A moister meme is that every gen which came before had it easier. Especially with real estate. You might have noticed in the last day or so comments like this back in the steerage section:
Two generations ago people with no college degree, stay at home spouse could have 3 kids, afford a house and run the kids through university.
Now 2 working sheep could not get a condo, god forbid kids.
And there were even some attempts to validate the feeling that never before have a bunch of young people been so disenfranchised as now. Millennials – at least many of them – think they were born into a time of turmoil, disentitlement, high costs, low wages and distress. They fantasize that Boomers or GenXers emerged from their fartsy arts degrees to land great jobs, buy cheap houses and let inflation make them wealthy.
Here, for example, was some moister math published yesterday:
$250,000 detached house in Toronto 20 years ago.
DP 20%.
Mortgage rate of 12%.
25-year amortization.
Monthly payment = $2,106
$1.2 million detached house in Toronto today.
DP 20%.
Mortgage rate of 3%.
25-year amortization.
Monthly payment = $4,552
I’m not good at math. Which amount is more affordable? $2106 or $4552?
Have salaries gone up 2.5x in the past 20 years?
So, it all begs a simple of question of how much less affordable houses are today. Absolutely, prices are ridiculous. But mortgages are available for less than 3%. Two generations ago buyers had to come up with a 25% downpayment, and one generation ago that was trimmed to 10%. But today it’s just half of that amount, at 5%. Additionally today a young couple can raid their retirement savings for a tax-free $70,000 downpayment that need not be fully repaid for 15 years. Plus, unlike previous gens, parents now collect big government cheques, tax-free, that can be used to subsidize mortgage payments. On the negative side, buyers have larger closing costs, especially in places like Toronto, corporate pensions are a rarity (so personal savings matter more) while Airbnb and speculation have helped boost competition for houses.
Anyway, a simple comparison of the burden of buying a home might be in order. It’s a rough calc. Lots of variables are left out. And it’s specific to only one market (Toronto). Since all real estate is local, the results may be different in your hood. And for the purposes of the comparison below, we’ve assumed a buyer would put down 10% (even though Boomers were forced to cough up more, and today it’s just 5%).
GenX buyers in 1999
First, what was the situation 20 years ago when the average Gen X was turning 30, feeling house lusty and plunging into home ownership?
Back in 1999 the average Toronto property sold for just $228,354, which seems nostalgic. The median household income was $50,800, and the average rate on a five-year mortgage that year was 6.72%. So to carry a home loan of $205,5000 would cost $1,404 a month, or $16,848 a year.
The price-to-income ratio of that property was 4.5, and to carry the average home took 33% of average GenX pre-tax income.
Baby Boomers buying in 1985
Now, how about the Boomers?
In 1985 most of them were about the same age – in their early 30s. The average Toronto property was changing hands for a lowly $109,094 – a price that would surge more than 200% within the next four years during a speculative boom. The median household income was $31,965, and interest rates were nuts. A five-year mortgage that year was at 13.25%.
So a mortgage of $98,184 cost $1,100 a month, or $13,200 per year. The price-to-income ratio was 3.5, but to carry that home required 41% of pre-tax income. Over the next few years interest rates declined, and real estate values exploded high before peaking in 1989, then crashing 32%. They would take 14 years to recover.
The Millennials, buying now
What about today?
A Millennial buyer in Toronto faces an average property price of $778,300. The median household income has grown to $82,110 (the latest figure available, 2016). Mortgages are available for 3%.
So a $700,500 mortgage requires a monthly of $3,100. The price-to-income ratio has exploded higher – to 9.5. But because mortgage rates are near historic lows, it takes 45% of pre-tax income to finance it.
Conclusion: Real estate values are a function of the cost of money. The cheaper loans are, the more houses command and the bigger mortgages get. So when interest rates decline, the price-to-income ratio jumps explosively. That’s the situation now. However, the most important measure of affordability is the income required to service the debt.
So, Boomers shared a similar affordability problem to that which the Mills now face. Gen Xers, on the other hand – those cloistering helicopter moister parents – rode history’s coattails to easy wealth. May their basements forever be occupied.
116 comments ↓
Great read garth! Thank goodness for Air BnB!
Phyrrzzttt…
Oh my goodness. One of my BTL musings made it ATL!
What an Easter gift. I can die a happy man now.
Interesting numbers.
It matters not.
Let the whining begin……
Most Boomers have lived through a few RE cycles…..which inherently implies Boom – Bust. These cycles generally ran for a few years..ie 2-3…the market would stagnate for years…get primed…a boom….then bust.
A savvy boomer realized that the latest run- up did not follow past precedents, something defied reality, the longer a correction was delayed simply made the bust not only inevitable but worse than previous busts.
Millenials caught up in this have to look in the mirror…
Most people buying a house now have a substantial credit card balance, they have a car lease (quite probably two car leases)
There is there Rogers and telus and/or Bell cable and Internet wireless cell phone plan which can easily eat into three or $400 per month,
Then we come to choice spending when we choose the Starbucks daily visit or the Horton daily visit which usually cuts into disposable cash.
Spending habits are different
David Pylyp
And if u factor in that Mills need to work longer hours to pay for cost of living it gets even more depressing. After all time is invaluable.
Wow. Nice picture of David Letterman. Maybe retirement is a good idea after all…
Beat the boomers.
Boomer, in ’85:
25% down was 85% of a year’s pay.
Millennial today:
5% down (+ 3.5% insurance) is 81% of a year’s pay.
If the Boomer chucked a few extra payments toward a 13% mortgage, he could really shave years off the amortization. Same deal if he kept the payment the same when the rate dropped at renewal.
If you’ve got a monster mortgage at 3%, throwing extra payments at the principal isn’t going to make much of a dent.
And the Boomer’s place probably had a yard. Comparing ’85s “average” home to today’s glosses over some serious hedonic shrinkage.
I’m not a Boomer or a Millennial, but I can do math.
Once while hiking in the Rockies there were teenaged guys behind me. They were good friends judging by their chatter. One says do you know if you say gullible three times quickly it sounds French. Really says one and says gullible three times. Wait a second – I hate you!
The generation before me were World War 2 vets. The vets, like my Dad was, treated his kids, like we were privates in boot camp. No complaints. I grew up to be like
the guy in today’s pic. Tough.
And proud of it.
Freedom First
Here I thought millennials were about experiences not expenses, so they are no different than any other generation. Just more like kids who never grew up, always complaining when things do not go their way.
Is the Millennial scenario really possible with 10% down and average income? Wouldn’t that income not be sufficient to get the required mortgage of $700K?
