Exclusive: most renters surveyed by Harris Poll say the areas they live in have become so unaffordable they are ‘barely livable’
The poll, conducted by the Harris Poll Thought Leadership and Future Practice, asked survey takers to identify themselves as renters or homeowners, along with other demographic information. Those polled were asked their opinion on home ownership in the United States. For many, especially renters, the outlook is bleak.
Though the vast majority of renters polled said they want to own a home in the future, 61% said they are worried they will never be able to. A similar percentage believe no matter how hard they work, they’ll never be able to afford a home.
“When you think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and housing is right at that foundational level of security, the implications on consumer psyche when things feel so unaffordable is something that will impact everyone,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at Harris Poll. The American dream of owning a home “is looking more like a daydream for renters”.
My wife is selling her first home now that we’re in our first joint home. For reference, she’s 26, I’m 28. I have some thoughts about this whole thing because the house is not selling and it’s generally for stupid reasons:
Interest rates are high, so the monthly payment is going to be twice what ours used to be when the house was bought in 2020. Interest rates are never going to be that low again and anyone without a sizeable down-payment just can’t afford it. Young people generally don’t have sizeable down payments, because they’re not selling a home to get their first.
People continually complain about inexpensive cosmetic work like cabinet doors and floors. They walk away from a house with zero real issues because they don’t want to fix things like that.
Builders are offering great deals on new homes. No closing costs, paying lawyer’s fees, etc. The problem is that new build quality has been fucking awful lately. Before my wife and I bought our current home, we took a look at a new-build neighborhood and even the example home had glaring issues.
Investors. We had an offer for cash, as is, and took it because people with loans just can’t compete with that. Why wouldn’t we take someone who can pay cash and doesn’t care about inspections or cosmetics?
My take? Young people have no money, interest rates suck, but when a home becomes available that is affordable, they don’t want to put in the work to fix up cosmetic issues. They expect new-build appearances, but don’t realize that comes with poor new-build quality. It’s a multi-faceted issue.
So you sold your house to investors that will use it to add to this pretty obvious problem because you did not want to be bothered to wait 2-3 weeks extra to close? Thanks for doing your part to eleviate the larger problem.
Complaining about paint is petty, sure, but floors are expensive. I didn’t walk away from a house with shitty floors, and a decade later I still haven’t replaced them.
I hope you also realize that, at your age, you and your SO are major outliers. Most people your age will never be in a situation even close to what you describe.
Oh I know. If my wife hadn’t done the prep work to save for a house, then buy during COVID when rates were crazy low, we wouldn’t have been able to afford our next one.
I got lucky, she was smart
Sounds like an issue of being unable to get into the market (that you continued to propogate). Young people are poor, so they’re unable to compete.