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Back then the price for a new home was $10950 ($98408 adjusted for inflation). A working class man with a decent middle class job made 4130 dollars a year. He was able to afford a home on one income and was able to either do this as a single person or have a wife/girlfriend who maintained the home and care for the children. Nowadays this is impossible especially with houses in places like the Bay Area where most of the jobs are concentrated costing 1 million dollars for a crappy 2 bedroom in a bad neighborhood (it's 248000 nationwide which is more than 2x higher than it was back then adjusted for inflation). Many people are living in poverty. Life was better when you only need 100,000 to retire comfortably and drive Cadillacs.
Of course. It is against federal law to move to a cheaper area that has wages and prices closer to the national average. Punishable by up to 10 years in prison. [/sarcasm]
It is against common sense to move to a cheaper area that has fewer jobs at lower wages even if houses are really cheap. Berlin, NH, since the paper mills closed is a fine example.
In 1955 I was six years old. My dad had purchased in 1952 a new 3 bedroom, 2 bath house built on a slab with a single carport on a quarter acre lot in Phoenix with a $1 down GI loan for $9500. As a tool and die maker, he made $100 per week and that was enough to support 7 kids and a stay at home wife.
But our lifestyle was a lot different than now. My mother cooked all our meals; we never went to restaurants. We had just one car without AC that dad took to work so we walked or biked everywhere. We had one black and white TV with a rabbit ears antenna that received 4 local stations. The TV stations were on the air about 12 hours per day.
There were no video games or internet so we mostly rode our bikes, played ball, roamed the alleys searching for treasures, and played unsupervised doing things that would curl the hair of todays parents. My mother could not be a helicopter parent. There is no way to micro manage 7 kids.
I became very familiar with tube radios, shortwave antennas, gasoline, home made gunpowder, and electricity. Due to my observations of cause and effect, I turned those early experiences into a gainful career as an electrical engineer. Of course, I almost killed myself a few times but oh the stories....I've considered writing a script for a TV show about that era.
Unfortunately we cannot go back. What many people don't understand is how we were able to achieve that relatively good standard of living at that time. The USA had won the big war. We created the world's most productive manufacturing sector that could supply a bombed out Europe and Japan with needed goods. Because of that, our standard of living temporarily was supreme.
All that relative strength ended by about 1975. Rather than whining, the best solution is to make sure that your kids receive the best possible education that you can provide. My 3 kids have all achieved that and they are all gainfully employed in healthcare.
Who can afford kids? I am forced to live at home and aggressively invest for 30 years to
Be able to afford a 1 million dollar 2 bedroom 1 bath in a bad neighborhood. Only 1/10th of the way or so! Whoopieeeeeee
Who can afford kids? I am forced to live at home and aggressively invest for 30 years to
Be able to afford a 1 million dollar 2 bedroom 1 bath in a bad neighborhood. Only 1/10th of the way or so! Whoopieeeeeee
why are laptops going down in prices but houses aren't affordable unless you're a billionaire. Not sure about that one, i'm sure there's an answer.
Here are your answers:
Quote:
Originally Posted by wall st kid
there's twice as many people today in america than there was in 1955. 165 mil vs 320 mil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by maraging
Be interesting to see the average square footage of those 1955 homes.
You have twice as many people competing for ownership of the same amount of land, and the average size of a single family home has doubled. That is why housing prices have gone up!
The bottom line is, people want MORE than they did in 1955. There are also conflicting dollar amounts thrown about for what a house cost back then. This link says that the average home price was $22k. So that would be about $200k in today's dollars, which really isn't too far off from the average in a lot of areas of the country. http://fiftiesweb.com/pop/prices-1955/
But that new home today will likely be twice as large, have twice the garage space, and a lot more amenities and features than you got in 1955. If someone wanted to buy a home that was the equivalent of a 1955 average home, most likely it'd be cheaper than the inflation figures. But no one would buy such a home.
If you live your life as people in 1955 did (1 non color, small tv, no cell phone, 1 car, etc) you'd be surprised how frugal that would seem by today's standards, and how much money you'd save. In my house, we have 4 tvs, none smaller than 40 inches, and a projector with a 120" screen. When I was a child, the largest tv we had was a 25" tube tv, and we also had a 20" and a 19" tube tv also. That was middle class living in the 80's.
About the only thing you can say that was "better" in 1955 was that the job market was a whole lot easier to navigate. You could work for one company your entire life and retire with a pension. Now, there are twice as many people competing for jobs, and education matters, where in the past, it really wasn't necessary. But, you CAN still live on one income if you really want to. You just need to cut back on what we all consider "essential" today, when they are really not. Ditch the expensive smart phone and just get a simple flip phone. Ditch the expensive satellite/cable tv packages and go back to free over the air channels. Get rid of the internet service.
Hell, if I just did those three things, I'd save $500 a month/$6k per year right there, which is more than people made in 1955.
Oh sure, like everyone can wake up thios morning and start a career as a CPA.
True. It requires intelligence, for one.
Where's that GoFundMe page we were talking about -- you know, to raise $800 you said you need in order to move to some place without impaired internet access???
Just curious. Who is holding a gun to your head and what is the caliber of its bullets?
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