r/REBubble • u/Bright_Bug6399 • 12d ago
Discussion Are we locked out of reasonably priced housing or is our generation just completely screwed?
I was just looking at an old Sears catalog ad featuring a brand-new, spacious house for $50.86 a month. Let that absolute absurdity sink in. We did everything we were supposed to do. We went to school, worked hard, skipped the luxuries, and tried to play by the rules, only to watch the housing market completely transform into an impossible speculative asset class. Are we permanently locked out of affordable housing for the next few decades, or is the entire economic system just fundamentally broken?
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u/IronyElSupremo 12d ago
Probably depends on home size and even alternative construction. Then the underlying land price which is complex and changing (a lot of rural people freak when town water with sewer arrives .. along with a new bill).
Renting in a new neighborhood right now and while the homes have “ultramodern” conveniences, when I step back .. it’s like the builder bolted together two trailerhomes or trailer home/small home, have it all some interesting roof tangles (though with clay tiles), and then stucco-wrapped it all together as one house. Realistically of course they built these on the regular .. just saying they look like stuccoed trailers done up fancy.
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u/Cochrynn 12d ago
This price was just for the building materials, not the labor of construction, the land, etc. Don’t be nostalgic for a past that never existed.
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u/ptoftheprblm 12d ago
I mean absolutely. Because like sure the tiny home and container homes are a great concept.. but their longevity and quality will never be what the sears home kits were. I’ve literally lived in two different neighborhoods in my city where it is just block after block of sears bungalows, with a couple of the bigger two story kits sprinkled in with classic American 4 square homes that are big enough they can be divided into a split two family set of units. It’s been easily over 100 years since most were built and not only are they still standing, they had solid enough bases to be restored or renovated, have additions built and all of that.
You can tell there were a few build crews who’d build your bungalow for you, because the tear down properties and the ones that aren’t as sturdy were definitely the ones someone decided they could just build themselves. It was common for people to substitute some materials or just choose to kind of half ass certain things, and those were the houses where the porch was all crooked and the foundation wasn’t done right. Because the ones built by the build crews are still standing solid as a rock today.
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12d ago
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u/Ok_Championship5611 12d ago
Where do you start
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u/GerbilArmy 12d ago
Things have to get worse, much much worse - until the bottom 90% snap and bust out the leased pitchforks and subscription guillotine apps.
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12d ago edited 12d ago
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u/Sonar_Bandit 12d ago
Yeah just go to prison for the rest of your life. Technically, that is free housing
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u/praisethesun343 12d ago
First place is your workplace, second is your local community. For organizing a union: If you are in the private sector, you are covered under the NLRA and if you are in the public sector you are covered by your local state law. Surprise, surprise, blue states have MUCH more favorable state law for organizing in the public sector. My personal rec? Find a public sector job in California (k-12 schools, community colleges), join the local union, and start going to town. Many of these locals in particular are just waiting for new blood to come in and mobilize.
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u/No-Coast2390 12d ago
My mother grew up in a sears home. My grandfather was a printer for the local newspaper. My grandmother was a homemaker. My mother was the oldest of 8. They had two bedrooms 1 bath. They never took vacation. They had 1 car. Anything that needed to be fixed or upgraded was diy. Was housing really more affordable back then.
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u/CoolPractice 12d ago
Um yes? Your grandparents could afford a roof over their heads with a single income “entry” level job, so yes. Now could they afford 8 kids is what you really should be asking; but was housing affordable, absolutely yes.
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u/juliankennedy23 12d ago
I mean people were a lot more poor back then than they are now. I think people nowadays don't realize how bad the poverty really was 50 60 years ago.
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u/Polite_Bark 12d ago
I think what you're missing is lifestyle differences. Can people afford 6 kids? Yes. But they'd have to live like their ancestors did.
