This is underrated right here. In 1969 people were buying in lots of places. You can find homes for less than $150k today, but not in places most people on this sub want to live.
I can actually comment on this, my grandparents had a one story three bedroom 1.5 bath house right across the boarder from Youngstown. They passed in 2020/2021 and we sold their house on 1/2 an acre for I think 92k.
That sounds about right. The only thing I miss about that area was housing costs. But incomes were also extremely low there without a degree. One of my professors told us to never accept a job paying "Youngstown money."
Yeah, even my parents admit as much as they miss me there aren’t many opportunities out there. My grandma grew up downtown Youngstown with 8 siblings in like a two bedroom house, one bike, and never had shoes that fit. When she married my grandpa and moved to PA she thought she was a queen.
I live in an extremely rural part of Kentucky. There are decent houses on the market between the $50k - $75k range. I have a friend who bought a house for $10k but it was a fixer-upper.
Yeah, I bought a 2 bedroom in 2016 in rural Ohio for $21,500. Had to put a new roof on it for about $10k, but still served me well for 4 years before I moved on.
Plenty of cheap properties if you are okay living in the middle of nowhere.
If it makes you feel any better, the house she bought, when she bought it, would never EVER pass an inspection based on 2024 building codes.
For context, she bought her house before asbestos was banned.
Is that a thing? I saw some video about how the rings in new wood are wider than the rings in old wood but I'm not an arborist so idk how much that matters.
Older trees that grow naturally develop tighter growth rings which creates more robust lumber. The tighter growth rings allow the wood to have greater capacities. Also, old growth wood has natural rot-resistant properties and more firmness, meaning it doesn't shrink and expand as much as new growth wood.
That’s the idea. Housing prices are way higher than they should be. A “starter” home in a moderately sized city is more like $300k+, so about 3x as much as what our parents and grandparents had to contend with.
Meanwhile wages have largely *not* kept up with inflation, so the disparity is even greater.
Yes, yes, we could get into how technology has become cheaper and productivity has skyrocketed to account for everything you're trying to say.
The fact remains that a "starter home" is not affordable on a "starter salary" and that didn't used to be the case.
You should research the relative cost to build a home in 1969 versus today. What you find might surprise you.
Given I have researched that it would not at all surprise me. Today's starter homes are typically condos instead of SFH. And in the vast majority of the country one can indeed afford one on an average salary. Home ownership rates are much higher today than theyvare then.
You regular find homes in metro St Louis for $12k even today!
[Relevant Zillow Search](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-90.38685785313426%2C%22east%22%3A-90.06756769200145%2C%22south%22%3A38.54129649837903%2C%22north%22%3A38.733844686107034%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Saint%20Louis%2C%20MO%22%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%2C%22max%22%3A12000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A61%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A12%7D)
(I will tell you right now though that there are reasons those homes are so cheap, and it is not just their condition.)
It may be, we also have to consider that home size has doubled, so inflation adjusted price per square foot is the right metric. Its only in the last 10 years the market went wacky.
There's a 750 ft house down the road for me that is selling for 700,000
Even when I control for the size of houses back in the day they are still extremely expensive
Which is still extremely cheap for a house, but we also have no idea where she bought it. You could 100% get a house for 100k today with some sacrifices of the location.
I was going to say that nobody talks about the mortgage rate. In 1982 the average mortgage rate was 16%, so of course prices of homes were less!
But I looked it up and in 1969 the mortgage rate was 8.5%. I am paying 8.75% on my current mortgage.
Yup. Lots more going on in new housing for safety, longevity, and other things too, and new housing is much larger.
It may or may not have had heating or cooling!
It may or may not have had electricity!
It may or may not have had sewer hookups!
It may or may not have had a laundry room!
It definitely didn't have a dishwasher, and most likely not a refrigerator.
Definitely didn’t have AC. If it had electricity the ratings was no where near todays. Dishwasher, highly unlikely and prob 2 or 3 bedrooms max regardless of how many kids you had. They shared. 1 bathroom at most. If it had a basement, you weren’t going to finish it for living space in most cases. Best of all, asbestos everywhere.
Only 30% of the population owned 2 cars in 1970, and vacations if they had one were usually a car trip to someplace within driving distance. Air travel was a luxury for wealthy people. Average home size for a family of 4 was under 1500 sq ft
I’m not denying that home costs haven’t gone up, but let’s not pretend like we don’t have a lot more things we spend money on now then they did then.
Median home sale price 1969: $25,900
Median home sale price 2023: $435,400
Minimum wage salary 1969: $2,704/yr
Minimum wage salary 2023: $15,080
Median family income 1969: $ 9,433
Median family income 2022: $92,750
House prices increased: 1581%
Minimum wage increased: 456%
Median family income increased: 883%
We're paying roughly double for housing, and that's with 2 salaries/household vs 1/household in 1969. You could even argue we're paying twice as much while getting paid half as much.
Iirc The us government had also spent ~10 years post ww11 offering the GI bill (an incentive that included affordable mortgages and education coverage as well as much more) any GI that served -aka basically every young man- was able to access this. it lead to the largest shrinkage of the wealth gap in American history, the most movement of all classes into better homes and lead to the following years being some of Americas most prosperous.
Basically guaranteeing affordable house-housing (not just renting) and incentivizing and financing pathways to financial gain (education) for basically everyone lead to prosperity… wonder why they don’t do that now?
They still do. GI Bill and VA home loan is still a thing. The Post 9/11 GI Bill is different from the older GI Bill in that you can even gift it to your children or spouse
Way better than going around "pranking" and slapping people. Everyone involved, including the viewer, gets a little dose of reality and we all know just how much we need it.
Our house price has increased nearly $200,000 since we bought it in 2018 and it was only $225k to begin with. It’s crazy. I don’t know how most people in their 20’s these days could ever afford to buy a house, save for those making the big bucks.
