Few milestones in life mean as much to the American Dream as owning a home. And millennials have encountered the kind of trouble totally befitting their generation, which largely graduated into the teeth of the disastrous post-2008 job market. Just as they entered peak homebuying and household formation age, housing affordability is at 40-year lows, and mortgage rates are near 40-year highs.
The anxiety this generation feels about the prospect of never owning their own home affects their entire perception of their finances and the economy, says Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi.
“If they feel like they’re locked out of owning a home it colors their perceptions about everything else going on in their financial lives,” Zandi says.
Millennials have long been dogged by a brutal housing market. They faced not one, but two, cataclysmic economic events—the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and the pandemic in 2020. Both of which left them reeling financially and struggling to afford a home. The Great Recession decimated the real estate market as the economy nearly collapsed under the weight of tenuous mortgage backed securities. While the pandemic brought with it a remote work boom that caused millions of citydwellers to flee to the suburbs, sending housing prices soaring.
I live in Hochelaga. A historically poor neighborhood. The units in my building started at 100k in 2010 when it was built.
I bought in 2019. All the places we visited were sold ~100k over asking price. Ours was 300k but we had to make an offer 80k over asking to be sure to get it.
The prices shown in realtor aren’t the prices the places are actually going for. They put a lower price knowing people are going to offer more. When they don’t get the offer they want, they cancel and start over.
Have you ever even bought a place? Do you even know what the market is like today in reality? Or are you just basing yourself on a few anecdotal posts on realtor.ca? What constitutes a reasonable price for a property for you exactly???
Edit: Who the fuck would live in Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu to work in Montréal??? That’s over two hours by car in traffic. That area isn’t even considered the “greater Montreal area” because of how far that is. You’d know that if you ever lived here. Your examples are complete bullshit. And I’m sorry but that little shack in Longueuil? For 245k??? Are you fucking kidding? That piece of shit house shouldn’t even go for over 100k. Is that what you call reasonable?
Get the fuck out. You’re a troll.
I have, I bought a quite recently.
While shopping, homes we looked at had been on market for awhile, and there was no such case of what you described. We actually got our house for 15k under listed, as we found a couple minor issues we brought up to get the tag knocked down during inspection.
There continue to still be houses for sale in the area at reasonable prices, I’ve seen some take weeks on end to sell.
And I never found the prices listed on realty sites to be off from actual sale.
Well good for you.
How much was it? What town, if you don’t mind me asking? And how long did it take you too save enough for your down payment?
Edmonton, AB.
265k, 2 bed, 1.5 bath, unfinished basement, no garage, definitely a bot of a fixer (has a lot of landlord specials left behind we had to put work into fixing up)
Took a year and a half to save up the down payment + nest egg at ~$700/month set aside by cutting out a lot of expenses and living sorta frugal. No mcdonalds, no buying fun stuff, meal prepping, canceling subscriptions, etc etc.
We were at the time making a total of 70k combined before taxes. We could’ve prolly saved even more but we didn’t want to go full peasant mode, lol.
I also had a large chunk of crypto from many years prior (~12k value at the time we signed the mortgage) I could’ve dipped into if needed, but we actually never needed to sell out that for the house and I wanted to keep holding it.
Good thing I didn’t give in and sell, because a year later that 12k turned into 22k and I used that to substantially improve the home and build my makerspace in the basement, as well as build my garden in the back.
The house is definitely got a lot of… character… but I’m very happy with it and I don’t need or want a bigger home. It’s small with a big yard which means less space to clean, and all the fixing stuff keeps me busy.
I could do with less electrical issues though, prior owners didn’t seem to give a shit about proper wiring work and I’ve had to basically re-install every switch and plug in the house. Also went on a fun adventure pulling ethernet through the attic to got modern wired gigabit internet delivered to key points in the house so everything didn’t have to use wifi. Added security cameras, a PoE switch and server rack in the basement, and got air conditioning installed recently too.
House feels like a home now, and that’s what matters.