Garth,
Toronto’s price to income ratio has skyrocketed higher (from 3.5 to 4.5 approximately in the 80s and 90s to 9.5 today – based on your numbers.)
Are you suggesting that you think that low rates override Toronto’s housing bubble issues as defined by its skyrocketing price to income ratio over the past 20 – 30 years?
Are you opining that low rates make it as safe to buy now in Toronto as it was when the price to income ratio there was at its historical long-term level of 3.5 to 4.5?
You didn’t clarify.
If this is what you really think, how would that make your view fundamentally different from most realtors on this issue?
Not far off on the Gen X numbers. We Bought the first home in the T.O. Burbs in 1999 both at 24 y/o. 3BR TH, 1400 sq ft. $170k. Used $8500 from RRSP and we saved the $8500 with combined income of 65k/yr. Got a 5yr rate @ 5.95% which thought to be as low as you would ever see. Also true we’ve been lucky that each house sale has let us realize approx $600k in gains leaving us very well positioned 20 years later just as the unwinding is starting. Definitely feel fortunate being born in the right year…which was never really the case for us Xers’s sandwiched between 2 self centered generations
Take care, Quebec – lots of rain on the way!
https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/quebec-officials-maintain-flood-warnings-for-many-areas-as-heavy-rain-expected
Gonna be moister than a Boomer’s diaper ;)
Plus us Gen-X’ers had to suffer through dial-up internet.
Is today’s picture from Smoking man’s parascope feed last night? Filters have come a long way. Beats puppy ears.
Turning back to yesterday’s key message on Displacement. The yearly Yorkville Car show in Toronto leads with all manner of unobtainable exotic marques. Yet you’ll see a crowd of young and old always fawning over the old American Muscle cars. You just know these big blocks and strokers have spend their decades dutifully performing Rock n Roll duty, creating a buzz; their slipstream deftly yanking the crying towel out of Lefty’s hand in full flight – emitting only an authoritative bark or chirp on the upshift. (They’ll pass anything but a gas pump).
‘The “Me” generation in the United States is a term referring to the baby boomers generation and the self-involved qualities that some people associate with it.The 1970s were dubbed the “Me” decade by writer Tom Wolfe; Christopher Lasch was another writer who commented on the rise of a culture of narcissism among the younger generation of that era. The phrase caught on with the general public, at a time when “self-realization” and “self-fulfillment” were becoming cultural aspirations to which young people supposedly ascribed higher importance than social responsibility.’*
Damn Boomers spent the whole friggin’ 70s doing cocaine, Yoga and Est, and now they label the Millennials ‘snowflakes?’ Just remember what Bill Cosby said about cocaine.
* – from Wikipedia
In old days of low prices, high interest rate, the bulk of the payments ended up as bank profit.
In the modern era, the bulk of the payments ends up as equity in the home.
Sure, you repay more debt now, but at least it is preserved as equity, and not lost forever to a greedy bank.
Interesting read!
Gen X
Almost exactly the numbers to our first purchase albeit YVR in 2000. Market was soft with time to negotiate. Sold early in 2004 ( made a little money ) but tough to get back into a crazy market ( regret ) It seems renting is finally the new “cool”. Bout time.
Ack!!! My account was hacked! I took that selfie to send to my good friend Halle Berry.
If you are not picking heavy stuff up and putting it back down regularly before 40 you are going to end up like every other old guy out there…losing muscle mass yearly, losing elasticity in your skin. I’m of an age where I’m not going for weight but rather repetitions.
Keep flexible, balanced and diversified in all aspects.
And, on topic, my first house cost $22,000. Walking distance to the university, ideal Prairie city location.
My last house (this one) cost $142,000. Salmon stream running through the back, an older 6 to the acre subdivision. They tell me it is worth $500,000 now and I believe them seeing what others in the area are selling for.
My two millennial sons bought a duplex ($450,000 both sides) some years back. Took in a roommate, rented the basement suite below the owner occupied and rented the other side. Last year they converted equity into a second duplex ($630,000 both sides) and did the same. So now each has a home in decent enough parts of town with rental income surpassing house hold expenses.
Both have jobs they can easily endure and mostly enjoy with 10 minute commutes at most and with camping, hiking, mountain climbing, snowshoeing, skiing, kayaking, etc just minutes away.
All with one advance on their inheritance and zero Bank of Mom and Dad since.
Life is good. If you make it so. Some of you all are having trouble with that part.
One question. In each case you’re quoting an “average” income. I’d be more interested in seeing these revisited using the “typical thirty year olds income” at the time. I sure wasn’t making 50 k in 1999.
My dad on the other hand had a smooth path upward in his early career. And steady raises propelled by inflation that helped offset the higher mortgage rate.
Finally as noted by others once a millenial writes that cheque for a swollen purchase price he’s locked in years of repayments with little to no help from dropping rates.
50% of working Canadians 200 bucks from disaster.
Property taxes next year will go up at least that…..
Thus, the boiling frog simply slides down the pot wall and disappears into the boiling water……….
It never even noticed the water getting hot…..
Every generation does this as far as I can remember.
Then…
Bottom happens. Smart money buys and rents them for a decade or generation…
Sell near top of next bubble
wash rinse repeat…
It’s the best gig there ever was
Ok, every gen seems to look back at the previous, thinking it was easier/better. Take away computers, the internet, cell phones, big screen Tv’s, remotes, microwaves, standing in line to cash a check at a bank, no access to the money until it cleared 3 to 4 days later, $35.00 monthly child tax credit, no TFSA etc. Be careful what you wish for.
My first home back in December 1969, (I was 23) a brand new townhouse in N.Van cost $20,800. This was 2.5 times my annual income which was average ($8000/yr.) and the cost to carry the mortgage interest, taxes and strata fee was 33% of my income. Wife’s income was not taken into account back then. I put $3000 down which I borrowed and repaid after the place was finalized with a loan from the bank which I told them was for furniture. There was a $1000 home owner grant back then for 1st time buyer so that left me with a loan of $2000 which amounted to about $40.00/month. The mortgage was 9 3/4%.
Most of my co-workers at the time rented as they were as broke as I was. I never regretted taking the plunge as the price of housing started skyrocketing in the following 2 years. Those that waited to save for a down payment ended up paying much much more.
That same townhouse today is assessed at $753,400. In todays dollars the same job I had back then would pay around $60,000 so that represents 12.5 times income (single). A mortgage of 678000 (10% down) would run around $3200/mo. or 64% of single income (before taxes). This does not include strata fee or property taxes.
