Buyers and renters across the country are experiencing drastic increases in monthly mortgage and rent payments, which have risen so high that Americans can no longer afford to purchase a home until they are middle-aged.
A recent report from the National Association of Realtors shows the average age of first-time home buyers is now 40 years old, up from age 38 in 2004. High home costs, student loan debt, and high rents are mostly to blame, while older homeowners are contributing to the problem because fewer are downsizing.
While home buying is out of reach for millennials and younger generations, it hasn’t always been this way. Older generations say they had it easier. In an interview with the Triton Voice, assisted living resident Chuck Mann says his first home cost him less than the price of a new car today.
“I bought my first house in the 40s,” said Mann. “My house was around $30,000 in Lowell, Massachusetts, can you believe that? Nowadays my first house is cheaper than a brand new car.”
Today, Mann is a resident at a senior nursing center in Newburyport where he pays a staggering amount in rent. As a resident who receives a number of support services, his rent is nearly $13,000 per month. In fact, his payment per month is almost half what he paid for his house in the 1940s.
When it comes time to buy a house today, it can be one of the most exciting things in a person’s lifetime. It’s a start to new beginnings and a person gets to make their house, their home. It can be your own decorations, your food in the fridge, your furniture; but does the younger generation stand a chance against the rising costs of the housing market? This is one of the the biggest questions Americans are facing.
The housing market is facing one of its most challenging spikes in the nation’s history. Based on recent surveys, around 20 percent of people can afford to purchase a house. Affording a home isn’t in the cards for millions all over the United States and it is becoming a crisis.
Triton special education teacher teacher, Mr. Kurt Rieae says he experienced anxiety over house prices, too. “Forty-five years ago I bought my
house for under 50k,” said Riese. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to keep up with it, but I did. The prices of houses on the market go up but so do job pay. Some people make $250,000, which is why houses are so expensive too.”
While wages have increased for the top 10 percent of workers over the last 20 years, that has not been so for middle-income families, according to the US Bureau of Labor. Those families have seen wages increase about 5 percent since 2000, while the cost of the average home has increased 160 percent.
Students feel the state of the housing market needs to change sooner than later. The cost to live shouldn’t be so much that people with full time jobs can’t even afford a condo let alone keep up with the monthly payments.
Triton Student Brooke Baumann believes home prices are over-inflated. “My dad is trying to buy a house and it is listed for around 600k,” she said. “In reality its maybe worth half of what it’s listed as.”
