America's Housing Prices Like The 1950s With Adult Children Living At Home

I recently read that something like 1/3rd of American adults under age 25 still living at home. They don't necessarily want to. They have to because of the economic conditions regarding housing which are just insane right now in much of the country it appears. Real estate and house rentals prices are off the charts, and continuing to rise. I interviewed this woman as part of a television series that I was making on the 1960s. The interview took place in 1989. She was a young adult in the 1950s and facing a horrible housing crisis where many young adults who were married and even with children could not afford to rent an apartment. The folks who lived next door to my family when I was growing up in Levittown, Long Island rented their home for three times as much as my parents were paying a month on their mortgage (they paid $25 a month!). I don't know what will change to allow young families to buy homes or to pay rent in decent neighborhoods and I feel for those who cannot find decent housing for their families at a price they can afford.

[myfavoriteplanet]

People's homes are being sold to giant corporations.
That takes away from individual home ownership. Plus, corporate landlords are less likely to have empathy or flexibility for individual situations. It's all about profit.

[mustardofdoom]

A $60 rent in 1955 translates to ~$630 in 2022. I can't think of anywhere in 2022 that would rent a whole house for that little.

[thecatguy]

Love hearing normal every day people telling their stories.

[agentj]

People from the fifties: I can rent an apartment for 60 bucks and save up to buy a house on my regular job salary
Millennials: How much is the rent on that refrigerator box? 2 grand? That's a GREAT offer

[TC-bhbi]

They wanted the same thing today's kids want. Independence from their parents and some privacy. To run their lives as they wanted without pressure or nagging from family members, whether parents, grandparents or siblings. It's a story that repeats constantly throughout history. Just as multi generational families repeat. Pro's and con's either way. Thanks for another good one.

[isaacsmind]

The idea of the suburbs being a "young" community to me is interesting. I guess the modern equivalent would be the multi-story condo units that you see marketing towards young professionals.

[auntissie]

I have been working so hard on my credit after i lost my home in 2008... I finally have an excellent credit rating but now... I can't even AFFORD A HOUSE!!! What the heck is going on! I am 67 and raising my 2 grandchildren... Living in a trailer!!! I have had 3 beautiful homes and good jobs in the past but all is lost. My social security is the minimum because all those years i spent working my a## off don't count for anything. Why?? Because i spent the last 15 years before i could collect retirement as full time unpaid caretaker of my mother, father, and mother in law until each passed away. So i didn't have enough credits or whatever. I'll just die a destitute. My poor grandchildren - this is NO LIFE FOR THEM!! Sorry, I just had to vent.

[BillySBC]

Prior to a lot of the social programs and safety net programs families tended to stay together and live together for generations. There were no "social security" programs to help the elderly, so having the children care for the parents in their old age was a quite normal thing. Totally different world today.

[paleamigo]

Having joined the military after high school and gone on to purchase a couple houses, I find no shame in someone staying at home with your parents as long as it is a win/win for both (being productive and contributingto the householdin ways that are necessary). The idea of rushing out to get into debt, particularly if your parents are getting older, makes little since unless adequate living space for all involved is an issue.

[peternicholson]

Thanks for showing this interview. So many of the people interviewed for the 60s series are well spoken. Good to hear about someone's life at the time.

[eduardouribealbarran]

This topic is interesting. All my life, I thought the generation that fought the war lived on their own before the war broke out. Idk maybe I'm saying this because the way they portrayed people in the suburbs at that time had life everything together. However, hearing her testimony now make me see things differently what moving out to the suburbs was about. It must've been a 180 for them from living in dense city with amenities close to them to literally a new area far from home with other young in the same boat as you are.

[jmpattillo]

I feel really bad for young people trying to buy right now. I thought I got beat up in the 2008 crash but at least I was able to buy a house.

[EyeLean]

I grew up on Long Island and in Manhattan and in both places, but especially on the island, we could see 20th century history around us, the turn of the century "Victorian" mansions on the "gold coast" of the North Shore, the suburbs like Bethpage that had been developed with Sears catalogue houses in the 1930s, and of course Levittown, which boomed in the postwar era, then after those, 1970s ranch houses, and finally schools and libraries that were sometimes very modern... This video reminded me of all that.

[gailkelly]

Hi Mr. to see you looking so darn good at 79. I'm 71 and I keep thinking I'm old even though I don't think old...so seeing good people and sharing so much gives me a real incentive to keep on keeping on. Thank you.🌹🙋

[MultiSmartass]

The huge differences between the postwar 1950s and say 2022 is that
A) You had the creation of the suburbs that allowed especially young couples and even some single people live by themselves and move out of their parents homes
B) You Also had the GI Bill which put returning veterans not only through colleges and universities but helped with purchasing homes in places like Levittown.

Now you have no such programs to alleviate economic burdens for the average person in this country .

No reasonably affordable suburbs
No aid for college education
Thus you have a percentage of adults living at home these days.

[gladaseeya]

David Hoffman consistently gets interviews where the subjects not only tell us about their personal experiences but also give us a first hand insight into how things were.

[michaelbradshaw]

Well-spoken young lady. Love her rosey apple cheeks when she smiles. For better or worse, things do change with time. Lovely woman, lovely film. Thanks!

[ceemee]

When my parents moved from the two flat, above my dad's uncle, to the very near suburbs, my grandparents generation couldn't understand why. They had all come from somewhere else and found community in a city neighborhood. It was beyond them to think about us living so far away from that little community. It wasn't long before we had a new community. This type of story is very common post WWII. I wonder if it was this way in other allied countries?

[ARPorganics]

This reminds me of my life back in 2000! I just graduated high school and I already had a fulltime job working as a groundsman at the county hospital. Luckily that job was given to me during the summer youth program. The only difference to my story is by 1999 I had already saved up enough money to by a car, move into my on place and buy furniture before my high school graduation day. After watching this video I began to understand that life has not really changed to much except for the cost of living and the different opportunities to make living.

[StallionFernando]

Fun fact: in the 50's you could literally buy a house in a year or less with only the father having to work....now it takes like 20 years with both parents working...