Today, that would not be affordable for a single income earner with average salary. Now whose fault is that?
Interest Rates to Blame…
The following bears repeating:
However, the most important measure of affordability is the income required to service the debt.
******************************
But like Figure It Out at 10 said, today’s monster mortgages are almost immune from getting paid off early. In 1985 a 10% of pay bonus if applied to the mortgage shaved a noticeable amount off the principal. Today, diddly.
But millennials, on average, have a far higher standard of living in other ways.
One would need to know interest rates for the next 25 years to make any sort of comparison.
What are the chances interest rates continue to decline below historical lows for another 25 years, continuing to drive appreciation and reduce mortgage payments, versus the opposite, which would kill any buyer today. Never mind taxation increasing as far as the eye can see.
With over $250k available as a down payment and 6 figure income, I dare not buy.
Speaking as a late Gen-Xer:
Missed it… by THAT much!
There’s no way that dude in the pic isn’t juiced. My guess is is ‘roids and exogenous testosterone. He still had to put in the work, don’t get me wrong, but if he isn’t careful he’s gonna have a stroke. 6% body fat really isn’t that attractive, either.
Our High Standard of Living
Most people in Canada are living at a high standard of living. Compared to 1985 houses on average are bigger but have fewer occupants. Vehicles are more reliable. Phones and computers and televisions are incomparably better. Entertainment choices have exploded. There are far more restaurants and coffee shops per capita. and they are mostly all busy. Eating away from home is vastly more frequent. People travel more. The list goes on.
But there is far more debt. Essentially all of the debt is owed directly or indirectly to other Canadians. No doubt disproportionately to us boomers.
Income from wealth is taxed on average at half the rate of tax on income. Fair?
There may in fact be some cause for generation wars.
What will happen?
Well the houses and cars and roads and factories and buildings will exist even if many people renege on their debts.
Younger people will inherit all of it eventually. But not evenly. Inheritance taxes may be called for.
Houses cost that much because the moisters are willing to pay that much – why all the complaining?
I did not authorize my pic to be displayed .
I’m suing.
DELETED
Sorry Garth, but the Boomers have to bear the responsibility for spawning the Mills – not us GenXs. I was born in ’70, so not far from the leading edge of X. My kids are solid Gen-Z (eldest is 16). He came into the world when I was 31.
The vast majority of Mills belong to the boomers – the actual helicopter parents (they invented it). GenX has had to come behind the boomers and deal with the aftermath of “everybody is a winner, and nobody can keep score”.
#14 Overheardyou on 04.19.19 at 4:58 pm
Is the Millennial scenario really possible with 10% down and average income? Wouldn’t that income not be sufficient to get the required mortgage of $700K?
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Excellent point.
I guess it might have been possible to get a standard mortgage that large on an average income a few years ago before credit was tightened. Impossible these days though.
So what would occur in reality is that the average income buyers requiring a $700k mortgage would be forced to seek out private lenders. And what’s the average interest rate of private mortgage lenders in Canada? I don’t know but I’m assuming at least 6%. Changes the picture rather drastically on Garth’s debt servicing estimate.
A cheap slanty semi, 45 min trip downtown by Train, Basement apartment rental.
For the price of a 500-600 sq foot condo downtown.
Interior could use 50k of refresh but that’s sweat equity.
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/20565871/2-1-bedroom-single-family-house-15-syndicate-ave-toronto-mount-dennis?
Really good post …. food for thought …. thanks!
Thank you Garth for succinctly stating what many of us older folks have tried to explain, which invariably had led to generational war-spouting in the Comments section.
In my small business, I regularly see tat-festooned 20-30 year olds whose clothing and gym shoes cost more than a pretty penny. And they are all carting I Phones.
Such a superficial and shallow way to live…
Neither my parents–nor I when I started earning a living–ever spent ridiculous amounts of money on useless and unnecessary “things”.
Interest rates don’t seem to make much of a difference in the rest of Canada. In most cities home prices couldn’t even pace inflation. The bottom line is what a house or houses cost if you don’t need a mortgage.
Garth,
Going through my paperwork, don’t see where you’ve requested permission to post my selfie….
Nice pecs huh? Marilyn M…eat your heart out!!
Happy Easter to you and yours Garth..and all the folks reading and posting..
Re: #38 Howard on 04.19.19 at 6:48 pm
With or without the stress test the big 5 banks are not likely to grant anyone who could buy without the stress test a mortgage. This is what people don’t seem to fathom. Home prices are too high and the banks are vulnerable. This is called a credit freeze-up. If they get rid of the stress test the people who can’t get a mortgage still won’t be able to get a mortgage. The banks know better.
Yes, next generations of “adults” are screwed.
Visited my old 1990s era student residence at University Alumni Day. They now have paid staff on hand as “counsellors” to coddle the anxious student residents. They gutted the effective student self governing residence system.
Constant contact with parents for every little problem, like I argued with my roommate. Call the university and make it better, Mommy. Oh, and come take me home every weekend and do my laundry, I’m out of money again.
And just when you thought Apocalypto2019 was wrong….
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ebola-congo/militiamen-kill-senior-who-official-in-attack-on-congo-ebola-center-idUSKCN1RV11B
Self appointed “militia gunmen” shooting a world ranked epidemiologist in the middle of the Congo’s worst Ebola outbreak……
Time for the WHO to pull out and let nature take care of these Darwin Award contenders?
#41 Barb on 04.19.19 at 6:57 pm
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Ha ha ha Barb, let’s not pretend your generation wasn’t every bit as wasteful. You need an iphone (or something similar) today…ya just do. Ill concede tattoos are a waste of money, but they aren’t new..your generation had them too.
I cant remember the last time I walked into a senior citizens house where they didn’t have at least 30 of those decorative plates that have never once had a meal eaten off of them. My poor grandma is trying to get any of her kids/grandkids to take those awful 8 foot high full glass china cabinets
that she used to display those same plates. I seem to remember commercials for those when I was a kid, probably late 80’s, those things were $29.99. That would be what, $250 today?
On the off chance you weren’t a plate hoarder you still used those heavy ugly death trap china cabinets to house VHS/DVDs/CDs/Cassettes. There used to be whole stores dedicated to selling those, and your generation bought 100’s, probably 1000’s per family.
Not to mention crystal trinkets, puzzles turned into framed pictures, whole closets dedicated to quilts, second freezers and fridges in the garage, globes, huge pianos etc etc.
I think millennials are hot garbage for the most part, but you’re up on your high horse here.
