
Millennials Want to Buy Homes but Aren’t Saving for Down Payments - spking
https://www.wsj.com/articles/millennials-want-to-buy-homes-but-arent-saving-for-down-payments-1495731583
======
AdmiralAsshat
I have enough saved for a full 20% down payment, but I _still_ can't afford a
home in this area because the mortgage would go above the recommended 30% of
my income.

But apparently that's still my fault, because Millennials Deserve Their
Suffering.

~~~
notadoc
You probably eat avocado too, you extravagant spendthrift you.

------
Yhippa
I'm finding that the "web" link bypass option no longer works for me. I even
tried it in Chrome incognito mode. Is anyone else having this problem?

~~~
basch
[https://outline.com/GERRCs](https://outline.com/GERRCs)

~~~
Yhippa
Thanks for showing me that. I've also been looking for a good reader plugin
for Chrome but this website does the trick!

~~~
basch
I like mercury
[https://mercury.postlight.com/](https://mercury.postlight.com/)

I've also had good luck with extensions built on
[https://www.diffbot.com/](https://www.diffbot.com/)

------
quxbar
Ambiguous use of 'cannot' versus 'are not' all over this article.

~~~
nxsynonym
This. As a millennial buried in student debt I can hardly afford to put any
money aside for a emergency fund, let alone a down payment on a house. Unless
I get a major pay bump or cost of living reduction, I'm currently on track to
pay almost 200% of my initial borrowed amount. All that money that could have
gone towards a down payment will instead go towards a degree that I was told
was necessary to "make a living".

So my options are either find someone willing to loan me the down payment
amount at an insane interest rate, or continue to throw money into the trash
by paying rent.

~~~
derekp7
Trust me, home ownership isn't much better than throwing money at rent
(depending on the market of course). Property taxes, insurance, maintenance,
plus interest and PMI all dominate your monthly housing expenses -- the few
drops that go into principle don't amount to hardly anything for the first 10
years or so.

In my case, the numbers looked good in the beginning. But then insurance went
up 5x, property tax more than doubled, and the market tanked. Took a long time
to get out of that situation.

------
relics443
My wife and I are about to close on a starter home in the NYC area. We put
down 20%. We're in our mid 20s.

We have a circle of friends all about the same age as us, all coming from the
same SES origin as us (low-to-mid middle class), who complain non-stop about
how they can't​ afford a house in our neighborhood.

My wife and I both started college at 18, and graduated in 2-3 years (CS for
me, BSN for her). We worked the whole time we were in college, and ever since
graduating. She's currently getting her NP, and I'm still paying off loans
from graduate school.

Of our friends, only one has a professional job (RN). Only one other graduated
college (financial analysis), but chooses to work as a nanny a few hours a day
so that she can have time to herself. The rest are employed in low level jobs,
and have no college degree (no intention to get one, or still trying to
"figure out what degree they want").

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

~~~
antisthenes
I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a humblebrag or an example of survivorship
bias, or both, but thank you for sharing the experience with us.

~~~
relics443
It was my nice way of saying that in my experience millenials tend to make it
difficult for themselves to succeed financially, and then question why they
don't have more money.

I tried gently broaching the topic with my friends once. One friend who is a
low level customer service rep that never attended college responded "I have a
job, you have a job. We work the same amount [we don't]. Why are you able to
afford to buy a house, and I can't?"

~~~
antisthenes
I work with customer service reps on a daily basis. Their work ethic is vastly
different depending on the person.

Some customer service reps should be able to afford a house, while others
probably shouldn't.

> I tried gently broaching the topic with my friends once. One friend who is a
> low level customer service rep that never attended college responded "I have
> a job, you have a job. We work the same amount [we don't]. Why are you able
> to afford to buy a house, and I can't?"

And what insights did you garner from that interaction aside from your thinly
veiled sense of superiority?

~~~
relics443
You can be the best customer service rep in the world. It's not gonna make you
enough to buy a house in my neighborhood no matter how much you wish for
equality (unless you adopt a rather extreme saving lifestyle, which my friend
has not).

It's facts, not superiority.

He works 8 hours a day and sometimes complains that a customer cursed at him.

I work 12 hour days (and I'm on call the other 12 when I'm not sleeping) 6
days a week. I go to sleep and wake up thinking about my work. Am I a
workaholic? Yes. Do I love my job? Yes.

