Out of curiosity, what did your house cost in 1988? And what would you say it's worth today?
Gen Z and Millenial hatred and vitriol toward boomers
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Exactly right, every generation deals with these things, every generation has to work more to afford things. And every generation has whiney bitches that want to blame other generations. Bravo.
Seems like a lot of these arguments against different generations could almost all be blamed on capitalists.
That information is pretty worthless with out knowing what his salary was also at the time.
Now that I think about it, social media probably plays a part in the whiny folks being able to voice their opinions more freely now, which reaches far more people than in the past generations. Folks in the 80's couldn't post a tik tok that thousands of people would see complaining about their job. Now the younger folks can, then the older folks see it on Yahoo (using that as an example because I've seen quite a few links to viral videos of young folks complaining about the workplace on Yahoo) and then they think that's just how all the youngins are anymore.
If anything, racist Boomers at least have the excuse of being old farts. Young racists, in their 20-30s, are the losers and psychos of the younger generations.
I wonder if a boomer knows how old a Millennial is.
It seemed like until people actually started to talk about zoomers that they assumed millennials were all people 40 and under.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are/were boomers. So is Jeff Bezos. They had a nice hand in tech advances.
Biden isn't a Boomer. He is a member of the Silent Generation like my parents.
For sure - I would be interested in hearing that number as well.
Buying a house at 12% and paying it off in 17 years is impressive, but I imagine it was a little easier to accomplish in 1988.
The average home price in the US in 1988 was $104,500 and the average household gross income was $34,015.
The average home price in the US today is $433,100 and the average household gross income is $74,580 (2022).
Between 1988 and 2022, the median home sale price in the US climbed over 400%, while median household income rose a little over 200%, so during that time, home values grew about 2x faster than income. If home prices had grown at the same rate as income since 1988, the median U.S. home would cost roughly $261,650 instead of $433,100.
If someone today wanted to buy and pay off an average-priced home in 17 years on a 30-year rate, they would need to include somewhere around an additional $900 a month for 17 years. So at 7.5%, let's call it a mortgage payment of roughly $4k per month plus your taxes and insurance costs, which average around $500/month across the country ($230 insurance and $2,690/year for taxes). PLUS the additional $900 a month you're including for an early payoff. You're looking somewhere in the ballpark of $5,400 a month for 17 years. That's $64,800 a year.
With how high other expenses are, I don't see any young family being able to realistically accomplish this type of payoff without having an average household income of nearly 3x over the national average, at minimum.
So to your point, it would be interesting to learn what their family income was in 1988 and if it was over 3x the national average. I am betting it wasn't.
this is the problem with this conversation. Arbitrary dates and names with no real meaning.
average household income in iowa is around 70K. The median home price in des moines is 229k and i'm guessing less in the rest of the state.
I appreciate the numbers and I agree that home prices have outpaced income but I think that has more to do with corporations than a generation. Companies and quite a few young people I know are buying up homes for vacation rentals, skewing the market in more desirable locations. Sure you may have a hard time finding a home in vegas or austin texas but you don't always get to start where you finish.
What I don't hear a lot of the young people I know talking about is having a downpayment or 20% equity. I do hear a lot of the 20-40 year olds I know say wow you have a really nice house not realizing I started out in a POS, worked on it/cleaned it up and sold it. You do this 3-4 times and you can afford a nice home over time. If you grow up trading in an iphone every year/two years to have the latest and greatest you tend to not have the most patience when it comes to delaying gratification.
While I agree with what your saying that median house price differs drastically from state to state. In Iowa it's only $239,000 and you can buy nice homes for under $200k depending on the area you live in. Income would differ also but you really need to drill down to get accurate increases.
Not everyone wants to house flip though. For a lot of people, working 40-50 hours a week is enough, and they want to enjoy their free time instead of working on a shitty house, just to sell it. Then do that 2 or 3 more times.
I get what you're saying, but the route you took to having a nice home isn't exactly what a lot of folks want. It has nothing to do with replacing iphones.
I won't say what we paid in 88 but I will say we could sell if for almost 4x what we bought it for.
I guess my point is we were never house poor, and in retirement we will do what we want financially (if we can figure that part out).
This is easy. Millennials used to be whiny little bitches, but now they're growing up and understanding how life works a little more. Millennials are 30-something and they realize how stupid they were in their 20's, just like every generation before them. At this point they bag on boomers because they're an easy target, BUT I hear a lot of Millennials bag on Gen Z too.
As for Gen Z, they just don't realize what they don't know yet. They know everything and have all the answers. Given 15 years and they'll chill out too, and be dismayed by the generation below them, which is sure to be a disaster as well!
Gen X gets off easy, always. They had work ethic from day 1, learned that when they whined nobody cared, and they developed a pretty thick skin pretty early. It's basically a forgotten generation...and I think that's just how they like it.