The one thing that Boomers and GenXers had in common, Is that foreign buyers were not as rampant as they are today.
These affordability comparisons leave out too many factors to be of use.
The ‘problem’, if there is one, is that in the mid 70, everyone started building much bigger houses. Houses that handled the average family of the 60s, 5 or 6 people. And house sizes kept increasing over the next 35 years, even as family sizes fell. So now you have 2 elderly boomers staying in houses that can hold 6 people. From a societal point of view that obviously makes no sense.
@#41 Barb on 04.19.19 at 6:57 pm
Thank you Garth for succinctly stating what many of us older folks have tried to explain, which invariably had led to generational war-spouting in the Comments section.
In my small business, I regularly see tat-festooned 20-30 year olds whose clothing and gym shoes cost more than a pretty penny. And they are all carting I Phones.
Such a superficial and shallow way to live…
Neither my parents–nor I when I started earning a living–ever spent ridiculous amounts of money on useless and unnecessary “things”.
_________________________
fairly superficial and shallow comment by you barb.
You’re old enough to know better.
Seems a bit of an oversimplification. While carrying costs may be similar for millennials today, given the inverse relationship between interest rates and money, the fact that money is historically cheap, and the likelihood that interest rates will go up over time, millennials are a good deal more screwed than the other generations… I think it shows today, but the level of risk after 5 years when you renegotiate your mortgage is astronomical. Boom.
“Cost of money” – interesting concept. The “cost of money” is zero when expressed in either gold, silver, copper, nickle, paper, or even fiat. I think what you meant was the “cost of financing” or “cost of borrowing”. The only “cost of money” there is would be inflation, and that doesn’t affect gold, silver, copper or nickle, which is why those are no longer in circulation in any meaningful way.
In any case I think the whole concept of which generation has it harder is another conceptual misunderstanding. Remember folks, we are all still here. The I can’t remember the exact number but it’s something like 30% of Boomers who have no retirement savings are not facing a brighter future than the Millennials. We’re all equally screwed. Comparing wages and prices in the past is all well and fun but it doesn’t lead to any better understanding of today’s predicament, which we all face, whether Boomer, Gen-X, or Millennial. We’re all up Shit Creek without a paddle.
The secret to finance is pretty simple: Earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, and don’t buy things you don’t need. My grandmother knew that, bless her soul. She lived through the war in Holland. “What war??” the Millennials are asking? Trust me, looking back over the past 100,000 years of human history, you have it better than you could possibly know. We all do.
#48
I remember the fear of the Japanese buying up all of north America. Then they crashed and have never recovered.
Boomers shared a similar affordability problem to that which the Mills now face?
Uh, you just put it in writting: mills have a 9.5 ratio eating 45% of income.
While Boomers had a 3.5 ratio eating 412% during a time of historic interest rates with the obvious for recovery as rates had room to drop…big time.
We now currently sit at real interest rates negative or almost zero – however you want to look at it.
Not much upside here.
Mills are toast unless they get an inheritance.
Boomer will be a thing of the past in the next decade.
The only problem with this demographic shift is that it will destroy pensions and crash house prices bigly like areas where they are currently retiring in that have very little of a future once they are gone. Think YLW.
Anyways, this group big everything up. Now think of a what happened in Japan with the demographic cliff.
But don’t worry. Justin has a plan. Open door policy plan that he claims Canadians love.
JT is here for a good time. Not a long time. Let’s make the best of it as time is running short for him and his bank lap dancer Bill.
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My dad bought a house in Victoria in 1961 for $8500. His net monthly pay as a lab technician was $395, and the mortgage was $95. Three kids, mom was at home.
Five years later – the teacher shortage is so huge, they waive the degree requirement, mom goes to work teaching with three years of university education. My dad has a job as a scientist with the government, with two years of university making more than a teacher.
Twenty years later, they are in their third house after two move up buys, they own recreational property in the gulf islands, and a boat. Mom has two months off in the summer, dad is retired at 53 on an early pension offer from the government and working as a self employed consultant.
My friend graduates with a five year teaching degree, first job is on the substitute list. In Prince George, rather a long way from Victoria or the lower mainland.
Since the eighties – declining union density, skyrocketing tuition, skyrocketing housing prices, oversupply of labour has defined the new reality. Young people graduate with 40k of student debt, routinely. Job qualifications are much more difficult to meet than previous generations, and most jobs pay less than they did in previous times.
Young people have far less economic security than previous generations and many more challenges in getting ahead.
#20 figure it out..
The late Dave McGowan outlined how the early Boomers were co-opted by the US intelligence into the “Sex..Drugs …and Rock and Roll” mantra as a means to deflect them away for serious social protests such as VietNam War. This would hurt business for the Military Industrial Complex.
People became hedonistic navel- gazing self- indulgent slaves to the oligarchs..nothing has changed.
NOTHING that is presented to the general public doesn’t have either the endorsement of the Deep State or is controlled Opposition.
GOOGLE “Dave McGowan..YOUTUBE” and “Operation Mockingbird”
I also doubt we will see high interest rates again…unless the oligarchs want to create another Depression.
#41 Barb on 04.19.19 at 6:57 pm
You’ve already received some excellent replies here. It’s a bit funny how you think Millennials invented tattoos.
I will add that every Boomer I know went through new cars like potheads go through potato chips. Every 3-4 years, gotta have the new model Lexus/Mercedes (or Nissan/Honda for those further down the income scale) to impress the neighbours. It’s very very important to have something nice in the driveway!
Coming to a country near you.
Why Trump Won…
https://youtu.be/UFWE2jl5mwA
Happy Easter everyone
I remember as a University graduate in the early 80’s wondering how my parents could afford life, because I was stretched to the hilt. They had bucks, and I had a one bedroom rent that took up a great part of my high-tech field income.
Fast forward to 2019, and I get it. A lifetime of working and saving makes it happen. May not be as rich as my parents were at my age, but not too far below.
I complained about the lack of career jobs back in the early 80s, and that my parents had it easy. What a dumb ass I was.
Today’s kids will have to do the same, the process is same as it ever was.
I believe that # 48 has it correctly in that the landscape of competition has changed a lot… When a Developed group of Economies, invite 650,000,000. More workers into the Mix… the consequences were not fully understood, nor could they be necessarily avoided… But the rise of Asia, which is pretty hard to deny is of significant importance in my opinion, comparing 1975 to 2019.