My takeaway was that most people don't realize that a typical 9-5 low level
job is no longer gonna cut it if you want to live a certain lifestyle.

I don't consider myself superior to my friends; I just made better choices
than them.

The customer service rep, for example, had every opportunity to go to college.
His reasoning for not going was (and I quote), "I don't need to go to college
to learn some nerdy shiz. Let's talk in 10 years when I'm managing a customer
service floor, and you're talking geek to a computer."

We're closing in on 10 years now. I'm not gonna remind him.

~~~
antisthenes
> My takeaway was that most people don't realize that a typical 9-5 low level
> job is no longer gonna cut it if you want to live a certain lifestyle.

Being able to afford housing with a 9-5 job is a luxury now?

> I work 12 hour days (and I'm on call the other 12 when I'm not sleeping) 6
> days a week. I go to sleep and wake up thinking about my work. Am I a
> workaholic? Yes. Do I love my job? Yes.

What's the point of writing that on the internet? Do you believe policy should
be structured around people like you? Do you believe people who don't work 12
hours shouldn't be able to afford to buy a house?

> I don't consider myself superior to my friends; I just made better choices
> than them.

Yes, you do. It's in everything you write. You were able to make better
choices because your circumstances allowed it. If you were their actual friend
you'd probably have half a clue why they didn't make the exact choices you
did.

> We're closing in on 10 years now. I'm not gonna remind him.

You're just being an asshole on the internet now. Everyone needs an outlet, I
guess.

~~~
relics443
What you seem to be missing in every single response you've given is that I'm
referring to buying a house in the NYC area.

As the article says, they can move to where a house costs $120,000. But they
insist on wanting to live in NYC.

------
Apreche
With my NYC salary and ALSO saving for down payment I obviously still can't
afford to own any NYC real estate.

I have friends who do own houses out in suburban and rural areas. While it is
expensive for them, because they do not have NYC salaries, I could afford
their homes quite easily. Their monthly payments are often a fraction of my
rent.

The problem is that if I move out to the sticks, my salary will also go way
way down.

If anyone knows how I can make NYC money and not live in NYC, let me know.

Actually, never mind. I would rather keep paying rent and not owning than live
outside NYC. What do I care anyway if I pay monthly rent or monthly mortage
payments? I have food, shelter, and everything else. Who cares that I don't
technically own the place I live in?

------
notadoc
This is obviously a regional phenomena.

In the bay area, a small starter home is $2 million.

In Seattle, a small starter home in a half-decent area is $700,000

In Portland, a small starter home in a half-decent area is $500,000

The price to income ratio is way off in any half-desirable west coast city or
suburb, whether you save for the downpayment or not doesn't matter if the
average income won't support the payment. It's also going to take quite some
time for most people to save for a down payment at those house prices, unless
they get a boost from options, RSUs, maybe the Bank of Rich Mom & Dad, etc.

Meanwhile in Greenbay Wisconsin or any other midwestern city, starter homes
are $120,000 or so. Go to the south, and the costs are even less.

~~~
mcbruiser3
> In the bay area, a small starter home is $2 million.

wrong. I live in the BA and you can get a reasonably nice 3/2 for between
600-800. Not in SF proper, but just a bit North, still in the BA. And if you
go a bit further out to Vallejo or Fairfield, you can get a house for 400-500.
Totally doable.

Also, I bought my first home in 2005 way outside the BA in Tahoe because it
was all I could afford, but I still ownd it and got all the tax benefits. I
could also rent it out, save more money and trade up later.

You just have to work a bit smarter and harder, and stop complaining.

~~~
notadoc
You commuted from Tahoe to the bay area?

> And if you go a bit further out to Vallejo or Fairfield

Do you consider a 130 mile roundtrip commute reasonable?

Anyway, it's nice to know you can live in the extended region for much less
than Seattle or Portland, both of which are totally overpriced and overrated
with terrible weather.

~~~
mcbruiser3
No, I only owned property in Tahoe, and continued to rent my primary
residence. My point is that I was a "homeowner".

Not sure where you are commuting to, but from Vallejo to SF is only 30 miles,
and yes, I did it. If you are on the peninsula I would not consider Vallejo,
but then there are other places further South that are probably also similarly
priced.

------
bayangan
My government just says I need to get a better paying job.

