I'm sure the area is very different than it was decades ago.
I've seen property values fluctuate wildly in under five years, there's more at work than just place and time.
Partial truth. Although the speculation about fluctuation is largely location dependent. My market has shown fairly steady growth for the past 40+ years. Places which have fluctuating values tend to be places with cyclical economies or other factors which drive supply and demand for housing. Places where less land is available for development also factor in. So the place often dictates many smaller factors that profoundly impact property value as well as stability of values. Time is a primary factor regardless as without the passage of time we are frozen in a moment. So by default time must be included in our comparison. But there is more at work of course than just those two things, or the things we can file under them. The fundamentals of the economy and politics and laws have also changed over time. The cost of materials and labor to build new homes has gone up, and when there is a new and used market, and increase in the new price usually causes an increase in the price of the used
Not too nosy at all. The best I can answer however is to simply say..... I am old. Hopefully not ready for the grave for a bit yet- but closer to it than I am to being born for sure.
I mean... sorta. It’s more like a “hardly anyone chooses to live there” kind of crisis. Now- to avoid any misconception I’m not putting down the Midwest. I’m just saying that it is a demonstratively fact based on population that the Midwest is not where most of the humans on earth actively are or seek to be. That in itself is sort of like saying that there is plenty of homesteading opportunity in Syria. The second relevant point though is that if suddenly these people decided that for some reason- even just to relive congestion- that they wanted to move to the Midwest, there would be a housing crisis. It’s inevitable if population growth continues. Gentrification and displacement have turned sleepy Oregonian small towns and parts of Texas and the eastern seaboard into “unspoiled gems” actively in the process of being spiked by throngs of people brining with them what they fled from and displacing locals with rising cost of living and congestion to infrastructures not meant to handle it
Also, buying a house in the Midwest when you have lived and worked in the Midwest is still difficult. The cost of living may be lower here, but statically so are the wages.
Its definitely easier to buy a house here than in some other places, but its still expensive. We have a number of empty houses, and a number of homeless people who cannot afford to live in them. And that's not even taking into account that a number if the cheapest homes are also money pits that require more work than they will ever be worth.
Our town recently built more government subsidized apartments because the ones we have now are far from sufficient. I know people have been on lists to get into government subsidized apartments for years. And when you do get to move, you often have to do so with only a couple months worth of warning and usually within a couple weeks worth of time or you will lose the property. Regardless of the time of year or the current weather. I helped a friend move in a blizzard due to this once.
I'm fine. But I'm also lucky. I come from a family that is financially well off and I benefit from a lawsuit filed for wrongful death of my father. And of course I'd rather still have my father, but I do have that money to support me. Most people don't have that. Most of my friends are in far worse financial situations than I am.
And this is a place of discussion. If you'd like to offer solutions than they are certainly welcome. But @princessmonstertru your comment is far from a constructive response to the conversation. Please treat the people on this website with decency and respect.
@princesssmonstertru- I made a rare trip to facebook the other day. Saw a post from a self defense advocacy group I follow. They posted the ages of the founding fathers in 1776- mostly 18-20’s. Talked about how they all owned guns, homes, took care of families, and didn’t need a “safe space” or to whine about everything. They didn’t like when I replied that a bunch of 18 year olds thought it was unfair that their government was treating them poorly and making rules they didn’t like and taking tax money without doing what they wanted with it- so literally created a safe space the size of a country because of it. So food for thought. What are modern people supposed to do? Form an insurrection and overthrow the government? The point of a free democracy is for people to use their voices. That we have representatives to speak for us but when we feel they have failed the system allows us to advocate and discuss our grievances, find others who are unhappy, and change the system by changing...
... the minds and attitudes of the voting public? Before the founding fathers ever picked up a gun in anger against the crown they did went? Sent letters or had bitch sessions about how unhappy they were with things. Change starts with dialog- especially democratic change. Getting people talking and gathering support so that we know we aren’t alone and can act together to try and change what we don’t like without resorting to a civil war.
I guess my point is that none of us could ever possibly know all of the opportunities that exist in this country because there are so many. The sheer number of options available for people to carve out a living in the United States has never been greater (here or anywhere). The only requirement is that we have to accept the reality that its up to us (as individuals) to drive it.
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To talk about home ownership as if it were unattainable is ignorant and reckless. Its ignorant because there are hundreds of thousands of first time home owners every year. And it's reckless because young people are going to read this crap and never even try because the believe its "utterly impossible".