This I feel will also translate into many changes, that may not be welcome in the more advanced and developed countries… More work, per life… They are talking about that today in the News… Jack Ma -Overtime… So for many of us who have lived in Asia, we recognise, the difference, in work demands, and commitment, in other parts of the world, and those differences will affect our Cultures..The Standard is.. Sunday off only…. likely with the result, of demanding from Developed Nations, more work and productivity to compete, and survive.
@#47 the ry guy in Cabo san Lucas
“I think millennials are hot garbage for the most part, but you’re up on your high horse here.”
****
Yep.
I remember the parent’s spending the equivalent of several mon ths worth of pay cheques to cover all the beautiful oak hardwood in the house with…..shag carpet…
On the up side…
10 years later when the shag carpet was ripped out….the hardwood was still in great shape.
@#58 Lost…but not leased on 04.19.19 at 8:53 pm
#20 figure it out..
The late Dave McGowan outlined how the early Boomers were co-opted by the US intelligence into the “Sex..Drugs …and Rock and Roll” mantra as a means to deflect them away for serious social protests such as VietNam War. This would hurt business for the Military Industrial Complex.
People became hedonistic navel- gazing self- indulgent slaves to the oligarchs..nothing has changed.
NOTHING that is presented to the general public doesn’t have either the endorsement of the Deep State or is controlled Opposition.
GOOGLE “Dave McGowan..YOUTUBE” and “Operation Mockingbird”
I also doubt we will see high interest rates again…unless the oligarchs want to create another Depression.
________________________________
hold on a sec, let me grab my tinfoil hat
@#50 Oh Buoy
“fairly superficial and shallow comment …”
+++++
Like most purchases these days?
“Wants” vs “Needs”.
Do you need a $2000 tat?
Do you need the latest smart phone?
Do you need a new car?
Do you need a 2 week holiday in Cabo every year?
Some people save and some people spend.
Boomers dont have a lock on stupid.
Hopefully the Millennials that come here can learn from their Boomer parent’s mistakes……
The secret to get away with being a raving alcoholic.
A few pit stops for watermelon.
Each generation has their challenges. I don’t disagree that, as it pertains to housing in GTA and BC lower mainland, it would seem the situation in housing is worse than prior 2 generations.
As pointed out on a couple of points, the mills also have some benefits in terms of standard of living in other areas (tech, communications, computing, entertainment, travel, etc). As an example, I graduated in engineering, and work in tech, but purchased my first computer when I was 31, and cellphone when I was 32. I took my first ‘southern vacation’ when I was 29.
The mills also have had wealthier parents than prior, helping them out with living at home, bank of M&D, etc. So on balance, yes they have a couple more challenges, but nothing insurmountable.
Anyways, outside of GTA and the LM, this is a moot point. Rest of Canada does not have this housing affordability problem.
#62 crowdedelevatorfartz on 04.19.19 at 9:24 pm
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Oh god, I forgot about the shag carpet. I still have burned knees from that garbage.
Id also like to point out the whole storage unit business BOOMED in the last decade. Does anyone think this happened because tatted up neckbeard millennials needed a new place to drink lattes and play candy crush on their iphones?
Do you need a holiday in Cabo every year?
Im the wrong guy to ask :) My answer is always yes.
@#65 crowdedelevatorfartz on 04.19.19 at 9:32 pm
@#50 Oh Buoy
“fairly superficial and shallow comment …”
+++++
Like most purchases these days?
“Wants” vs “Needs”.
Do you need a $2000 tat?
Do you need the latest smart phone?
Do you need a new car?
Do you need a 2 week holiday in Cabo every year?
Some people save and some people spend.
Boomers dont have a lock on stupid.
Hopefully the Millennials that come here can learn from their Boomer parent’s mistakes……
_________________________________________
No doubt.
My point is folks throw around judgement without knowing shit about the person. For instance, the millenials I know all do exceptionally well and can afford mostly whatever they like. But i’m not about to generalize and say every one of them does well. I don’t understand the hate on here sometimes.
No problem! As long as you become a slave to the bank!
I know this sounds totally absurd but most people who don’t own a home feel like they have cancer or aids here in Victoria B.C.There dying inside,hopelessness,anger,deep regret and sadness.Its very emotional for any couple over 35 and not owning a home in Victoria .They feel they have failed the Canadian dream.My prayers go out these couples who live in deep sorrow in their hearts.
DELETED
The trick is now to deny the Boomers and the degenerate Gen-X types (what do those people even look like?) their greater fool and wait for them to die off, instead of letting them cash out.
Millennials should conspire to rent for another 20 years, stranding the Boomers and GenXers with their own heavy, decaying plywood & OSB McMansions all the way to their graves.
Millennials have a lot more student debt than their predecessors. Hard to save and compete when you’re paying for something your predecessors got on the cheep.
They also don’t get the promotion opportunities the boomers had.
I’m GenX, it would have been nice to see a millennial make these cogent points, but I decided not to hold my breath. Cogent points don’t rate high on instagram! And ad hominem is so much more fulfilling (in the short term).
And my AI Bot is requesting you be gentle with me tonight.
#59 Howard on 04.19.19 at 8:59 pm
#41 Barb on 04.19.19 at 6:57 pm
You’ve already received some excellent replies here. It’s a bit funny how you think Millennials invented tattoos.
******************************************
They must have had some sort of tatooing in biblical times since in Leviticus 19 there is some reference made to the practice.
I’m not qualified to say what that verse actually means, merely pointing out that some people must have had tatoos since it merited a mention.
Also median family income, while better than average income, probably obscures a phenomenon that people in their 30s now make less than they have in the past, especially considering how much more education (degrees) they need to earn it.
not a criticism of the methodology, it’s a very fun back is the napkin experiment. But hopefully someone somewhere has done a more fulsome investigation.
Let’s crowdsource some funds and hire some eager and ambitious millennials to do it.
Gen X-er here
I thought my good life and fat wallet were due to savvy decisions, but it turns out it was just random chance timing of birth. Funny how so many of my friends of the same age still have money problems. Maybe they missed the golden gravy train by a whisker.
“I remember as a University graduate in the early 80’s wondering how my parents could afford life, because I was stretched to the hilt. […] Fast forward to 2019, and I get it. A lifetime of working and saving makes it happen. […]Today’s kids will have to do the same, the process is same as it ever was.”
So analyze what happened to you. Maybe you bought a house in the mid to late 80s, with a mortgage of between 11-19%. Or maybe you invested in stocks. Inflation was running 3.5-4.5% per year in the 80s, so you should have been getting regular raises, more so if you advanced a bit. That inflation was a tailwind to your real estate and any stocks you may have owned. As inflation and interest rates declined over the decades since, your real estate and stocks got another boost. Every time you renewed your mortgage, you got a lower rate, so you could either lower your payments and have more free cash to invest elsewhere, or keep them the same and pay your mortgage down quicker.
