Another fuel to the housing fire is people fleeing northern / dem cities.They sell a piece of crap house up there for half a million and come to God's country and 500,000 gets you a 4,000 square foot house around here.

I don't think I believe that median home price in 2022. I suspect it is off by about 100 K at least.

BUT............if those numbers are correct they indicate that the price for a house relative to median income was :


Boomers.......income/home price =28 % and interest rates in 1985 were 12.43% 30 year mortgage

Millennials...........income/home price = 16% and interest rates at 7.34 on a 30 year mortgage


But looking at it another way:

Boomers housing cost was about thee times median income and Millennials was about 6 times median income.

You need to look at what a "median" house looks like too. I'd not be surprised that a median house nowadays is 2-3x bigger with much higher end appliances, etc in it. Not many simple 3 bedroom, 1200 sq foot ranches being built.

And then they want to tell us how things should be and not be. Plus, most of them can't drive worth a lick. But I do make a good living off them yanks doing ADC work.
Sarge

here is a chart showing interest rates over the last 50 decades.




another data point
entry level price for Ford F150 in various years,
first number is the MSRP 2nd number is price inflation adjusted.

1948 Ford F1 (First Generation): $1,279 - $13,836.62
1953 Ford F100 (Second Generation): $1,362 - $13,128.14
1956 Ford F100 (Third Generation): $1,577, - $15,087.06
1960 Ford F100 (Fourth Generation): $1,972 - $17,256.28
1967 Ford F-100 (Fifth Generation): $2,237 - $17,433.23
1973 Ford F-100 (Sixth Generation): $2,889 - $17,387.85
1980 Ford F-150 (Seventh Generation): $5,697 - $18,774.76
1986 Ford F-150 (Eighth Generation): $8,373 - $19,587.47
1991 Ford F-150 (Ninth Generation): $11,967 - $22,795.45
1997 Ford F-150 (10th Generation): $17,875.00 - $28,806.05
2004 Ford F-150 (11th Generation): $17,900.00 - $24,781.06
2009 Ford F-150 (12th Generation): $22,000 - $26,714.92
2015 Ford F-150 (13th Generation): $26,615 - $29,198.64

wouldn't I love to be able to buy a new F150 at a price of $18,000.

to K snows point that the median house has also inflated in size and thus price is also true with F150's.
You can't buy anything close to a plain Jane truck anymore.
The manufacturers and the Gov't have inflated the cost with increased equipment/features.

Mean while wages have not kept up.
The 2 most expensive things that most buy are a house and a vehicle.
Both have inflated in size/equipment, this is thanks to Americans, its what we have demanded and also thanks to what our Gov't has mandated.
Inflation is a killer.

How many people do you know that are trying to buy $468,000 houses and can't b/c they only have an income of $75,000? That bar graph is just silly.

This is housing in my area.

My mother in law was getting 13%interest in a money market back in 1981.a buddy of mine bought a boat the same year if I remember right he paid around 19%interest. I told him he wanted a boat alot worse then I did.

I bought my first house in 1986, interest rate on my loan was 11%. I thought that was okay, the house only cost $32K. I remembered that interest rates had been around 20% just a few years earlier.

Interest rates are not bad right now if you look at the over all history of rates. I bought my first place in the mid 80s I think and the rates were 14.2 % for a fixed rate loan with 20 % down. I figured it worked out ok because I got the land cheap as no one wanted to buy at those interest rates. As far as median prices of homes that does not tell me a lot, Its like the average prices of fur sold. Depends on the quality and location of where it comes from and the care that has been taken in put up also damage.. same for a home. People that live in Wy think it is expensive to buy here, until they go to other states and look at property prices. I will say raw land is expensive due to the fact folks like the scenery but dont buy and and think your going to make money farming or ranching most of the state is poor for that, just eye candy to city folks. A lot of places change hands in 3 years or so due to weather, wind, and nothing for the city folks to do and thats good!

Personally I'd like to see it go higher. I'm not one for taking loans, so I don't have any nor plan to have any in the near future. I would however like to see prices at the grocery store stop rising, as my wage surely is not rising as quickly as they are.

Overall, I guess I agree with Dirt and Steven. I think 5-6% would be a good place for the rate to stay permanently, and until inflation is steadily below that 2% mark, I think it should be higher than that. Just my 1 cent... not sure it's worth 2, lol.

7.5 is better than 10. When we built our house we locked in at 5 and were tickled to death. Refied at 2.75 couple of years back, and I regret not borrowing the max offered and invested in land. Debt doesn't seem to phase most people now days. Our priorities are all screwed up. Yes house prices are higher now, but there are a lot more people than in the 80's so the old supply and demand comes into effect. One of the biggest differences is what people consider necessities compared to the 80's?? Get rid of that cell phone bill, data bill, tv bill and people would have $3-500 more a month. In the 80's we didn't spend $1000's on fixing up the houses like now. Priorities, necessities, and common sense will prevail.

Making that interest on the national debt interesting, having to print money more often now to stay afloat. Servicing our debt is now than we spend on the entire Dept. of Defense, the DOD spends ALOT of money.

I might have believed you until you got to the 'driving' part. Ive seen the pictures on the news when you get an inch of snow in the south...Looks like every Johnny reb in the south sitting in the ditch or upside down.

If we ever get snow. Haven't for years here. Probably what your seeing is black ice dummies. North or South. Folks don't learn. Even with floods.
My buddy owns a flatbed tow truck. He likes bad weather. Makes thousands in a few days after major storms.
Heck, I even thought about getting my own truck and getting in on the action. But heck, repo jobs are more exciting like I used to do on my nights off. But I have really enjoyed sleeping at night instead of 12 hour all nighters.
Sarge

A new work truck payment is around $1300+/month now. Rent/mortgage is $1700-2500/month here.

