I'm going to buy a House!

some of us knew exactly what the last panel was about... 😆

Where I'm from, the median house price has risen 600% relative to median income since the 70's.

That means that we're dropping more than the entire value of their home as our deposit, while we compete against capital-heavy boomers that benefited from that growth looking to downsize.

There's a reason they could have a house and 12 kids on a single summer job income - they were handed a strong economy that they ransacked for their own benefit before blaming the poor schmucks that are inhereting the stripped wreckage they've left behind. Couple that with the cost of the massive environmental pivot we'll need to make to survive as a species, and I'm sure you'll forgive me for wanting to drive the nose of the next boomer that preaches about smashed avocado toast and bootstraps through the back of their skull.

Last month I had this random conversation with an old lady while on vacation. She mentioned that quite lightheartedly, that "we bought our house just on our salaries, we worked hard back then and needed to settle down". I wasn't expecting to have to explain to her that this is not such an easy option for us right now. She seemed genuinely surprised and disappointed at the facts and I didn't know whether to feel enraged or amused by her true or not ignorance.

I'm solid GenX.

My grandparents bought a house on a corner lot in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for $6000. Which was about a years salary for Grampa, who worked as a welder. This was in the late 60s.

ETA: Their mortgage was around $50.00 a month.

I live in a small town in the SE US. I bought my house for $89,900, 12ish years ago. There are 3 vacant houses on my street and they are all listed for $250,00 or more. My house is bigger than all of them. They have all been empty for over a year.

I'm here to laugh. Not plot murder.

I don't get the last panel.

They’re so dense. My conservative uncle gave me a bunch of shit for taking out student loans. He worked at McDonald’s over the summers and paid his rent and tuition for the whole year! Meanwhile I was working full time year round going to school, barely making enough to pay rent without enough leftover to make a dent in tuition. Obviously that world doesn’t exist anymore. This was over 10 years ago, I’m sure it’s way worse now. At least I was able to find “affordable” rent.

I'm English so can't comment on the situation in the US, but reading the comments in this thread it seems quite similar to the one here.

I bought a house in 2010, just before I turned 23 and I'm very much the exception to the rule. I live in an area with some of the lowest house prices in the country. I didn't go to University and got my first full time job when I was 19. It didn't pay well but I lived at home and I was a stoner. I didn't go out much, just to friend's houses to get high. My town is walkable enough that I didn't need to drive (I get that not driving isn't really possible in the US, or even in some parts of the UK).

This meant I saved up a lot of my money without really trying. The house I bought cost £41,000. I sold it in 2022 for £39,000 which should give you some idea of the state of it.

My Dad bought a house in 1986 for £12,000. I can see that house from the one I live in now, which cost me £79,000 in 2022.

Is he going to unplug his life support

Image Transcription:

A four-panel comic called Pervis by Zach M. Stafford.

The first panel shows a young man in a brown button-down shirt and orange tie standing in a street with a house in the background. The young man is saying "I'm going to buy a house!"

The second panel shows a much older man, now bald but still wearing the brown shirt and orange tie, speaking to a man in a green button-down shirt and green tie. The elderly man is saying "...and that was how I bought a house when I was 23!"

The third panel shows a close-up of the older man's face, he looks agitated, his eyes scrunched up and his mouth open wide as he yells "I worked at the drive-in all summer for that house!! Nobody wants to work anymore!"

The fourth panel shows the elderly man and the green-shirted man again, this time both are facing away from the viewer and the green-shirted man is holding the end of an electrical plug that he's just pulled from the wall. The older man is saying "...why are you unplugging my lamp?" To which the green-shirted man responds, "I'm just practicing"

[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

Credit: Pervis (@PervisTime) - Twitter

Nitter link: https://nitter.cz/PervisTime/status/1700928952670245321

RSS Feed: https://nitter.cz/PervisTime/rss

I guess that is how he'll a house, high risk, high reward. .

home ownership has been stable around 65% since the 1960s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeownership_in_the_United_States

Wait until Zoomers and Millennials find out that the house grandpa bought was probably under 900 sq feet, didn't have any AC, had one bathroom and if he was lucky had 2 bedrooms for the 2 adults and 3 kids. And when he furnished it, at most the family had one 13" B&W TV (if they were lucky), the tiniest fridge and the washing machine probably had a handle which you needed to crank by hand and the dryer was the clothesline out in the tiny backyard.

Every prospective homebuyer under 35 these days would turn their nose to a house that small and with such few amenities. And god forbid it actually needed some work done to it. With how mechanically inept (and lazy) younger folks seem to be these days, they aren't even willing to look at cheap fixer-uppers to save money in exchange for sweat equity.

(It is entirely possible to buy a house in your twenties)