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Might be based on area. A lot of older homes in my stomping grounds have needed facelifts in order to sell or pass muster for renting.
Oh, don't get me wrong. Updates are needed. Windows, furnace/ AC , kitchen and bathrooms. If none of those are done you better be asking well under $100k.
A bunch of people making broad generalizations about other people to make themselves feel superior.
Wow, that happens on the internet?
Anyway, some facts about the exchange below:
There is one fact that no on can ignore: the necessities of life take up a higher percentage of your income now compared to 40 years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanny Goat View Post
Gerontocracy--now that's funny. I grew up in the 70's and we didn't have to spend everything we had on education, health care or housing. They were the days for sure.
Education, health care, and housing. Hmm, what substantively changed from the 1970s to now in those three sectors of the economy?
Answer: They all cost a lot more relative to peoples incomes. As a percentage. Consumer junk costs a lot less, but the things that matter cost a lot more. So, everybody has a device far beyond the power of a personal computer in their hands that would have cost half a years salary 40 years ago..however,.the cost of a house, an education, and health care are dramatically more expensive then they were. Look up Elizabeth Warrens non-political lectures on this from a few years back.
Yes, healthcare, education, and housing costs a lot more than they did years ago and have actually increased orders of magnitude above the average rise of inflation. Why? In each of those three sectors of the economy, there has been a dramatic and often times damaging increase of government involvement in those three sectors. Oh, it's always sold as a 'good' thing to have the government in there to make those three things 'better'. But what has it really done? It's increased the costs dramatically for one and in some cases, like in education, diminished the quality of the product. Has innovation or government involvement made healthcare better? I know which one I think is the answer.
So, when you have the government more involved, have them start dabbling in their efforts to 'improve' a sector of the economy, it always ends up being far more expensive. So I say this to Millennials. It's not the baby boomers who are impacting your spending power. Look to the one entity which has the greatest negative effect on prices and cost - the government. So, Millennials if you want someone to 'blame' or someone to paint as the bad guy, you're really looking to the wrong people if you think the baby boomers are the ones to blame.
To be fair, the idea is pretty far-fetched at face value. Around my area, the market is still settling down from the bubble (high military concentration so we didn't rapidly deflate alongside the burst), so a starter townhome is still between $150-$190K. At even the low-end, it means a millennial would easily need to save at least $7500 just to close. Let alone the cost for appraisal and moving expenses. Then to need hundreds to thousands more to rehab it?
Lezbehonest here. How many millennials could, without assistance from their parents, save up $15,000 to purchase a home, put some repairs in it, then have a couple extra thousand for any emergency? Most would find it more economical to continue renting.
If someone wants to get into a home for less, a wise route is buying something livable and fix it up as you go along - not necessarily right away. Most of the houses around me are owned by older people, some have been fixed up and some sort of, but they are all livable. None are total rehabs. They are mostly starter or down-size type homes. They may be the ONLY choice other than a condo to get into a single family home, and it's worth it as they will appreciate as you update them, or even if you do not.
The biggest issue I see now is the Chinese buying up all the real estate and sitting on it as a way of holding their money overseas. It's a huge problem in the Pacific Northwest and one of the main reasons housing costs are so high. Vancouver passed a tax on foreign buyers to help mitigate the problem.
Why is our government letting the Chinese do this? That's a huge mistake.
Baby boomers were more fortunate in one respect. We got to grow up in this country when everything was simpler and more innocent then what we have now. Hard to describe, but you later generations missed out. We got what we needed, not what we wanted more times than not. It started to change after JFK was killed .... now today .....ugh.
