Home ownership absolutely is out of the question for many Gen Y-and-younger people, especially in any decent proximity to a city. Your anecdote about "well they should eat out less" ignores the reality that housing prices have far outpaced wages.
I agree, Now allow me say I live in one of them most expensive markets in the country, but 20-something year olds are dealing with lower wages, higher debt and cost increases in the housing market that outpaced inflation. I have a friend who works a decent job at a hospital, doesn't go out to eat much, but could not afford even renting an apartment herself. Like so many people she needed to find an apartment with roommates.
Houses have always been too expensive
So true, but prior generations have not had to deal factors that these kids have been dealing with. I was able to work two jobs, go to school at night and afford an apartment. Now people are working two jobs and many still can't even afford rent.
If you don't have the courage to scrimp, work hard and make it work somehow and invest in a house in your early to mid working years you basically miss the boat and suffer financially for ever after.
I think that's an unfair generalization where so many people starting off in their careers have the deck stacked up against them and accuse them of being the problem is short sited and just plain wrong. Back when I started my career, getting double digit percentages in raises was not unheard, I easily got 10%+ raises and promotions came with real raises.
With that said, lets put some hard numbers to your generalizations.
The average salary for college graduates is 43k
(zip recruiter) or 21 dollars an hour. We also have to remember these 20 somethings also have student loans and the average student loan payment is
300 a month.
The median house price for
Massachusetts is 600,000, and lets say they were able to somehow come up with a 20% down payment ($120,000). That means they have a mortgage of 480,000 or a monthly payment of 3,500 dollars, I pay 900 dollars a month in escrow , I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but for me that includes real estate and insurance. So now our pretend mortgage is at 4,400 dollars a month
Last time I check 4,400 is larger then 3,000 and that's not including student loans, utilities, food, car payments, car loans, etc.
So please tell me how much scrimping does 20 somethings need to do to be able to afford a 4,400 dollar mortgage payment on a monthly salary of 3,000?
An apartment is still a home in my books and it’s a great start for somebody in their twenties. I think this is the problem. People want it all at the start. Gotta work your way up.
Yes, but do you know the average rent prices in
Boston is 2,800 dollars and as mentioned above the average student loan is 300 dollars a month. Fresh graduates cannot even afford a single bedroom apartment.