Pfft that’s stupid. Everyone knows millennials prefer to rent because settling down just doesn’t fit our lifestyle, bro.
Plus we aren’t “handy” enough to deal with all the work of owning a home.
Just kidding, it’s because we’d rather be driving for Uber or something, I don’t know.
Point is, we’re just lazy, entitled, inept children.
Sadly, Millennials aren’t handy. Baby boomers are famous for the idea of being able to fix it themselves. If the dishwasher broke, they fixed it. If the carpet needed cleaning, they cleaned it. They enjoyed doing these tasks on their weekend. That is not the case with Millennials. They don’t care to understand how to fix something.
These are the same people that can’t use an iPad unsupervised without somehow getting tricked into sending $2k worth of bitcoin and their SSN to a scammer.
Boomers invented using several different screws in a device to make it unfixable, and then making sure it broke in a year or two
Yeah, the shit they fixed was generally just a motor and some bearings, maybe with some simple electrical switches. Everything was simple and made as durable as possible because that used to be a selling point.
Modern appliances are specialized computers with moving parts that are designed with cheap, flimsy pieces that are only meant to last until their warrenty period runs out. One minute after that and its all “replacement parts? You mean call our service dept or buy a new one, right?”
Lots of boomers fixing modern machines out there? Somehow I bet they are still talking about that one time in 1983 when they changed out the belt in a dryer that had 6 parts total and had been working for 23 years. Yeah, congrats. You did a simple thing to a simple machine.
Boomers created the current system where you can’t “just fix” your dishwasher. The old dish washer at my parents can be fixed with a screw driver and a ¢25 washer from home depot. The newer ones are all glue, one way plastic clips, and stickers that say it can only be repaired by a certified repair shop. I get kinda what they are saying but the change didn’t happen in a vacuum. I used to repaired computers for a living and I noticed year after year computers became more difficult to repair. For most laptops you can’t just open them up and swap out bad parts. It’s all glued together and has micro components that need to be resoldered to the motherboard. Great for size but impossible to repair outside of the manufacturer. I mean for fuck sakes their are billion dollar military equipment that can’t be serviced without the manufacturers help. It’s all a scam to keep us dependent on corporations.
The pixel watch is so bad that if you crack the screen, Google tells you to throw it away and buy a new one. Apparently even Google themselves can’t repair that.
My parents’ washing machine broke when I was probably like 8 or 9. I helped my dad fix it over a weekend; it cost like $20 and took us a few hours over the course of Friday and Saturday, not counting a couple of trips to the hardware store. We didn’t need much in the way of tools other than a Philips screwdriver and a socket set. That washer is still working today, 30 years later.
Contrast that with the washer I bought when we moved into our home five years ago. It broke a month ago, and I didn’t even have the tools required to open it. The defect was with the motherboard, the tech discovered; and it would cost $550 to get a replacement made since the part was discontinued three years ago. That replacement would be ready in a month. Or I could spend $600 to buy a new machine.
We live in a very different world.
Not to mention… you can’t fix modern appliances. They’re built to be replaced.
PLUS if you’re working multiple gigs to make ends meet over 40 hours a week, the last thing you want to do on your free hours off is try to take apart your dishwasher
This. My uncle used to have a garage and already in the nineties was complaining that fixing cars was about to become impossible due to the addition of electronic parts that were black boxes to him. 30 years later and we live in a world where obfuscation is done on purpose.
Edit: we must start a movement of open source appliances. Cut out the middleman, buy directly the parts and assemble the thing yourself, so youu know exactly how to fix it later on. If it works for 3d printers why can’t it work for kettles and dishwashers?
In my experience, boomers pay someone else to fix it, then say they did it themselves. Gen x are the do it yourselfers.
That last article comes sooo close to figuring it out.
Finally, renting allows millennials to live in more desirable or “happening” parts of cities that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive for home ownership.
That sure sounds like a fancy way of saying we can’t afford to buy houses.
I thought we couldn’t afford a home because we bought too much avocado toast?
And Starbucks. Remember had we invested in Starbucks instead of buying it, we’d be bagillionaires like heroes Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who totally got rich the same way.
A boomer I know blames young people being in house debt because “they all buy houses with quarts and granite counters, hardwood floors and heated tile floor bathrooms. They skip the starter homes and go right to the forever homes”.
He doesn’t consider the fact that no one is building starter homes anymore. Everything has heated tile floors, granite counters and hardwood floors because the contractors are demolishing all the older “starter” homes to build luxury houses and 55+ only condos to sell to boomers who throw all their money at it. There’s no profit in building starter homes anymore.
Around me all the 55+ condos are dirt cheap and price controlled, while the regular condos and sfh are 2-3x price. So, when the boomers want to downsize they can just sell their that the vigorously fought to keep zoned without density to a millennial for a huge profit and then buy a cheap condo (conveniently dense and conveniently 55+) and live off the rest of the proceeds. It’s as if the boomers get to use their kids future earnings as a piggy bank for their retirement. It’s the same story with offloading the climate change impacts of their gluttonous lifestyle to their kids as well. They really did pull up the ladder.
