It’s weird how in one of the richest countries in the world, many people even couples with 2 full time incomes can’t afford a house?
It’s extra weird, since it seems to me many American homes are built with rather cheap materials compared to Denmark where I live.
What makes even weirder, is that USA is a country with a lot of room on average for building and expanding living spaces.
Seems to me this may be a case of lacking political planning.
It’s weird how in one of the richest countries in the world
Not that weird when most of the riches are held by a handful of people. The rest of us are just trying to get by.
Yes that’s a problem, still Americans have higher average pay than most countries. With lots of room and cheap materials, it should be relatively easy to afford a house. And AFAIK it used to be that way. People could afford a house, car, children and health insurance on one income.
It’s a mix of outdated zoning laws, investment firms buying up all the available housing and car centric infrastructure
With lots of room
Country size is irrelevant. People like clustering together in cities.
Can you expand on the superior Danish building materials? Genuinely curious.
Basically that many houses in USA are made of wood, we can’t do that here, because the climate is too wet. So wood doesn’t last very long. That means we need to make brick houses. Brick houses are way more expensive to build than wood.
Also many places in USA don’t require the same level of isolation.
In large parts of Sweden they can make wood houses too, and their house prices are way lower than here.
I’m not saying American houses are bad, but the climate in large parts of USA allows for more and cheaper options.
Not the person you’re asking this from but as a Finn who watches a lot of construction related videos on YouTube I too get the feeling that houses in the US are built to a lower standard than here. It’s not so much that the materials are worse quality but more that the building code is much stricter here.
I’m a plumber by trade so my area of expertise is quite narrow but couple things that come to mind is how copper pipes are often soldered in the US where as here they’re always brazed which is a much stronger joint. We also don’t allow any connections to be made inside walls but in the US they’re common. Toilets there also tend to clog up quite often because of the way they operate which almost never happens here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that in the US they use a lot of wood and plywood even on bigger structures which poses a fire hazard as well as there doesn’t seem to be as much thought put into the insulation and vapor barriers.
in the US they use a lot of wood and plywood even on bigger structures which poses a fire hazard
they are a HUGE fire hazard and are nominally illegal except for a convenient loophole, as long as you claim you’ll be adding automatic sprinklers, you can sidestep a lot of the fire safety permitting – now they just burn down during construction before the fire systems have been installed …
It’s because all that money is just being funneled to a select few people.
It’s why “making more money” isn’t the solution. As soon as renters make more money, rent goes up. It’s why they’re also so gung-ho about making more money. They’re not making more money for themselves; they’re making it for their landlords.
I truly believe most people in this generation are too stupid to spend their money wisely. They just do what everyone around them is doing.
The other 60% have already accepted it and aren’t worrying about it anymore.
the other 60% are just delusional about their chances
I’m about to buy a home, but it’s taking 4 employed adults combined to afford a 3 bedroom house. It’s insane.
Have you tried pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, surviving on the interest of your invested wealth, and forgoing toast with healthy yet expensive toppings? /s
He actually is helping (but not rich) he is taking out a personal loan to gift me some money, enough for a portion of the down payment. Even with that, (and I am very grateful and priveliged to receive it) it’s still almost unaffordable. (I’m still not actually sure we can afford it.) Which, considering most people aren’t so lucky, is fucking insane.
I bought my 1,200 sqft house in a town of 80,000 people for $60,000.
:)
You gotta be willing to look at the whole country instead of just major cities. But most people complaining about not having enough money think they’re entitled to live in expensive areas.
If someone is being paid to work in those expensive areas, the pay should be sufficient to live in or near those expensive areas. It’s entitlement for the employer class that this isn’t the case. The implications of it not being the case (the existence of a class of people in these areas that struggle to afford basic necessities, the extension of psyche-degrading and environmentally destructive commutes, the tearing apart of our societal fabric that comes from isolated suburban commuting living) are all horrificly negative at scale. You may live and work in a situation that is independent of those negatives (you found a good enough paying job in a low cost of living area, or maybe even you work remote, or you don’t mind the isolation and destructive nature of the exurban commute) and that is good for you, but to imply that the whole nation needs to follow your example or stop complaining shows a sore lack of awareness about how scalable the solution you personally found is.
Heyo! It’s me!
I figure that since every single house costs the same, I might as well just jump into a new-build for the same price and move on with my life.
I’m 100% certain that once I get really going with this process, I’ll find out that it’s still out of realistic reach range, but it’s fun to dream for a bit. 🥹
You’d be surprised, it depends entirely on where you’re willing to live.
I used to live in the Denver Metro Area in Colorado and houses were going for like $400k-650k in the area.
Ended up moving to a smaller town ex-urban/rural area since my work is remote anyway. Had my home built in 2021. 1050 sq/ft 2 bed 2 bath for $210k. And even better, I snuck in before rates climbed. With $6k in points at closing, I got it at 2.25%.
Even after doing a full solar and battery installation and insuring the place for an additional $50k to accommodate that and value increase, my mortgage (including insurance and tax escrow) only comes to $1215 a month. I’ve been paying extra on principle every month to reduce interest amortization, and hope to pay it off within the next decade most likely. Retirement won’t be easy, but actually seems like a possibility now.
And bonus, I’m near a ton of nature, get to enjoy deer chilling outside the house, and the night sky out here is beautiful.
Oh it’s not a worry, it’s a reality.
How does this compare to renters in previous decades? Are there similar surveys from those eras?
