1995 vs. 2023 = Nobody can afford to buy a home anymore

It is becoming pretty wild.

I bought my condo, a 2bd 2 bath w/ den an hour east of Vancouver in 2021 for $262,000 and was locked in at 1.69% And put 70k down.

Current mortgage is $390 every 2 weeks. Pretty easy. The person 2 floors above me with an identical unit rents it for $2600 a month. I could sell for minimum $420,000 if i wanted to.

Renting and buying both now are brutal. Interest rates have gone way up but the housing price only dipped slightly certainly not enough to coming close to offset.

I'm just glad i got in when i did at an insane interest rate and a mortgage around 25% of what i take home in a month. Mind you every year strata goes up a bit and property tax went up a fair bit this year but can't imagine being stuck renting at these insane prices with minimal disposable income to save up for a down payment to buy.

It's pretty shitty.
 
Berserker13 said:
No, it's the chinese buying up properties and raising the prices so that no one can afford them.
Click to expand...
And all the non stop immigrants moving in taking more and more of the limited amount of homes there are available.
 
J.M.M said:
Agree with almost all of this. Only exception being tightening of lending practices. I thought it was true before I got my mortgage. Was convinced I was going to need a co-signer as my credit was just ok and not much $ in the bank. Was instantly approved for more than I could possibly afford. Did not take more than i could afford, but they were definitely willing and ready to hand the cash over. This was 2013 for the record.
Click to expand...

Agreed. As someone in the industry, I don't understand why a lot of people think lending practices have been tightened a bunch. I'm always hesitant to comment on it too much because things differ amongst markets quite a bit. I'm in a lower priced housing market (ex. a 4 bed 2 bath would probably be $300k range), so I figure maybe it is tougher in higher ranges. Around here, we see people qualified with amounts that are way too high as well as some people who never qualify. Shit, some of them are getting loans while having small claims or civil judgments against them! VA and government back loans are the same way too.

I see people getting loans that don't have a career. They are still in a "job", not something long term. We're talking fast food jobs, low level office jobs, laborer, etc. All of that is fine for a starter home that will be cheaper than rent, however, they are getting family homes. They're going from 2 BR apartments to 4 BR 2 BA houses.

I know I'm rambling at this point, but it's also not great for maintenance on homes. Many of these people don't know how to take care of a house because they've come from apartments. When I sold my starter house, the planting areas were great. The previous owners son-in-law was a landscaper, so all sorts of plants/bushes came up in different seasons. You basically had to just weed it, mulch it, and it would take care of itself. Literally the entire area is weeds now. I've seen zero improvement to the house on the exterior, and it's been 8+ years! We see stuff like this all over, and this includes basic repairs being neglected.
 
SirRealKiller said:
Where I grew up they still don't have reliable enough high speed internet for work purposes. It's constantly up and down, which is more easy to deal with when you're just watching Netflix. Also all the power is via power lines and when storms come through sometimes you can be out of power for days out there. Where I live now all power lines are buried so we rarely lose power even in strong storms.
Click to expand...
You will own nothing. And you will be happy.
 
CyberRubberDuck said:
You will own nothing. And you will be happy.
Click to expand...
fredgraph.png


Home ownership rate is higher now than it was in 1995. Thread fail.
 
Rob Battisti said:
Has anyone come into the thread to say how the OP is wrong and homeownership is better than ever?
Click to expand...
If you bought at the right time then being a homeowner is certainly a great thing. Just sitting on equity that keeps growing.
 
llperez22 said:
I feel lucky. I bought in 2020 with a 2.8% fixed rate. Now the rates are like 6-7%. The value of my home according to Zillow and realtor and comparable sales in my neighborhood has already gone up like 30-35% the last 4 years too.
Click to expand...


Oh man. We are blessed. I bought in March 2020. Did a refi a year later went from 30 to 20 years with a 2.4% and got 1,500 dollars as a bonus. Payment stayed the same.
 
Homes are priced as high as they can get folks to pay for it.

O ly way to get prices low as they should be is folks that's csnt afford 20% down , if you don't earn min 25% a year of house price, if your credit is sub 600 you cannot buy a home. Make common sense which that is the law n wat h prices go off a cliff.

My criteria is actually generous an juat common sense.
 
ObsoleteSoul said:
Yep.

People think every remote job is an invite to just go off the grid or something. I NEED to always be connected during working hours. It is not an ask, but a requirement. Otherwise, I would be off living for dirt cheapo in Asia somewhere.
Click to expand...
There are numerous off grid areas you can still be connected at, starlink and everything. I was connected in the edge of the Amazon and many remote places in America.
 
Jack V Savage said:
fredgraph.png


Home ownership rate is higher now than it was in 1995. Thread fail.
Click to expand...
The question is, who are the supposed owners? Corporations and foreigners buying up the properties to let out to people who can't afford to buy, is not really representative of what that graph is trying to imply.
I live in Manchester England and it's a pretty big city and is a good example of people really not being able to afford mortgages. I don't recall what happened in the states during 1995, but I would bet there was a specific reason for that dip.
 
J.M.M said: If you bought at the right time then being a homeowner is certainly a great thing. Just sitting on equity that keeps growing.

Home values have gone up 50% in some regions over the last decade or 2. Equity growth tied that to is great IF they bought with a fixed rate mortgage that was affordable and finances remain stable. Inflation has hit hard on ALL aspects of owning a home. Variable rate mortgage increases, insurance rates jacked up, higher taxes, home & yard maintenance, any repairs, can change the overall picture and sadly make the same home no longer affordable. This has happened on the USA's East Coast with beach property, owned by families for generations, when property values skyrocketed and higher tax bills forced them to sell.

TardStrong said:
What is property tax like up there? If you sold and bought something straight cash for $300k what would your property tax be then?
Click to expand...
That can be a Major expense, that'd probably be at least $5000 up north.
 
Last edited:
fedorthegoat777 said:
There are numerous off grid areas you can still be connected at, starlink and everything. I was connected in the edge of the Amazon and many remote places in America.
Click to expand...
That’s awesome. Going to look more closely into it all. It’s great to have it whenever, I just must always have strong connections all the time for calls and video. Hopefully it’s really nice and steady at all times, so I can move somewhere I want.
 
Blunderbuss said:
Got a 5 year amortization in 2021 at %1.7!

But 2026 looms :(
Click to expand...
Ugh. I got 2.5% for 5 years in 2016, and in 2021, they offered me 2.1% for 5 years, but I forced them into giving me 2.9% for 10 years(was only $50 more a month) so I am good until 2031 lol

I could afford for it to go to 10% , but It would hurt. Now I have some time to save up for that day.

But I bought my house for $240000. It would sell for closer to $550000 today. It was a buyers market when I bought and I made 4 lowball offers over 3 months and kept looking at 30-40 more houses before they finally agreed.

Now folks make offers before they even see the houses live and houses last less than a day on the market.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rob Battisti
Economy Greatest Economic Period in American History Has Americans Rethinking American Dream
6 7 8
Replies
140
Views
5K
Mr. Shickadance
Mr. Shickadance

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,249,897
Messages
56,355,285
Members
175,180
Latest member
luchitha18

Share this page

Back
Top