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You talk about overthrowing some governmental status quo before you even know a fraction about this country has to offer. So I when you ask me what you're supposed to do i would simply say this: stand up, take ownership of your life and jump into the world. Take risks, make mistakes, learn...
@princessmontertru but not everything in your life is your own doing. Good and bad things happen to all of us. We cause some of them, some of them are beyond our control. And not everyone is given equal opportunity for success.
I'm not saying you shouldn't grab your life by the horns and do something with it. I just think its irresponsible to dismiss barriers to success.
I work with a woman who cannot cut up her own pork chop. She has serious a cognitive disability. It isn't safe for her to use a sharp knife. She also has battled many different cancers. She comes from a very wealthy family who can afford the treatment needed for her without it causing overwhelming financial hardship. She has had many many things go well for her, and go very poorly for her that are beyond her own control. It's not always so clear cut that people don't have the same barriers to success as others, but that doesn't make those barriers less valid.
Very well said @thekaylapup. @princessmostertru- you are correct. Things like opportunity are hard if impossible to truly measure. People can quite literally fail their way to success. It’s posdible, and happens frequently enough that for example- someone who if they had “kept on the straight path” could have at best hoped for a mediocre middle class existence, yet instead they lived a hard and criminal life but are now wealthy and connected motivational figures. So what separates them from the 99% of ex cons who don’t get that ending? Was it an inherent superiority, can they claim that was their plan all along, or that they worked hard towards it? Or is it more likely a conglomeration of circumstances beyond their control converging with their life choices which simply put them in the right place at the right time? Of course they had to see an opportunity and follow through to some degree- but more or less they reache a point where it was simply easy to follow a path out in front...
... of them which was obviously far better than their other prospects no? So that’s the usual fowl up with the whole “self made life” perspective. The dismissal of external circumstances and the confusing of a person succeeding through determination or a person succeeding because the path in front of them was laid in such a way they would have to be completely daft to fail out of it. One can be responsible for their individual choices while being aware that their “destiny” is ultimately out of their hands. It’s true that we make choices and choices have consequences, but as you say- the world is too vast and complex to truly conceive what the consequences will actually be. We are in essence just guessing at life.
I'm certainly not suggesting that all people have equal opportunity. I'm only suggesting that that our time is better served seeking out that opportunity rather than protesting it's adequacy.
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The united states has it's problems. But i'd much rather live with those problems (in a country that allowed me to take care of myself, my family, and my community) v.s. a country where i relied on a government to take care of me and all the problems that come with that.
While I wouldn’t seek to deny you a right for your preference- the United States is a country which the government takes care of a person at every level. The majority of the nation is public schooled- so even those who did not go to public school rely on public education. There’s all manner of social welfare from disability to retirement, government subsidization of private industry and basic services, a publicly funded legal system who’s laws such as labor, wages, housing, the license and enforcement of professionals, vehicle owner operators, commerce, telecommunications, and more make up the frame work of our daily sustenance. That’s not to mention that without security and foreign policy provided there would be nothing to stop individuals or other nations from seizing land and control. Nations which do not care for their people but instead allow individuals essentially sole responsibility to care for family, self, and community are best exemplified by those countries with weak...
... infrastructure and authority. Places where warlords and gang leaders take control through force of will and individuals join, die, or survive on their own. I certainly do not wish to live in a place like this. In the “fantasy” we are always John Mclane or the line gunman- the force that lives its way by its rules. In reality the individual seldom fares so well without strong backing. That backing requires governance and organization, and you are back at square one because getting that many people to all coexist and work to one goal requires diplomacy and or a method of control to ensure high level objectives are met. There is no perfect system of government but America is about compromise. The days of the homestead are all but gone for most, and not long for the rest as growing population density requires solutions that allow billions to each live the closest approximation of the life they want amongst billions of conflicting ideas on what that should be, and competition for the...
... opportunity and resources to do so. In their words- if 3 people want to go to dinner and can’t agree, but there is only one car and all the food is far away- either one person gets exactly what they want and the others go hungry or deal with it, or all must compromise. The role of government in a “free” society is in theory- to act as an impartial mediator makignand enforcing rules which allow the maximum number of people the maximum- but equal- opportunities for happiness as they seek it. This is intended to be done with minimal involvment in personal dealings, however some level of intrusion on personal freedom is necessary to secure the right of freedom to all, as some would act against freedom. The paradox of freedom and tolerance which anarchy only solves of no one uses the void to consolidate power for themselves.
