Jay Washington grew up in the house his mother bought in 1984 in Augusta, Ga., with no college degree and only her single income at a local manufacturing plant. He said her real estate agent had a prediction when she got the keys.
“‘In about, like, five years, you’re probably going to give me a call and thank me for being able to get this house,'” Washington said.
Indeed, she did just that. Today, she’s still in the home, whose value has steadily grown to nearly $300,000.
Washington, 38, lives a couple hours away in Athens and would love to own a home – both for the financial security and because he sees it as “a sign that you truly feel independent.”
But he’s part of a generation that now faces a vastly different housing market than their parents did – and experts worry that could make it harder for young people to build wealth as they age. This summer, home prices hit another record high of $440,600. Those equity gains have been a boon for owners, even as they leave many priced out of buying and fuel a generational divide.
The housing crunch also comes after so many Millennials were hit hard by the Great Recession. Washington graduated from college in 2009, the same year unemployment peaked at 10%. On top of that, his degree from a for-profit college – which was later sued over alleged deception – seemed worthless.
“I basically was stuck in a cycle of unemployment, or underemployment,” he said.
Washington went back to earn an associate’s degree, then a second bachelor’s degree and now has a good job in IT. He’s doing okay. But with student loans looming, plus the high cost of rent, food and so much else, it’s hard to save for a down payment. Meanwhile, home prices have surged more than 50% in just the last six years, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
“I feel more like I’m just surviving,” he said. “At this point, I’m not really sure if I’m going to be able to own a house.”
“A future of no wealth”
As more people face the prospect of renting forever, there’s concern about the long-term consequences.
“Most middle class families have most of their wealth in their homes,” said Mechele Dickerson, who researches housing and the middle class at the University of Texas at Austin. “For young adults who are middle class, they are facing a future of no wealth.”
To be clear, Dickerson sees nothing wrong with renting if people can still save for retirement; it’s more flexible and less hassle. But for generations, especially for the middle class, housing wealth has been key in helping many do better than their parents.
“What’s disconcerting for me is we’re ending up in this space where if you’re okay, it may be because your parents were okay,” she said. “And if your parents were struggling, you may be struggling, too.”
A massive housing shortage, especially of smaller starter homes, is driving prices up. A recent analysis from Realtor.com found 77% of home listings are out of reach for middle-income earners. Rents have also risen faster than incomes, leaving nearly half of renters cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than a third of their income for housing.
That budget strain for renters, combined with escalating home equity for owners, has pushed the wealth gap between the two groups to its highest level since data was first collected in 1989, according to analysis from the Urban Institute, which focuses on upward mobility.
The latest data is from 2022, and the Federal Reserve’s board of governors will release an updated version of the triennial survey later this year. But Jung Hyun Choi, a researcher at the Urban Institute, does not expect the gap to change much, given that home prices nationally have continued to climb and mortgage rates remain elevated.
The analysis of the wealth gap includes both housing and other wealth, which can affect each other.
For example, a fixed-rate mortgage means “pretty stable housing costs over a longer period,” Choi said, allowing owners to more easily save and invest in financial markets. That’s harder to do for renters who face potential rent hikes, she said, meaning that many missed out on enormous gains in the stock market over the past decade.
“Housing wealth also transfers to future generations,” she said, so this wider inequality will likely play out in families for decades to come.
Married, mid-30’s, and renting with a roommate
Brittany Gilroy and her husband Phillip West, both 35, rent a red brick two-story home in Richmond, Va., with their dog, Basil, and another roommate. They moved in with their friend thinking it would only be for a few months, until they bought a house. That was nearly four years ago.
“Pretty much every time when we looked at a house we’re like, oh, do we want to be zeroed out or not,” Gilroy said as they sat on the living room couch. “And we said no. And then the prices of the houses go up.”
Student loan debt delayed their search, but both now have well-paying jobs and have saved toward a down payment. Yet the homes they’ve seen are either above their price range or need repairs that would wipe them out.