How about your parents? They probably bought a house in the late 60s or early 70s for $5-$20k, and rising inflation in the 1970s melted away the real value of their mortgage debt faster than a poolside ice cube.
I’m *NOT* saying you didn’t work hard or deserve what you’ve got, just that your wealth probably got an extra push because of what inflation and interest rates did over your working life.
Today’s new grads and homebuyers are unlikely to get those tailwinds. Interest rates may drift sideways from here, low inflation won’t be boosting their wages or their financial portfolios, and when the boomers finally do start selling real estate in 5-15 years, there won’t be a big generation of new buyers to soak it all up.
These are just my theories, but I encourage people to think about what inflation, interest rates and demographics are going to do to their generation’s wealth.
So in other words when commentors say boomer parents are funding the millenials’ dps, then really, the boomers who went through more booms and busts, haven’t learned a thing
41 barb – looks like you took some salvos in return.
What I have noticed is that everyone has their “thing” that they feel spending money on is justified. That probably worked for generations as well. The “everyone has one” so that it is deemed normal.
I have friends whose bicycles can run $10k. Most people would think that is crazy. But if riding is what you do, then it’s maybe not so much. My current bike
was about half that a few years ago. The frame won many tour de france stages. I don’t think I need a “better” bike than that.
Havent bought a current year vehicle since 98. I use the same logic as above. I simply don’t need better. My latest purchase is 7 years old.
I don’t own a smart phone but Mrs V does. cable/internet bill is over $200/mo. Go to locally owned coffee shops almost every day. It all seems
surprisingly normal. I think the trick is to realize just what all these things do cost, and be prepared to adjust, delay, or go without, at least for a period of time, if needed.
Happy Easter.
DELETED
#64 pfft
I understand…really…
Citing and literally spoonfeeding some alternative views to peruse is not allowed in your care home…
Columbus discovered America …right?
…and Lindbergh actually flew across the Atlantic ??
….and the Allies won “which war” ????
because_________ umm…err…uh….
(now back to the pre -sale line -up)
Uh huh…
So to recap:
1985 – median household income $31,965, mortgage
13.25%, house $$109,094
1999 – median household income $50,800, mortgage 6.72%, house $228,354
2016 – median household income $82,110, mortgage 3%, house $778,300
In order to see the real picture for the huge jump in price, we need more data from the different periods, e.g.: avg price per sqft, avg labour cost per sqft, avg cost of material per sqft, avg land cost per sqft. We also need to see, how many household owns more than one real estate property, where the second or third, etc. ones serves primarily as an investment.
We also need to see if the $13.25% interest was a short term spike in the 20-25 yr amortization period or it dropped substantially at first renewal.
The same data points should also be compared to other products, like cars. The cost weight of real estate purchase/rent per sqft in the household budgets, over the various time periods.
Without these, it is impossible to say that the low purchase financing cost is responsible mostly for the huge jump in the price of the real estate. Especially if we don’t see similar scale price jump in other products, which are also purchased by financing.
Most importantly, we don’t get answer for the original dilemma:
“Two generations ago people with no college degree, stay at home spouse could have 3 kids, afford a house and run the kids through university.
Now 2 working sheep could not get a condo, god forbid kids.”
The reason why knowing the answer for this dilemma is paramount, is because this dilemma is the fundamental driving force today in people’s changing attitude in all aspects of politics, ideologies.
People are going to cast their votes about this, whether the political parties acknowledge it or not.
#51 Lawless
Why would millennials be screwed, rent and borrow/margin to invest. I became a renter 20 years ago and made the decision to invest the difference between renting and owning.
The portfolio I have has made me enough in the last four months to live on for a year. Now if I had kept the house I would probably still have a mortgage/HELOC like most of my late 40s contemporaries and be living pay day to pay day. I can now look at buying a house if I so desire knowing that my portfolio could easily cover all expenses and still grow(renting is still cheaper by over 1000/mth on mortgage payments alone add in maintenance and utilities and upkeep and I am ahead by $1500?/mth so why buy to take a loss)this took 25 years of diligent savings to get to this point and the feeling is awesome.
I see my fellow Gen X friends starting to worry with 5-10years of mortgage payments still ahead and very little saving. Remember the savings that are put away in the last ten years will lose out on all that compounding. I would rather have 200k in investments at 30 ( that can grow to close to 2 million by 65 without any additional cash added to it). Then look at buying real estate and only if the numbers work out to be cheaper than renting.
I sleep well with no worries, peace of mind is priceless!
Where’s that 50 years of Maple Leaf incompetence troll at tonight?
lets recap
LEAFS – WIN
RAPTORS – WIN
TFC – WIN
BLUE JAYS – WIN
big smoke stands tall again, breathe it in peasants
I’m glad this blog is finally writing about cost to service debt, as for the past 10 years i only remember it discussing price to income …discouraging readers from buying real estate at some very opportune times! The formula needs to be rewritten, but unfortunately it’s a little too late for those who took this advice.
Millennials are screwed though… saddled with student loans, buying at peak prices with most likely increasing interest rates (assuming a model of price influenced by interest rate only) where they can only go down unless supply is held tight. Boomers bought at high interest rates that declined, and subsequent increased asset values.
I can’t wait to see the outcome of the house poor boomers offloading or downsizing in waves to make ends meet.
Your use of the “average property” is a really great way to confuse the issue because the average property wasn’t the same in 1985 as now. You’re probably comparing the price to buy a 3 bedroom house on a standard lot in 1985 to the price to buy one bedroom and den without land today.
Instead, try making the comparison with the average 3 bedroom house on the standard lot in 1985 to the same 3 bedroom house today. I suspect that would show just how much worse the situation is for the poor millennials.
As an observant GenXer, what I’ve noticed is that the difference in this culture is whether or not you have a significant other for the long term. Secure that and it is us against the world and not me against the world. Most prices today reflect a two-income household. For the millennials, it has now crept up to two university degreed income households.
That being said, I take issue with your comparison of the Boomers and the GenXers. Yes, the GenXers had a good median income, the problem was how that income was skewed. The ’80s, when the Xers were pouring out of schools and into the workplace, were the beginning of the huge job offshoring and downsizing of the economy. Of the remaining jobs, the boomers were solidly entrenched in the top 50% of them. Unless you had some serious skills and/or had the talent to be your own boss, You were stuck with what was left over from the boomers *and* their spouses.
