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submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Few milestones in life mean as much to the American Dream as owning a home. And millennials have encountered the kind of trouble totally befitting their generation, which largely graduated into the teeth of the disastrous post-2008 job market. Just as they entered peak homebuying and household formation age, housing affordability is at 40-year lows, and mortgage rates are near 40-year highs.

The anxiety this generation feels about the prospect of never owning their own home affects their entire perception of their finances and the economy, says Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi.

“If they feel like they’re locked out of owning a home it colors their perceptions about everything else going on in their financial lives,” Zandi says.

Millennials have long been dogged by a brutal housing market. They faced not one, but two, cataclysmic economic events—the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and the pandemic in 2020. Both of which left them reeling financially and struggling to afford a home. The Great Recession decimated the real estate market as the economy nearly collapsed under the weight of tenuous mortgage backed securities. While the pandemic brought with it a remote work boom that caused millions of citydwellers to flee to the suburbs, sending housing prices soaring.

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[-] pixxelkick@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Missing the other big factor:

There's a large quantity of influencers profiting off of doomsaying and convincing millennial they can't afford homes with bad math and bogus statistics. They churn out clickbait content with unfounded claims, purposefully designed to rile up viewers and drive engagement.

This of course applies to many topics, housing affordability just being one, that turns out drive big engagement by spreading disinformation.

It's actively profitable to lie on the internet nowadays, so lots of my fellow millennials have an extremely soured and warped perspective of reality, because if you keep getting told lies by enough different random strangers on the internet on a topic you aren't familiar with, you'll start to believe it.

Spreading disinformation, especially about serious topics like economics, medicine, politics, religion, etc, needs to be cracked down on more. Posing as a professional online and spreading damaging info on purpose should result in jail time imo.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

For those downvoting, the most effective lies always have some truth to them.

Honestly the biggest reason they can’t afford housing is because the majority don’t know how to budget and/or stick to it. This goes for a large amount of the poor as well. They’re constantly spending their money on consumables and other non-wealth building things. In the US, as a society, we’ve done a shit job of teaching our kids this valuable lesson, pun intended.

Doesn’t mean the value of the dollar isn’t lower than it has been in a while and that mortgage rates aren’t high (they aren’t the highest, by the way; it was at ~12% in the 90s). That food prices aren’t insane and that corporations aren’t taking advantage and jacking up their margins, they are.

[-] simp4ravens 17 points 10 months ago

This is a lie and you've been manipulated. I've seen poverty and watched people starve themselves skinny for savings. There are individual differences and if your differences make you useless to the economy (where you aren't coerced into seperating from your money for your health) then that's absolutely fantastic for you. But please don't chime in to preach at people who are starving thanks.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Not everyone who is poor is starving. The vast majority aren’t.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

"Come on, people, some of the poors are still fat!"

Your attitude is beyond despicable.

[-] simp4ravens 15 points 10 months ago

Words of someone who has never had a real relationship with someone financially struggling. I could explain the small accumulation of hardships such as medical, transport, food, rent, gas, electricity expenses and the psychological impact it has but idk if you are at the stage of life where you can swallow that properly.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I work with several people and have worked with many people that are financially struggling and they all have the same thing in common, which I’ve already outlined.

I’m not trying to say that you aren’t in a different boat but that doesn’t mean your experience is the same as all those who are poor either.

I hope you find the support you need to help you out of whatever situation you find yourself not able to get out of. We obviously aren’t going to have the same perspective.

[-] Furbag@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

You might not be starving while living paycheck to paycheck as nearly half of all Americans are currently, but make no mistake, you are poor.

I've been saving my cash for over a decade in hopes of buying a house someday, and it's still not realistic for me to purchase one right now. The line just keeps getting further and further away. I've done everything "right" according to you, yet it's still not getting me any closer to ownership.

We need government to step in and help us. This problem isn't going to go away just by having everyone tighten their belts and save for a year or two. It's going to require a massive legislative sweep to overhaul the system in favor of owner occupants and not investment hedge funds.

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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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