In fact, they’ve been shocked at how quickly prices have gone up. Places listed in the mid-300s when they started looking are now valued at half a million dollars and more. They watched an investor buy a house across the street, expand it, and sell it for much more than that.
It’s all put another life decision on hold.
“It’s definitely part of our consideration for, do we have kids or not, you know? And it’s a bit of a clock,” West said.
Gilroy only wants children if they can buy a place and settle down in a safe neighborhood with good schools. That, of course, raises the cost. And with prices so high, they worry about taking on all that debt.
“I feel like we’re not the only ones living in this constant state of uncertainty,” Gilroy said. “If you want to make a dive into buying a house, you’re going into the deep end. There is no kiddie pool of a starter home.”
A few haves and “a bunch of have nots”
Last year, Utah housing developer Tom Henriod urged the state to make it easier to build affordable condos. He was watching a boom in new multifamily housing, but it wasn’t helping people get a foot in the market because “really all of it was for rent,” he said.
In his proposal, he warned about the widening wealth gap between owners and renters and suggested it could foster “discord between classes and increased risk of societal unrest.”
“That might be going to a little bit of an extreme,” he told NPR recently. “But if there’s a feeling that there’s few haves and, you know, a bunch of have nots, I think all of us can see some of the problems that come with that.”
Henriod sees homeownership as a public good. He also has four children, and said young people need hope that they can make it on their own.
“You see how much a house might cost that you might want to live in, and you look at your income coming out of college or something like that,” he said. “It might feel overwhelming, depressing, you know, difficult. That’s certainly an effect, for sure.”
A small but growing number of Gen Zers in their 20s are managing to buy homes despite the odds, most without parental help. Home and rent prices in some places are cooling off or even dropping. And to tackle the broader problem of supply, Congress recently passed a law that aims to make it easier to build housing.
But it will be up to states and localities to follow through, and President Trump has long echoed the fear of many owners that increasing density could hurt existing home values. “I don’t want to drive housing prices down,” he said during a January cabinet meeting. “People that own their homes, we’re gonna keep them wealthy.”
How much housing wealth is enough, though? Dickerson, the University of Texas researcher, said that’s “one of the conversations we’re going to have to have as a society … If your house has already appreciated by 50% from the time you bought it, do you really need it to soar to 100% or 400%?”
A “puke green sink” and sweat equity
There are many factors dividing housing haves and have-nots – but a big one is simple timing.
Matt and Amanda Mracek live with their three children in a lakefront home outside Orlando, Fla. Their path there goes all the way back to their college days in Minnesota in the wake of the 2008 housing crash, when home values plummeted.
“It was my fourth year in college and there was a foreclosed home,” Matt explained. He and a friend used a federal tax credit to buy the house and added two more bedrooms in the basement to rent out.
Then Amanda bought a 900-square-foot fixer-upper for a bit over $100,000 with just $5,000 down. “Very, very dated,” she recalled. “There was carpet in the bathroom … puke green sink with a puke green matching oven.”
Family members pitched in to spruce it up. A few years later, the couple was shocked when their realtor told them the home’s value had risen by $50,000. They traded up, then after gaining even more housing equity, traded up again when they moved to Orlando.
That was in 2021, and they locked in a mortgage rate of 2.6% just before rates spiked. “It was probably the bottom rate that we could have gotten along the way,” Amanda said.
They have younger siblings back in Minnesota and know today’s market is very different. Still, Matt’s brother managed to buy looking outside the city where he works. And Amanda is encouraging her 22-year-old brother to sacrifice – “rice and beans it” – so he can buy something, anything, soon. A “stepping stone” now, she said, will make all the difference later.