As for Gen Z, they just don't realize what they don't know yet. They know everything and have all the answers. Given 15 years and they'll chill out too, and be dismayed by the generation below them, which is sure to be a disaster as well!
Gen X gets off easy, always. They had work ethic from day 1, learned that when they whined nobody cared, and they developed a pretty thick skin pretty early. It's basically a forgotten generation...and I think that's just how they like it.
Good analysis, but perhaps missing a key variable ... I'm guessing the rate of parental help wasn't this high a generation or two ago. Bigger point though is the irony of one generation batching so much about another generation that supports a majority of the former generation.
- Overall, 64% of millennials surveyed said they were still receiving financial support from their parents.
- 34% of millennials surveyed said they are still living at home with their parents. However, of those living at home, 52% of them said they had to move home specifically due to Covid-19.
- 58% of those who receive financial support from their parents say they are receiving more this year than prior years due to Covid-19.
- Of millennials receiving support, 54% said the value was $500 or less each month.
- Of millennials receiving financial support for their parents, 74% say it enables them to save more money personally each month.
64% Of Millennials Receive Support From Their Parents
We surveyed 1,500 millennials to find out how much financial support they receive from their parents, and in what categories they get aid.
thecollegeinvestor.com
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As an elder millennial, here’s my observations.
The Greatest Generation went to war, came back home, got married, got jobs, and raised families. They could get a blue collar job and be able to afford a house and two cars with 3-6 kids.
The Silent Generation enjoyed the same good life while some ended up in Korea or possibly Vietnam.
The Boomers were raised by the Greatest Generation and reaped the benefits of the post-war boom in the USA. Some went to Vietnam while the rest had relatively cheap college, relatively cheap homes, union jobs with pensions for the blue collar workers, high paying office jobs for the white collar workers, and health care improvements that are really kicking in to extend their lives. A 65 year old boomer today typically looks 10 years younger than a 65 year old WW2 veteran.
The Boomers had numbers in their favor and were able to take political power at an appropriate age. They, and many of the Silent Generation, haven’t given up that power on the schedule that most of the previous generations did. The oldest Gen Xers are approaching 60 years old, yet we haven’t had a Gen X president yet. This political power has allowed them to significantly change policy to benefit themselves as others have described.
Millennials were just becoming adults when Sept 11th happened, I was 20. Then the Afghanistan and Iraq wars which were drains on the economy and sent many of our friends off to war. Then housing prices boomed right as many were entering the workforce making it untenable to buy a home. Then the housing market and economy collapsed leading most of us to be affected since we had the least seniority. By the way it was a bunch of Silent Generation congressmen that pushed through the repeal of Glass-Steagall that led to it, signed by a Boomer president. Millennials were put behind the 8 ball as soon as they became adults and only some of us have caught up thanks to fortunate situations. There’s fewer union jobs, fewer pensions, college costs skyrocketing, housing costs skyrocketing, medical costs skyrocketing, etc.
I describe the “elite” boomers and silent gens as dragons. All they want to do is hoard wealth and power. They don’t care much about using either for the good of the world. In the old days wealth was meant to be spent, power was meant to be used and then transferred. Not anymore with them. That isn’t to say all Boomers are like that, there are many poor ones or ones that do just ok. But there’s a lot of pretty well off ones out there that will die with way too much money leading to that eventual wealth transfer previously mentioned. Why not spend it now and enjoy it, also stimulating the economy?
The Greatest Generation went to war, came back home, got married, got jobs, and raised families. They could get a blue collar job and be able to afford a house and two cars with 3-6 kids.
The Silent Generation enjoyed the same good life while some ended up in Korea or possibly Vietnam.
The Boomers were raised by the Greatest Generation and reaped the benefits of the post-war boom in the USA. Some went to Vietnam while the rest had relatively cheap college, relatively cheap homes, union jobs with pensions for the blue collar workers, high paying office jobs for the white collar workers, and health care improvements that are really kicking in to extend their lives. A 65 year old boomer today typically looks 10 years younger than a 65 year old WW2 veteran.
The Boomers had numbers in their favor and were able to take political power at an appropriate age. They, and many of the Silent Generation, haven’t given up that power on the schedule that most of the previous generations did. The oldest Gen Xers are approaching 60 years old, yet we haven’t had a Gen X president yet. This political power has allowed them to significantly change policy to benefit themselves as others have described.
Millennials were just becoming adults when Sept 11th happened, I was 20. Then the Afghanistan and Iraq wars which were drains on the economy and sent many of our friends off to war. Then housing prices boomed right as many were entering the workforce making it untenable to buy a home. Then the housing market and economy collapsed leading most of us to be affected since we had the least seniority. By the way it was a bunch of Silent Generation congressmen that pushed through the repeal of Glass-Steagall that led to it, signed by a Boomer president. Millennials were put behind the 8 ball as soon as they became adults and only some of us have caught up thanks to fortunate situations. There’s fewer union jobs, fewer pensions, college costs skyrocketing, housing costs skyrocketing, medical costs skyrocketing, etc.
