Both of my daughters are doing very well, I'm incredibly proud of them. That said, I still had to sign as guarantor for my oldest's studio apartment in Manhattan. Her rent is obscene, she can cover it, but does not own enough assets to qualify without our help.
My other daughter and her BF are talking about moving in together - each of them wfh and have a dog, so they'd love a little house with a fenced yard. Prices in this area are out of reach. It's so discouraging.
Both of them still have student loans to pay off.
I always thought if LA (lived there 15 years after college minus the height of the recession) got too expensive, I would move back to Denver which is where I grew up.
In 2012, Blackstone started buying up all the rental properties in the city. Between 2016 and 2021, rent in the city doubled and suddenly Blackstone owned 2/3's of the available units in LA. Denver, meanwhile, had also gone haywire. My parents house, purchased in 1990 for 120k and worth 320k in 2012 is now close to a million dollars. Studios in Denver often go for 2k, 1 bedrooms certainly do. For contrast, a friend and I were splitting a tiny 2 bedroom in my favorite part of Denver for $750 in 2011.
Seeing all of this, and knowing I would be fucked if I lost my rent controlled apartment in LA, I pro-actively moved to Chicago. Part of Denver and LA's problems are that they are cities that actively fight verticality. People want their views and prefer sprawl to density. The zoning laws are batshit and Nimby's run everything. Chicago doesn't have that problem. It is one of the most stable housing markets in the US (the other I believe is Philly) specifically because it's built vertically and because the weather and crime play gatekeeper. 3% increases or decreases in property value year over year is the historic norm.
Moved here in January 2022 and got a sweet deal on a 1940's 1 bedroom, 850 square foot apartment 3 miles west of Wrigley. $1300 my first year seemed like a steal. And I know all these people who bought 2 bedroom, 1200 ft condos for 200-225k between 2018-2020. Only problem? Since I moved here those prices have sky rocketed. My theory, considering how many of my female friends here are from the south, is that people are suddenly pouring in from red states. Add that to building having slowed to a crawl due to high interest rates and a state that has obscene property taxes and you have a situation where people are clinging to their cheap mortgages and the inventory has become non-existent.
Either way, I'm now looking at 300k for more run down versions of the same type of units my friends bought for 2/3's the price. And rent is also spiraling.
That's where I'm hoping that getting laid off winds up a blessing in disguise. My company was paying me $65k for a job that typically earns 80-90k. And in order to take on a $2100 mortgage (which is what it's gonna take with current prices and interest rates), I need to be making 85k at minimum. And considering my student loans, it should really probably be closer to 100k. Cause 10% of my income until I die will be going to student loans.
All of the above is fucking insane. I have friends who were raised in two kid households in the nicer burbs of Colorado by parents who made a combined 100k. They were house poor, but the house was fucking nice and they were in a great school district. My parents probably made a combined $150k until my mom went back to school after which is was probably 160k (with my mom's income going up and my dad's down due to his working in high end stereo equipment and the price reductions in that realm). They raised two kids and were both retired by 65. Or course, my dad also went to Stanford for 4k a year in the late 60's which probably helped.
The saving grace for millennials is that most of us will be seeing some type of inheritance even if it's coming through a house. But those who don't are fucked.
