Why do people think the 80s were a boon? People struggled. Remember mortgage rates were over 15% at points, and averaged around 11%. Sure houses were cheap, because financing was so expensive...
Houses were cheap because there were way less people and boomers had an exodus from cities into brand new suburbs. Houses are expensive now mostly because cities refuse to allow new dense housing to be built where people want to move
True and especially for mom and pop landlord who own just a few homes. Most of them are handy so they do the maintenance themselves. Others just hire a handy man to take care of things.
Let’s take my apartment for example. I’ve lived here 3 years. Do you know how much time my landlord has put into “maintaining the property” besides simply raising my rent?
Maybe 15 minutes of gaslighting me telling me the black mold isn’t a structural problem. That’s it. He hasn’t done a single day of work in years.
I think we need to be more specific about the types of housing being built as well. In this very post you compare suburban sprawl single family homes with dense urban condos, those are not attracting the same buyers
The only neighborhoods that have been going up in my area for the past 10+ years are all 55+ communities, anything else being built are soulless voids of gray apartment buildings for $2k+ /mo. rent and will raise the rates $500-$1000 just cuz.
You'd think those 55+ communities would be full of old crotchety "Get off my lawn" in bed by 7PM and up at 4AM types, but its quite the opposite. Those 55+ communities are wild and devolve into drug and alcohol fueled fuck n' sucks, lots of swinging, and lots of partying. It would make sorority/frat behavior seem tame. Honestly sounds like an awesome way to live out the golden years.
Houses were cheap because they were smaller, older, and had expensive financing. No young person today would want to live in a "starter home" from the 80s...
A majority of US homes in 1980 did not have a dishwasher. Or a/c. Or covered parking. A microwave was something only the very rich could afford. Clothes dryers were common, but not universal. Same for insulation - even if you had ac, you didn’t run it constantly because you could t afford to.
That's not how that works. The houses haven't just been sitting there since time immemorial, waiting for buyers and now, suddenly, they've all been bought. They get built as a function of demand. The issue today is that only luxury housing gets built and it's only for rich people, anyway.
They don’t remember having to wait in line for gas. The eighties for me was McDonalds on a Saturday night as the big reward for not being seen for the week at my house by my parents. No one had shit in the eighties. Also we didn’t care
Credit scores weren’t invented until 1989, and student loans didn’t start to get sold to 3rd party’s until the mid-80/ either. Also, inflation was tied to your wage increases until the 80’s too. All changes that wouldn’t be felt majorly for another 5–10 years, well in to the 90’s. You guys might not have been much more rich but you absolutely had way more spending money than we do today
They dont want to remember that people live in containers like even Eminem did. It was always a % of people who own everything and big number of those who own nothing. However now we have internet and we all can see that, also now there are actual things we can WASTE our money(and time) on, which did not been invented yet back in the days.
More of the tax raised in the 80s went to support working people. Most of the tax raised now goes to support retired people. It was much easier to be a working person back then.
Home price are not 1.1 mil. Median prices are about 400k. You can still find starter homes in the 200-350k range. If you are paying over 1 mil for a house that is a choice.
And, 5% is brilliant compared to the best of 80s... And, if you got a 2%er during COVID you are gold right now...
The average cost of a house at that time was 50k. That means you could find a house for 30-40k and still own property. With an 11-12% mortgage rate you could earn minimum wage at that time and still afford the mortgage. Minimum wage in 1980 was 3.10. A 2 person family could afford that mortgage. If either one was making more than minimum they would be better off.
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u/TelephoneNorth8640 15h ago
Why do people think the 80s were a boon? People struggled. Remember mortgage rates were over 15% at points, and averaged around 11%. Sure houses were cheap, because financing was so expensive...