5 ms·

Exactly. I grew up in LA, and my parents bought a house for 50K in the 70s, but that same house today is ~700K. Just getting the down payment for a house that p

Exactly. I grew up in LA, and my parents bought a house for 50K in the 70s, but that same house today is ~700K. Just getting the down payment for a house that price would take a long time.

throwawayboise 5y ago
But what was their income in the 70s?
- pharmakom 5y ago
  More than 700/50x less
mattmanser 5y ago
$50,000 in 1970 is worth $350,000 in 2021 dollars. So in reality the house has doubled in price.
- kubb 5y ago
  And I guess what we think are great salaries in the tech industry today, were salaries of a postman or a factory worker back then?
  - poloopolo 5y ago
    Of course, what has gone down is the real purchasing power of a dollar. Good thing we now have crypto but the transition will be a wild west
  - mattmanser 5y ago
    A small section of the total workforce has had a massive salary bump due to a severe shortage. Not sure what that's got to do with anything we're talking about.
failwhaleshark 5y ago
My grandparents bought their house on the SJC - Los Gatos border for $30k in 1968. It sold in 2019 for $1.4M. That's what piggyback second mortgages are for. There are also subsidized loans for first-time buyers in the US called FHA loans that allow 3.5% to 10% down payments.
- chii 5y ago
  > $30k in 1968. It sold in 2019 for $1.4M. and the same $30k invested in the S&P 500 in 1968 would have earned you 186x - or $5,580,000 (using http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm as a guide to calculate returns). And yet, nobody bats an eye that this amazing returns of stocks, and continues to complain that housing prices are too high today, when it was "cheap" in the past. But was it really cheap in the past?
  - temp8964 5y ago
    But you can't live inside stocks. House is not just investment.
    - failwhaleshark 5y ago
      Inelastic demand items: housing.. like water, food, heating. I guess my grandparents could've squatted in the Santa Cruz mountains for a while and kept saving to buy stocks. ;-)
  - deepnotderp 5y ago
    But I don’t need stocks in order to survive. I do need shelter though. As long as housing is seen as an investment it’s not going to be affordable.
    - chii 5y ago
      you don't need to own property to live there - you can rent. Buying and owning property will always be an investment. If this investment is worth it (aka, it has outsized returns), then it can not be affordable.

Exactly. I grew up in LA, and my parents bought a house for 50K in the 70s, but that same house today is ~700K. Just getting the down payment for a house that price would take a long time.

throwawayboise 5y ago

But what was their income in the 70s?

pharmakom 5y ago
More than 700/50x less

mattmanser 5y ago

$50,000 in 1970 is worth $350,000 in 2021 dollars. So in reality the house has doubled in price.

kubb 5y ago
And I guess what we think are great salaries in the tech industry today, were salaries of a postman or a factory worker back then?
- poloopolo 5y ago
  Of course, what has gone down is the real purchasing power of a dollar. Good thing we now have crypto but the transition will be a wild west
- mattmanser 5y ago
  A small section of the total workforce has had a massive salary bump due to a severe shortage. Not sure what that's got to do with anything we're talking about.

failwhaleshark 5y ago

My grandparents bought their house on the SJC - Los Gatos border for $30k in 1968. It sold in 2019 for $1.4M. That's what piggyback second mortgages are for. There are also subsidized loans for first-time buyers in the US called FHA loans that allow 3.5% to 10% down payments.

chii 5y ago
> $30k in 1968. It sold in 2019 for $1.4M. and the same $30k invested in the S&P 500 in 1968 would have earned you 186x - or $5,580,000 (using http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm as a guide to calculate returns). And yet, nobody bats an eye that this amazing returns of stocks, and continues to complain that housing prices are too high today, when it was "cheap" in the past. But was it really cheap in the past?
- temp8964 5y ago
  But you can't live inside stocks. House is not just investment.
  - failwhaleshark 5y ago
    Inelastic demand items: housing.. like water, food, heating. I guess my grandparents could've squatted in the Santa Cruz mountains for a while and kept saving to buy stocks. ;-)
- deepnotderp 5y ago
  But I don’t need stocks in order to survive. I do need shelter though. As long as housing is seen as an investment it’s not going to be affordable.
  - chii 5y ago
    you don't need to own property to live there - you can rent. Buying and owning property will always be an investment. If this investment is worth it (aka, it has outsized returns), then it can not be affordable.