Give this a boo. This fella has some interesting analysis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gfd1c3wNeI
“They are not behaving nicely, but they will learn.” – Trump on Spain, earlier this month.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/190314
And Netanyahu threatened Spain back in April.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/190315
The Moroccan regime is openly cooperating militarily with Israel They are helping Israel with arms shipments Both countries also have joint military exercises very often Someone organized those men and lied to them that they were about to leave for Spain, even though Ceuta is physically cut off from mainland Spain. But Who? Not long ago Spain refused to accept ships carrying weapons destined for Israel into its ports. Those ships were accepted by Morocco. Someone wants complete control of the Strait of Gibraltar now that the Red Sea is closed to Israeli ships. Guess who it is?
https://x.com/Megatron_ron/status/2082960081725858212?s=20
If you know who is the god of this world and who his henchmen are, you understand
Spain is now being punished for its transgressions. Supposedly, there are tens of thousands of low-end African and Muslim immigrants flooding its borders on a weekly basis.
Charles Martel fought valiantly during the Battle of Tours in 732 to fend off the islamists from making a true beachhead in Europe. The Jew synagogue private banking cartel is completely upending all of that as we speak.
The synagogue banking cartel definitely showed Spain who was boss.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his son, Yair Netanyahu, have been calling for an invasion of Spain’s cities of Ceuta and Melilla by “Arabs and Muslims” since at least 2019.
Netanyahu’s son wrote: “Dear Arabs and Muslims: Want to free occupied Arab Islamic lands? Here’s a good start!”
Earlier this year, Netanyahu stated that Spain had decided to stand up against Israel and that he would make an example of the country.
“I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price.”
https://x.com/ShadowofEzra/status/2082984666059931807
Well, the young people are all priced out due to Blackstone and the flippers/investors eagerly nipping at their heels. If you’re savvy and you follow the host, well then you’ve got yours, and fuck them young people. They should have been born sooner. It’s end times, bitch! Make your trades, collect your rents, talk your book like you’re not just a basic bitch greedy boomer SOB, counting your money while the embryos of families rot in the glare of your stunning success at gaming this absolute horse shit. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, it only takes an absence of moral sense, to do what you do, my pitiable man.
I take it for granted you never listened to any of my advice over the past 12 to 13 years, but rather listened to the Zero Hedge Soviet propaganda instead. Of course, that meant you were left with an empty bag, a glass full of tears, and you never partook in the asset price run-ups. It’s really not difficult to buy a house, even now. If you’re broke, there’s only one person to blame and it’s staring you in the mirror.
I actually sleep well at night and I do everything on the up. I’ve been telling people everything I’ve been doing since 2012 and have been telling you to do the same thing. So, you’re too afraid to do anything, and must have given into the propagandizing of the enemy. You seem like someone who has low impulse control as I don’t relieve myself on message boards and doing nothing about it.
I make the sacrifices, I delayed instant gratification, I live way below my means, I don’t take any vacations, I don’t eat out at restaurants, I spend a ton of time staying healthy, and I’ve been telling others to do exactly what I have been doing.
You, on the other hand, probably don’t do any of that. People with low impulse control are utterly unable to formulate a long-term plan. People with low impulse control continually make mistakes that destroy any long-term normalcy and stability. People with low impulse control are unable to form the necessary bedrock that is needed to build a house.
You have the same mindset as one of my former black tenants. They are full of anger and victimhood. You’re no different. You like to blame others for your mistakes and shortcomings and inabilities. It’s something you must have picked up in childhood. It’s people like you that vote for socialism.
I know this may come across as being crass, but I do appreciate your comments. I look forward to you posting some responses. You give me something to do and answering your messages takes some time. I’m grateful I don’t have to work for a living, so I have plenty of time, especially at my age, since I am functionally retired.
Fuck you
By the way, Blackstone is not the reason why house prices are expensive. Entities like Blackstone and people like me truly understood the dynamic as far back as 2012. Had you had the capacity to understand, you would have been buying houses hand over fist like I did. Zero Hedge has been very effective in keeping the former Patriot movement from ever making any long-term financial plans.
