Quote from: philipma1957 on Today at 04:39:24 AM

Quote from: Macro Exchange on July 16, 2025, 02:11:33 PM

...

I got married in 1986 In the middle of a huge housing boom.

My wife and I lived in a small apartment for 6 years and could not save enough to buy.

But my grandmother passed away and left me some money . With our savings and the inheritance we got a house in 1992.

Only the timing and the situation can remarkably transform a housing experience of a person. In the late 80s and 90s in a boom, although very high, the prices at least seemed sort of affordable with a combination of savings and perhaps some assistance in the form of an inheritance. You worked on this six years but you finally did it.

The problem nowadays is that in most cases, several decades of living a frugal lifestyle will not suffice even to help young people to fill the gap. Due to wildly higher increases in prices than wages in certain markets, an inheritance is no longer a bonus but commonly is the main means of access. And when loans, tax and living expenses are mounting up, the just wait and save is not realistic as it used to sound.

I believe that what is happening at the moment could not be no more than a bubble because it seems like a systemic change where the ownership of home is no longer a milestone that is reachable but a privilege that is reliant on the generational wealth.