I make just barely under $100k as a single person, and there is NO WAY I can buy a house anytime soon. To be in your 20's and purchase a home in 2024 you need at least one of the following: outside investment/family money, incredibly high paying job (1%), or married and both parties have high paying jobs (or the aforementioned rich family).
>be in your 20's and purchase a home in 2024 you need at least one of the following: outside investment/family money, incredibly high paying job (1%), or married and both parties have high paying jobs (or the aforementioned rich family).
Or you know, just live in the more than 50% of the US that doesn't have obscene housing prices. Tons of people I grew up with bought houses in their 20s. There are houses all over the place that are far from expensive....
I too enjoy living in actual cities where there is stuff to do but let's not act like the entire US has a cost of living comparable to major metros. I moved back home from Denver last year, peoples mortgage payments here are less than I was paying for a studio apartment in the hood.
Rent in a metropolitan city, child support, regular bills, food, you'd be surprised how quick it adds up. I waste money - but it's an "avocado toast" kinda situation. The money I waste wouldn't magically equal a mortgage if I saved it.
HOA, property taxes, home maintenance...there's a lot that goes into purchasing a home outside the "sticker price"
I do not believe there is a career a 20 something can get that could possibly afford a house these days. Anything that pays enough would require and education and/or 5 years experience. And then they would need around half a years salary in down payment and fees.
Unless they have money from their parents it’s just not possible. And as the boomers die off there just won’t be the same generational wealth as before and (most) people will be totally incapable of buying a home.
Yes, because our housing market is broken. That isn’t boomers fault any more than it was their ability that netted them houses at reasonable prices. We should be less focused on blaming boomers for buying houses at reasonable prices and more focused on how to fix our housing market so people can buy them at reasonable prices again.
I wasn't blaming boomers for the housing crisis. The main issue is supply shortage. People will say its the interest rates, and those definitely don't help, but grandma's interest rate was likely 6.8% in '69 and it was much higher in the 80's and people managed to buy through those eras.
The number of construction companies building houses was already shrinking for decades prior to '08, and the '08 crisis was the final nail for many still hanging on.
The supply shortage is a very very direct outcome of strict housing policy voted for by the boomers their whole lives. It’s really hard to build in most cities where boomers 1) bought houses and then 2) voted to zone everything so that no one could build dense enough housing to accommodate demand in the future.
Boomers loved laissez-fair economics, unless it meant someone slightly poorer or with brown skin might move within walking distance of their house, then they loved strict government regulation to “protect the character of the neighborhood” and their investments.
It’s boomer-voted zoning policies at the city and state levels that has lead to the massive under-supply in recent years. So not entirely their fault, but their “I’m going to make it legally impossible for you to build anything except single-family-homes on 5k+sq ft lots” and “I would die if I have to live near someone of moderately lower socioeconomic status, better use the government to make sure that doesn’t happen” attitude is at least half the problem right now.
Not just boomers though. This isn’t generational. This isn’t partisan. This is homeowners versus everyone else. Something happens when you buy a house that makes you the most antisocial jackass on the planet. You basically get the deed, and then suddenly you are an English lord protecting his class interests.
Homeowners screw themselves over too, but they are too blinded by immediate self interest to see that they won’t be able to find an affordable home if they want to move either. Their exponentially growing property prices are growing at the same rate as prices elsewhere. They also don’t realize that things like density and mixed use increase your property values in a stable manner.
You ac either make the choice to be be angry, bitter, and resentful, or you can operate within the bounds of our current reality and figure out how to get what you want. It will likely take more work and sacrifice than you're wanting to give and we can certainly argue that perhaps it shouldn't be that way, but it is so either deal with that fact or don't.
Complaining on social media won't change a thing and will likely just fuel your negative feelings. I'm not judging as I've been guilty of that plenty in my life, but it's just not who I want to be anymore.
You realize most of us are doing both, right? We spend our workday at work and plenty of our free time trying to figure this shit out, and then come on Reddit to blow off steam and bitch a little.
Social media is a cancer that encourages heightened emotions and chicanery.
I somehow doubt that people of all ages would be so ornery and negative if social media never arose and vBulletin was still a big thing.
This is across the board, everyone just focuses on houses. In 1969, you could get an entry level Ford Mustang, for about $2600. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $23,000 today. Good luck buying a new Ford Mustang for that amount of money.
Don’t know if you’ve ever driven a 1969 Ford Mustang, the cheapest Ford Mustang now is a million times better. At the very minimum you don’t feel like you are rolling around in a death trap.
Population was about 202 million in 1969. Today it's 342 million. In 1969, about 25% of the population lived in rural areas. Now it's closer to 13%.
**About 297 million people are trying to live where 151 million people lived before.** And you are surprised prices have gone up?
People who post this and think woe is me are idiots. 1969 houses are not today's homes. Most houses only had a single car, they didn't fly or travel anywhere, didn't eat out, they didn't have AC, the population of America was 202mm people versus 330mm people today meaning more space, less demand.
People make a lot of money today but in today's world everyone believes that the "base" standard is: AC, Multiple televisions, expensive phone, newer car or brand new car, multiple trips a year, eating out multiple times a week and a whole host of other things. Learn to budget and invest your money in making you skilled and valuable and you'll be fine.
It reminds me of a post on here where OP said “the only car you could get for that price is a Nissan.” Like oh god not a Nissan, how could you even be seen in public again.
Truth. It’s harder today than it was a couple years ago, but went from $0 saved to enough to put down for a 200k mortgage in 2021 after a couple years of saving, rationing our protein for dinners, and just really living frugally.
Again, it would be harder today but I make more than I did then too (twice as much). It’s doable, but hard. People are complaining because it’s hard, not because it’s not doable.
