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This study was also done during 2020 which may have had some other confounding factors with it, of course I can't think of what that could be. Part of the sque

This study was also done during 2020 which may have had some other confounding factors with it, of course I can't think of what that could be. Part of the squeeze is that we have the largest age demographic, the boomers, in a stage of life in which they are highly unlikely to move, whilst still living in their homes. This issue will sort itself out shortly. At the same time you had incredibly low interest rates which led to many people who already had established credit and assets the ability to borrow against it and move it to real estate in order to find a stable vehicle that would hedge against inflation. The final, and I consider biggest, factor is the fact that the government start indirectly subsidizing housing, which means there was now a massive pool of money that could only be spent on housing available, and the economically predictable thing happened, which was the price of the thing increased substantially because now there was a large portion of money that could only be spent on that thing. As evidence of this the 3 things that seem to be increasing in cost the fastest, and that people complain about the most, Healthcare, Education & Housing are all heavily subsidized by the government. My point being that people have short memories, this housing crises, will eventually pass given time, as long as we don't do anything stupid to make it last longer.

jeffbee 3y ago
> the largest age demographic, the boomers Millenials are a larger generation than Boomers.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  But in terms of wealth and power, the boomers dominate.
  - ejb999 3y ago
    isn't it almost always true that older people - people who have been working for 30-40-50 years will have more money, on average, than people that have just entered the workforce? Once the boomers are all gone, will we just start blaming the next oldest generation for all of societies problems?
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      Oh for sure.
WalterBright 3y ago
> Part of the squeeze is that we have the largest age demographic, the boomers, in a stage of life in which they are highly unlikely to move, whilst still living in their homes. These days we have the millions of people crossing the border into the US. They'll all want houses, too.
- ejb999 3y ago
  Many border-crossers can't afford to buy houses - probably most of them - but they do put pressure on the lower cost apartments and are competing with low-income citizens, which drives up the price of the lower cost apartments, which has the effect of increases demand and prices all-the-way up the food chain.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    That's true. It also happens the other way. Building more luxury homes will reduce the price for non-luxury homes. This is because the wealthy will not be bidding up the prices of the non-luxury homes because there will be luxury homes available. This effect is not recognized by people who decry the building of luxury homes.
itake 3y ago
I initially wanted to disagree with you, but I think you're right. One unmentioned consideration is why the gov wants people to own their home: Put simply: homeownership (and home value appreciation) results in better end-of-life outcomes compared to self-managed cash. People are bad at saving, but they understand if they don't pay their mortgage, they will lose their home. Tapping into that equity isn't as easy as accessing money from a savings account.

jeffbee 3y ago

> the largest age demographic, the boomers Millenials are a larger generation than Boomers.

lostlogin 3y ago
But in terms of wealth and power, the boomers dominate.
- ejb999 3y ago
  isn't it almost always true that older people - people who have been working for 30-40-50 years will have more money, on average, than people that have just entered the workforce? Once the boomers are all gone, will we just start blaming the next oldest generation for all of societies problems?
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    Oh for sure.

WalterBright 3y ago

> Part of the squeeze is that we have the largest age demographic, the boomers, in a stage of life in which they are highly unlikely to move, whilst still living in their homes. These days we have the millions of people crossing the border into the US. They'll all want houses, too.

ejb999 3y ago
Many border-crossers can't afford to buy houses - probably most of them - but they do put pressure on the lower cost apartments and are competing with low-income citizens, which drives up the price of the lower cost apartments, which has the effect of increases demand and prices all-the-way up the food chain.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  That's true. It also happens the other way. Building more luxury homes will reduce the price for non-luxury homes. This is because the wealthy will not be bidding up the prices of the non-luxury homes because there will be luxury homes available. This effect is not recognized by people who decry the building of luxury homes.

itake 3y ago

I initially wanted to disagree with you, but I think you're right. One unmentioned consideration is why the gov wants people to own their home: Put simply: homeownership (and home value appreciation) results in better end-of-life outcomes compared to self-managed cash. People are bad at saving, but they understand if they don't pay their mortgage, they will lose their home. Tapping into that equity isn't as easy as accessing money from a savings account.