Why the Young Aren't Buying Homes or Cars. | Bay Area Real Estate ...

There?s a great discussion happening over at Derek Thompson?s article for The Atlantic titled?Why Aren?t Twentysomethings Buying Cars or Houses?

Check it out? here are some snips from commenters:

This is also something that gets overlooked in the discussion of housing prices.?Yes, drops in housing prices are bad for people who already own homes, but it would be nice if we who don?t own houses could consider buying one in the next ten years without spending over 50% of our net income on the mortgage payment. Of course, this isn?t the only policy that reflects entrenched interests, but it is one of the more important ones.

Also, and I think this is a lesser contributing factor, Gen Y, at least among my friends, expects to spend the first eight years or so out of college in a fairly mobile existence, moving between coasts and cities on a fairly regular basis. Because of that, the substantial transaction costs of a house don?t make sense, if you expect to move every 24 months. However, I think that this is as much of a trend.

And

We don?t want to buy into the American Dream just to see the rug pulled out from underneath us, like happened to so many folks in the past 5 years.?We?ve seen that buying a house isn?t a guaranteed investment, and that renting isn?t just throwing money away. We?ve also seen ourselves and our friends lose their jobs, and flexibility to move (somewhere cheaper to save money, somewhere else where there are jobs) is the best buffer for job insecurity.

And

Cities are what I need right now. It is easy for me to get to work on public transportation (20 to 40 minutes depending on traffic.) My apartment is very centrally located and close to supermarkets, bars, restaurants, movie theatres, concert venues, etc. I can easily walk to a lot of places. Also since I don?t have a family, I don?t need much space. Buying a house would be excessive and take a lot of time to clean.

Love this one:

My Husband and I are both 34 and we do not own a home or a car. ?We use zipcar and rent an apartment in NYC mostly because of cost. The social pressure to become a homeowner and have a nice car, has been replaced with the freedom of mobility and being debt free. ?We have so many friends and relatives barely getting by because they are upside down on their homes, cars, and still paying off student loans. ?We are lucky to live in a city where public transportation is available(most of the time). ?

It?s not just about not ?understanding what owning a car is about? as much as it is a rejection of an old way of life. ?We can see with our own eyes, how enslaving debt can be.?

Wow.

I?m 28, am a member of a double income-no kids household and currently live in Manhattan. ?I have three views on why I didn?t buy a house earlier, don?t own a house now and might not ever own a house.

?

In short, I hate paperwork, like being mobile, don?t like working on my property, hate having too much stuff and depending on your perspective have been either traumatized or educated as a result of the housing market crash.

This one?e harsh:

Right now my income is $180k per year, which is not the highest but probably better than most of my friends. ?My family is fortunate to have some help from our respective families. ?We save between a half and two thirds of this income. ?I can easily purchase our dream house if I were open to taking a mortgage.

I am completely convinced, however, that doing so would be signing my soul to the devil, although that?s not entirely fair to the devil since he probably wouldn?t be able to wreak as much damage as they have if he tried.

And

My lack of home-ownership ambition is a constant source of concern for my father, an immigrant who scraped his whole life in pursuit of home ownership. His ultimate success in acquisition was matched by a constant admonishment to me to ?own a piece of property? ? a theme that I have learned is common among immigrant parents of real-estate-apathetic children. Watching him struggle for the first twenty years of my life in the pursuit and maintenance of various homes had the opposite effect I imagine he?d hoped it would: it left me with a sharp distaste for spending your life chained to an arrangement of wood, plaster, and cement.

And

Two words: student loans

And

My generation has never been given the torch. Not even a hint of it. Sure you may have the internet start-up folks to suggest that we?ve been integrated, but it isn?t true. Politicians don?t pander to us, businesses want our money but not our work, and our elders have the gall to destroy the economy, place burden on our futures, and then ask why we don?t behave exactly like they did. The world isn?t the same. It?s an old man?s world now.

Don?t ask why we aren?t behaving the same way as your generation, or the one before you. Ask yourselves and your compatriots why and how you changed the game. This wasn?t a natural shift. A thousand decisions small and large have turned the world into this place. They weren?t decisions I or anyone I know made.

Changing social mood will drive our economy in ways that no economist today can predict. Student debt and the struggles of today?s young adults will be much bigger issues over the next few years.

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Source: http://bayarearealestatetrends.com/2012/08/23/why-the-young-arent-buying-homes-or-cars/

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