5 ms·

Compare the median house in 1950 with one today.

by SoftTalker 3mo ago

janalsncm 3mo ago
It’s not hard to do. A lot of them are for sale today and will sell over asking, no contingencies.
- WalterBright 3mo ago
  A housing development nearby my home was built in the early 1960s (I think). If you look closely at the homes, they are all of two designs, made into four by mirror images. But it's pretty clear that over time the homes were remodeled, gut remodeled, extended, garages added, and so on, so they are significantly improved over the original. I've been in a couple, and the hallways are pretty narrow and everything is very cheaply built. If you want to see what they were like originally, see the old Bob Hope movie "Bachelor in Paradise", filmed at a just-built suburban community.
  - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
    "Narrow and cheaply built" isn't enough to make houses affordable in an age where crack dens with busted utilities go for over a million dollars. The ability of material to become cheap is capped far below the ability of location to become expensive.
    - WalterBright 3mo ago
      google sez: "The median home sale price in Seattle is approximately $853,000 to $879,000, depending on the specific neighborhood mix and recent monthly data. Listing prices sit slightly lower around $750,000 to $775,000, placing Seattle among the highest-priced major metropolitan housing markets in the United States." I assume a crack den with busted utilities would go for less. I've lived in this area my adult life. Pretty much all the open spaces and lots have been infilled with houses over time. Prices go down the further away from the business core. Being within commuting distance to Microsoft comes with a big boost in price.
      - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
        That's my entire point: the affordability problems stem from ponzi gatekeeping of jobs, not from the youth having expensive material taste.
dumberquestions 3mo ago
Have people's standards for what a house constitutes gone up, or are affordable options that people would be very willing to buy less available now?
- WalterBright 3mo ago
  Houses are much bigger today.
  - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
    Because of complete NIMBY victory, not because the youth are greedy. YIMBY is the way.
    - SoftTalker 3mo ago
      Maybe partly. But developers make more money building the biggest houses they can sell. So that's what they build.
      - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
        True, YIMBY can only do so much. The market serves wealth-weighted people not people-weighted people, so when inequality cooks to the point that the whims of the wealthy outweigh the needs of the poor, the latter gets the boot when the two are in conflict.
- janalsncm 3mo ago
  Probably both. Due to zoning in almost all American cities it is now illegal to build houses that are as small as in the post war period.

Compare the median house in 1950 with one today.

janalsncm 3mo ago

It’s not hard to do. A lot of them are for sale today and will sell over asking, no contingencies.

WalterBright 3mo ago
A housing development nearby my home was built in the early 1960s (I think). If you look closely at the homes, they are all of two designs, made into four by mirror images. But it's pretty clear that over time the homes were remodeled, gut remodeled, extended, garages added, and so on, so they are significantly improved over the original. I've been in a couple, and the hallways are pretty narrow and everything is very cheaply built. If you want to see what they were like originally, see the old Bob Hope movie "Bachelor in Paradise", filmed at a just-built suburban community.
- smallmancontrov 3mo ago
  "Narrow and cheaply built" isn't enough to make houses affordable in an age where crack dens with busted utilities go for over a million dollars. The ability of material to become cheap is capped far below the ability of location to become expensive.
  - WalterBright 3mo ago
    google sez: "The median home sale price in Seattle is approximately $853,000 to $879,000, depending on the specific neighborhood mix and recent monthly data. Listing prices sit slightly lower around $750,000 to $775,000, placing Seattle among the highest-priced major metropolitan housing markets in the United States." I assume a crack den with busted utilities would go for less. I've lived in this area my adult life. Pretty much all the open spaces and lots have been infilled with houses over time. Prices go down the further away from the business core. Being within commuting distance to Microsoft comes with a big boost in price.
    - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
      That's my entire point: the affordability problems stem from ponzi gatekeeping of jobs, not from the youth having expensive material taste.

dumberquestions 3mo ago

Have people's standards for what a house constitutes gone up, or are affordable options that people would be very willing to buy less available now?

WalterBright 3mo ago
Houses are much bigger today.
- smallmancontrov 3mo ago
  Because of complete NIMBY victory, not because the youth are greedy. YIMBY is the way.
  - SoftTalker 3mo ago
    Maybe partly. But developers make more money building the biggest houses they can sell. So that's what they build.
    - smallmancontrov 3mo ago
      True, YIMBY can only do so much. The market serves wealth-weighted people not people-weighted people, so when inequality cooks to the point that the whims of the wealthy outweigh the needs of the poor, the latter gets the boot when the two are in conflict.
janalsncm 3mo ago
Probably both. Due to zoning in almost all American cities it is now illegal to build houses that are as small as in the post war period.