We also were approaching a basket case condition fiscally which gave rise to the reform party and was the only thing on the face of the earth that could force the liberal government of the day to balance its budget. Canada didn’t much benefit from that until the millennials came along
So, it has been all downhill since the boomers and I agree the millennials have it much worse…for now. The difference being they have all their degrees and are getting all their training on the job…just as the boomers are getting set to retire. This will benefit the Xers in the last ten and twenty years of their working years, but not much. Our cohort is smaller so we can’t take it all for long. That means the mills stand to inherit what their parents are leaving.
Yes, there will be challenges. We still have a spending problem in this country and tech will try to take those jobs from the mills, but we also have a whole world opening up to people. As long as the tax and spenders get put in their place and we start deleting debt that sits on central bank computers, the world can restore what we had
Do I think we will turn things around? No. Do I think we have the potential within us to fix things? Easily!
Unfortunately, there are not enough adults in the room and way too many ‘me first and only’ types
Has anyone, including you Garth, heard of THE TIME VALUE OF MONEY?
To put into perspective for Millennials what the Toronto Average Home Price was OVER TIME in 2018 Constant $ (inflation adjusted), here are the numbers (prices per TREB for those years, BoC Inflation calculator):
1985 = $228,277
1999 = $325,723
2018 = $787,300
And the Median Household Income converted to 2018 $ (BoC Inflation Calculator):
1985 = $68,298
1999 = $73,384
2018 = $85,319
The above compares “apples to apples” in 2018 $ (so a Millennial can make a fair comparison of prices and wages in 2018 $).
Times Average Home Price vs. Median Income, per the above:
1985 = 3.34
1999 = 4.43
2018 = 9.22
Then again, what is an “Average Home”?
Take a look at the “Average Home” SQUARE FOOTAGE over the years:
1975 = 1,000 sq. ft. (93 sq. m.)
2010 = 2,000 sq. ft. (186 sq. m.)
Basically, since the early Boomer’s to current day Millennials and recent GenX, the GenX and the Millenials purchased DOUBLE the home size, on average.
So if you HALVE the Average Home Price for the Millennials and GenX, you conclude (price vs. income):
GenX HAD IT THE BEST.
WORST the Millennials.
The Boomer’s in the MIDDLE of the pack.
So they’re basically giving houses away in Calgary right now. Buy, buy, buy.
@ #17 Millenial realist
So that’s where the acid in the downpour really comes from! The illustrious contribution of a heap of seething misery, or irretrievably sadistic creep?
Karma does exist, especially for sick mils who just can’t get enough schadenfreude.
@ #32
It is absolutely possible to look like this dude at his age. I know someone who was a champion body builder and never used steroids. He did, however, work out for hours a day and ate a near-perfect diet, with vitamin supplementation. No junk.
As for the aesthetics of low body fat, that certainly is not helped by the inevitable diminishing of subcutaneous fat as we all age, however, it looks a he!! of a lot better than the average senior, often having difficulty walking upright.
Give me this guy’s strength any day.
liKe, RealLy, TOTalLy, gARtHo,
HaPPy 420 to EwE anD YouRs.
Been PArtyiNg all NighT, whAT a BLAST DudE!!!!
ChiLL eVeRBUDDY :) :) :)
@#71 Rexx Rock
“most people who don’t own a home feel like they have cancer or aids…”
“There(sic) dying inside,hopelessness,anger,deep regret and sadness.Its very emotional for any couple over 35 and not owning a home in Victoria ….”
******
My my.
You’ve carried “conspicuous consumption” to a whole new level.
Comparing renting with “cancer or aids”.
OR you’re a just another commissioned sales huckster , aka, a realtor, panicking, in the final desperate realization that everyone who was stupid enough to buy in an overpriced, bloated, gasbag of a market over the past 2-5 years is done…
No one is buying until the market bottoms out.
Enjoy the watching the price crash while making exorbitant monthly mortgage payments….
Remembering the “Rule of 90”.
Can you say “Bank repossession”?
I knew you could.
@ #41
Hear, hear! I’d rather extend my working day than hire tatty-chatty, me-me-me!
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stood at a retail counter, waiting to pay, whilst an entitled Mil carried on a private convo. For minutes! This was followed by the heavy-lidded, bored expression of pained resistance.
Yeah, I’ don’t mind working until much later in the day. What mystifies me is how they manage to actually keep their jobs. You get MUCH better service in a charity shop.
@ #44
It therefore follows that banks are doing a better job for the economy than gubbmint does.
My AI bot is blastin’ the tunes all night.
cradle to grave employment is what most of us boomers had. We had it way better and way easier then the next gen whatever you want to call them.
It’s a kick in the nuts cause we lament how hard we had it and how tough it was and we worked so hard, how SMART we were and blah blah blah. Hard to look in the mirror and admit the cold hard truth. Minimal education 30-35 years of steady work and advancement, one gig, inflation making me rich whilst I tell my kid he’s lazy and to work harder.
Ran into some old soccer parents at the LCBO. Both retired teachers now. Still young in their late 50’s. They BOTH pick up sub teaching gig’s cause they are “bored” and use that extra $$$ for exotic travel they say.
Yep retired 2 good pensions but still taking up space in the workforce.
Boomers the most selfish generation ever.
@#32 Sold out
“6% body fat really isn’t that attractive, either….”
+++++
Neither is obesity.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/millennials-are-fattest-generation-in-history-z2ptrf7cz
Interesting comparison. Noticed though that the average family income was used vs house price, and today the average household income for a young family likely includes two full-time incomes (requiring daycare costs, commuting costs, wardrobe, conveniences be side both parents are exhausted). A much greater proportion of the boomers had one parent at home which helped to keep other costs low. The good old days when a single earner family could still afford a house and lead a comfortable life – those days are gone!
Two-income households were the norm for Boomers. You are thinking of a previous generation. – Garth
Gee
I almost forgot.
I was driving by the local High school the other day and noticed…..
After the stressful two weeks of Spring Break in March we have…..
Another Long weekend and another “Pro-D day” tacked onto the self same.
Makes for an extra long weekend for some govt employees….
But I’m sure they spent the day marking tests, preparing assignments, and honing their teaching skills rather than taking an extra day off to just do nothing.
When’s the next Pro D-Day?
The May Long weekend?
And then in June?
Oh, right. Never mind. I forgot.
You get July and August off.
My bad.