Tl:dr- a fully libertarian society is a savage utopia like mad max- where one is never safe in any degree, where men are free to prey on men, and constant strength and vigilance are the only methods of survival. This is the only true example of one having actual autonomy to care for their affairs and family- and it is less like games such as Halo or even Red dead and more like dark souls on hardest difficulty where most people don’t actually get to live that long and you generally get few chances to learn from Mistakes. Countries like this exist. America isn’t one and was never intended as such. Countries like this are generally places UN peace keeping missions go to stop genocides. I like knowing if I break my back the government won’t let my neighbors steal all my stuff and throw me in a ditch to die because I can’t defend it. I like knowing there’s a net to catch me if I fall.
This kind of thinking is so limited
There are opportunities that exist today that literally didn’t 20 years ago
Making millions from narrating video games for example
@cakelover The problem with your statement is that these new forms of making money are not realistically achievable for a majority of the population. So as these continue to elevate some and the cost of living goes up, while the average person's wage doesn't rise (or rises much more slowly) the gap between rich are poor grows wider. And the number of hardworking people who are also in poverty continues to rise.
@thekaylapup Exactly! It's not like every single person can/will work as a frickin' youtuber or influencer. If we all did same thing there would be nobody else to work what's considered 'lowly jobs' such as cashiers, chefs, cleaning, etc. Homes should have affordable and realistic prices like they used to. OR the pay should rise to meet the same unrealistic levels of current prices of homes. Here where I am the minimum wages are 9.15 euros p/h and a 1 bedroom apartment to rent is 1,400 euros per month. It means the person is left with 0 euros after paying the rent each month, you simply cannot survive if you don't team up with someone else, a roommate, friend or a partner to split the costs. Again, there's barely any money left to save up, especially impossible if you wish to save up to buy a property. 1 bed apartment is around 160,000 euros. And banks won't give you a mortgage if you don't have a certain amount already saved up (I think it was around 20,000) and if (continued)
@cakelover- the kaylapup has done well in explaining a fundamental flaw in the assertion. You are correct that new opportunities exist. However if you look at a graph showing cost of livin and wage increases in most jobs over the last several decades you will see a disparity. The expenses of the average person have gone up in society as we are all but required to have things like internet and computer access that previous generations only had as a luxury. Ignoring inflation and the like it just cost s more money to be alive in society today, but wages don’t reflect that. Look at the Quantity and wealth of mega wealthy then versus now. You’ll see that wealth consolidation begins to skyrocket with deregulation and tax cuts to the highest brackets. If the whole world were millionaire voice actors- who would serve them coffee or fix their plumbing or be their doctors? We need many types of professions and not just a bunch of people doing one thing or else all the moneye is useless.
I've seen property values fluctuate wildly in under five years, there's more at work than just place and time.
Its definitely easier to buy a house here than in some other places, but its still expensive. We have a number of empty houses, and a number of homeless people who cannot afford to live in them. And that's not even taking into account that a number if the cheapest homes are also money pits that require more work than they will ever be worth.
And this is a place of discussion. If you'd like to offer solutions than they are certainly welcome. But @princessmonstertru your comment is far from a constructive response to the conversation. Please treat the people on this website with decency and respect.
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To talk about home ownership as if it were unattainable is ignorant and reckless. Its ignorant because there are hundreds of thousands of first time home owners every year. And it's reckless because young people are going to read this crap and never even try because the believe its "utterly impossible".
.
You talk about overthrowing some governmental status quo before you even know a fraction about this country has to offer. So I when you ask me what you're supposed to do i would simply say this: stand up, take ownership of your life and jump into the world. Take risks, make mistakes, learn...
I'm not saying you shouldn't grab your life by the horns and do something with it. I just think its irresponsible to dismiss barriers to success.
I work with a woman who cannot cut up her own pork chop. She has serious a cognitive disability. It isn't safe for her to use a sharp knife. She also has battled many different cancers. She comes from a very wealthy family who can afford the treatment needed for her without it causing overwhelming financial hardship. She has had many many things go well for her, and go very poorly for her that are beyond her own control. It's not always so clear cut that people don't have the same barriers to success as others, but that doesn't make those barriers less valid.
.
The united states has it's problems. But i'd much rather live with those problems (in a country that allowed me to take care of myself, my family, and my community) v.s. a country where i relied on a government to take care of me and all the problems that come with that.
There are opportunities that exist today that literally didn’t 20 years ago
Making millions from narrating video games for example