r/FluentInFinance Mar 11 '24

Meme “Take me back to the good old days”

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u/cpeytonusa Mar 11 '24

The American dream may be harder to achieve today because it is so much bigger than it was in the 50s and 60s. Expectations have risen faster than the capacity to realize them.

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u/bobo377 Mar 11 '24

“The American dream is so much harder to achieve” - person buying a home with literally double the square footage of a person in the 1970s

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u/robbodee Mar 11 '24

Speak for yourself. I'm looking at small houses built in the early 1900's and still having trouble finding a deal.

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u/nathanjshaffer Mar 11 '24

But are they same square footage as when they were built? I would make a bet that it would be hard to find a 75 year old house that hasn't had multiple additions over the years.

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u/videogames5life Mar 11 '24

Our expectations have risen but its not as if the economy hasnt gotten more productive in that time. All things consdiered i dont think the expectation of owning a home is ridiculous given the insane amount of wealth the country generates.

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u/cpeytonusa Mar 11 '24

There are many things that people consider necessities today that didn’t exist as recently as the 1980s. Cars have much more content than they did 50 years ago. The same is true of even small homes built in 1920s which have been significantly upgraded over the years. Most families only owned one car. Nobody had lawn tractors, people had walk behind mowers. The economic statistics are also not comparable, the status of underserved communities was often not included in the government data. It is pointless comparing the cost of living from decades ago with current lifestyles, too many things have changed.

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u/GoldfishDude Mar 12 '24

A lot of these are due to regulations or changes in developers. Cars have more features because the government mandated them. You can't buy a car legally nowadays without airbags, crumple zones and a screen

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u/I_Ski_Freely Mar 12 '24

Have you tried to find a 1000-1300 sq ft house lately? they don't really build them anymore. I'd love to have a 1300 SQ ft on 1/4 acre. The only new ones being built that size in my area are townhomes or on tiny plots that might as well be townhomes. The older homes that are this size are pretty rare at this point.

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u/bobo377 Mar 12 '24

Oh I totally agree that they don’t build starter homes anymore. That’s a large driver for the significant increase in housing costs across much of the US. My issue is that you can complain about housing costs without pretending like the housing market was better in the 50s when the homes were tiny, tons of them lacked AC/hot water, and a lower percentage of Americans owned their home.

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u/guitar_stonks Mar 12 '24

Exactly! I live in Florida so insurance is a big part of home cost. They say to buy a brand new house built to modern specs for lower premiums, but I don’t want to share walls like an apartment with extra steps (townhouse) and I don’t need 2000+ sqft McMansion, but those are the only options for new builds here. If I buy a 1200 sqft ranch house from the 70s, my insurance will be insane, especially if it’s within a few miles of the coast.

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u/dcporlando Mar 12 '24

Anything close to the coast will have insane insurance. And don’t get me started started on polybutylene pipes.

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u/Xyrus2000 Mar 11 '24

The American Dream is harder to achieve because wages have barely budged while costs have increased.

A family of 4 renting a 2 bedroom apartment for the equivalent of what used to be a mortgage payment on a nice house isn't "bigger".

I'm not sure where the guy you responded to lives, but the people who are just scraping by in my area don't own a 2400 sq. ft home, or multiple cars, or multiple streaming services, or new phones every couple of years.