15 ms·

It seems regrettable that after having endless subsidies and encouragements to buy a family home, that people are insisting on keeping them long after there's a

It seems regrettable that after having endless subsidies and encouragements to buy a family home, that people are insisting on keeping them long after there's any point in having a large house. Given the housing shortage in so many markets, this seems like another nifty way for the Boomers to pull the ladder up after them.

lm28469 7y ago
I don't have a strong opinion on the subject but I recently read an article [0] that tells another story. You might find it interesting. [0] https://www.businessinsider.de/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-big-houses-real-estate-market-problems-2019-3?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.de/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-b...
- javagram 7y ago
  The article also says “Millennials buying their first home today are likely to pay 39% more than baby boomers who bought their first home in the 1980s”. Real estate inflation has been dramatic over the last several decades. If there were really a glut of old people attempting to offload their paid-off homes on the market, the prices might drop to more historically normal levels... I’m not sure how the statistics actually work out but if single or married people are staying in oversized homes for longer without kids, it does seem like that could affect the supply of homes for families with children. I know the UK had a controversy over a “bedroom tax” that tried to address this issue.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    There’s a glut of homes for sale, in places with either no economic prospects or low desirability to live. More and more higher income people competing with each other in less and less land area = higher sale prices.
    - brewdad 7y ago
      This. My Dad's home in a lagging industrial town in the Upper Midwest is probably only worth about 1.5x what he paid for it 40 years ago. He has well over an acre and the house is in great shape. No one wants to move there though, so housing prices are depressed. He'd like to move, but would have to take on a mortgage in his 70s, so he'll stay put and my sibling and I will sell it for whatever we can get when he passes.
  - alibarber 7y ago
    The "bedroom tax" only applies (applied? - I don't know what the actual status is) to state-subsidised/social housing.
  - landcoctos 7y ago
    >The article also says “Millennials buying their first home today are likely to pay 39% more than baby boomers who bought their first home in the 1980s”. Interest rates were much much higher in the 1980s. So it's probably a wash and/or even less now.
    - baldeagle 7y ago
      Interest rates can be refi'd at a lower rate, but the amount you paid on the day you purchase it can never be bought down (there is inflation, which can reduce your debt load, but only if wages go up as well. We're seeing real estate and consumer goods increasing and most non-tech wages stagnating. Don't even get me started on the gig economy).
assblaster 7y ago
I plan on keeping my large house long after the kids leave. I need my space.
- tsss 7y ago
  Do you really? Have you ever had the pleasure of trying to sell the house of a recently deceased relative? More often than not they are absolutely filled to the brim with literally tons of useless junk. Entire rooms, garages or even floors that nobody has set foot in for years which only serve to store things that were bought and never used. It seems that once you reach a certain age, a house is primarily for storing all the clutter that accumulated in a lifetime, not for living.
  - ASalazarMX 7y ago
    Seniors should plan ahead and build a warehouse next to their house.
stronglikedan 7y ago
I bought mine without any subsidies, grants, etc. I have no desire to give it up, nor any good reason. There's new houses being built all the time, so no one must live in mine specifically.
- icebraining 7y ago
  > I bought mine without any subsidies So you didn't deduce your mortgage interest on your taxes?
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    What mortgage interest?

lm28469 7y ago

I don't have a strong opinion on the subject but I recently read an article [0] that tells another story. You might find it interesting. [0] https://www.businessinsider.de/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-big-houses-real-estate-market-problems-2019-3?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.de/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-b...

javagram 7y ago
The article also says “Millennials buying their first home today are likely to pay 39% more than baby boomers who bought their first home in the 1980s”. Real estate inflation has been dramatic over the last several decades. If there were really a glut of old people attempting to offload their paid-off homes on the market, the prices might drop to more historically normal levels... I’m not sure how the statistics actually work out but if single or married people are staying in oversized homes for longer without kids, it does seem like that could affect the supply of homes for families with children. I know the UK had a controversy over a “bedroom tax” that tried to address this issue.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  There’s a glut of homes for sale, in places with either no economic prospects or low desirability to live. More and more higher income people competing with each other in less and less land area = higher sale prices.
  - brewdad 7y ago
    This. My Dad's home in a lagging industrial town in the Upper Midwest is probably only worth about 1.5x what he paid for it 40 years ago. He has well over an acre and the house is in great shape. No one wants to move there though, so housing prices are depressed. He'd like to move, but would have to take on a mortgage in his 70s, so he'll stay put and my sibling and I will sell it for whatever we can get when he passes.
- alibarber 7y ago
  The "bedroom tax" only applies (applied? - I don't know what the actual status is) to state-subsidised/social housing.
- landcoctos 7y ago
  >The article also says “Millennials buying their first home today are likely to pay 39% more than baby boomers who bought their first home in the 1980s”. Interest rates were much much higher in the 1980s. So it's probably a wash and/or even less now.
  - baldeagle 7y ago
    Interest rates can be refi'd at a lower rate, but the amount you paid on the day you purchase it can never be bought down (there is inflation, which can reduce your debt load, but only if wages go up as well. We're seeing real estate and consumer goods increasing and most non-tech wages stagnating. Don't even get me started on the gig economy).

assblaster 7y ago

I plan on keeping my large house long after the kids leave. I need my space.

tsss 7y ago
Do you really? Have you ever had the pleasure of trying to sell the house of a recently deceased relative? More often than not they are absolutely filled to the brim with literally tons of useless junk. Entire rooms, garages or even floors that nobody has set foot in for years which only serve to store things that were bought and never used. It seems that once you reach a certain age, a house is primarily for storing all the clutter that accumulated in a lifetime, not for living.
- ASalazarMX 7y ago
  Seniors should plan ahead and build a warehouse next to their house.

stronglikedan 7y ago

I bought mine without any subsidies, grants, etc. I have no desire to give it up, nor any good reason. There's new houses being built all the time, so no one must live in mine specifically.

icebraining 7y ago
> I bought mine without any subsidies So you didn't deduce your mortgage interest on your taxes?
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  What mortgage interest?