Labor “shortage”

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Even at $22, it's not enough to ever buy a house or even rent.
- I know it differs pretty wildly, but in King County Washington (Seattle and Bellevue are here) the median home price (condos included) is $830k. That means you have to earn $184k or $88/hour to afford a home, which is insane.
  
  I got a little inflation story for you ....
  My father bought a house inSan Francisco in 1959 for about $60,000.
  Now it's worth around $4 million.
  And no, I did not benefit from this. He embezzled client money and lost everything, which he richly deserved.
  
  My grandparent's house was $10,000 in 1959.
  When my grandfather passed we sold it for close to $300,000. In a shitty small town in Texas.
  This is what happens when housing is sold as an investment and not a place to live.
  
  Financial inequality is well documented in the Seattle area and it's sickening. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/in-seattle-were-seeing-the-splitting-of-a-city/ linked census data showing the top 20% made 18 times what the bottom 20% made. I'm not tuned in enough to know what the right path is for Seattle but something needs to be fixed.
  
  That's not how mortgages work...
- Shoot I make roughly 60% more than that and still couldn't buy a house or rent by myself unless I found a house in another state in a town with a population of 200.
  
  Seriously, I finally bought a house, but in a horrible place.
  I couldn't even rent where I used to live.
  
  I was lucky enough to buy a house this spring, after being even more lucky to live in an apartment for 6 years without a single rent increase. After I left the apartment I checked their re-listing and it is now $200 more than my current mortgage.
  
  The whole thing is a shit show that particularly fucks over young people.
  As an old guy, I've been around long enough to see it get worse for generation after generation.
  I'm on the other of the stick now. I won't live long enough to pay off my mortgage. I'm hoping to work until 70 to max out my social security, otherwise I end up under a bridge.
- I make rent on $20!
  ... in the middle of Nowhere, Iowa
- Depends. In central Europe you can even build/ buy a house with this amount of money with an 20 year loan.
  
  Buying these things is insane for most people.
  In the U.S., the average cost of a house is close to $400,000. This like driving your down payment.

60 comments