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.
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u/Atomic-Avocado 14h ago
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