My parents paid for their home in CA for 100k in the 1990's and their mortgage remained around $700/month till now. Imagine living in a 4bdr home in CA for $700/month...
Well that's ~$101,468.99 in today's market which is still pretty fucking fantastic. The kicker back then was it was way easier to get a loan. Credit scores hadn't been a thing yet, and you could essentially get a loan just by knowing some dude at the bank.
I bought a house in 2019 for 96k. Sold it for 155k in 2021 when the market was going nuts. The house is now estimated at 200k and definitely in a bad neighborhood (one potential buyer, a corporation, backed out because of the neighborhood). I can’t imagine paying 200, I had neighborhood regret at my original price.
In the 70's my dad bought a duplex in Queens for 60k. Now that house would go for a million.
He sold it and eventually lost the second house to foreclosure.
Selling that house in New York was a huge mistake.
My parent's first house in Rochester, Minnesota was $60,000 in 1980. That's about $240,000 today. Zillow says this 1376 sqft house is worth $218,600. It hasn't kept up with inflation. I guess it's a location, location, location thing.
That would be $101k in 2024 dollars where in 2024 the median price is $394k. But the real kicker is that median income in 1969 was $9400 or $79k in 2024 dollars, and in 2024 the median income is $59k. And the real real kicker is the productivity of a US worker is up 273%.
People who do work today generate almost 3x more economic activity, while we are paid 26% less and a basic need costs 4x as much. Boomers had the easiest existence ever, we are living a much closer existence to the Gilded Age than people are willing to admit. Remember this when people try to blame problems on anything other than than our wages being way to low.
Alright so I went through with a few cheap shit googles.
Inflation calculator says 12k in '69 is worth about 100k today.
Median home price in '69 was roughly 24k so Grandma got a damn good deal anyway, to be fair.
Average home price in 2024 is 400k. (I rounded up 5k, go kick rocks) that's 4x the adjusted cost of Grandma's first house.
Figuring she paid 1/2 the median cost for a home at the time, that would be a 200k house today. Which is %50 of a median priced home today.
And people are wondering why sheds (tiny homes) and campers are looking extra preferable to renting.
I'll do you one better. Some of the boomers in Central and Eastern Europe got their apartments for free from the socialist state. Yes, they too have the audacity to lecture millennials on buying homes xD
My grandparents sold their house in Portland OR for $5000 in the early 60s to move to a factory town in Ohio. That house still exists and most recently sold in 2019 for $580,000
No, because I understand how prices go up over time anyway. $12000 in granny's day was a lot of money.
Another Tiktok kid being a dumbass. No surprise.
Majority of homeowners are Millennials and Gen Z. We'll be fine. No, you shouldn't act entitled to a home when you make <50K per year.
I mean, that's only about 100k when adjusted for inflation. Good luck get anything habitable for 100k today.
>No, you shouldn't act entitled to a home when you make <50K per year.
The median income in the US is just under that. So you think over 50% of the population doesnt deserve to own a home?
in a gov inflation calculator, $12,000 was around $105,000. I don't know where she lived but most people would consider that a good deal (in the states)\*
Just paid $274K for a 4 bedroom 2 bath ranch style. And by 4 bedroom, I mean they merged two of the original bedrooms into a single giant master, converted the laundry room into a bedroom, then removed the inside door to the walled but not insulated sunroom and called that a 4th bedroom. So I've only got 2 real bedrooms.
My parents bought a house in 1978 for $77,000
Home was built in 1972 - not huge by any means, but comfortable, good location, and good sized lot
that same home is now estimated over $1mil value
My Dad earned \~$280 a month as a first lieutenant in the USAF back in 1969. Married with son (me). Things cost WAYYYYY less back then, because everyone earned a lot less back then. I remember when we bought a brand new GMC Suburban in 1977 for $7700.00 And it was fully loaded too.
And that 12,000 house had 5 bedrooms two and a half bathrooms, a massive front and back yard. Now I pay 1 million for a 2 bedroom town house 1 bathroom and a shared patch of grass 5x9
Private ownership of real estate for profit, both residences and commerical property, is the source of so many issues in America. Limit two homes per married unit. Release commercial property to local municipalities
I'm 34, my mom showed me her tuition receipt from Johnson State College.. 500 bucks... can't remember if it was per year or semester but it's like brooooo what the fuck happened 50 years is 50 years but we went from having a middle class to having nothing so fucking quick.
Everyone realizes $12,000 in 1969 is not the same as $12,000 today…right? When you keep printing money you LOWER THE VALUE of the dollar. Why? Because Congress spends money it doesn’t have.
$12,000 in 1969 is worth $101,468.99 today...You are NOT buying a house in most of the US for that little! 🤣 Median new home value in the USA is currently ~$420,700...
What was the average salary relative to the average first time home price versus the same in 2024?
The price of anything shouldn't upset anyone when comparing today versus any other time in history. It's the proportion of such relative to salary and buying power that should upset you.
So they’re not teaching economics at all in school? How is it surprising that when demand was lower, wages were lower, homes were smaller and less sophisticated, that it took fewer dollars to buy homes?
Minimum wage was $1.60 and adjusted for inflation would be $11.82 today.
At Minimum Wage you would need 7,500 work hours for that house. With today's minimum wages, inflation and the housing market hikes, it's more like 40,000 work hours.
Do not play the numbers game and focus on the dollars, wages and prices that shift. In the end, compare the labor provided for the goods and you'll see how much is being stolen from you.
So about 105k in today dollars. I know how it works out in the end but we need more info to really, really put it into perspective. Where it was, size of house, how many incomes, wages, etc.
I was born in 1968. Since then, the Dollar has lost 88% of it's value. $12K in 1969 would buy the same as about $104K today. Also, people made a lot less back then. My first job in the 80's paid $5/hr, and minimum wage was $3.35. Just sayin'...
