Gen X here. It's as bad for us as millennials. That's the time when the prices started to rise. Now I can forget my retirement fund. I can barely put my son through college.

Lol you made me laugh. I'm sorry it's so financially hard. If the billionaires would share the money...

Mic drop.

How many Baby Boomers did the Times interview when they posted those headlines? Because they certainly weren't speaking for all of us! We're Baby Boomers (retired teacher and retired office worker), we often order out food, and yes, we have Netflix; so does our son — a Millennial who works hard at a demanding job — and so does his GF and most of their friends. Their generation, and Gen Z as well, are faced with stresses and demands that Boomers like us didn't have to deal with; it's much harder for them to find decent-paying jobs, and the 2008 recession plus the current pandemic haven't helped either. I will not criticize any hardworking young person for having Netflix, ordering takeout food, or (for that matter) buying avocados — small comforts that we all need to make our lives better in this crazy world. Mstrtheir

Exactly. Changes have increased a lot. About 20 years ago my aunts bought a big 3 bedroom appartment (in good condition) in the centrum of our city for what now would be like 140.000 euros. I just checked and there is a similar apartment (but old) in the same street for 800k. How is our fault that we cannot afford houses? I do not earn eight times what they earned.

We so quickly forget that 3 years ago we had the lowest interest rate ever in fact economy was booming. What I find is (yes I am at the end of baby boomer) that we set our sites to be realistic. We bought what we could afford. Houses today are like hostels. Who needs 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms for a family of 4? Something we failed to teach our children, STAY within your income.

My parents house: bought in 87 for just over 80 grand. It's a decently sized split level in a good neighborhood, close to a school and has a large backyard with privacy. My house: bought two years ago for over 200 grand and I've lived in apartments bigger than this, it needs massive work done, the road in front is actually just a dirt path. The only thing I cam say about it is that it's a quiet area. And somehow without any work done, in the two years since I bought it, it was appraised for 25 grand more. HOW DOES THAT WORK?! If anything it should have remained the same since my husband and I have not had time to do any yard work besides mow the grass! It looks worse!

Depends on where you choose to nest. I'm a boomer and we just bought a new construction home in FL last year. 3/2, 2-car garage, 1,756 sq ft on 0.22 acre for $258k. Timing is everything though. 16 months later and this same exact model is going for $340k. We moved out of a 900 sq ft, 1Bdrm apartment for $2,600 in CA because this same exact home we bought would have cost anywhere from $770k to 1.3 million in CA. Had we waited just one more year we would have had to pay $90k more and been stuck with an almost 6% interest rate instead of our current 2.6% rate. Home prices will remain high because no one with an under 4% or lower interest rate is going to want to give that up. The FED isn't done yet either! Don't be surprised if the 30-year rate hits at least 7% before the end of the year.

It's gotten crazy. I live in Florida, and Florida used to have a pretty reasonable cost of living, but now, it's shot way up. Home prices are crazy, and you have real estate investor companies buying up as many of the affordable properties they can. You have people flocking here only to find that it's not as affordable to live here as it once was.

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What everyone conveniently forgets is wages were a lot less back then. Yes it is harder now but it was harder then compared to there parents. Stop

Really? I have been with Netflix since the early dvd days. The fabulous riches I could have been experiencing if I had never signed up.

It's those damned streaming services that cost $10 a month, obviously if we can cancel that we can afford a $350,000 starter home

Not forget to mention the average cost of raising a child (0 to 17 y.o) is 233K in the US. My neighbors paid literally 100K for a preschool/kindergarten in 5 years! My other neighbors pay 2900 us dollars a month for Montessori academy (it is sort of preschool-learning kindergarten). So my question to baby boomers- how much did you spend on your kids?

Credit scores don't exist anyone everyone, let's go get some houses hell yeah 😎

This!!

1970-ish. My dad (engineer) was earning maybe $10,000 a year - maybe a bit less. A modest 3 bedroom house on 1/8 acre was $18,000. Sure - Salaries may have increased 10x over the decades, but the price of a house has gone up 30x or more. It's insane! How is anyone supposed to keep up?

Me looking up how much the times cost

Damn! That must be some good tikka masala!

Dang!! That's a great burn.

My father got a cheap loan on a new $28,000 home

I don’t see a megayacht in the water. It’s because you’re still buying Starbucks, isn’t it? Learn to manage your money!!!

Hell yes!

M. William Bell

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Jesus works in mysterious ways. As your run-of-the-mill god, he clearly not only invented Netflix but he ALSO made you broke in order to test something that you will never conclusively understand. Religion is amazing (but only if you’re watching it from the outside).

No you won't. By that time you'll need to save for 120 years for the same flat.

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” seems to be the go to expression

I bought my house in Jan 2020 and I desperately want to take the money and run, but no way am I getting stuck in this rental market forever.

If our parents and grandparents can walk 10 miles in snow to go to school in all kinds of weather...sure, why not?

It’s Airbnb too. Investors and families w disposable income are buying houses in droves as an investment.

Yeah, the Times has gone from respected journalism to click bait BS

Only 1200? Here it's 1600.

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"When only whites could buy homes" except it totally didn't happen.

Mmm...not so sure...

"Leave us out of this." -Gen X

That's easy. Draw a line, representing income over time at about 5 degrees from zero from say 1980 to now. Then draw a line, representing mortgage payments (housing costs overall) from that same zero point at just under an 87 degree angle from 1980 to now. That should give a low rough estimate.

Don't mock Clive Cussler.

It's not so grim up North