Why Millennials Are (Partly) to Blame for the Housing Shortage

[The North One]

Originally Posted by JManc

Also, past generations did not have access to urban living because it didn't really exist...at least not in it's current form with coffee shops, brew pubs, and boutiques. It's apples and oranges to compare lifestyle difference between the generation due to technological social change but people pretty much progress through life the same way.

Early Boomers reached young adulthood in what, the late-60's? They had access to much better urbanism and public transit than both gen Xers and Millenials and they had more than enough opportunity to salvage urban centers and improve them. They instead decided to purposely let it rot in favor of their ugly detached suburban homes.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

Honest question. What is unsustainable about home ownership? It is probably the smartest thing anybody could do to preserve and build wealth for themselves and their family. Isn't this what our grandparents and parents did? Of course there are times when renting is better than owning, but over the long haul, home ownership leads to real wealth preservation. No?

Are millennials any different from boomers? Do they not want to buy their own property at some point?

Huh? I'm not talking about home ownership, this is about the suburban form that plagues this country like cancer. There is nothing sustainable about driving 15 minutes and back on a busy road just to get simple things like groceries.

Buying an exurban McMansion is probably the worst investment you can make today, their values are plummeting and they're sitting on the market unsold. Millennials want home ownership in neighborhoods where they can walk or take transit to a cafe or a public library, grocery store, work, parks, school, etc. We want to be able to carry out daily life without dependency on gas guzzling pollution machines and we don't want to waste life in traffic.

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by The North One

Huh? I'm not talking about home ownership, this is about the suburban form that plagues this country like cancer. There is nothing sustainable about driving 15 minutes and back on a busy road just to get simple things like groceries.

Buying an exurban McMansion is probably the worst investment you can make today, their values are plummeting and they're sitting on the market unsold. Millennials want home ownership in neighborhoods where they can walk or take transit to a cafe or a public library, grocery store, work, parks, school, etc. We want to be able to carry out daily life without dependency on gas guzzling pollution machines and we don't want to waste life in traffic.

Exurbs are not suburbs, first. Secondly, Millennials eventually grow up and where do they move to? The suburbs. Automation will reduce the gas guzzling pollution machines as you put it. Automation and HSR will spur suburban development.

Also, are McMansions really the worst investment to make? I think not and the answer is no, otherwise we wouldn't have suburban sprawl in the first place. Their values are not plummeting as you put it.

Will there be a RE correction in the future, sure, (this will effect every single asset class) but they are in no way plummeting and will hold value over the long run. This is silly to even discuss. (Disclaimer: I don't know, nor want to know Detroit perhaps suburban Detroit is in a depression against everything else I've read on SSP).

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

News Flash: Millennials will age and grow up to become just like every other generation that preceded them.

Walking distance to good bars will become less important than walking distance to good/safe schools.

Millennials will be replaced by the next entitled generation. And then we'll have endless articles and discussions about that generation.

That's right. All this hate towards us millennials. We are a prouds people!

As a millennials myself, to other millennials, they need to put the phone down and start taking to people. Crack killed the 80's and phones are the new crack. Put the damn phone down. Don't text and drive! Most importantly, stop gripping the left lane with your crappy Kia sedans. And when you're on the damn NJ Transit train, don't be in the quite cart. Move to the other carts, with the loud herds. Some of us are trying to read the newspaper!

[mhays]

Originally Posted by JManc

^ but it is.

Current 60 year-olds are not bicycling en masse or hitting the gym in significant numbers either. If anything, we've become less active seeing as most people are overweight and diabetes is at epidemic levels.

Also, past generations did not have access to urban living because it didn't really exist...at least not in it's current form with coffee shops, brew pubs, and boutiques. It's apples and oranges to compare lifestyle difference between the generation due to technological social change but people pretty much progress through life the same way.

I don't mean the average 60-year-old. Just that the percentage of 60-year-olds who bike or go to the gym is much higher than it was. It's a pretty significant percentage in my area, especially in the professional ranks as far as I can tell.

The same is true for living situations. Downtown and in-town living doesn't apply to the majority of Americans at any age, but it's a much larger number than before. And countless suburbs have retrofitted to be more urban. That doesn't mean the average person lives in an urban neighborhood, but it's still changed dramatically in the past 30 years or so.

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by The North One

Boomer apologist detected!

Huh?

[The North One]

I'm sorry, was your comment serious? I thought you were mocking Millenials who criticize boomers.