• jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I wasn’t able to afford to buy a house until I was over 50 years old, it took a global pandemic, a complete shutdown of the economy, and working from home for multiple years to bank the cash to make it happen.

    People don’t rent because they CHOOSE to.

              • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                There are, but you can’t make a living there.

                It’s all proportional.

                Let’s say you want to live in a low cost of living state:

                https://www.ramseysolutions.com/real-estate/cheapest-states-to-live-in

                Mississippi.

                OK, I don’t know why anyone would want to live there, but sure, let’s look at the numbers.

                https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/MS/BZA115221

                Per capita income in past 12 months (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021 - $26,807

                Persons in poverty, percent - 19.1%

                https://www.zillow.com/home-values/34/ms/

                “The average Mississippi home value is $174,932.”

                You aren’t buying a $175K house making $12.54 an hour. It’s not happening.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  You need to use median household income, not per capita. It’s $49,111 in Mississippi according to your source.

                  The ratio of home price to household income is typically between 4 and 5 in the US, so the median family should be able to afford the median house in Mississippi.

                  • icydefiance@lemm.ee
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                    11 months ago

                    Household income is absolutely not the right metric to use here, because it’ll always be proportional to the cost of the house out of necessity.

                    For example, if the cost of a house goes up relative to individual income, then more people in the family need to start working more hours, and more people live with roommates.

                    Household income stays proportionally the same, always, but individual income shows you how much people are struggling.

                • interceder270@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Yeah, my house was only $60k. 1,200 square foot. Wasn’t the best deal I could get, but I’m satisfied with my purchase.

                  I was also looking at houses in a similar price range in Mississippi.

                  You don’t “need” to spend ‘average price’ for a nice house. You choose to because you want the luxuries that cause the price to go up.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                “If you want to move to a shithole, you can get a good deal on a house” is not the persuasive argument you think it is.

                EDIT: Just so you know where this person is coming from, they’ve moved on to talk about how fascism isn’t so bad from a “global perspective” and being anti-fascist is just “tribalism.”

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    Yeah, there are plenty of other places you can live though.

                    Sure sounds like your argument to me. But do tell us the non-shithole places you can live where houses are less than $300,000.

              • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Do those places have even remotely comparable work, laws, or amenities? Because yeah you can buy a dirt cheap house 5 mountains from the nearest city in rural Tennessee, but it’s a terrible place to live and you won’t be able to find work.

                That’s not a crazy price, that’s like outskirts of reasonably sized city price.