Why can’t young Americans afford homes?

"One in every four Gen-Zers are homeowners, but 78% of them have had financial support for the down payment from parents," says economist Kyla Scanlon, author of "In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work"

[Susanhartman.]

Keep in mind that during the 80’s people were encouraged to save due to the interest rates. Right now there’s very little incentive to save because those who are saving are watching those who are reckless taking it in. I’ve been trying to save for a home and it’s been discouraging to watch prices continue to not budge because there’s people willing to get into a mortgage where they’re paying 40% of their income. It’s insane.

[KRAMITDFROG]

Middle chick: How about 65% of you don't vote for administrations like the current one? Meanwhile, the other chick owns a house in which she does not live. Others got help from their parents. Gen Z owns more houses than Gen X at a similar age. And they keep saying the American Dream is dead? WT Actual F?!?

This chick in the middle also doesn't have a clue, talking about land in Japan appreciating. Yeah, that's what it does because they don't make more land. She talks about 3M more housing units. Can she answer why we need 3M more housing units? Because 12M illegal immigrants in a very short period of time, courtesy of the administration for which her peeps voted, caused a shortage of - do the math. They need to somewhere to live, we don't just absorb them. The $150B they cost taxpayers also negatively affects the value of her dollars. Not one mention of ANY of that between ALL of you. Almost all of what she touches on is feelings - crisis this, crisis that, feeling this, feeling that. I have an inkling she's getting ready to repeat her mistake of four years ago.

Streamlining red tape is about the only Harris proposal that makes sense; everything else is spending money we don't have, which means printed, which means inflation. They want all the regulations in the world without understanding that regs have costs. If government would get out of the way, the economy would be worlds better. That's what Trump did.

[alanj]

Your home price didn't go up. The value of your money has collapsed, and wages didn't keep up. It's not a coincidence that both housing prices and stock markets started going wild just after the US dollar left the gold standard.

[basswars]

In 1966 my father bought a mid-sized bungalow for $15, 500. He earned $7, 500 as an autobody repairman. Last year the house across the street from our family home sold for $989, 000. It was smaller and on a narrow lot.

[Slugma-kxpv]

I believe zoning laws is basically the infrastructure version of price controls. Illegalizing zoning laws would help by allowing people to naturally settle into where they'd like to live. Forcing the building of homes, businesses and factories/fabrication firms into specific areas only makes life more difficult. They're literally separating the different aspects of life into geographical zones than to have it naturally exist alongside where you live.

Traveling costs in both time and resources for the worker would significantly reduce because it'd be in walking distance. Which is opposed to the idea that we must separate into different zones and forcing the congestion of roads and mass transportation.

[phattorangecatto]

I’m a Gen Z homeowner, I’m 22. My mom essentially fronted the down payment for my wife and I and we just make the payments. If my mom did not help it would’ve taken me very long to get a house

[HANU]

Henry George was right: land is a monopoly with a fixed supply. Any increase in productivity just drives up land prices, making housing less affordable. Landowners capture all the value, pushing costs higher. To solve the housing crisis, we need to rethink how land value impacts the economy.

[geoffhart]

Is this a trick question? Answer: *because there's too much demand for too few homes*. Kamala's answer: let's increase demand even more by giving out more money to buyers.

Actual answer: reduce building codes, reduce zoning limitations, reduce fuel costs (which will lower prices across the board), and don't impose minimum wages on menial labor - if someone is willing to work for a low wage, let them, that's what unskilled, starter jobs used to be for.

[prs]

Why is nobody talking about the increased cost of basic homes due to the increase in requirements from the building codes?!?! The requirement for separate breakers for an electric charger in new homes and fire sprinkler systems alone add over 10k to the price of a basic home.

[pgolden]

The house in a community is what you are buying, not just a house

[ArmHope]

Me and my wife are Gen Z and own a home. Live in a more affordable metro area.
You only need 5 percent down on a house she’s saying 20 percent, which is an outdated measure

[radagast]

Immigration... there are entire neighborhoods being bought up by me by "new arrivals." They are not good neighbors either, and there are people moving out of these school districts because of they impact they have had. They are not punished for being cruel and violent and the parents dont even seem to care and often encourage it. They see themselves as victims, all while doing this and acting entitled. It is absolutely unsustainable.

[johnstibal]

A good place to start would be to get the Federal Reserve and the US gov OUT of real estate! Stop bailing out real estate! The problem now is that we have millions of Americans in homes that they overpaid for...good luck letting housing prices fall. Gov subsidies for first time homebuyers, desirable living space that is shrinking and constant bailouts of real estate....Yeah, this situation is getting way worse in the years ahead.

[MarkKilmer]

My wife and I are "millennials" and we bought our first house 10 years ago. We have 4 kids and no debt other than the mortgage. We were gifted nothing from relatives.
Hard work pays off.

[acd]

Here’s some advise to help get a home
1) stop order Uber eats or going out to dinner - I ate ramen noodles and Spegetti until I was 30
2) stop spending 1000s on make up fashion etc.
3) buy a cheep car not a sexy car
4) you dont need new clothes every season
5) you don’t need a new phone Ann tablet every year and you don’t need the 1500$ versions
6) it’s about choices and trade offs

[gimpzilla]

Solving housing could be easy, if painful. America needs to remove the 30-year fixed rate, removing FRMs would anchor mortgage rates to the economy and would eliminate many investment properties if the mortgage rate was normalized and not 'windows' to purchase

[tristan]

No changes to zoning laws or building codes is going to produce the 5-20 million housing units needed to bring prices back into line. The problem is, there are a few supermetros you have to live in to have a decent career, and those places are FULL. Every square foot of land is spoken for in the SF bay, NYC, LA, and similar places. That makes land and building expensive and slow. The solution is to spread economic activity over a wider area; that probably requires some level of industrial policy at the federal level.

[FloridaDeere]

Programs like what the government offers almost always drive prices up. While I am simplifying here, I can tell you as a 20 year real estate veteran that the government does far more harm than good in real estate. It's weird that on a ReasonTV video, a largely libertarian channel, we have several people expressing what government programs will be best. Slowly wane people off of government programs, slowly, require larger down payments, maybe not necessarily 20%, release builders and developers from so many crazy and insane government regs which account for roughly 25% of a new home and re-structure property tax policy and the cost of homes will drop over time. Currently there is a shortage of homes, but that won't be the case in a few more years hopefully. HOA's are a waste of money and cause unnecessary additional costs as well. To be clear, none of these are silver bullets, but less government intrustion into real estate will help drive down costs over time and make homes more affordable. Except for at very rare moments, it's still better to own than rent and the bottom line is we all have to lay our heads down somewhere at night, it might as well be a place you own so you have more control over your conditions and terms on which you pay. Real estate far exceeds the rate of general inflation and as a commission sales person, maybe I shouldn't care, just kidding, but that increase has to stop going up at above general inflation rates. And it likely will, but it will have a better chance of doing so without people making up fairytale stupid programs. The $25, 000 program is another dumb program, you can just keep throwign money at stuff to fix it, nothinig, like nothing works that way, not education, not housing, not job creation, nothing! Just my $.02.

[RobertBullock]

Most of us have just stopped giving financial advice. I used to but it appeared unwanted.

[Scott-qwer]

How do most of you guys still make profit, even with the downturn of the economy and ever increasing life standards