Anyone wanting to purchase a home who will need to
finance should first contact a lender for advice.
According to the following posted article, 1 in 5 millennials say they will never be able to own their own home. I believe that it is probably more like 3 in 5 will never be able to own their own home unless actual affordable homes come on the market. And this is not just in one location in the United States….and it is not just in the United States. In the U.K., Canada, and other places in the world, the ability to find affordable housing is worse.
About affordable housing, a company has purchased land in Waycross, Georgia, where they are planning to build homes for “low-income buyers” priced at between $250,000 and $350,000. (Waycross Journal Herald, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023).
I say, really! I don’t call $250,000 to $350,000 affordable for lower-income buyers.
For “low-income buyers!” I say that low-income buyers will not be able to pay $250,000 for a home, much less $350,000. If a person gets a mortgage for $250,000 at 7 percent interest (the approximate rate today) for 30 years, the principal and interest payment alone will be around $1,665 per month. If you add in taxes at $1,200 (which is low) and insurance at $1,200 (which is also low), the monthly payment is around $1,865 per month. If a person earns $50,000 a year (which is high for a low-income earner, especially in Waycross where wages are low), that person cannot have a total of more than about $2100 per month of debt payments which includes the house payment. Subtract $1,865 from $2100 and that equals $235. That $235 has to pay for a car payment, student loans, credit card payments, child support payments, etc. And I have done the calculations so that the borrower’s debt could be up to 50 percent of annual gross income (which is higher debt than any lender I know will allow). The math shows that a person who is earning $50,000 per year can’t buy a $250,000 home without a large down payment, which low-income people do not normally have! So this means that a low-income earner can’t buy a home at the prices they are today!
To earn $50,000 per year, one needs to make about $24 per hour. If one works 40 hours per week for 52 weeks (the number of weeks in a year), then that person works 2080 hours in a year. Divide: $50,000 by 2080, and that equals $24.04 per hour. (See article below titled “Where Do I Fall in the American Economic Class System?” Middle-income Americans have annual incomes between $38,133 and $114,400 in 2023, before adjusting for local cost of living and household size, so $50,000 is middle-income, not lower.)
Where Do I Fall in the American Economic Class System?
by Jessica Walrack (published July 31, 2023)
See full report at https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system
In the second quarter of 2023, the median weekly earnings for full-time American workers was $1,100, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That puts the median annual income at about $57,200.
| LOWER INCOME | MIDDLE INCOME | UPPER INCOME | |
| 2023 Middle-Class Salary | $38,133 | $57,200 | $114,400 |
According to the Pew Research Center’s guidelines (two-thirds to double the national media), middle-income Americans would thus have annual incomes between $38,133 and $114,400 in 2023, before adjusting for local cost of living and household size.
1 in 5 Millennials Say They’ll Never Own a Home
By Kerry Smith
Of millennials who do hope to buy, almost half say it won’t be soon because home prices are too high – the No. 1 obstacle toward homeownership.
SEATTLE – A survey found that nearly one of every five (18%) millennials and 12% of Gen Zers said they’ll will never own a home.
References
Nolte, R. (2023, September 9). Housing project targeted for bailey street. Waycross Journal Herald, pp. 1–5.
Smith, K. (2023, September 11). 1 in 5 millennials say they’ll never own A home. Florida Realtors. https://www.floridarealtors.org/news-media/news-articles/2023/09/1-5-millennials-say-theyll-never-own-home?utm_campaign=9-12-23%2BFlorida%2BRealtors%2BNews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost
Walrack, J. (2023, July 31). Where do I fall in the American Economic Class System?. U.S. News. https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system
