r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Comfortable-Wrap-493 • 4d ago

International Politics Is there no solution to housing crisis?

I feel like we are completely stuck.

I know the government can't just snap its fingers and force real estate prices to drop. Property is treated as a huge investment. It's not just the massive corporations and wealthy investors; even regular, lower-income people have their entire life savings tied up in the value of their homes. Crashing the market hurts them, too.

But if we don't find a solution, we are heading toward a future where only the rich will ever be able to afford buying land or a house.

Even renting is getting completely out of control. At the rate prices are increasing, soon only people with high-paying corporate jobs will be able to afford a basic apartment.

So what happens to everyone else? What about the working class, the people who actually sweat and break their backs to keep this country running? If the main workforce is priced out of both buying and renting, how does society even function? What about artistic jobs? What about creativity? Should all just join high paying collar jobs?

Does anyone see a realistic way out of this mess?

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u/FunArtichoke6167 4d ago

Boomers need to start pushing daisies and the supply will increase bringing the values down. It’s a matter of time.

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u/HardlyDecent 4d ago

Actually quite the opposite. Populations are getting older almost everywhere, so Boomers might bite it, but Gen X is aging and hot on their heels. Boomers will leave their houses to the X's--the last home-owning generation, and there will be even less supply because old folk love owning homes and have the means to do it.

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u/Captain-i0 3d ago edited 3d ago

Boomers will leave their houses to the X's--the last home-owning generation

You are a bit off here. Gen - X is already a heavily home ownership generation. Almost 80% of Gen-X are already homeowners.

Also, while some of the younger Gen-Xers have Parents that were the oldest Boomers, Boomers are more so the parents for Millennials, not Gen - X. Most Gen-X had parents from the Greatest Generation (their words, not mine), Silent Generation or older.

So, it doesn't take away from the gist of your main point, many of these Boomer homes won't be going back on the market at an affordable price, but they will be going to their Millennial kids (which is another huge generation), not Gen-X.

Which is to say, you are correct that Boomers dying is, in no way, a solve for the housing crisis. It's just going to create more Millennials that will want to pull the ladder up behind them.

The real problem is the affordability of everything else needed to live. People are unwilling to part with their homes for a low price, because we are basically forced to use their rising values as vessels for retirement insurance as we age. Nobody that owns a home will ever support changes that will decrease the value of their home as long as this is the case, and rightfully so.