[Michael G.]

Just a moment...

[Stu from NYC]

wow, based on that chart where do the buyers come from?

Seems like not enough people can afford housing.

[RICH1]

Cash is King

[Bay Kid]

It is all funny money.

[bopat]

Oversimplification of edge cases with a specific agenda.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by bopat

Oversimplification of edge cases with a specific agenda.

My foot! Do you have any family members attempting to buy their own home for the first time? It's not the interest rates that are killing the process, it's the extreme increase in supplies, labor and demand. Those numbers are alarming and to top it off, rent costs for residences are in the same boat.

[MrChip72]

The rising cost of building materials certainly hasn't helped. Building standards have increased the cost as well.

Most of those very expensive cities have mostly newer homes that weren't cheap to build in the first place. Many of the cheaper places are older cities, where you have many homes that cost $20-50k to build at the time. With $20k you can barely build a custom garden shed now.

[Caymus]

Originally Posted by bopat

Oversimplification of edge cases with a specific agenda.

What is the agenda? Article seems mainly analytical without opinions. They could have expended the analysis by including average/mean income.

[tophcfa]

Our daughter and future son in law make decent coin working in Boston, but there is no friggin way they can afford to buy a home and raise a family living there. They pay $3,100 per month for a very small one bedroom apartment in Brookline and her fiancé is up to his eyeballs in student loans. Us boomers were very lucky, things were much easier during our working years.

[huge-pigeons]

Typical salaries when I was working. Actually, I make more than these salaries in retirement too.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

Just a moment...

It’s astonishing that people manage to live in some of those expensive places and have normal jobs. It’s also interesting, though, that 5ere are many cities where it is much cheaper to live, such as Atlanta, Columbus, Buffalo, St. Louis, Kansas City. There are also hundreds or perhaps thousands of small towns across the country where a decent three bedroom house costs a quarter of what one costs in The Villages. The expensive cities on the list are far higher than housing here, of course.

I’m only here because my retirement savings mutual funds zoomed up in 2016 and are now the highest they have ever been. That lets me afford a courtyard villa comfortably. People without that sort of nest egg would be wise to buy where they can afford it.

A huge aspect of this is higher mortgage rates of interest. I paid 3.5% when I bought here. At the current rate, I couldn’t have managed it. Those rates will go down soon, I think, and all these numbers will change.

It helps if people stop assuming they need bigger, fancier houses. The difference in quality of construction and quality of living between a home in The Villages that costs $300,000 and one that costs $600,000 is miniscule. Installing quartz countertops or crown molding would not make me all that much happier. In much of the country, people figure they need homes with 2,500 square feet, or 3,500. They would be wiser to aim at 1,500 square feet for their family and put 15% of their income into mutual funds every month.

[Robojo]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Our daughter and future son in law make decent coin working in Boston, but there is no friggin way they can afford to buy a home and raise a family living there. They pay $3,100 per month for a very small one bedroom apartment in Brookline and her fiancé is up to his eyeballs in student loans. Us boomers were very lucky, things were much easier during our working years.

I'm Genx and we couldnt afford to have our own place when young. We bunked up with roommates,married or not.

I rent now. You MUST have 3x your yearly rent in the bank without a job, and with a job you MUST earn 3x your rent per month th.

If rent is 2k, you must gross MINIMUM of 6k per month.

Not easy for the average uneducated type who grinds away for 20 an hour. Barely do able for the person with a Masters degree.

Once we started seeing housing as an INVESTMENT, rather than a home, is where it all went bad.

[MrMartin]

actually not for all of us. I was told to find a new career after going through most of an radiology (x-ray) program even though i had the best grades in the class so I had togo back over seas to teach ESL for 30 yrs. The ironical thing is that I retired as the gate keeper (all students had to get through my class) at a Health Science University. I am now retire make much more then I would have if I was not kicked out of America hahahah

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

It’s astonishing that people manage to live in some of those expensive places and have normal jobs. It’s also interesting, though, that 5ere are many cities where it is much cheaper to live, such as Atlanta, Columbus, Buffalo, St. Louis, Kansas City. There are also hundreds or perhaps thousands of small towns across the country where a decent three bedroom house costs a quarter of what one costs in The Villages. The expensive cities on the list are far higher than housing here, of course.

I’m only here because my retirement savings mutual funds zoomed up in 2016 and are now the highest they have ever been. That lets me afford a courtyard villa comfortably. People without that sort of nest egg would be wise to buy where they can afford it.

A huge aspect of this is higher mortgage rates of interest. I paid 3.5% when I bought here. At the current rate, I couldn’t have managed it. Those rates will go down soon, I think, and all these numbers will change.

It helps if people stop assuming they need bigger, fancier houses. The difference in quality of construction and quality of living between a home in The Villages that costs $300,000 and one that costs $600,000 is miniscule. Installing quartz countertops or crown molding would not make me all that much happier. In much of the country, people figure they need homes with 2,500 square feet, or 3,500. They would be wiser to aim at 1,500 square feet for their family and put 15% of their income into mutual funds every month.

I totally agree with your statement about reasonable sq footage and the huge barns out there now.

However, interest rates for lending are normal and healthy at between 5% and 8%. Money was never meant to be free for loans and that’s essentially what it’s been with recent manipulations. The real issue is the costs and how everything for owning a home has gone through the roof. There is also unplanned pressure on available housing.

[Rapscallion St Croix]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

Just a moment...

I haven't had a salary since the last century.