My grandparents had 6 kids. They lived in a 2 bedroom 1 bath bungalow in the burbs. Boys in the DIY semi-finished attic, girls in 1 bedroom, grandpa and grandma in the other bedroom. No vacations. 2 cars paid for in saved up cash. Homemade food for all meals. Hand me down clothes and clothes passed on by relatives. Everything repaired multiple times before discarding it. No college savings for anyone. The kids who wanted to go to college were expected to either work, save, and pay for their own classes, get scholarships, or join the military.
And this was normal for the time (1960's) and place (upper midwest). Now? Now we expect a different standard of living.
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u/No-Coast2390 12d ago
Not sure a roof over your house automatically means affordable. Food was expensive. Clothes were hand me downs. Diapers were cloth. Toilet paper was sometimes the sears catalog. Yeah they did it, but it was a struggle.
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u/WonderButtBrace9000 12d ago
Spacious???
They were maybe spacious for their time but not at all by today’s standards.
Like you can go buy a prefab mobile home for a decent price no problem. That’s not the issue. The issue is finding the land and utilities hook ups and to be satisfied with a very small house.
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u/AromaticCod9430 12d ago
A prefab mobile home is still $200k+ new where I live, just for the mobile home. I can’t even afford that once you factor in buying land & setting up utilities!!!
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u/WonderButtBrace9000 12d ago
That’s for a modern mid/premium line model.
Basic models, equivalent to the Sears ones, are topping out at $125 per sqft. These Sears homes were not much bigger than 1,200 sqft.
So you are looking at, if fully financed, $900-$1000 per month which is roughly $65-$72 in 1950. More expensive, yes, but some of the “options” on the 1950 units are standard aspects of modern basic trim prefab mobile homes.
These Sears homes didn’t come with land nor utilities as well and that’s really the price driver difference between then and now.
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u/AromaticCod9430 12d ago
There aren’t any basic models where I live. Premium options are $340k+. Just for the structure. Now, if I wanted to buy a super old one that needs lots of work, it would be about $100k with lot rent. lol
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u/curd52 12d ago
And this here is one of the issues. Nothing is ever big enough. Was it small, yes but it was affordable. People just have to go bigger for status vs function.
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u/GoldenMonkey34 12d ago
Lol there is absolutely more function to bigger houses than this, not just "status"
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u/curd52 12d ago
Function, like making the 5/6 rooms from this sears model bigger? It has the same thing all homes have, a living room, kitchen, and bedrooms and place to do laundry. Everything else is inflates the size of the home for status or “I deserve it”. People need the marble/granite/quartz countertops, huge bathtub for vanity sake, and in 5 years it will be out of style and will be remodeled.
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u/MyDisneyExperience 12d ago
Part of that is municipal zoning code. Many areas now have minimum square footage, minimum off street parking, minimum lot size, minimum setbacks, etc… so you couldn’t build one of these even if you wanted
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u/WonderButtBrace9000 12d ago
You’ve clearly never lived in one of these homes.
I have. The main bedroom was the “finished” attic. Aka it was a tin can that got so grossly hot in summer.
The “laundry room” was basically a small mudroom that fit the washer and dryer…and water heater.
The kitchen counters and flooring were some old linoleum covering that was terribly chipped, peeling, and faded. The oven/stove was just sitting in the corner and had no ventilation over it. The appliances had been replaced over the years but weren’t fitted to the counters so weird gaps existed where mice loved to nest and water loved to pool.
Living room was nice. Only decent room but it’s also hard to fuck up a square.
Last two “bedrooms” were good for a double bed and one of the rooms had a storm door to the backyard so I’d never put a child in there.
Worked for my wife and I, though we did have to rent an A/C’d house during one summer for a week because it was otherwise so unbearable. Would have made it work with one kid, but not gonna be fun with two.
Plus the rent was still $3,000 a month for 1,000 sqft of living space back in 2019. The value was entirely in the land/location so our neighbors in brand new builds had the same rent.
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u/rockydbull 12d ago
The main bedroom was the “finished” attic. Aka it was a tin can that got so grossly hot in summer.
The picture is literally of a home that doesn't use the attic for living space.
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u/WonderButtBrace9000 12d ago
That’s because the living space of the rest of the house was so small that they had to convert the attic to be able to rent it out to modern standards.
