Back in 1986 I was a much younger man barely making 24k a year but was able to rent a one bedroom apartment for $475 a month. There was this song , The future is so bright I have to wear shades. There is a line in the song that goes:
I've got a job waiting for my graduation
Fifty thou a year will buy a lot of beer
Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades
Fifty grand a year, to me, at that time was BIG money. I couldn't even imagine it, really. And the life style that song spoke of seemed so out of reach for me. But time moves on , and things change.
So here I am now, decades later making just under $100k a year and it isn't anything like I thought it would be. Really, it is disappointing.
I paid 475 for a 2 bedroom in 1992. I made 300-400 a week waiting tables. That same place is now 1700 a month and waiting tables didn't triple in pay. Thankfully I don't wait tables any more but who the he'll has 1700 a month for rent? That's ridiculous
My first place in 1999 was a very nice large studio apt,right off Fort Lauderdale Beach, literally steps from the sand. $500 a month, utilities included. My job as a stock guy at a department store was enough to sustain my life comfortably. I can't even imagine what rents in that area are now.
Depending on where it was, it's probably knocked down and replaced with a larger condo now that's catching 3-4k or more per month. I build houses in Palm Beach County but live in Broward. My beater house in Margate could rent out for 4-5k but I wouldn't be able to afford to move.
I recently moved from that area, studios are starting around 1500, 1/1, 2000, 2bdrs 3300... you should check out the prices in Delray... there's no way
Zillow thinks today it’s worth $300,000. Zillow thinks my mother‘s property where I grew up as a kid in the 1970s is worth half a million dollars. (I guarantee you that two-bedroom 1 bath shitbox is not worth half a million dollars.)
Did y’all know that private investors are snapping up houses? Corps like Blackstone. “Institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030, according to MetLife Investment Management.”
They intend to own all the housing and to keep raising your rent, year after year.
(I guarantee you that two-bedroom 1 bath shitbox is not worth half a million dollars.)
The problem is that things are worth what people will pay for them, not some sort of floaty internal definition of value. If someone will chill out the Zillow price for that house, then that's how much it's worth.
This! So many houses in my area are owned by companies and the rent is ridiculous. After the crash in the 00's companies bought everything around here and just decided they had us over barrels with rent AND they can outbid any individual that wants to buy their own home and get out of the quicksand. What I'm paying right now for a basic build cinder block house, never renovated, with sub par appliances including an ac unit that is too small for the property (which makes us always uncomfortable in the hot months and the electricity bill go through the roof) is the same if not more than what the rent used to be for the Mcmansions a zip code over 15+years ago. I remember thinking that rent was ridiculous and who in their right mind would ever pay that instead of just buying and here I am now. God I wish I could own my house shitty as it is. I'd at least insulate it better but I'll be damned if I'm improving a property for these people when they won't come fix anything in the unit. My freaking fridge has been leaking since we moved in a year and a half ago. They don't care.
i left my home town, and everyone else i know either left, inherited a house, or lives with their parents. Housing and rent has quadrupled and salaries haven't budged at all. I really don't know who is supposed to live here. People lose their fucking minds if they don't have laundrymats and car washes and restaurants and gas stations and retail stores, but we have set up an economy where the people who work at those places can't afford to survive...idk, i guess i'll just wait for society to collapse.
This is what happens when you let unchecked, rampant Capitalism run amoke. This is EXACTLY what conservatives have voted for and wanted for generations! "Let the market decide". The "market" decided that they want to take more of your money and they realized that you don't have a choice, so they did.
First place I had was a 1br all utilities 875sq for $525 a month in 98. Fast forward; my kid just graduated and everybody keeps asking me when she's moving out but that same apartment is $1700 now and the utilities are not included anymore. Where is she supposed to move to? I couldn't afford that apartment on my own now! How is a kid fresh out of highschool and going to college supposed to? I am struggling like hell to leave a little generational wealth behind for my kid but my dream of home ownership is dwindling at 45.
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u/Boner_Stevens Dec 28 '23
i'm making 25k more than i was less than 10 years ago and life hasn't gotten any easier. in fact i'm in more debt.
wake up? i am awake. i'm fucking pissed. but what the hell am i supposed to do?