The median household income was $31,965, and interest rates were nuts. A five-year mortgage that year was at 13.25%.-GT
////////////
One must also factor into all of this is that inflation was quite a bit higher at that time (Stan Brooks style).
And with that inflation there was also wage inflation and assets such as houses appreciated in value quite rapidly. So while the median income may have only been $31,695 at time of purchase (as per Garth) but only a few years later median income would have gone up quite a bit making the home purchase that much easier to pay off.
Worked for me, bought in 1995 for $207,000 and sold in 2017 for $950,000 (comparable homes, two moves in between). One year from catching the bottom (1996) and two months from catching the peak (sold in May 2017, peak was in March).
Baby Boomers buying in 1985…
The average Toronto property was changing hands for a lowly $109,094 – a price that would surge more than 200% within the next four years during a speculative boom. – Garth
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Wow.
That brings back memories.
I actually did buy my first house in 1985.
It did go up 200% by 1989.
Traded up that year.
Still in the same house today.
I think it would sell for about 5 times what I paid.
At least the neighbours that sold recently got that kind of scratch for their similar homes.
I still like it here though.
Feeling a bit empty and echoey now that the kids are grown and living in their own places.
I just renovated a couple of the bathrooms myself.
This house has 5.
Depending on what my mood is on any given day, I can choose the throne I want to sit on accordingly.
In all fairness, in hindsight, I must admit we did have it easier that today’s moisters.
Most of us boomers simply got lucky because of fluky economic circumstances.
We rode a pretty significant wave.
Yes, a lot of millennials do just fine today, but they are the really smart and hard working ones.
They can’t all simply rely on fortuitous economic and demographic circumstances. They have to be inherently intelligent to begin with, make the right educational and career choices, and work their butts off in a highly competitive academic arena in order to emerge at the top of their cohort in their carefully chosen well paying vocational fields.
Those are the millennials that will do just fine, while the rest of them will languish and forever be their wage slaves. Us boomers will be long gone, so they will then be left to blame their own peers.
That’s a wealth gap that will be monumentally epic.
The future Trotsky will no doubt be a disenfranchised millennial.
#91 Dolce Vita on 04.20.19 at 2:57 am
“Has anyone, including you Garth, heard of [the time value of money]?” What does the time value of money have to do with inflation-adjusted increases in home values? :P
Trudeau admires dictatorships.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/true-isis-believers-regroup-inside-refugee-camp-terrorize-the-impious/2019/04/19/a30d4986-556c-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html
His admiration knows no bounds. His supporters are real gems.
Real estate is not ‘cheaper’ when mortgage rates are five times higher. – Garth
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Your prospects of paying off a $150,000 mortgage or being able to pay for a $200,000 home in cash, are far better than paying off a mortgage of over $1000000 or paying cash for 1.2 million-dollar home regardless of the interest rate differential. Especially when your salary has barely budged in decades inflation-adjusted and the cost of living has gone through the roof.
Stop moaning and comparing. Prices go up when rates go down. Every generation struggles. You are not special. – Garth
———————————————————–
No one is moaning and comparing, just rebutting your initial incorrect assertion. I don’t even have a mortgage and I am part of the Gen X generation lucky enough to buy a 416 home at a fraction of what they cost now, extremely fortunate indeed. My mortgage paid off in 9 years which is impossible unless I’m starting shortstop for the Bluejays at 2019 prices. I have no problem stating that buyers today have it horrendously worse than previous generations. You know the the current buyers we’re talking about right Garth? The ones that you’ve been scaring the bejesus out of buying for the past decade? Now suddenly you’re changing your tune to, “well it is what it is and no different then it was 25 years ago when you take interest rates into account, so stop your moaning”. Whatever.
Man alive, you have a hard time admitting when you’re might be wrong instead of making personal attacks and incorrect assumptions which is a not a good quality. Try letting up and reconsidering a counterpoint sometime Garth, it actually feels good and is quite liberating.
If this makes it to the comment section, Happy Easter eveyone!!!
One thing I would encourage younger readers here to ponder:
SELF SELECTION. This a finance blog. Ostensibly. With a lot of perambulations into the weeds of politics and what-have-you. But mainly finance. The older people on here are going to skew rich, because poorer older people don’t usually hang out on finance blogs (cause/effect relationship theories left to the reader).
So you’ll hear a lot of “I did it, suck it up,” “all of my friends are…” &c, &c. These people are not a representative sample of their age cohort, on either wealth, political views, or desire to spent time commenting on blogs. They’re also pretty bad at predicting elections, the economy and capital markets, from what I’ve seen.
Don’t lose heart! Maybe you’ll be successful, and in a few decades you can spend time telling the young kids that you worked hard for it, luck had nothing to do with it, and taxing capital less than labour is the true and natural order of the universe!
As a millennial up until this year I would find myself wondering when I would be able to afford real estate. I had to become a business owner and work 7 days a week to finally afford one. Today is my first day off in 3 weeks. I guess I’m one of lucky ones
Boomers just resent the fact that they were spanked, or worse, by their parents; they think Millennials got off lightly with a time-out. Cripes, even time-outs are considered abusive, now. Imagine how entitled the generatial cohort born today will seem to any surviving Boomers, at least those who haven’t starved to death in their unsellable homes.
Hmmm from today’s posts, I conclude the following:
For economic prospects, it doesn’t matter so much when you were born, but rather what you chose to do and where you chose to do it.
Fore real estate prospects, it doesn’t matter so much
what you bought, but when and where you bought it.
Why is an elevator fart like a housing bubble?
– Everybody gets in at the top
– they all go down together
– at the bottom nobody knows who to blame.
Instead of paying for movies, watch them for free on youtube; thousands upon thousands of great free movies in every genre.
I watch at least one a day, and have been for several years, and still have lots to choose from that I’ve not watched before.
To save a lot of infighting on this Blog about why one generation does better than the other read…
1) The Two Family Income Trap
2) The Fourth Turning
This will help explain a lot.
And to the person that said, body fat of 6 percent isn’t attractive. Get to 6 percent than we can talk about it.
When I see Starbucks go under from lack of market, and discount airlines disappear, I will believe the Mills are actually trying to save some cash.
I laugh thinking of my father buying a 5 buck coffee…or paying for someone to shine his boots or iron his shirt.
“Conclusion: Real estate values are a function of the cost of money. The cheaper loans are, the more houses command and the bigger mortgages get.”
More likely it is all about greed for tax free profits regardless of the cost to humanity. Lower interest rates just makes it easier for suckers to pander to other peoples genocidal greed.