I describe the “elite” boomers and silent gens as dragons. All they want to do is hoard wealth and power. They don’t care much about using either for the good of the world. In the old days wealth was meant to be spent, power was meant to be used and then transferred. Not anymore with them. That isn’t to say all Boomers are like that, there are many poor ones or ones that do just ok. But there’s a lot of pretty well off ones out there that will die with way too much money leading to that eventual wealth transfer previously mentioned. Why not spend it now and enjoy it, also stimulating the economy?
Actually, you are way better staying in one home and improving it from time to time. The problem with selling multiple times are many. First, it is expensive to buy and sell a home and move. Do that multiple times and you’ve wasted a couple hundred grand, easy. Also, you don’t recoup those improvement expenses. Spend 10k on a patio and you’re lucky to increase the home value $5k. People fool themselves into believing otherwise. They bought a home for $200, put $50 into it, then sell it for $300 and say “I made an extra $50k because of my improvements!” But they don’t realize that because of inflation they probably would have gotten $270 for the home, anyway, so their $50k only increased the sales price $30k. And they probably actually put $80k into it but have convenient memory. You also accelerate increasing your property taxes.
It’s way better to find the town and neighborhood you want to spend the rest of your life in, get the best house on the best lot you can find, and stay their for five decades. Just improve and expand it when you have the money. The important thing is location. You can turn a crap home into a beautiful home. You can’t turn a crap neighborhood into a beautiful neighborhood.
The one prior to Baby Boomers. Michael Douglas was born in 1944. And the line was meant to be ironic.
What you want and what you get are two different things.
I think your post has everything to do with the iPhone attitude. I want I want I want.
I want an indoor 20’ lap pool next to my indoor golf simulator. I want to live on a high end golf course. I want a vacation home in whitefish. Those are all things I want.
What my bank account allows. None of those yet. But I’ll work a summer job this year to buy my indoor simulator and save for the pool. I’ll never have a vacation home in whitefish, not that that was ever realistic. Life doesn’t care what you want and neither does society at large.
You can make over $50k/year working at Kwik star. Enough to live your life. Just not enough to do whatever you want.
Do you think people liked paying +10% mortgage rates in the 1980’s? Timing sucks.
Yes if you buy and sell every couple years and hire everything done.
I guess I’ve been lucky to work fix most of my own issues and private sale. Why anyone with a decent house uses a realtor is beyond me.
My kids are also in their 20's, daughter 29. They're both doing quite well. My son is getting his PHD and has zero loans. They too are examples of people being successful in the current environment. it's called, setting priorities and sticking to it.
Meant to be, yes.
Turned into a mantra for the boomers, absolutely.
Yes, and refusing to acknowledge that things are harder than when we started and when our parents started is dumb.
It’s usually cost effective to use a realtor, because of simple laws of capitalism. People will sell their home for $200k without a realtor and brag that they saved $10k. But, in fact, it’s quite possible they could have gotten $220k for the home if it were exposed to a wider market.
There is a tremendous amount of self-delusion when it comes to the finances around people’s homes. And this is coming from someone who did it all wrong, not someone bragging. We bought a home in 2000 that we sold fifteen years later for 60% more than we paid for it. If you ask my wife she’d probably guess we put $50k into it. But I know we put closer to $200k into it. Her memory, like many people, is selective.
I no longer have any idea what type of point you're trying to make. Your initial post I replied to was about how a lot of 20-40 year olds you know say "wow you have a really nice house," and you saying you got there by starting with a POS and fixing, reselling multiple times until the point that you could afford a nice house. I simply pointed out that not a whole lot of people want to go that route. In my situation, I work roughly 50-60 hours a week (during our busy season, which is about 10 months out of the year). In my free time, I want to spend it working out and spending time with my fiance's son. Not doing more work. That's my choice. It doesn't make me lazy, I just have a different set of priorities.
My post had nothing to do with the "iPhone attitude." I don't even know what the **** that is. The folks that do that, their priority is having a new phone. That's fine. The "iPhone attitude" might be the new "avocado toast" bullshit that people just spew out about the younger generations.
I'll go ahead and bow out of this convo, because it's going nowhere. I like ya man, but this post is very off. Everyone has different priorities in life.
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I’m not going to step into some millennial vs boomer war….but there is a point that the millennial generation will be the first in US history to be worse off than their parents overall.
I for one do think it’s time to pass the torch in leadership politically and in private industry.
I for one do think it’s time to pass the torch in leadership politically and in private industry.
You’re assigning that to all Boomers, but it’s Republican Boomers who are at fault. The Paul Ryan and Koch brother types.
Yet they’ll show up and vote for one of those over the hill idiots instead of supporting the next group up.
This thread is a giant load of bull 💩 basically screaming about your parents.