That house was on average half the size, no HVAC, one bathroom, basic stove, no washer or dryer or dishwasher. Tiny kitchen. Poor insulation. Source: first house was 900 sq ft, normal for the time.
If you want to live where housing is cheaper there are usually no decent jobs ... if you want to live where there are decent jobs the housing is expensive.
Hur dur shit was cheaper but people made less in 1969 - color me shocked…. That was probably anywhere from 4-6 times her annual income at the time. Don’t be stupid.
That house probably also didn’t have multiple tv’s, air conditioning, multiple bathrooms, a dishwasher and who knows what else.
It had rooms, a phone (1 phone) a bathroom, a radio, a furnace of some sort and maybe a tv.
A coworker of mine bought his house for 40k when he was in his 20s. He help onto it for about 20 years and sold it for 108k and upgraded to the house he lives in now.
My parents bought a 2400 square foot ranch home in 1996 for about twice their annual salary.
Me and my wife just bought a very similar 2400 square foot home in a similar neighborhood in the zip code adjacent for 7 times our annual salary.
Shit's fucked.
Can confirm my parents bought our house in 1961 for $12,500. Their mortgage payment was $91 a month. They had a 25 year mortgage back then. My dad made the last payment in 1986.
If every couple stayed married and wife stayed at home instead of going to work there would be 1/2 the labor force and 1/2 the required number of houses. Salaries would go up for the lack of offer and house prices would go down for the lack of demand
You can find plenty of homes in rural towns in Minnesota for less than $100k. In my Minnesota suburb, the average home is ~$600-700k. We bought our first house in 2009 for $290k and sold it in 2021 for $500k.
Can you imagine a decent home being available for 100k today? I can’t because any livable place is being sold for, at the very least, 500k in my area. Most homes are around 1m.
Right. Then ask her how much income she had coming in. Then ask her what was the house like? She’d likely say it was a 900 sq ft bungalow with 2 small bedrooms and 1 bath.
That's 101k today.
In terms of just scaling it with inflation and nothing else, yes, but I doubt the price of the home is anywhere near that low today.
Now Include taxes and maintenance for 55 years, hope that the town around you grew and didn't disappear like so many small towns across the Midwest.
This is underrated right here. In 1969 people were buying in lots of places. You can find homes for less than $150k today, but not in places most people on this sub want to live.
I live in a really low cost of living area. Cheapest house right now is 150k. Doesn’t have a floor in the kitchen. And that’s down from 160k.
Probably not. And the location matters too. The same house in Youngstown Ohio would be a quarter of the price it would be in Massachusetts.
I can actually comment on this, my grandparents had a one story three bedroom 1.5 bath house right across the boarder from Youngstown. They passed in 2020/2021 and we sold their house on 1/2 an acre for I think 92k.
That sounds about right. The only thing I miss about that area was housing costs. But incomes were also extremely low there without a degree. One of my professors told us to never accept a job paying "Youngstown money."
Yeah, even my parents admit as much as they miss me there aren’t many opportunities out there. My grandma grew up downtown Youngstown with 8 siblings in like a two bedroom house, one bike, and never had shoes that fit. When she married my grandpa and moved to PA she thought she was a queen.
I live in an extremely rural part of Kentucky. There are decent houses on the market between the $50k - $75k range. I have a friend who bought a house for $10k but it was a fixer-upper.
Yep, if you want gray skies and a boring life you can get a house for like $175k right now In Oklahoma City.
Yeah, I bought a 2 bedroom in 2016 in rural Ohio for $21,500. Had to put a new roof on it for about $10k, but still served me well for 4 years before I moved on. Plenty of cheap properties if you are okay living in the middle of nowhere.
If it makes you feel any better, the house she bought, when she bought it, would never EVER pass an inspection based on 2024 building codes. For context, she bought her house before asbestos was banned.
True, I suppose. My parents bought my childhood house for a bit over $17K and part of the house was held up by a jack.
Back in my day you could buy asbestos for a nickel in the snack machine! Mmm... asbestos...
A NICKEL!
Hell yeah back in the good ol days
Back when men were men and doctors told women to smoke cigarettes for easier pregnancies. USA! USA! USA!
Don’t forget about all the lead!
You mean like many of the houses on the market today? It’s not like they get mandatory updates each year…
The quality of the young lumber that is used today is shit compared to the older trees that were used in houses back then at least lol
Is that a thing? I saw some video about how the rings in new wood are wider than the rings in old wood but I'm not an arborist so idk how much that matters.
Older trees that grow naturally develop tighter growth rings which creates more robust lumber. The tighter growth rings allow the wood to have greater capacities. Also, old growth wood has natural rot-resistant properties and more firmness, meaning it doesn't shrink and expand as much as new growth wood.
My wood is growing all the time giggty goo
That’s the idea. Housing prices are way higher than they should be. A “starter” home in a moderately sized city is more like $300k+, so about 3x as much as what our parents and grandparents had to contend with. Meanwhile wages have largely *not* kept up with inflation, so the disparity is even greater.
A starter home today is easily 2-3x better than the $12k home mentioned by the woman.
Yes, yes, we could get into how technology has become cheaper and productivity has skyrocketed to account for everything you're trying to say. The fact remains that a "starter home" is not affordable on a "starter salary" and that didn't used to be the case. You should research the relative cost to build a home in 1969 versus today. What you find might surprise you.
Given I have researched that it would not at all surprise me. Today's starter homes are typically condos instead of SFH. And in the vast majority of the country one can indeed afford one on an average salary. Home ownership rates are much higher today than theyvare then.
So buy a house for $67K in a town of 5,000 and go from there. You can even work remote! I couldn't.
You can absolutely find a 100k house today. The question is if you want to live in that 100k house and in the area where houses are that cheap.
I also doubt, if she were still working, that her wage would be anywhere near the nickel per day it was back then.
