The 'old American Dream died,' Realtor details salary needed to buy a home, afford a middle class life in 2024
The 'old American Dream died,' Realtor details salary needed to buy a home, afford a middle class life in 2024
Orlando realtor Freddie Smith discusses how owning a home and living a typical middle class life has become increasingly unattainable for most millennials and older Gen Z.
TL;DR: Americans now need to make $120K a year to afford a typical middle-class life and qualify to purchase a home. Minimum.
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With the average cost of a house
Every fucking time with this shit.
The average price isn't the price of a starter home, why do people fall for this clickbait.
That's like trying to use the average price if a car as your starting point for how much you need to make to buy your first car.
Which means about the halfway point between a 1k beater and a fucking 200k rolls royces is what you are pretending a starter car is.
"Oh man the average price if a car is like 80k no one can afford to buy a car"
People are so stupid about this. You can get homes for like 200k to 250k in most major cities, that aren't prime locations but 100% liveable and not a total dump, just need some work. That's not even bottom of the barrel, you can go way cheaper if you want a total dump.
Everytime you see click bait like this, step one is Ctrl+F for the word "average" and you'll find it everytime.
Do you think starter homes didn't go up? Talk about having your head in the sand. Open a real estate website, the average person can't afford what they used too, it's that simple.
I shared this article because I have first hand knowledge of the Orlando market. Can you find homes in the 200-250k range? Yes. Should you live there? I wouldn't recommend it. The minimum for a starter home in a relatively safe neighborhood is about ~300k and it probably needs work. Also, if you read the article, home prices aren't the only pressure pushing the salary requirements up. That said, you have the right to believe what you want but as someone who recently purchased a home in the area, I think the author was fairly dead on.
He's catching downvotes like crazy, but he's 100% correct that average is a poor statistic for comparing things like home price and salaries. More specifically, average is typically used as a shorthand for "mean", when what's really useful is the median.
Median home price (or median salary) for that matter, will much more closely reflect what the typical person is paying for a house, while mean is going to be skewed by the long tail of expensive prices.
And also to back up Pixxelkick, that single number still doesn't accurately reflect the situation for first-time home buyers, which is the demographic these articles tend to focus on when bemoaning high home prices.
So it's not like anyone's saying home prices aren't going up, and there aren't problems with that, but it does get really annoying to see these articles CONSTANTLY peppered with misleading or irrelevant statistics by authors who either don't know what they mean, or worse are exaggerating to drive clicks.
I think he is catching flack for dismissing the article and making statements without a split second worth of research just because he doesn't like the use of the word "average". Below are all the "homes" in Orlando for $200k or less. Going up to $250k doesn't make it much better.
The 2 "houses" in the second image being listed for 200k are fucking insane.
Those two "houses" are almost $50k more than what I paid for a fully remodeled home for my aunt right before the pandemic. They are also in a significantly worse neighborhood.
Way to try and skew the results, took me 5s to find these on page 1 by just clicking to filter off foreclosures.
SMH, all these look just fine to live in, they are a bit old but the inside pics look quite well maintained and cozy.
I am not skewing the results. You have just decided that you are right even though you don't have enough information to back up your claims. Remember when I typed this?
Can you find homes in the 200-250k range? Yes. Should you live there? I wouldn't recommend it.
Of the four houses you listed, I recognize three of the street names and the third is in Ocala. Unless things have drastically changed since 2019, and they might have, you might want to be extra vigilant about your safety. Investment funds have been buying and flipping houses in some of the most crime riddled neighborhoods. So basically, you are spending $250k and betting that they neighborhood will turn around. It might, but it might not.
For context, those houses were well under $100k in 2015. Let us use one of the homes you listed (739 Eldridge St, Orlando, FL 32803) as an example. If you had just scrolled down you would have seen the valuation history.
It is OK to admit to be wrong and accept points of view from people that have more information and context than you. It is a great way to learn and expand your world view.
For context, those houses were well under $100k in 2015
That's nearly ten years ago mate, lol
You are being purposefully daft and you're just embarrassing at this point. Look at 2020, or just wrap yourself in your warm blanket of ignorance. It's your life.