4 ms·

It's not that it's different than the rest of the world, it's that in the past the US was wealthy enough that this wasn't a typical thing to do. The news here i

It's not that it's different than the rest of the world, it's that in the past the US was wealthy enough that this wasn't a typical thing to do. The news here is more that the US is in decline, and it's no longer standard for young people to be able to afford to live on their own.

pope_meat 5y ago
The US is in decline for some of us. The wealthy folks are raking it in like never before.
LurkingPenguin 5y ago
Exactly. I live in an East Asian country and my impression is that generally speaking young people who live at home would prefer to live alone but don't because of finances and filial piety.
jefftk 5y ago
It's less that the US has become less wealthy, and more that we have manufactured a housing crisis by refusing to allow people to construct housing to keep up with demand.
- PhantomGremlin 5y ago
  we have manufactured a housing crisis I agree there's a housing crisis, not sure how we arrived at one, "manufactured" or whatever. Just one data point, personal. As a young professional I bought a fairly new house in the Portland Oregon suburbs in the 1980s for about 2x my salary. Today my daughter, a young professional, would have to pay closer to 8x her salary (if you believe Zillow) to buy that very same "starter" house, which is now 35 years older. Rents have commensurately increased. To quote Jimmy McMillan: "the rent is too damn high".
  - jefftk 5y ago
    "Manufactured" as in "this is a problem we created through bad policy". It is far harder to build new housing in the US than it used to be, which drives up prices for existing homes, which benefits the local homeowners (voters!) at the expense of everyone else.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    The population of Portland has more than doubled. Interest rates are at 0 and Portland has a popularity increase over 35 years making properties more desirable. Portland is trying not to ruin what made it unique with density everywhere and they are not making new land so all of that equals higher prices. Once interest rates go back to 7% and people start leaving you will see prices go down. Salem or Gresham would be a cheaper city to move to.
    - nly 5y ago
      Interest rates don't matter to first time buyers trying to get on the housing ladder. When housing is 8x income and the bank won't lend you more than 5x income you need to start with a 40% equity to get anywhere
  - Lammy 5y ago
    > I agree there's a housing crisis, not sure how we arrived at one, "manufactured" or whatever. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO
- mullingitover 5y ago
  I totally agree that we've manufactured a housing crisis, but having driven around in the rural midwest, the US is obviously less wealthy than it used to be. There are abandoned structures littering the country in what used to be thriving towns. We have on average gotten more wealthy, but the p50 and p20 brackets definitely are worse off than in past generations and worse off than in comparable post-industrial economies.
chiefalchemist 5y ago
To be fair, the USA being in decline isn't necessarily causation for young people not being able to afford to live on the their own. The key issue is the cost of housing; which the USA is reluctant and resolve. Student loan debt also factors in to this situation. Are those driving the USA's decline? Or simply symptoms of a systems dedicated more to Wall Street and less to Main Street?

pope_meat 5y ago

The US is in decline for some of us. The wealthy folks are raking it in like never before.

LurkingPenguin 5y ago

Exactly. I live in an East Asian country and my impression is that generally speaking young people who live at home would prefer to live alone but don't because of finances and filial piety.

jefftk 5y ago

It's less that the US has become less wealthy, and more that we have manufactured a housing crisis by refusing to allow people to construct housing to keep up with demand.

PhantomGremlin 5y ago
we have manufactured a housing crisis I agree there's a housing crisis, not sure how we arrived at one, "manufactured" or whatever. Just one data point, personal. As a young professional I bought a fairly new house in the Portland Oregon suburbs in the 1980s for about 2x my salary. Today my daughter, a young professional, would have to pay closer to 8x her salary (if you believe Zillow) to buy that very same "starter" house, which is now 35 years older. Rents have commensurately increased. To quote Jimmy McMillan: "the rent is too damn high".
- jefftk 5y ago
  "Manufactured" as in "this is a problem we created through bad policy". It is far harder to build new housing in the US than it used to be, which drives up prices for existing homes, which benefits the local homeowners (voters!) at the expense of everyone else.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  The population of Portland has more than doubled. Interest rates are at 0 and Portland has a popularity increase over 35 years making properties more desirable. Portland is trying not to ruin what made it unique with density everywhere and they are not making new land so all of that equals higher prices. Once interest rates go back to 7% and people start leaving you will see prices go down. Salem or Gresham would be a cheaper city to move to.
  - nly 5y ago
    Interest rates don't matter to first time buyers trying to get on the housing ladder. When housing is 8x income and the bank won't lend you more than 5x income you need to start with a 40% equity to get anywhere
- Lammy 5y ago
  > I agree there's a housing crisis, not sure how we arrived at one, "manufactured" or whatever. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO
mullingitover 5y ago
I totally agree that we've manufactured a housing crisis, but having driven around in the rural midwest, the US is obviously less wealthy than it used to be. There are abandoned structures littering the country in what used to be thriving towns. We have on average gotten more wealthy, but the p50 and p20 brackets definitely are worse off than in past generations and worse off than in comparable post-industrial economies.

chiefalchemist 5y ago

To be fair, the USA being in decline isn't necessarily causation for young people not being able to afford to live on the their own. The key issue is the cost of housing; which the USA is reluctant and resolve. Student loan debt also factors in to this situation. Are those driving the USA's decline? Or simply symptoms of a systems dedicated more to Wall Street and less to Main Street?