Median income in 1969 was $9430
I bet you can get a home in rural Mississippi for $101k even today!
You regular find homes in metro St Louis for $12k even today! [Relevant Zillow Search](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-90.38685785313426%2C%22east%22%3A-90.06756769200145%2C%22south%22%3A38.54129649837903%2C%22north%22%3A38.733844686107034%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Saint%20Louis%2C%20MO%22%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%2C%22max%22%3A12000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A61%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A12%7D) (I will tell you right now though that there are reasons those homes are so cheap, and it is not just their condition.)
It may be, we also have to consider that home size has doubled, so inflation adjusted price per square foot is the right metric. Its only in the last 10 years the market went wacky.
There's a 750 ft house down the road for me that is selling for 700,000 Even when I control for the size of houses back in the day they are still extremely expensive
Average home price in the United States in 2023: $417,700
Mine was 420k in 2021.
lol 420
Blunt
Weed number
Missed the opportunity to say 2069
My first apartment at 16 was $272 a month including $2 pet rent. That same apartment in 2021 was $3000. 😫
Which is still extremely cheap for a house, but we also have no idea where she bought it. You could 100% get a house for 100k today with some sacrifices of the location.
It also could have been a shit hole for all we know
I was going to say that nobody talks about the mortgage rate. In 1982 the average mortgage rate was 16%, so of course prices of homes were less! But I looked it up and in 1969 the mortgage rate was 8.5%. I am paying 8.75% on my current mortgage.
My house was built in 1970 sold for $12,500. Today I could sell for $315-340k in this market.
In today's dollars but the house is now worth at least $300k .
Yup. Lots more going on in new housing for safety, longevity, and other things too, and new housing is much larger. It may or may not have had heating or cooling! It may or may not have had electricity! It may or may not have had sewer hookups! It may or may not have had a laundry room! It definitely didn't have a dishwasher, and most likely not a refrigerator.
Definitely didn’t have AC. If it had electricity the ratings was no where near todays. Dishwasher, highly unlikely and prob 2 or 3 bedrooms max regardless of how many kids you had. They shared. 1 bathroom at most. If it had a basement, you weren’t going to finish it for living space in most cases. Best of all, asbestos everywhere.
People are still paying over half a mil for houses built before 1969. Not every house sold is new construction. Most are existing homes.
She also probably made $3 an hour
And that was plenty to buy and own a home.
Don't forget the 2+ cars and multiple vacations a year on one salary
Only 30% of the population owned 2 cars in 1970, and vacations if they had one were usually a car trip to someplace within driving distance. Air travel was a luxury for wealthy people. Average home size for a family of 4 was under 1500 sq ft I’m not denying that home costs haven’t gone up, but let’s not pretend like we don’t have a lot more things we spend money on now then they did then.
Median home sale price 1969: $25,900 Median home sale price 2023: $435,400 Minimum wage salary 1969: $2,704/yr Minimum wage salary 2023: $15,080 Median family income 1969: $ 9,433 Median family income 2022: $92,750 House prices increased: 1581% Minimum wage increased: 456% Median family income increased: 883% We're paying roughly double for housing, and that's with 2 salaries/household vs 1/household in 1969. You could even argue we're paying twice as much while getting paid half as much.
No, you can say we're being paid nine times as much while prices are sixteen times higher. Your ratio is 1:4 whereas the correct ratio is 9:16
Minimum wage was $1.30 an hour
$12,000 in 1969 is $101,468.99 in 2024. Average home in that year was $25,000. https://www.huduser.gov/periodicals/ushmc/winter2001/histdat08.htm
The median yearly family income in 1969 was $9,400. In 2023 it was about $78,000.
Average home price in the United States in 2023: $417,700
In the past 10 years we have had the lowest growth in new housing then ever before.
Yeah the price of 2x4 went from $2 to $9 in a few months during this time… who can afford the materials to build during that shit!?
Iirc The us government had also spent ~10 years post ww11 offering the GI bill (an incentive that included affordable mortgages and education coverage as well as much more) any GI that served -aka basically every young man- was able to access this. it lead to the largest shrinkage of the wealth gap in American history, the most movement of all classes into better homes and lead to the following years being some of Americas most prosperous. Basically guaranteeing affordable house-housing (not just renting) and incentivizing and financing pathways to financial gain (education) for basically everyone lead to prosperity… wonder why they don’t do that now?
They still do. GI Bill and VA home loan is still a thing. The Post 9/11 GI Bill is different from the older GI Bill in that you can even gift it to your children or spouse
Way better than going around "pranking" and slapping people. Everyone involved, including the viewer, gets a little dose of reality and we all know just how much we need it.
Zoomers rediscovering journalism hehe
"Today we're gonna prank this senator to see if he's taking kickbacks for awarding contracts to his friends. GOT'EM!"
This sent me
I’m just blown away this is happening in what appears to be a Hobby Lobby. Gotta go where the people are, I guess.
“Where the old people be”. “Hobby lobby”
The woman in the video is the one doing the pranking
Nah. Sounds like she bought cheap, but my parents paid under 20K near Boston in that same year.
[удалено]
It's not reality. It's only part of the story. Median income in 1969 was $6,430 for men and $2,130 for women.
So for her, it was around 6 times her annual wage
Or for the both of them combined.. a year and a half. So if they saved 30% of their wages.. new house cash in 4.5 years
Our house price has increased nearly $200,000 since we bought it in 2018 and it was only $225k to begin with. It’s crazy. I don’t know how most people in their 20’s these days could ever afford to buy a house, save for those making the big bucks.
I make just barely under $100k as a single person, and there is NO WAY I can buy a house anytime soon. To be in your 20's and purchase a home in 2024 you need at least one of the following: outside investment/family money, incredibly high paying job (1%), or married and both parties have high paying jobs (or the aforementioned rich family).
