As someone who will have to dedicate 60-70% of their income to own a small, run down home, i really dont have a lot of sympathy for them. 30% of your income to housing is considered affordable, however that metric has likely been impossible for most people to reach over the past decade, most people can’t even rent for 30% of their income these days.
Im not supporting high housing and rent costs, i just think compared to average American right now, this couple shouldn’t really be considered “struggling” or “poor”
As someone living in Germany, what pissed me off most was when they mentioned that they never imagined raising their kids in an apartment. Like an apartment is beneath them. It is 2024. Don’t we all know that heating single family homes and the sheer extra space they require is absolutely disproportionate? Everyone wants a cheap huge single family house in the middle of the city and no cars and no climate change. Like, yeah, that won’t happen.
Can we please start normalizing living in apartments? We just moved to a much cheaper city and hope to buy a 3-4 room apartment here one day. This will still cost us about 600k and we make less than 50k combined. But even if we had the money to pay over 1.5 mil for a house here, I wouldn’t want to live in a house, unless I’d have like 6 kids.
As your kids age into teens and young adults, the apartment offers more freedoms than suburbia as they wont require a car to go anywhere. In many US suburbs, kids are chained to their parents as a taxi service until they need to buy their own car. Which is why so many american suburbs have 4+ car sized driveways, because every human in the house must buy a car and gas and insurance etc.
Why would you need 4 bedrooms for a family of 4? I’m not 100% sure how rooms are counted there but wouldn’t 3 bedrooms and one living room be sufficient?
going to confirm. The easiest units to find are 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom are rare but not impossible to find and overpriced (you will pay almost double. To the point your wondering if you can get away with getting a 2 bedroom and a neighboring 1 bedroom because it might be the same). one bedroom and efficiency which they like to pawn off as studios (studios should have the space of a one bedroom without the wall) are common but bang for the buck 2 bedroom will get you the best price per square foot especially in relation to association dues.
In my city, it is almost impossible to find a 3 BR apartment, let alone one without exorbitant condo fees. At that point, a 3 or 4 BR house is not much more and you own the land as well.
The problem is developers can make more building studios, 1, and 2 BRs, but anything beyond 2 BR the marginal return is lower. So if you have two kids, you’re probably going to want at least 3 BRs, which is so prohibitively expensive due to a supply shortage, the best option is to buy a house.
I think that’s the point? That even this couple who looks successful at a first glance still can’t meet the bar where a mortgage is financially responsible for them. America is struggling.
They could manage a mortgage at their income, they probably just aren’t satisified with what they can afford or have other lifestyle decisions eating too much of the budget.
As someone who will have to dedicate 60-70% of their income to own a small, run down home, i really dont have a lot of sympathy for them. 30% of your income to housing is considered affordable, however that metric has likely been impossible for most people to reach over the past decade, most people can’t even rent for 30% of their income these days.
Im not supporting high housing and rent costs, i just think compared to average American right now, this couple shouldn’t really be considered “struggling” or “poor”
As someone living in Germany, what pissed me off most was when they mentioned that they never imagined raising their kids in an apartment. Like an apartment is beneath them. It is 2024. Don’t we all know that heating single family homes and the sheer extra space they require is absolutely disproportionate? Everyone wants a cheap huge single family house in the middle of the city and no cars and no climate change. Like, yeah, that won’t happen. Can we please start normalizing living in apartments? We just moved to a much cheaper city and hope to buy a 3-4 room apartment here one day. This will still cost us about 600k and we make less than 50k combined. But even if we had the money to pay over 1.5 mil for a house here, I wouldn’t want to live in a house, unless I’d have like 6 kids.
As your kids age into teens and young adults, the apartment offers more freedoms than suburbia as they wont require a car to go anywhere. In many US suburbs, kids are chained to their parents as a taxi service until they need to buy their own car. Which is why so many american suburbs have 4+ car sized driveways, because every human in the house must buy a car and gas and insurance etc.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of suburban apartments to get the worst of both worlds these days
America is secretly a nation of mech pilots but the mech has more rights than the person in it.
You know how hard it is to find a 4 bed apartment in the us? Most houses aren’t 4 bed!
Why would you need 4 bedrooms for a family of 4? I’m not 100% sure how rooms are counted there but wouldn’t 3 bedrooms and one living room be sufficient?
going to confirm. The easiest units to find are 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom are rare but not impossible to find and overpriced (you will pay almost double. To the point your wondering if you can get away with getting a 2 bedroom and a neighboring 1 bedroom because it might be the same). one bedroom and efficiency which they like to pawn off as studios (studios should have the space of a one bedroom without the wall) are common but bang for the buck 2 bedroom will get you the best price per square foot especially in relation to association dues.
In my city, it is almost impossible to find a 3 BR apartment, let alone one without exorbitant condo fees. At that point, a 3 or 4 BR house is not much more and you own the land as well.
The problem is developers can make more building studios, 1, and 2 BRs, but anything beyond 2 BR the marginal return is lower. So if you have two kids, you’re probably going to want at least 3 BRs, which is so prohibitively expensive due to a supply shortage, the best option is to buy a house.
Den or office? I mean really not a huge needed thing and I would happily just take a nook in a corner but some people need it?
Got to go old school and just put the office computer in the living room so everyone can enjoy the sounds of dial up
I think that’s the point? That even this couple who looks successful at a first glance still can’t meet the bar where a mortgage is financially responsible for them. America is struggling.
They could manage a mortgage at their income, they probably just aren’t satisified with what they can afford or have other lifestyle decisions eating too much of the budget.