Higher interest rates are the number one factor putting houses out of reach for many people. From boriquagato.substack.com:
separating myth from reality and finance from feelings
everyone seems up in arms about housing of late and the ratio of vitriol to sense is getting to covidian levels. zoomers and boomers are yelling at one another and both seem to be making up some of their facts.
at the risk of trying to inject some facts into the current food fight BDA “the housing discussion” let’s look at some data.
the last 4 years have seen a big spike in housing unaffordability.
but many of the claims this is being used to support are just plain fantasy.
consider:
note: this house is a 3500 sq ft house in the mesta park neighborhood of oklahoma city whose original residents were quite wealthy. it is now valued at over $1 million.
this is simply not true and never was. it’s just sentimental revisionism. the home pictured is NOTHING like an average new home in the 1950’s.
the house above is nearly four times that size.
the average new home in 1955 was 983 square feet. that’s the size of most new 1 br apartments. it had one bathroom, no dishwasher, no garbage disposal, and no AC. 40-50% of people owned a washing machine. only 10% had a dryer.
and keep in mind that’s the average. many were considerably smaller.