It wasn't simpler for some of us boomers. What I grew up with started out a simpler life, then turned into rage and protests over the Vietnam war, tension between the races, looting and arson, the Mai Lai massacre, lynchings in Mississippi, Richard Speck raping and killing eight nurses in Chicago, one of IL Senator Chuck Percy's twin daughters being murdered in her bedroom, the Boston strangler, Kitty Genovese, the Manson murders, Kent State shootings, the assassinations of Kennedy, Kennedy and King, watching Jack Ruby kill Oswald on live television, seeing the wounded and dead soldiers on the news every night, and a number of things I probably can't even remember - all while I was still in grade school.
And that was just a prelude to the '70's with the Olympic murders, a high number of hijacked planes and a whole lot of other horrific events.
It was impossible to grow up with the same innocence of the '50's if you were a later BB growing up in the '60's.
Oh, don't get me wrong. Updates are needed. Windows, furnace/ AC , kitchen and bathrooms. If none of those are done you better be asking well under $100k.
Windows and HVAC is understandable... but bathrooms and kitchens?
Granite counters, marble floors don't cause you to go number 2 any faster... and seriously, how many know how to properly maintain said granite? Never mind cut it and seal it... That alone wasn't worth it... too time consuming to clean it twice a week.
Unless you have leaks, damages or mold, don't fix what isn't broken... I know hypocritical coming from someone who did put granite counters and back splashes up, that was done strategically. The property value is based on outside appearances. So it looked like the Clampets lived at my house on the outside, right on down to the junk cars in the front yard, but was very nice on the inside. I still sold the house well below assessment and market value to avoid capital gains tax.
Didn't hurt me... but sure hurt them when they went full bore with the siding and everything else.
But if you have a new roof, upgraded electric service, and other practical necessities covered, why not ask 100k? Oh because the bathroom isn't fancy? Kitchen can't meet the demands of a 5 star chef? It's unrealistic and not practical...
A bathroom, you're there to take care of business, wash your hands, and shower... who cares so long as there's no leaks or damages...
A kitchen? You don't need commercial grade appliances for a family of 4 or even up to 6... you don't see any restaurants with granite counters in the kitchen, so let that serrated knife slip off the edge of the cutting board... plus the time to maintain it...
An island with a sink, right behind a sink? How many dishes do you have that need to fill 2 sinks? What's wrong with a double din sink that's worked for years left side for rinsing fruits and vegetables, right side for rinsing dishes/washing hands to be going into the dish washer afterwards?
I like fancy homes just as much as the next person... some things aren't worth it. I'll take a house that's mechanically and structurally sound as boring and bland as can be over something loaded with all the "amenities" requiring extra time to clean and maintain for an unjustified extra 100k asking price based on visual appeal...
I'm 42. I save about 60% of my income -- for retirement. I delay gratification and live modestly because I will be retiring early. I wonder if someone's gonna come along in x years and say people like me have "seized the nation's wealth."
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They already are. There was a thread on a politician that wants to remove elderly people from homes that have appreciated too much in value to avoid giving them a property tax credit. He said his neighbor is sitting on a 350K house that could be occupied by someone else, like she is hoarding it and intentionally withholding it from those more deserving. It's her home but to them it's just a pile of cash and she is worth less than that pile. Retirees better beware because it is dangerous to own "more than you need" even if you worked paid and sacrificed your whole life.
Wait until they start taxing wealth in its entirety. There is already a war on saving, seen as hoarding, even if one is retiring, unemployed, disabled. The boomers are finishing with their investing, they need their money to live, "seizing" it to eat and pay bills.
Why is our government letting the Chinese do this? That's a huge mistake.
Same reason Toyota Nissan and Honda were allowed manufacturing on American soil... big money in the here and now, and hurt everyone else years down the road.
I'm 42. I save about 60% of my income -- for retirement. I delay gratification and live modestly because I will be retiring early. I wonder if someone's gonna come along in x years and say people like me have "seized the nation's wealth."
You're lucky to be able to do that. 30% of my income goes straight to rent. Utilities, car insurance, groceries, student loan, and household items take up another 40%. That leaves me with 30% to put into savings.
Some of my friends are worse off. 50% of their income goes to rent.
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