I’ve been planning for these inevitabilities for over 20 years now. I think of how my life has been forever altered, since I uncovered what I now know. I have essentially existed on the fringes of society. I really don’t have any friends anymore. It’s fine.
Here’s a link to an article I wrote about a month ago. I could have written this article 13 years ago. Back then, I was begging everyone who would listen to me to buy every piece of real estate they could get their hands on. Quantitative easing was a viable monetary policy tool used by the owners of the Federal Reserve to keep the governments in business. Despite taking the contra with regards to former Patriot movement’s conventional wisdom, I was warning people that there would be no collapses.
https://www.terminaleconomics.com/2026/06/29/unaffordable-housing-the-government-is-the-cause/
I don’t think I hear anyone referring to anything called a patriot movement anymore. I guess that shows you how old I am getting. Even the former Patriots think that the term Patriot movement sounds racist. Don’t be racist. 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈✡️✡️
Racism is a fairly new concept. Just another mind game invented by the synagogue! When someone tries to use words as a weapon to make you feel shame, why not embrace it! That removes their power over you. Name calling is just another childish tactic used by those that can’t make a cogent argument, or make rational points.
Besides, the truth hurts!
I’ve lived without cable and Internet in my home for 20 years saved myself a ton of money right there . I’ve mostly bought used cars but had a couple new car purchases which as we know is not the best way to deploy cash.
Stone, a question. When your looking out west, do you consider water and the lack thereof?
It is indeed the end times. The world is gearing up for WW3. Wait til some sort of draft begins late this year or first of next year!
I have Berkey water filters and I’ve used them for over 20 years. They work great. I can go down to a pond or river or stream and get all the water I need. I don’t think too much about it.
Berkey filters are the best. Also buy some solar powered batteries. Ecoflow and bluetti are top products.
PCE as expected. GDP lags. GDP prices up big. Personal income lags consensus.
PCE price index (MoM) (Jun)
Act: -0.1% Cons: -0.1% Prev: 0.5%
PCE Price index (YoY) (Jun)
Act: 3.7% Cons: 3.7% Prev: 4.1%
PCE Prices (Q2)
Act: 5.1% Prev: 4.6%
Core PCE Price Index (MoM) (Jun)
Act: 0.1% Cons: 0.2% Prev: 0.3%
Core PCE Price Index (YoY) (Jun)
Act: 3.3% Cons: 3.3% Prev: 3.4%
Core PCE Prices (Q2)
Act: 3.40% Cons: 3.50% Prev: 4.40%
GDP (QoQ) (Q2)
Act: 1.5% Cons: 2.1% Prev: 2.1%
GDP Price Index (QoQ) (Q2)
Act: 6.3% Cons: 4.1% Prev: 3.6%
GDP Sales (Q2)
Act: 2.2% Prev: 1.9%
Initial Jobless Claims
Act: 197K Cons: 201K Prev: 188K
Continuing Jobless Claims
Act: 1,782K Cons: 1,800K Prev: 1,789K
Jobless Claims 4-Week Avg.
Act: 202.75K Prev: 207.75K
Personal Income (MoM) (Jun)
Act: 0.2% Cons: 0.3% Prev: 0.7%
Personal Spending (MoM) (Jun)
Act: 0.3% Cons: 0.4% Prev: 0.9%
Real Consumer Spending (Q2)
Act: 3.2% Prev: 0.5%
Real Personal Consumption (MoM) (Jun)
Act: 0.4% Prev: 0.4%
No collapses until the force majeure or Wormwood, whichever comes first. Though society has been collapsing for decades.
Right! The collapse is social, moral, financial, emotional, physical, mental, spiritual. We are going down!
God will need the mother of all anti-parasiticals to get us out of this mess!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ZaPJN6Ml0
This is the general location in which I now live. My soon-to-be paid off house sits at about 1,050 feet above sea level.
I suspect that as we move further into the end times, I will sell some more real estate and purchase another house out in the Rocky Mountain West.
It’s the end times, kid, the end times.