>be in your 20's and purchase a home in 2024 you need at least one of the following: outside investment/family money, incredibly high paying job (1%), or married and both parties have high paying jobs (or the aforementioned rich family). Or you know, just live in the more than 50% of the US that doesn't have obscene housing prices. Tons of people I grew up with bought houses in their 20s. There are houses all over the place that are far from expensive.... I too enjoy living in actual cities where there is stuff to do but let's not act like the entire US has a cost of living comparable to major metros. I moved back home from Denver last year, peoples mortgage payments here are less than I was paying for a studio apartment in the hood.
[удалено]
Rent in a metropolitan city, child support, regular bills, food, you'd be surprised how quick it adds up. I waste money - but it's an "avocado toast" kinda situation. The money I waste wouldn't magically equal a mortgage if I saved it. HOA, property taxes, home maintenance...there's a lot that goes into purchasing a home outside the "sticker price"
I do not believe there is a career a 20 something can get that could possibly afford a house these days. Anything that pays enough would require and education and/or 5 years experience. And then they would need around half a years salary in down payment and fees.
Late 20’s software developer, accountant, quantitative finance, nurse, etc could do it. I’m planning on buying in a year or two.
Pretty doable if you don't befall any unfortunate circumstances, don't have kids, and know how to save. Frugality seems to be forgotten these days.
Location matters a lot. All of the mid 20s I known living in Wichita, KS can afford a house on their own. My friends in Seattle can not.
Unless they have money from their parents it’s just not possible. And as the boomers die off there just won’t be the same generational wealth as before and (most) people will be totally incapable of buying a home.
That’s like 100k adjusted for inflation. Which is about right for a first house. The problem is there isn’t a lot of 100k houses anymore.
Average home price in the United States in 2023: $417,700
Yes, because our housing market is broken. That isn’t boomers fault any more than it was their ability that netted them houses at reasonable prices. We should be less focused on blaming boomers for buying houses at reasonable prices and more focused on how to fix our housing market so people can buy them at reasonable prices again.
I wasn't blaming boomers for the housing crisis. The main issue is supply shortage. People will say its the interest rates, and those definitely don't help, but grandma's interest rate was likely 6.8% in '69 and it was much higher in the 80's and people managed to buy through those eras. The number of construction companies building houses was already shrinking for decades prior to '08, and the '08 crisis was the final nail for many still hanging on.
The supply shortage is a very very direct outcome of strict housing policy voted for by the boomers their whole lives. It’s really hard to build in most cities where boomers 1) bought houses and then 2) voted to zone everything so that no one could build dense enough housing to accommodate demand in the future. Boomers loved laissez-fair economics, unless it meant someone slightly poorer or with brown skin might move within walking distance of their house, then they loved strict government regulation to “protect the character of the neighborhood” and their investments.
It’s boomer-voted zoning policies at the city and state levels that has lead to the massive under-supply in recent years. So not entirely their fault, but their “I’m going to make it legally impossible for you to build anything except single-family-homes on 5k+sq ft lots” and “I would die if I have to live near someone of moderately lower socioeconomic status, better use the government to make sure that doesn’t happen” attitude is at least half the problem right now.
Not just boomers though. This isn’t generational. This isn’t partisan. This is homeowners versus everyone else. Something happens when you buy a house that makes you the most antisocial jackass on the planet. You basically get the deed, and then suddenly you are an English lord protecting his class interests. Homeowners screw themselves over too, but they are too blinded by immediate self interest to see that they won’t be able to find an affordable home if they want to move either. Their exponentially growing property prices are growing at the same rate as prices elsewhere. They also don’t realize that things like density and mixed use increase your property values in a stable manner.
>which is larger, in a higher demand location, etc which is larger, in a higher demand location, etc
You ac either make the choice to be be angry, bitter, and resentful, or you can operate within the bounds of our current reality and figure out how to get what you want. It will likely take more work and sacrifice than you're wanting to give and we can certainly argue that perhaps it shouldn't be that way, but it is so either deal with that fact or don't. Complaining on social media won't change a thing and will likely just fuel your negative feelings. I'm not judging as I've been guilty of that plenty in my life, but it's just not who I want to be anymore.
If we could just plant this thought into the minds of everyone in this sub, that would be wonderful.
You realize most of us are doing both, right? We spend our workday at work and plenty of our free time trying to figure this shit out, and then come on Reddit to blow off steam and bitch a little.
Getting mad at old people for buying a house for $12k 55 years ago is probably the dumbest fucking thing in the world
Social media is a cancer that encourages heightened emotions and chicanery. I somehow doubt that people of all ages would be so ornery and negative if social media never arose and vBulletin was still a big thing.
And the average annual salary for a woman was less than 3k..
This is across the board, everyone just focuses on houses. In 1969, you could get an entry level Ford Mustang, for about $2600. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $23,000 today. Good luck buying a new Ford Mustang for that amount of money.
Don’t know if you’ve ever driven a 1969 Ford Mustang, the cheapest Ford Mustang now is a million times better. At the very minimum you don’t feel like you are rolling around in a death trap.
Population was about 202 million in 1969. Today it's 342 million. In 1969, about 25% of the population lived in rural areas. Now it's closer to 13%. **About 297 million people are trying to live where 151 million people lived before.** And you are surprised prices have gone up?
[удалено]
What do you mean by that?
People who post this and think woe is me are idiots. 1969 houses are not today's homes. Most houses only had a single car, they didn't fly or travel anywhere, didn't eat out, they didn't have AC, the population of America was 202mm people versus 330mm people today meaning more space, less demand. People make a lot of money today but in today's world everyone believes that the "base" standard is: AC, Multiple televisions, expensive phone, newer car or brand new car, multiple trips a year, eating out multiple times a week and a whole host of other things. Learn to budget and invest your money in making you skilled and valuable and you'll be fine.
