In most cases, if you are not in the headquarters location, you won’t grow fast enough. Unless it is a sales job where you are expected to be out in a territory. This remote business is purely experimental. Not sure it is good for young people. They also don’t want to be remote. Very harmful for your career.
I’m not sure either. However, talking to some of the young people I know, some of them actually prefer remote work while others absolutely hate it. I just don’t think we can generalize.
5 Likes
When the Fed cools the economy down, the balance of power will shift to employers, and most people will start going in. It is particular harmful for young people to be remote because they would have no network either in the company or in the broader industry. Out of sight, out of mind.
2 Likes
Please refrain from debate and stay on topic. Thanks!
2 Likes
deleted
I absolutely am appreciative of the artists whose talents I’ve enjoyed and hope they can earn at least a living wage.
However, I also know, or know of (as in adult children of casual friends, former coworkers, etc.), a few too many young people who were surprised that they could not enjoy the lifestyle to which they’d become accustomed when supported by mom and dad. No one ever discussed financial realities with them. Some of them have student loan payments for their pricey private LACs that they also failed to take into consideration. The only ones who are relatively satisfied with their situations now have spouses who work in corporate or government jobs and that income provides the primary support of the couple.
5 Likes
Nah, the guy really enjoys economics and especially serving as an expert witness where he’s treated very well and compensated extremely well. He helped my find a crucial expert witness when I was a young attorney. It helped support our clients significant economic damages. I think it was the spark that led my ex-BF down the expert witness path.
My daughter (the one who recently bought a house with her BF) just tonight was talking about her new co-worker who keeps asking her and another co-work how they afford houses. He is the same age but 2-3 ‘career years’ younger because he is LDS and went on a mission for 2 years. He’s married and has a young child. His wife stays home with the child because the cost of day care is so high. Daughter and the other co-worker both have partners who work in equally well paying careers (engineers).
Two can’t live as cheaply as one, but it’s pretty hard for a family to live on one income these days.
9 Likes
We live in a college town and there is zero affordable housing. No way any new grad could buy – there are lots of apartments to rent, and more being built up all the time, but all are geared towards putting 4-5 college students in together, so a rent of $2400 is not feasible for a single person. House prices are similarly inflated.We bought ours a decade ago in the low 200’s and have had several of blind offers in the 450’s. Our original starter home sold for triple the original price after being on the market 24 hours. it’s completely nuts out there.
2 Likes
Something I forgot to mention is that I encourage young people looking to buy to research opportunities based on location and career.
I have two nephews, who both bought condos in Chicago (in the last maybe 4 yrs). One is married and he and his wife are both public school teachers. I don’t remember the details but they got a lot of financial assistance through some program for teachers.
The other nephew (in sales) bought a condo with financial help through a program for first-time homebuyers on certain streets within certain zip codes. They had to go through approved banks. They had learned about their respective programs from someone familiar with mortgage lending. The older nephew is 31 now.
2 Likes
Son graduated from college 3 weeks ago and moved into his own apartment this week in the same city he attended college. 2 bedroom, recently renovated, $1050 a month. He’s thrilled to be living there alone. A bedroom and a home office for his WFH days. He was clear with us 18 months ago that as much as he’d like to be on the coast again (where he grew up) there was no way he would do that given COL differences—too many roommates required, too little square footage and no ability to save money.
And so he’s at home in the Midwest “for the next twenty years or so.”
PS I totally agree with his choice. I work with a number of new grads in Boston and I honestly don’t know how they are making it work given what I know their salaries to be.
15 Likes
Do most new grads expect to buy a house right away? I mean, I bought my house when I was 25/26 during a recession - house prices were low and I was one of the first of my friend group to own a home. I couldn’t have done it right away when I graduated. It took me a bit to save up my 20% down. If house prices were the way they were now, it would have taken me much longer to save up that down payment.
6 Likes
I would assume not. Apart from affordability, they also don’t know if they are going to settle down in that place, or move cities/towns, or go to grad school etc.
2 Likes
Depends on the person. My DS took local job after graduation and purchased his first condo in a few month. He has his own company and works out of his house. My DD will have to move places to chase top employers but most likely will settle in SF. She doesn’t like idea of moving between apartments every year and would like to have her own place so I think she will purchase something within a year or two.
2 Likes
Mine knows she will be in a rotational program for the first three years or so of her job. That means moving every year so she will be waiting until she gets her “permanent” placement. She expects to buy a townhouse or condo as soon as that happens.
One of our kids lived where he bought for ten years before he bought. And really renting would have been fine with him except that his rent increased from $750 a month to $1350 a month between 2019 and 2021. The notification that rent was increasing to $1350 (from $950 which was the jump the first year) was what made him start to look at buying options.
He is a younger folk….but not a recent graduate.
3 Likes
While there are still some affordable cities, especially in the Midwest, it isn’t always so easy or wise to pick up and move, even for young adults. As mentioned on the other thread, our youngest chose an area of the country that was always expensive, but not outrageous at the time she moved there for college. She’s frugal and started to save for a down payment, on her decent but definitely not techie income (equivalent to an average base teacher salary).
During that time, housing costs have soared to unbelievable levels. Her down payment savings would never keep up. Her salary will never increase to that level.
She’s now been there long enough to establish a good professional network, and has some family nearby. To move at this time, would be detrimental to her career, as well as lose all her friends.
She is not looking for move-in ready. Quite the opposite, she would love to find quality construction that needs updating to make it her own. But those homes are usually snatched by developers, flippers, and now rental companies, all with cash.
Hindsight is 2020 of course, but she was not ready to own 5-7 years ago while building her career, and saving for a downpayment. Now it appears it may never happen. Definitely a first world problem, but still makes me incredibly sad for her.
3 Likes
It seems there are plenty of people who can afford to buy homes, based on the current seller’s markets. Trying to figure out who they are. Maybe a lot of developers making them into rentals(?) Or is it just more a matter of low supply, with lots of homeowners staying put?
There are some neighborhoods that are now 65% rentals, owned by five corporations of Wall Street investors. This is terrible. Renters do not invest in the homes like owners do, don’t spend as much on the yards or roofs or neighborhood association upkeep. We have a few rental homes in our neighborhood and it is easy to pick them out because of the curb appeal (or lack thereof).
And the rents aren’t cheap! These are 1950s homes, usually 3 bedrooms and 1-2 bathrooms, selling for $600k to $750k, so the rents are $2500 to $3500, too much for a family so usually get 3-4 20 year olds. That means 4 cars (4 loud cars, drag racing up the street), lots of weekends with no one in the homes, several pets, parties…
Yes, I’m the ‘get off my lawn!’ neighbor. And don’t let your dog poop on my lawn.
7 Likes
And to add to what you said, renters, at least in my neck of the woods, do not care about local issues and don’t vote.