Few milestones in life mean as much to the American Dream as owning a home. And millennials have encountered the kind of trouble totally befitting their generation, which largely graduated into the teeth of the disastrous post-2008 job market. Just as they entered peak homebuying and household formation age, housing affordability is at 40-year lows, and mortgage rates are near 40-year highs.
The anxiety this generation feels about the prospect of never owning their own home affects their entire perception of their finances and the economy, says Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi.
“If they feel like they’re locked out of owning a home it colors their perceptions about everything else going on in their financial lives,” Zandi says.
Millennials have long been dogged by a brutal housing market. They faced not one, but two, cataclysmic economic events—the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and the pandemic in 2020. Both of which left them reeling financially and struggling to afford a home. The Great Recession decimated the real estate market as the economy nearly collapsed under the weight of tenuous mortgage backed securities. While the pandemic brought with it a remote work boom that caused millions of citydwellers to flee to the suburbs, sending housing prices soaring.
Having any kids at all is enough to set a certain subsection of social media off lol.
I’m glad for their big happy family if they are. <3
I appreciate that. I’m not raising 7 kids right now though haha. I wouldn’t know where to put that many :p. My son is 26. He’s been smart enough to put off having children and he’s building toward owning a home. He’s buying small worn down places, repairing them, selling them, and then working his way up.
I have so many kids because the first girl who ever lived with me moved in when I was 14. Way before I could even make a responsible decision.