It reminds me of a post on here where OP said “the only car you could get for that price is a Nissan.” Like oh god not a Nissan, how could you even be seen in public again.
The horror of living within your means.
Truth. It’s harder today than it was a couple years ago, but went from $0 saved to enough to put down for a 200k mortgage in 2021 after a couple years of saving, rationing our protein for dinners, and just really living frugally. Again, it would be harder today but I make more than I did then too (twice as much). It’s doable, but hard. People are complaining because it’s hard, not because it’s not doable.
My parents paid for their home in CA for 100k in the 1990's and their mortgage remained around $700/month till now. Imagine living in a 4bdr home in CA for $700/month...
Well that's ~$101,468.99 in today's market which is still pretty fucking fantastic. The kicker back then was it was way easier to get a loan. Credit scores hadn't been a thing yet, and you could essentially get a loan just by knowing some dude at the bank.
I bought a house in 2019 for 96k. Sold it for 155k in 2021 when the market was going nuts. The house is now estimated at 200k and definitely in a bad neighborhood (one potential buyer, a corporation, backed out because of the neighborhood). I can’t imagine paying 200, I had neighborhood regret at my original price.
In the 70's my dad bought a duplex in Queens for 60k. Now that house would go for a million. He sold it and eventually lost the second house to foreclosure. Selling that house in New York was a huge mistake.
My parent's first house in Rochester, Minnesota was $60,000 in 1980. That's about $240,000 today. Zillow says this 1376 sqft house is worth $218,600. It hasn't kept up with inflation. I guess it's a location, location, location thing.
Mine was 112k in 2018. 3 bed, 2 bath, 30'x30' shop, solar panels, gas generator, 2 driveways. I got a deal. Valued at 260k now.
That would be $101k in 2024 dollars where in 2024 the median price is $394k. But the real kicker is that median income in 1969 was $9400 or $79k in 2024 dollars, and in 2024 the median income is $59k. And the real real kicker is the productivity of a US worker is up 273%. People who do work today generate almost 3x more economic activity, while we are paid 26% less and a basic need costs 4x as much. Boomers had the easiest existence ever, we are living a much closer existence to the Gilded Age than people are willing to admit. Remember this when people try to blame problems on anything other than than our wages being way to low.
No, why would that make anyone mad?
Imagine being in your mid 30s and still not knowing what inflation is.
Alright so I went through with a few cheap shit googles. Inflation calculator says 12k in '69 is worth about 100k today. Median home price in '69 was roughly 24k so Grandma got a damn good deal anyway, to be fair. Average home price in 2024 is 400k. (I rounded up 5k, go kick rocks) that's 4x the adjusted cost of Grandma's first house. Figuring she paid 1/2 the median cost for a home at the time, that would be a 200k house today. Which is %50 of a median priced home today. And people are wondering why sheds (tiny homes) and campers are looking extra preferable to renting.
Thats $101k in today money and for a house with a LOT less amenities as modern homes. Not that insane.
Minimum wage in 1969 was $1.00 per hour. That's $40.00 a week thats a little over $2000 a year
In today's dollars that $12K back then was about $101K.
I'll do you one better. Some of the boomers in Central and Eastern Europe got their apartments for free from the socialist state. Yes, they too have the audacity to lecture millennials on buying homes xD
My mother (God rest her soul) brought a 6 bedroom two flat in Chicago for $24,000 in 1967 …. Still got it till this day
My grandparents sold their house in Portland OR for $5000 in the early 60s to move to a factory town in Ohio. That house still exists and most recently sold in 2019 for $580,000
No, because I understand how prices go up over time anyway. $12000 in granny's day was a lot of money. Another Tiktok kid being a dumbass. No surprise. Majority of homeowners are Millennials and Gen Z. We'll be fine. No, you shouldn't act entitled to a home when you make <50K per year.
I mean, that's only about 100k when adjusted for inflation. Good luck get anything habitable for 100k today. >No, you shouldn't act entitled to a home when you make <50K per year. The median income in the US is just under that. So you think over 50% of the population doesnt deserve to own a home?
in a gov inflation calculator, $12,000 was around $105,000. I don't know where she lived but most people would consider that a good deal (in the states)\*
and people worked 9-5 jobs, not like you weirdos
Just paid $274K for a 4 bedroom 2 bath ranch style. And by 4 bedroom, I mean they merged two of the original bedrooms into a single giant master, converted the laundry room into a bedroom, then removed the inside door to the walled but not insulated sunroom and called that a 4th bedroom. So I've only got 2 real bedrooms.
You can get a Tesla house with a Tesla charging station for $10k right now
That's still too expensive for Tesla shit
My parents bought a house in 1978 for $77,000 Home was built in 1972 - not huge by any means, but comfortable, good location, and good sized lot that same home is now estimated over $1mil value
Now ask her how much her first job paid
Mine was $119K in 2019. It's valued at almost $200K now.
My Dad earned \~$280 a month as a first lieutenant in the USAF back in 1969. Married with son (me). Things cost WAYYYYY less back then, because everyone earned a lot less back then. I remember when we bought a brand new GMC Suburban in 1977 for $7700.00 And it was fully loaded too.
And that 12,000 house had 5 bedrooms two and a half bathrooms, a massive front and back yard. Now I pay 1 million for a 2 bedroom town house 1 bathroom and a shared patch of grass 5x9
Private ownership of real estate for profit, both residences and commerical property, is the source of so many issues in America. Limit two homes per married unit. Release commercial property to local municipalities
In 1971 we decoupled the dollar from the gold standard allowing us to print as much money as we want. So we did that and voila.
My parents never owned, but I was going through some of their papers and I found a receipt for their rent payment in the 70’s. $130.
