Europe, it's completely impossible by now to get a mortgage for a home remotely large enough for a family, even with two factory drone salaries and even if you pay all of your life.
- olavgg 8y agoNot really, the problem is that the average standard in a home is quite high and makes the average housing very expensive.
- viach 8y agoNoticed how you added "large enough" restriction? Standards are changing, today it is not enough to buy just a house, it should be "large enough".
- Ar-Curunir 8y agoIf you omit the second part of the phrase obviously the meaning changes. The commenter clearly said "large enough for a family".
- smcl 8y agoEveryone who has ever bought a house or flat has an expectation that it will be large enough for their needs - whether that is a single person, a couple or a family with two kids. This is not a new development.
- gaius 8y agotheir parents bought houses at the age of 20 working as factory drones Drones, really? The skill of even a basic assembly line worker dwarfs that of the glorified typing that passes for most middle-class employment. But machine tool operating is often highly skilled work.
- philjohn 8y agoI don't know, did you ever see the quality of cars coming off the British Leyland factory line? ;)
- dejv 8y agoSkill is the pont, there are skilled and unskilled jobs in both white and blue collar jobs. Difference is that white collar jobs require some level of cultural sophistication. But you are right with very skilled machinists, one of my relative makes as much as senior developers or even some CEOs by tendind lathes and similar machines. As with software development you just want to be in shops that are doing stuff with high margins.
- walshemj 8y agoI think they meant a line worker not a time served tool setter.
- mockingbirdy 8y agoThere are a ton of reasons. - Adolescence lasts longer (until mid-20s) which means that people don't grow up so fast anymore. Why? Because of the wealth of the societies they live in. - More people study. Many are around 25-27 when they finally start to work. - Real wages didn't increase although inflation did. - The workforce is divided: Too many marketing experts, but a shortage of craftsmen. Too many people want jobs where they just sit in an office. - Some millennials have seen that their parents work insanely hard; they don't want to repeat their mistakes and miss important aspects of life. They value their time more and accept compromises in their salaries. - Many young people lack money management skills. Delayed gratification is very hard to learn if you're used to a certain type of living. - Real estate gets used as an investment opportunity which drives housing prices up. This wasn't so drastic when other more profitable investment opportunities existed. - The job market is professionalized and more efficient, degrees get valued highly but lack their former signal effect because everyone has a degree. Therefore it's harder to find good opportunities. You need more skills and more luck to succeed in this system. We can't just say "The previous generation had more", we have to analyze thoroughly why they could pay for a mortgage in their early 20s and how their lifestyles differed. I'm around 20y/o in Europe and I think $60k is a low salary for someone in their 30s (with work experience of 10-15 years). I can make $10k in a good month without any degree. Maybe millennials should learn to negotiate better and demonstrate real business value to their employers. I know many people who make €7-15k (which is a top-10%/top-5% salary in Germany) who are in their 20s or early 30s. I think many don't understand how money works and that money is just a number. So few people think strategically about their salaries and just accept their circumstances.
- heckerhut 8y agowell said.
- antpls 8y ago> I think many don't understand how money works and that money is just a number. So few people think strategically about their salaries and just accept their circumstances. You should be more humble. You are on an "hacker" website. Did someone say we can't hack money? If you earn 10k a month, that's great, what about sharing it among the people who didn't have the same luck than you? People aren't born with the same information environment and legacy. Some people can afford to take risks and earn even more while some simply cannot.
- dorian-graph 8y agoI have a ton of friends who have bought apartments in Oslo who are under 30. And I mean Oslo too, not out at Lillestrøm or anywhere on the outskirts.
- stefanfisk 8y agohow many of them did it entirely with their own salaries, rather than using their parents' money for the cash deposit?
- soziawa 8y agoIt almost seems like city centres are not finite. Who would have thought?