i don't see peaceful ways out of this mess and that scares me

The Daily did a good piece about several weeks ago. https://youtu.be/MVVW0symuu8

My reason to save was always retirement, end of life care, etc. And real talk, the money sink into my 401k is doing better than the money I’m sinking into the house I was lucky enough to score 5 years ago.

My main reason to buy a house was not because real estate was a better investment for me. It wasn’t. Like many of us, I hated my landlords, hated the fact that nothing ever got fixed in my rentals, hated noisy neighbors that were a wall away, etc.

Absolutely. It doesn't matter what my house's value is because I can't afford to sell it. I couldn't afford to replace it, and my house is the only realistic way I'll be able to retire someday and actually have a roof over my head.

It also screws people like you over. Changing homes is going to be hell. When prices rise the variance between an OK home and a pretty nice home will shrink. Just like rents are getting squeezed. There's an upper cap on most types of homes in specific locations (at least until the corps buy them all) as there is with rent. So we'll end up seeing houses that used to be $1-200k difference become a lot closer in price. Meaning why would anyone sell to downsize if the trade-off isn't worth it?

If I hadn’t gotten a home right before the housing market went to shit, I’d be discouraged too.

Same. My family hit the lottery when we decided to buy a house when the covid pandemic was tanking the market. Locked in a mortgage at around 2.25% and feel so privileged every day for it. The apartment we lived in at the time said they were upping the rent nearly 30% when we were due to renew, so we started looking at houses. We were incredibly lucky that we met someone entirely by chance who was planning on selling their home around the same time our apartment lease was due to renew. They never even listed their house on the market so we didn't have to deal with getting into a bidding war. And it was within our budget. And I got a raise at work right before we signed the papers (we were already gonna be able to afford it, but just barely). The stars aligned in so many ways at such an uncertain time in our lives.

It's one of the few things that gives me comfort in trying times. So many things could go wrong, but we've got a house with a fixed mortgage and a very low interest rate and a half acre of land for our kid to run around and play in. I'd say my general anxiety levels have been lower since buying a house cause it just passively comforts me to have gotten so lucky. Even though maintaining a home is a big responsibility compared to renting an apartment, it's totally worth it, and I've enjoyed becoming more handy over the years as things have needed fixing.

With any luck, we'll never move again. It's a nice place about 15 minutes from the nearest town, which is already a rural area, so there's little light pollution so the stargazing opportunities are nice. Hoping to eventually add some solar panels to the roof to lower the energy bill one of these days.

If we were still living in a basic apartment and paying effectively the same amount in rent that we're currently paying in mortgage for a 3 bed 2 bath house with a garage, I'd be depressed as fuck about it every day.

I’d like if home-buying was more affordable, but we are still stuck in the supply problem. My brother put his house on the market and priced it the highest any house in his neighbors sold for. He got an offer for that in 2 weeks. The housing value will crash if the market get flooded, but home builders don’t want that.

Dont you guys not have ~~phones~~ parents? You will get a house once they die. If you have siblings, tough luck, you will have to battle royale for the house.

Because there is more to life than just owning a home? How about having some buffer in the event you lose your job, or get sick, or a million other reasons. You’re way too fixated on the idea of owning a house.

I have friends that get drawn into ads and who are promoted to make a purchase, which I find to be silly and immature.

"Those silly poors, enjoying life with what meager luxuries they can afford! I'm smart because I have money to buy multiple properties, which I clearly deserve because I was born into it."

Economic writers always seem to find the richest people they know to interview about things. How about this guy talks to someone with negative net worth and a minimum wage job instead?

Id settle for a condo to live in.

I wonder how many average 23-year-olds can afford a condo?

Don't you just hate it when you impulse buy a rental property?

Also, I have never seen prices go down except for gas. The Fed wants around 2% inflation every year.

She's a pretty shitty wealth advisor if she thinks these things.

This also just misses the point entirely. Young people expect society as we know it to end within our lifetimes. Even if inflation does down for a bit, the ocean is still gonna be acidic af.

The inflation already went up, Michelle. Prices aren't going to drop.

The cost of groceries goes up - it never goes down. Electric rates are going up and it seems everything is going up. Medical care is horrible expensive and it's not going to come back down again. I don't know what planet she's on.

Who care about consumer spending when I've been watching the current biosphere die off for my whole adult life?

I'm supposed to save for a future in a society that's pretty obviously collapsing as the biosphere deteriorates?

The only type of news I consistently paid attention to over my teenage and adult life was environmental news. These two questions strongly inspired me to do something in my life for myself instead of blindly following in other people's footsteps.

When I was in my mid 20's, I abandoned the idea of retirement. Took all my money out of stocks and retirement plans. Sold or donated the majority of what I owned and went off to explore and have experiences. I don't regret it but I'm still filled with so much sadness with how much damage and loss is happening all around us.

In my mid 20's, I blindly predicted that ecological collapse would happen when I would be in my 80's. That number has been dropping rapidly with more news coming out about the current state of the environment. Everything is casually happening faster than expected.

how you setting that baby up?

virtualized windows with streaming?