What matters is that our young middle class working men just starting out can't both pay for a place to live and drive a dependable truck at the same time. Especially if they drive for work and need a dependable one. A new truck can't really be worked on anymore by the working man (same with tractors); especially the new diesels with all the DEF and Regen crap.

I don't care what the interest rates go to. It can go to through the roof or back to zero for all I care; as its trick fake money anyway. What matters is whether our children can make it. The powers that be have created a system to take out the middle man and small farmers and small business owners. Our children will be indentured servants at best; the way this is going, they'll all be "owing their souls to the Company Store" i.e bankers and .Gov. All by design.

Sounds like a lot of poppycock to me. Lot of problem seems to be young men want to start out in a 5000 sq ft house and drive a brand new diesel truck that they dont need...they want what their parents have but their parents worked 40 years to get it. You keep telling your kids they are doomed to nothing and thats likely what they'll have. Still tell my kids that this is Merica' and there are great opportunities out there but they have to be willing to wake up early and work hard. Guess its a difference of whether the glass is half full or half empty. To each their own.

I call BS, but yeah, I guess so to each his own.

I suggest you go try to make a living with nothing but your back and work ethic TODAY and find a dependable truck and place to live all with your paycheck.

Here,
Acreages less than 5 is now 20K/acre minimum. Places with road frontage and close to a utility line are $35K plus.

So lets say a young man works in the oilfield and wants to buy a little place to build a barndo house. ~ 1200 sq. feet.

He buys two acres - 40K
He gets a pole through the utility company for power -5K (if close)
Needs water. If in country, drill a well.- 30K
Got to have a driveway to get builders to where they are going 5-10K
Gonna have to get a permit from the county to tie into the road and possibly a culvert for specs 5K.

So he's nearly at 100K already just for the two acres here anyway.

Now lets build a house..........

Slabwork here is minimum of $15/square foot now - 18K without any carports are flatwork
Framing cost is about $12/square foot if you want to not be able to communicate with your framers. Much more if you need them to speak English - 14.4K
Plumbing- 15K
Electrical - 10K
HVAC/Heating/Cooling - 10K
Propane Tank - $1500
Sheetrock - 9K
Flooring/tile - 12K
Insulation - 7K
Countertops - 5K
Painting - 9K
Cabinets - 10K
Septic - 8K
Trim guys- 3K
Tin roofing/siding - 5K

Materials Lumber -40K
Windows/Doors - 3K
Appliances - 3K
Fixtures - 2K
Countertops/tubs -3K
Flooring materials- 2K
Trim doors and Trim - 2K
Tile- 2K
Faucets, showers, sinks, - 2K

Total Cost for 2 acres and a 1200 sqft house conservatively here is about $.296,500 So he will need a down payment of 20% so roughly $59,300K.

Since he is working in the oil field he had to have a dependable truck - $1500/month minimum.
He also has to be living somewhere, so lets say hes living in a camper trailer at an RV park for $500/month.

He's lucky, a hard worker, and in his late twenties. Probably making $30-35/hour. So say he works 40 hour weeks and never takes a break or day off his total annual income for the year without taxes is between $62,400 - 72,800.

It will cost more than half his annual salary just for the down payment.

Once he gets done with the down payment, he can make the decision to pay ~$2400/month for 15 year mortgage or ~ $1870/month for 30 year mortgage.

That's just the cost of a decent truck and a place to live. No bills or family. Yes; its certainly achievable, but the cost of everything has skyrocketed. Gas, groceries, insurance, bills, etc.


.

Well some of us are doing exactly that now so what's the issue? Maybe it's what you consider a dependable truck? I think mine is dependable I drove 127 mile home this morning and back 127 mile to work tonight. I consider that dependable. But it's not new or pretty.
It's a 97 2wd ranger with pillow in the dip in the driver's spot in the hole in the bench seat and the little of remaking head liner hanging down. Shopped around picked it up a 3 years ago for 3200 with 52 k miles on it. At 69k miles the motor blew so I had a rebuilt put in a long with a bunch more preventative thing spending another 5 k .
It's not pretty it's not fancy no cup holders, no tape or cd player just am fm radio ac heat and crank Windows.

Sure I have probably about 10k in it but I don't have 1300 a month In payments, high license plates insurance. I drove a Honda Accord I picked up for just over 3 k for 3 years before that. Not having payments allowed me to save and have cash on hand for replacement and any repairs. Plus having thousands left over.
It's not fancy or pretty but it's practical. Yes I can buy a 70 k or more truck with my income and very little debt but I don't want one it's a wast of money. Money I could put back for retirement or other investments.

Yes thing are more expensive now and it stinks BUT today's young people want not need more than they can afford and want to live on credit. The same people that don't want to work overtime, a 2nd job or side business are often those complaining about being broke. They tend to want it now without the work or savings to get it .

They may have to rent a crap hole and have a roommate fro a while to save money. I rented an old falling down shack in the stick because it was cheap when I was young. I didn't rent the higher dollar apartments or house that looked nice. Sure I soen more money and time due to driving but it was much cheaper even though less convenient.

Interest rates are lowered than they should be people are just in shock after so long with artificially low rates.

The worst part is I thing things are going to get a lot tougher and people can't handle the pain we have now.


I think your low on the septic cost unless it it with no field bed. Last price I got was 21k.

Why does a new guy starting out have to have a new house, what's wrong with buying an older home? Same thing with a truck or car? Then maybe after saving for a few years and pay raises start thinking about upgrading one at a time. That's the way I started out and probably most of the guy's on here did the same. And definitely working overtime or a second job, there's help wanted signs everywhere. Most young guy's just don't have the drive now a days to put the extra effort in to make the difference of getting ahead. Dog me if you want but it's worked for me & most of the old-timers.