We live in HCOL, both of my kids do too. One is in Santa Monica and one is in the Bay Area, last I checked those areas were considered super high cost areas.
True, I bought one house at 10% and one house at 8.75% interest rate.
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Thereâs an old expression that my old boss passed along to me.
If you ham (money) and eggs (income), then you have ham and eggs. If you donât, then youâre not going to be able to buy a home, unless, of course, youâre a scammer.
I was just talking to a 30-ish tech worker in the gym today. He and girlfriend canât afford anything locally, so in about another year, theyâre going to find a place in Montana.
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Maybe thereâs some technicality here, when I call houses, I meant a place, could be condo, could be a townhome.
When I bought my first home at the peak in 1989, itâs zero lot line, it has 2-car garage but no space to park a full car in front of the garage. It has a small back yard. Itâs that a house or not?
Today I look at places my daughters live, there are a lot of condos and townhomes that they can buy, maybe houses are above a million.
My first house in 1984 we got a great deal with a 14% mortgage (they had been as high as 16% at the time.)
However, I was also able to make 7% on a bank CD at that time.
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The old days, when banks used to make some money on the spread. 
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DH and I bought a coop in Manhattan in March 1982. Our interest rate was 16.5%.
By the divide getting greater I was thinking more of the people who donât have or canât get a college education/donât have white collar jobs or super skilled. What about grocery store and restaurant workers, laborers, etc? Maybe their incomes will go up enough to balance the higher homes prices?? (I am not an economist!)
Also part of the divide in my head is the education gap (which also effects home buying down the road).
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I thought that even before the pandemic - but maybe I was watching too much HGTV where the couples wanted their perfect, move-in ready, dream home for their price at age 24 
.
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I think it has been proven more education doesnât always translate to more income.
Take my uncle for example, a Phd from UCB, he had to quit 2 teaching jobs to start his own business in landscape/construction, the second career was more successful, the teaching jobs he had, he barely could feed his family, in fact it led to his wife divorcing him. The second career has nothing to do with education.
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This is getting off topic but there are people who donât go to college who make a good living.
Skilled trades especially can be very well paid.
And there are plenty of houses that are affordable for 2 income families here in the rust belt. Probably wouldnât make HGTV
Home prices havenât gone up here like they have in other parts of the country.
Said from a homeowner whoâs house hasnât appreciated like others 
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My brother was shocked (his email subject line was Gasp!) to see that the little starter home we lived in until I was six was zestimated at $1.2 million. In Boulder CO 
. I checked and itâs one of the cheapest houses in the neighborhood. And advised him to check out the Zestimate on our house in San Diego - double what we bought it for in 2015.
He lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago; good neighborhood but not one of the sizzling hot markets. His wife wants to relocate in the next few years but I think for anywhere they might want to go, theyâll have to dig into savings unless they go townhouse or condo. And even then.
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I live in Colorado, so the home values (especially in pricey Boulder) are often the topic of conversation. For those tempted to sell to reap a profit, the usual comment is⊠âbut where would we move?â. Their downsize options often would cost as much. And rents are high. Some folks are opting to sell and move to cheaper areas, but that has less appeal if no friends/family there.
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I laughed when I saw the email because thanks to these boards and news stories, I was well aware of home prices in the hottest markets. Amusingly, they had Colorado on their short list (even though they allegedly wanted to move away from winter weather) until they saw home prices there. My brother is under the impression that even though it snows in Colorado, it melts quickly. He is perhaps not as smart and clever as he thinks he isâŠ
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Actually the snow usually does melt quickly in CO, except up in the mountains. In our town, only about half the streets get plowed on a regular basis. Our street only gets plowed if there is a huge dump of snow which is unlikely to melt with âsolar powerâ. Some years we can go all winter without having a plow come through. For small amounts of snow, homeowners can usually avoid shoveling (unless driveway faces north). Coming from NY, I can say winter in CO is much easier to tolerate!
Note - Per my other posts, we are definitely at risk for very late (or very early) snowstorms. But that snow always disappears quickly
I should point out that not all of Colorado is pricey. Outside of Boulder and Denver, average prices are high but closer to national average. For those who donât mind living in a tiny town in the eastern plains (example - try google on zillow Lamar), the housing is much more affordable.
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I couldnât agree more!! Things donât have to be perfect or move in readyâŠâŠit can be done over timeâŠ.my parents did it that way and weâre doing it now. Downsized to a fixer upper with an incredible view in a great neighborhood. Is everything perfect? Hell no. Weâve entertained a fair amount since weâve gotten here and if people judge us on our dated baths and cherry kitchen thatâs their problem.
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We did the same thing; we lovingly called it the cat pee house 
I donât think anyone else wanted to take it on, so we got a great deal on it; itâs a work in progress. We have a priority list, tackling it one project at a time.
What is a CC Kid?
My opinion
The majority of kids here are college educated with little school debt and lots of parental involvement.
Itâs a discussion forum about college and this is the parents board.
My kids have been privileged in that they graduated from college with no debt of their own from undergrad. Mine were on their own for any education after that but thatâs a personal decision.
So when my kids got their first jobs, they were not on the hook for a pile of college debt. They could contribute to their 401k and save for a home. Take vacations and buy new cars.
Many parents here do more as they can afford but this was the bare minimum for us.
I hope they pass this on to their children.
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