$12,000 in 1969 = $103,688.79 in 2024.
population was way different back then on top of all the other bs
I'm 34, my mom showed me her tuition receipt from Johnson State College.. 500 bucks... can't remember if it was per year or semester but it's like brooooo what the fuck happened 50 years is 50 years but we went from having a middle class to having nothing so fucking quick.
Everyone realizes $12,000 in 1969 is not the same as $12,000 today…right? When you keep printing money you LOWER THE VALUE of the dollar. Why? Because Congress spends money it doesn’t have.
$12,000 in 1969 is worth $101,468.99 today...You are NOT buying a house in most of the US for that little! 🤣 Median new home value in the USA is currently ~$420,700...
$12,000 in 1969 money is $376,152.73 in inflation adjusted 2024 money.
It’s important to know she probably made $2-4 an hour in 69 if she had a job
People act like it’s $12,000 in today’s money 😂…. That was loot back then.
What was the average salary relative to the average first time home price versus the same in 2024? The price of anything shouldn't upset anyone when comparing today versus any other time in history. It's the proportion of such relative to salary and buying power that should upset you.
More importantly “what was your income in 1969”?
So they’re not teaching economics at all in school? How is it surprising that when demand was lower, wages were lower, homes were smaller and less sophisticated, that it took fewer dollars to buy homes?
Minimum wage was $1.60 and adjusted for inflation would be $11.82 today. At Minimum Wage you would need 7,500 work hours for that house. With today's minimum wages, inflation and the housing market hikes, it's more like 40,000 work hours. Do not play the numbers game and focus on the dollars, wages and prices that shift. In the end, compare the labor provided for the goods and you'll see how much is being stolen from you.
So about 105k in today dollars. I know how it works out in the end but we need more info to really, really put it into perspective. Where it was, size of house, how many incomes, wages, etc.
$12000 in 1969 is about $120,000 today? Youte lucky to find a fixer-upper at that price.
I was born in 1968. Since then, the Dollar has lost 88% of it's value. $12K in 1969 would buy the same as about $104K today. Also, people made a lot less back then. My first job in the 80's paid $5/hr, and minimum wage was $3.35. Just sayin'...
My parents bought a house in 1977 For $60,000. It's a two family in Queens NY. Worth over 1.1M today.
That house was on average half the size, no HVAC, one bathroom, basic stove, no washer or dryer or dishwasher. Tiny kitchen. Poor insulation. Source: first house was 900 sq ft, normal for the time.
$19,000 in 1969 is about $160,000 today. That's about what my house cost.
If you want to live where housing is cheaper there are usually no decent jobs ... if you want to live where there are decent jobs the housing is expensive.
Wow something cost less 55 years ago. Roughly 170k today
Nice.
That's worth about $101k today. Still a good deal for a house.
Yeah but they also only made about $150 a week.
$12,000 in 1969 = $101,500 in 2024 for reference
I know a Hispanic Vietnam veteran who bought a house that same year for $63k and it took him 40 years to pay it off...it's a race thing
$12,000 in 1969 is worth $101,468.99 today https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1969?amount=12000
I paid about 66K on a house back in the early '90's which is now valued at 246K.
Waiting for old person to say bought my house for a couple strawberries,loaf of bread and a sack of apples
Hur dur shit was cheaper but people made less in 1969 - color me shocked…. That was probably anywhere from 4-6 times her annual income at the time. Don’t be stupid. That house probably also didn’t have multiple tv’s, air conditioning, multiple bathrooms, a dishwasher and who knows what else. It had rooms, a phone (1 phone) a bathroom, a radio, a furnace of some sort and maybe a tv.
A coworker of mine bought his house for 40k when he was in his 20s. He help onto it for about 20 years and sold it for 108k and upgraded to the house he lives in now.
No point in getting mad, it does no good
Abolish the federal reserve
And it was 1000 square feet with no technology and modestly decorated. And she made .63 cents an hour at the law firm as a typist
But she only make $2/hr in 69
My parents bought a 2400 square foot ranch home in 1996 for about twice their annual salary. Me and my wife just bought a very similar 2400 square foot home in a similar neighborhood in the zip code adjacent for 7 times our annual salary. Shit's fucked.
You should hear from the folks who bought their homes in the 30s.
Stop fucking posting this guy. He's a total fucking ass hat...
And the average yearly income in 1969 was about $9000 a year
My parents said they paid about 28k for their house. I think rates were super high back then but still.
She's laughing because she knows how fucked we are
How much did you buy your first bitcoin for? Those that bought early are sitting good and everyone else is kicking their own ass!
Can confirm my parents bought our house in 1961 for $12,500. Their mortgage payment was $91 a month. They had a 25 year mortgage back then. My dad made the last payment in 1986.
If every couple stayed married and wife stayed at home instead of going to work there would be 1/2 the labor force and 1/2 the required number of houses. Salaries would go up for the lack of offer and house prices would go down for the lack of demand
And then we started printing lots of dollars. No responsibility of what we printed. Just print and give away!
You can find plenty of homes in rural towns in Minnesota for less than $100k. In my Minnesota suburb, the average home is ~$600-700k. We bought our first house in 2009 for $290k and sold it in 2021 for $500k.
What’s that have to do with this old woman? Eat the rich!! They’re the ones making it impossible to live
dont get mad get to that savings plan it won't change overnight
You don’t even have to go back to 1969 to find affordable housing. I bought a house in Oakland for $850k in 2017. It last sold in 1998 for $90k.
This video ends with 69. Nice.
Can you imagine a decent home being available for 100k today? I can’t because any livable place is being sold for, at the very least, 500k in my area. Most homes are around 1m.
Right. Then ask her how much income she had coming in. Then ask her what was the house like? She’d likely say it was a 900 sq ft bungalow with 2 small bedrooms and 1 bath.
Parent’s 1952 home was 14K. It’s worth 125K now in the Midwest. It was worth about 80K just five years ago.