At least in our area, most of the starter homes were purchased and then completely redone internally to fancy up and then flipped. All of the homes went up about $100,000 at minimum because of people trying to profit off the housing market.
My first house, I bought in 2009 (so right during the crash). We offered full asking price, only to be told there was 3 higher cash offers, which I couldn’t compete with as a mortgage (FHA) offer. The seller made living in the house for 1 year a condition of sale, and all the higher offers disappeared. Guarantee those were just flippers looking to make a profit, rather than homebuyers.
I think capital gains taxes should be sky high on real estate if owned for less than a year.
Like 90% tax on any profit from a sale owned less than one year.
Ehhh, I disagree with this a bit. People are still putting LVP instead of hardwood in new builds, with granite instead of quartz countertops, and no fancy heated floors, and the cheapest carpet they can find at Home Depot. I feel like most new builds I see going up are more on the “starter home” side of things, but maybe it’s an area specific thing.
The real problem though, is even these cheaper options still end up being unaffordable.
I was fortunate enough to buy a house this year and the options seemed to be:
- Under $250K: needs $100k of work
- $250k to $350k: houses with less sq ft than my apartment that are >80 yrs old
- $350k to $400k: okay house/location, probably with one glaring issue. If you’re lucky you’ll find one of those ‘starter homes’ will be here
- over $400k: acceptable
- over $500k: built within the last 15 years
The new starter homes seem to be townhomes, me and my wife considered buying one instead and the market for them was blistering as they were all that most people could afford that aren’t shacks/fixer-uppers… and people buying those will usually have to pay steep HOA fees on top of the increased interest rates, which is less going into their equity.
No one is building starter homes and with investing being so more accessible, you might as well do that while living in a nice apartment and wait to buy a nicer house.
Ha, jokes on them. I moved to the countryside, and purchased a former starter home.
The joke on me is that it was 3/4 of a million dollars. I would have not been able to buy it at all if I didn’t have the support of my SO, who works full time like me, and my brother AND his wife, who all had full time jobs at the time of purchase…
Six bedrooms, two bathrooms, nearly 2800 sq ft. At least 15 minutes from anywhere, and at least 30 minutes from mid sized cities, and an hour and a half from the nearest major metro area. It’s quiet here… Like, weirdly quiet.
I was going to but then I saw an avocado toast and now I can’t afford a house. Silly me.
Mmmm… Avocado toast sounds yummy… Here I go again wasting money on silly things like food. I can’t help myself 😭
Obviously, everyone just prefers to give their landlord 2/3 of their after tax salary. /s
Ooh, I feel like rent payments should be pretax or tax deductible and it would help a ton of people out.
Someone tell me why that would be a bad idea, I’m genuinely curious.
Home owners get to write off interest, so us renters should get something.
The real bitch is that I could totally afford a mortgage. I’ve lived in the same place for 11 years without missing a payment on my rent, but because it’s rent it doesn’t count towards my credit score, so fuck me right?
Normally renters should be able to enjoy a low price compared to paying off loans.
But since landlords jacked up the price to be equal or more than how much the loan costs each month, they aren’t getting that benefit.
Homeowners get to write off interest but rarely ever do. You need to exceed the standardized deduction in order for an itemized deduction to save you more money. So unless you are paying more than 20k/year in interest you are not writing anything off and are in the same boat as a non homeowner.
Why is it a bad idea? Because it’s basically subsidizing landlords. Instead of paying for public infrastructure you’d be helping out landlords to increase the rent, since you know, you have more “disposable” income
I own a home with a mortgage. I’d sell my house to an llc, and rent to myself. The. I’d be able to deduct the profit of the llc from the expenses (the mortgage and upkeep of the home), and then deduct the rent I’m effectively paying to myself from my income.
I mean I’d love for this to happen, but if every home in the country did this, no one would pay taxes, and communities would be underfunded. Goodbye water treatment, police, firemen, teachers. Probably not great for society as a whole.
Someone told me recently that one should only spend max. 1/3 on housing. After showing them the price for housing and the average salary, they connected the dots. But they didn’t seem to realize the Elephant in the room. I wonder when society is ready for the elephant.
I personally like how it is from the boomer generation that the 1/3 rule comes from as well. Keep in mind that is 1/3 for ALL housing expenses (water, heat, electricity,insurance, etc.), The US median is $1085 a week. This means all in a median Joe/Joette should find a place for under $1500 ALL IN in order to meet this rule.
Always remember that paying rent is a never ending cost while pay mortgage is limited. If you rent, you rent when you are retired. If you can buy, you don’t pay for your house anymore when you are retired. In other words, not buying a house/Appartment means that you will have less money in your retirement… Up to 2/3 of your current salary.
I know you are joking, but there is actually a YouTube series that is intended for landlords that teaches them how to milk tenants.
One of their videos literally suggests asking for tips alongside the rent, and threatening to include gratuities in all future versions of the lease, which is downright illegal but it’s not like people who rent can afford lawyers
Obviously it was because we were trying to kill the housing industry.
