I wasn't able to afford to buy a house until I was over 50 years old, it took a global pandemic, a complete shutdown of the economy, and working from home for multiple years to bank the cash to make it happen.
You need to use median household income, not per capita. It's $49,111 in Mississippi according to your source.
The ratio of home price to household income is typically between 4 and 5 in the US, so the median family should be able to afford the median house in Mississippi.
Household income is absolutely not the right metric to use here, because it'll always be proportional to the cost of the house out of necessity.
For example, if the cost of a house goes up relative to individual income, then more people in the family need to start working more hours, and more people live with roommates.
Household income stays proportionally the same, always, but individual income shows you how much people are struggling.
"If you want to move to a shithole, you can get a good deal on a house" is not the persuasive argument you think it is.
EDIT: Just so you know where this person is coming from, they've moved on to talk about how fascism isn't so bad from a "global perspective" and being anti-fascist is just "tribalism."
Do those places have even remotely comparable work, laws, or amenities? Because yeah you can buy a dirt cheap house 5 mountains from the nearest city in rural Tennessee, but it’s a terrible place to live and you won’t be able to find work.
That’s not a crazy price, that’s like outskirts of reasonably sized city price.
Right... and no generation since has ever seen the value of owning property, right? Lol.
Mark Twain was right. It's easier to fool someone than to convince them they'd been fooled.
See how mad people get in this comment section when someone points out they're being taken for a ride? One person even said they won't get off the ride if it isn't "easy." Lol.
Right... and no generation since has ever seen the value of owning property, right? Lol.
Are you under the impression that modern renters are choosing to rent instead of own?
60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck making saving for a down payment impossible for over half the country, and with rates being what they are, mortgages are expensive af.
People are renting because it's the only way to live, not because they think it's neat. People are getting upset at you not because you're pointing out that rent is a scam, but because you're implying it's the fault of the victims
You are being sarcastic but a lot of people who are convinced they can't afford it actually could afford to own the place they rent and have just never crunched the numbers.
I make about $75k a year, but to afford a $700k house (which is a "reasonable" price) near my city (Seattle), I'd have to make $150k per year. The only affordable houses are two hours' drive away, and there are no "starter" homes to buy. I can skrimp and save for the rest of my life (and I am). But unless I get a huge raise (and I'm already above the median national income), buying a house is impossible. Not just hard, economically impossible.
I'm also in Seattle and it's bad out here. I was looking at townhouses last year before the rates went up but couldn't get a mortgage because of a limited amount of work experience since getting my second degree during the pandemic. I was actually surprised that I could have afforded a decent townhouse in like Edmonds or Shoreline until the rates shot up - going from 3.5% to 7% adds something like $1000 a month in interest on a $400k mortgage. Then I realized I have never lived alone before and wasn't sure if buying a place was the best way to try that out lol. Average rent in Seattle right now though is like $2300-$2400 a month which is close to 50% of the take-home income of someone making $100,000 per year. It's insane.
I live in rural Iowa wtf are you talking about? We rent out here too!
I actually am paying off my trailer, though, so someday I could maybe put this on a piece of rural property somewhere and do remote work or something? But like, I never chose this shit - I just stayed where I grew up and got a factory job when my neurosis and undiagnosed dysphoria caused me to flunk out of college. I guess I could go squat in the woods though lol
Its pretty insane we don't invest in our cities anymore when they're the powerhouse of the economy. Not to mention they're a way better use of land than suburbs and rural living. You can find affordable places in Tokyo and so many other cities worldwide that dwarf ours in almost every metric. Cities really aren't the problem, they are actually the potential solution if we change our policies around them and attempt to catch up with countries like Japan.