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Over 60% of Americans don't follow the path of graduate high school and go on to college.
Exactly. I didn't go to college. I did go to secretarial school a year or two after hs to get a better job, but it never occurred to me to go to college. That was something other people did. My father had an engineering degree, but that was because he was disabled in the war and could no longer be an electrician.
I expected to get married and not work anymore at some point.
Yeah, I don't understand poor people. If you want a house, just get rich, and if you can't get rich, just sell one of your luxury animals or airpanes, duh!
Since virtually everywhere in this country rent and mortgage payment are the same amount of money, and the tenants are paying their rent, which happens to be the same amount as a mortgage payment, it isn't a problem of not being rich enough. It is a lack of desire to figure out how to own a house.
And it is very few people who could not increase their own income if they decided to do so. They don't because they are living at their comfort level and don't want more.
Not counting coastal cities and high cost of living cities, how do most people not afford homes? I used a mortgage calculator, and if a couple has a income of 80k (40k a person), 600 in monthly debt, and a down payment if 10k, they could afford a home of 300k! Even 200k will get you something decent. That’s a pretty nice home in most of America, and making 40k a year isn’t hard. What am I missing?
Not everybody is part of a couple nor wants to be. As a young single person you basically have to be in the top 10% of earners to afford anything decent. You can always rent and get roommates sure, but to buy your own property while being single is no easy feat. In my industry I'll probably be able to accomplish it, but not everyone can be an engineer. You need to have the right brain and work ethic for it. Is this fair? I don't know, but it's not hard to see why many people will never buy a house especially if they prefer being single.
Yes of course I did. I was a delinquent who grew up unsupervised in a home with a lot of issues, made a slew of mistakes, quit high school at age 18 and then went on 12 years later to graduate college Magna *** Laude with a degree I paid for myself. I then paid off student loans until my 40's. Am I supposed to be ashamed of that? All of that contributes to answering the question posed by OP, does it not? The question posed by OP was "why can't a lot of people afford good homes" and it can't be answered accurately by assuming everyone follows the same path of graduating high school and going to college, nor by assuming that anyone who can't afford a home must be addicted to iPhones and Starbucks. As tempting as it may be for some to want clear black and white answers to OP's questions, life is rarely that black and white. And the answers aren't as simple as "live at home and go to state college" because as my story and the posts about lower IQ people points out, not everyone has that option. Not everyone has a life that goes from childhood to adulthood in a smooth trajectory, some have obstacles others don't. But even for those that do, expenses are much higher for both college and life itself, and salaries have not kept up with the rising costs.
Over 60% of Americans don't follow the path of graduate high school and go on to college. In the past, they didn't have to in order to buy a home. All of this is answering the question of why posed by OP. Of course the changes didn't happen overnight. They rarely do. If they did happen overnight, more people would protest them. When they happen incrementally people don't even realize their way of life is being threatened, like the proverbial frog in the pot.
Frogs should keep an eye on the thermometer. I spent five years in secondary Ed, particularly allied health and nursing. Not in the field. My European degrees are useless. SO has none. We still made it out of the frog pot. Takes a bit of initiative. Can you imagine what life for a female immigrant can be when you are not only taller than the average US female but also not ugly and somewhat intelligent? My worst interview - he came across the desk in a somewhat excited state and that was not his mind.
Which is why the answer is to live at home and commute.
The 7,000 undergraduate state university in my town is $14,408 in tuition and fees. There's bus service so you don't need a car on the days you can't get to campus on a moped/scooter. Minimum wage is $13.50. There aren't many jobs that pay less than $20. You can at least do your first two years there without needing any student loans. Work full time during summer break and Christmas break banking pretty much all of it. There are lots of part time jobs where you can study much of the time during the 7 months you're actually in classes.
Some of your key words are "in my town", there is a huge percentage of young adults, at least in my state, who are not close enough to a state college or even a community college "to live at home and commute". And, even our former state college system (now connected to the University system) has specialties on each campus. So, even if you wanted to go to a nearby college the one with your main interest or specialty may be a two to four to six to eight hour drive away. Obviously, too far to live at home and commute.
So I take it you are in favor of free college then?
If there was no tuition students had to pay, then student loans would not exist and instead there would be personal loans they used for their living expenses, one of which might be spring break travel.
The way student loans work - we give students money so they can go to college. They could theoretically take out these loans and drop out after a week and pocket the money (eventually having to pay it back). I've always thought it was stupid to finance education this way.
Frogs should keep an eye on the thermometer. I spent five years in secondary Ed, particularly allied health and nursing. Not in the field. My European degrees are useless. SO has none. We still made it out of the frog pot. Takes a bit of initiative. Can you imagine what life for a female immigrant can be when you are not only taller than the average US female but also not ugly and somewhat intelligent? My worst interview - he came across the desk in a somewhat excited state and that was not his mind.
The frog pot analogy was in reference to skyrocketing COL and salaries/benefits that stay stagnant or even decline. The rest I’m just going to give up trying to open your mind to a wider view.
That is a very small percentage. And many college grads are not kids today. I just told people the school I went to was $16,000 a year when I graduated in 1996 and is $42,000 a year now, with the additional burden of my field now requiring a masters. I worked with a couple who met in college and married soon after. She was a PT ( which is a doctorate now) and he was an OT, which is now a Masters) Between them they had over $400,000 in student loans and they didn’t spend any on trips or apartments. How do you start a life and buy a home when you basically have a very large “mortgage” already? I doubt a bank would even approve them with that much debt. And because I have the same profession I can tell you with certainty that 25 years ago this wasn’t the case. College wasn’t a yoke then. Houses were not as unaffordable in areas with jobs. Health insurance wasn’t a third of your income and cancer didn’t leave you homeless.
Which is why the answer is to live at home and commute. The 7,000 undergraduate state university in my town is $14,408 in tuition and fees. There's bus service so you don't need a car on the days you can't get to campus on a moped/scooter. Minimum wage is $13.50. There aren't many jobs that pay less than $20. You can at least do your first two years there without needing any student loans. Work full time during summer break and Christmas break banking pretty much all of it. There are lots of part time jobs where you can study much of the time during the 7 months you're actually in classes.
Repeat after me. You. Can't. Commute. In. Rural. States. When you have hours between your home and the nearest school and the roads can get bad this isn't happening. People really need to stop saying that live at home crap. Also has it occurred to you that for some people this is their chance after 18 years of living in a lousy home environment to get out?
Working for even $20 an hour for 12 weeks during the summer will net you $9,600. Even if you have a month long winter break that will net you $3,200. That gives you a total of $12,800 which is $1,608 short of what you need. Will you make that much during the school year? Yes, but that's assuming $20 an hour. Minimum wage, which is more what you will likely be closer to, will not net you close to that.
Also, do you understand that there are living expenses? Do you expect students to live like monks or nuns in college?
Come down to the real world for a bit.
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