Housing Bubble - Massachusetts (how much, college, income)

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by elysium78

'Too much affordable housing in western mass and too little in eastern'

There are waaay more jobs in the eastern part of the state than there are on the western part. Im pretty sure that was the point you were trying to make. Ive said on here before that it would be great if there were more job opportunities in places like Worcester or Springfield...but there arent. And the further people live from boston the worse the commute into boston. I dont know how in the hell these people who make under 35k are surviving around these parts. Seems hard to believe that half of boston makes under 35k. Theres nowhere in boston, not even mattapan, that someone could be living comfortably on that...is half the city on welfare? Lol..wouldnt suprise me in this godforsaken liberal place.

While it is true there's more jobs in the eastern part of mass than west that doesn't factor in a few other things.

1) Not everyone lives where they work Take a look at this and look at all of new england
ACS Commute Map

While it is true that in many respects people just follow highways there are some that live in eastern mass and work out west and vice versa.

2) Take a look at #1 and put in other states. 91 is a straight line and pretty much easy to drive though. I live in springfield and work there as well. I can be in New Haven in 90 minutes, Hartford in 30 minutes, Albany in 90 minutes, Greenfield in 30 minutes, Brattleboro in 45 minutes, Worcester in about an hour. That's a wide range of new england and much faster then what you'd get in Boston. 128/95 is gridlock traffic along with 93. I know because I did both. The rail extension to CT is only 18 months away. That will provide 12 daily round trips to New Haven. Aer Lingus just advertised their flights to Ireland from Springfield/Hartford (bradley) that start in the fall and they just started trips to LA this month. Yes there are jobs in the area, quite an amount infact but not all want to work, we need more vocational skills to fill various gaps etc. Gradually things have improved. Higher amounts of traffic bring more workers in and ultimately lower unemployment rates. Efficiency of the market becomes more efficient.

3) Other states in the region are not doing as well as Mass is doing. CT is about eight minutes away from me. I see people from CT all the time and even NY. CT is having significant layoffs in their state government, the baseball stadium in Hartford hit the skids and Yale might be hemorrhaging some as well. they have a pretty big deficit there. RI I don't think has fully recovered infact I always see a higher unemployment rate in RI, VT is mostly in the Burlington area, NH and southern Maine obviously are more connected to eastern mass.

4) Not all people working technically have a job. Many are independent contractors and those can be moved in and out easily. I work with consultants and they can be all over the place as it isn't fixated at one given point.

5) Not everything is affordable in eastern Mass. Heck I just met a woman who relocated from Seattle to Holyoke, easily one of the poorest places in Mass. Seattle folks. It's the land of Amazon, Nintendo, Boeing, Starbucks and o yeah Microsoft. These companies sadly have driven up the price for smaller companies to operate. He major is mechanical engineering and she works for a company in Holyoke. I work in procurement and we have companies from eastern Mass and NY coming for work. The rail plant, casino, new catholic school, highway work, rail station, expansion of a campus center..heck Baker was here earlier and there's a 60 million dollar housing project in ludlow. I can't go more than six months without hearing of a eight figure project in the region. You get more for your money here, heck that's why the Mass Green Computing Center was made in the region as the electrical price was half of Lexington. In short when things become just flat out too expensive it goes to the next cheapest place. Boston to 128 to 495 to now western areas (91)

Rising gas prices and interest rates create incentives to build. it's been low for so long and frankly if you can't afford a fixed mortgage then you might be forced into a ARM (417K+) that becomes much more risky as rates go up, down sure but not up.


As for the whole fertility argument to be frank many I knew got married at 25, kids at 30...then some had divorce by 35 The alimony reform did a good thing in Mass and did change the outlook. That and we were the first to really allow same sex marriage so that changes things as well.

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Only a 1%er could ever make such a ridiculous statement.

Well, when I made 35K, I probably would have lived with my parents if I hadn't been married. I had to pay $1200/mo in student loans each month, so that didn't leave much left over. Not really sure how that would make me a 1%er.

[sal1181]

[quote=CaseyB;44522086]I have no regrets about getting married when I was 23 either. I'm still married to the same guy.[/QUOTE
My husband was my highschool prom date. We dated senior year and have been together ever since. It can work if people do there part in making it work

[chicagoliz]

[quote=sal1181;44525489]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

I have no regrets about getting married when I was 23 either. I'm still married to the same guy.[/QUOTE
My husband was my highschool prom date. We dated senior year and have been together ever since. It can work if people do there part in making it work

I agree it is very nice when this happens and we have several friends who have this situation. But for those who don't meet the right match in high school or college, it can be extremely hard to meet people, and that's when you see a lot of people settling because they get worried they might not marry.

And of course, there are huge numbers of people who marry their high school or college sweethearts and it ends up a disaster.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

And of course, there are huge numbers of people who marry their high school or college sweethearts and it ends up a disaster.

The late 30s and 40s dating pool is littered with people who married early to mid 20s and 15 years later are finally out, often with young children, and smacking themselves in the head "why did I get married when I was still a kid". The data shows a large drop in divorce rates if people wait until early 30s.

Of course there are lots of individual success stories as well.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by timberline742

The late 30s and 40s dating pool is littered with people who married early to mid 20s and 15 years later are finally out, often with young children, and smacking themselves in the head "why did I get married when I was still a kid". The data shows a large drop in divorce rates if people wait until early 30s.

Except it doesn't, as a previous poster pointed out. And people in their 20's are not kids. You could also say the late 30's and 40's dating pool is filled with people who desperately want to get married and have kids before time runs out.

Of course there are lots of individual success stories as well.

You could say that about marriage at any age.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Except it doesn't, as a previous poster pointed out. And people in their 20's are not kids. You could also say the late 30's and 40's dating pool is filled with people who desperately want to get married and have kids before time runs out.

The previous poster pointed out an article on a very small subset of data (2006-2010). If one looks at census and other data sets: https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/marriage/data/acs/

And their analysis (Marriage and divorce: patterns by gender, race, and educational attainment : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) among others, show waiting until college is done and one is in their late 20s/early 30s makes sense, if one wants to get married and stay married.

And sorry, just because you have an adult body, doesn't mean one is an adult. We don't have an adult brain until about 25, or later:

At What Age Is The Brain Fully Developed?

True adulthood doesn't begin until age 25 - Telegraph

Once we have that, it, of course, should be utilized in deciding who we may marry, if one wishes to. So no, early to mid 20s somethings aren't ready to be married, and it would be awfully fast to marry within a couple of years of true adulthood.

Can it work? Sure. And great for those individuals/couples.

[Whatsnext75]

of course if someone gets married young and gets divorced at around let's say 38 they are going to say, WHY did i get married to young?

but someone who got married young and is still married is not going to be saying that...or at least I hope not.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

but someone who got married young and is still married is not going to be saying that...or at least I hope not.

I meet plenty of those as well.

[Whatsnext75]

timberline you seem to have something against people who married young or maybe married people in general.