President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting that he wants to 'drive housing prices up' to keep homeowners 'wealthy' rather than focusing on affordability to benefit people people who 'didn't work very hard'
Go ahead, vote MAGA in the midterms if you’re curious how fucked your life can get.
As mentioned above, that’s fine for investors actually. They don’t want individuals buying homes. They want people renting them. Across a long enough period, renting will be more profitable so they are happy to buy them up even if your average person can’t afford the mortgage.
Remember, when Al Bundy and Homer Simpson showed up, they were considered ‘middle class.’ Homer had a house and two cars, his wife stayed home. That was normal.
In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average US home was $11,000.00. At that time, $1 million was a vast fortune. Nowadays, $1 million is what a rich guy pays for a party.
A honeycrisp apple costs over two fucking dollars. Five years ago it was fifty cents. Not fifty years ago. Five. Small, but entirely emblematic of the problem.
Neat, and totally irrelevant because we have no idea if our examples are geographically proximate. In the area I’m living in now, at the same grocery store, the price of a honeycrisp apple has more than quadrupled in the last 5 years. Averaged out that’s 60% YoY inflation.
If no one can afford the boomer homes, the houses stay unsold so there’s a balance when trying to maximise profit.
As mentioned above, that’s fine for investors actually. They don’t want individuals buying homes. They want people renting them. Across a long enough period, renting will be more profitable so they are happy to buy them up even if your average person can’t afford the mortgage.
Why is this becoming so acceptable to Americans?
Because the people who don’t accept it don’t have the power to reject it. We are owned by billionaires and our system is corrupt to the fucking core.
Boiling frog.
Remember, when Al Bundy and Homer Simpson showed up, they were considered ‘middle class.’ Homer had a house and two cars, his wife stayed home. That was normal.
In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average US home was $11,000.00. At that time, $1 million was a vast fortune. Nowadays, $1 million is what a rich guy pays for a party.
A honeycrisp apple costs over two fucking dollars. Five years ago it was fifty cents. Not fifty years ago. Five. Small, but entirely emblematic of the problem.
Don’t get me started on luxury inflation.
Look at things like the prices for live sporting events and concerts.
Back when The Beetles were the hottest band in the world, teenagers were buying their own tickets.
Middle class folks used to be able to splurge once in a while and get the best of the best. Now that stuff is beyond the reach of mere mortals
Mmm I don’t know about this one, I worked at grocery stores 15 years ago and fancier single apples were around $1.50.
Neat, and totally irrelevant because we have no idea if our examples are geographically proximate. In the area I’m living in now, at the same grocery store, the price of a honeycrisp apple has more than quadrupled in the last 5 years. Averaged out that’s 60% YoY inflation.
And there is a reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8-wqv9_-Ac
Okay well if they were $6 I would have mentioned that. They’re not, they’re like $2.