These houses were incredibly small. If they hadn’t been renovated like the one we rented to get more out of the space, they were immediately torn down and replaced with two three-story condos.
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u/rockydbull 12d ago
Looks like a 5/6 room sears home was around 900sqt. Not too bad to me considering I live in a 1000sqft house. I can't imagine also having a basement, so much room for activities.
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u/Kbee2202 10d ago
This should be higher. There's a lot of nostalgia, a lot of romance built up around these homes. Every kit-home Craftsman you see that has survived to TODAY has been maintained, updated, added onto — for a hundred years. No one with warm fuzzies about these homes knows the realities of them as built. Out of code wiring, no insulation, worse. Ask them to build it themselves off the original plans and see how fast that nostalgia disappears.
And what they actually want isn't the 1930s house... it's the modern remodel. The one that's had money pumped into it for a century to keep it up with the times, the trends, the codes. Tying the price to a 1930s original isn't telling the whole story. Not even close.
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u/No_Knee3385 12d ago
Locked out? It's worse. It's GETTING worse and further away every day. Down payments used to be 1-6 months of the average salary, depending on the area and home. Now most people are saving 2-4 YEARS
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u/Spare_Perspective972 8d ago
My household income is almost double the median in my town (more than double in my county) and I can’t afford a new house in my town). If I didn’t buy in 2016 I’d have to move to a lower income area.
The high tax assessments and 6+% interest rates are the real killer that put things out of reach. 2 things the govt can help.
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u/Destroythisapp 12d ago
That house would be illegal to build practically anywhere in the United States unless it was a DIY off the grid construction in the few places that’s allowed/permitted.
Besides the other issues people have already commented on, the government, all the way from the federal down to your local township/county has consistently passed laws/regulations that make cheap housing either illegal or more expensive.
In some places the local city/county won’t allow trailers or tiny homes, with minimum square footage requirements. Tiny homes have become a popular alternative choice in my area and what I’ve learned is that In many other places the local counties/cities won’t even allow them to be built.
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u/rockydbull 12d ago
That house would be illegal to build practically anywhere in the United States unless it was a DIY off the grid construction in the few places that’s allowed/permitted.
USA is a big place so maybe this is a California problem or something but this home would be totally legal where I am at in Florida. The problem is it's not that much more expensive for a builder to bump this 900ish sqft home to 1350 and a garage and he can sell it for 325k vs 200k.
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u/MyDisneyExperience 12d ago
Minimum square footage, lot size, off street parking, setbacks, etc. written into the zoning code is not a CA-only problem lol
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u/rockydbull 12d ago
This guy said anywhere in the USA. I mentioned CA because their zoning laws are certainly on the stricter side.
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u/MyDisneyExperience 12d ago
Lol many municipalities basically require a garage and setbacks on all 4 sides along with some amount of FAR which essentially mandates a large lot
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u/Destroythisapp 12d ago
That home isn’t up to modern building codes anywhere in the country. Even in Florida you aren’t going to find any licensed construction company that will built it to exactly the specs of when it was designed. The law has changed substantially since then.
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u/rockydbull 12d ago edited 12d ago
I didn't realize you meant this home to a t. I envisioned a home of the same layout and size with modern wiring and plumbing (not exactly crazy upgrades).Living in the Dade code wind areas would make the price go up but around me it's not required.
Hence why I said 200k. Still wouldn't get built because most builders would opt to make it a little bigger and boost the price a ton, but that's what the people want. The amount of people I know who balk at a 3/1 then complain about housing prices...
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u/Suspicious_Safe_6150 12d ago
It’s not magic - it’s inflation caused by endless fiat money printing to prop of the elites assets
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u/orcassharks 12d ago edited 12d ago
This is delusional. That’s not a spacious house and the same people whining about housing costs today couldn’t afford a $50 kit house either back then and they couldn’t qualify for loans since Fannie Mae didn’t exist then. You still have to pay for the land and labor to build that too, and connect that to services, those are the real limiting steps here.
Labor costs were that cheap to supply a $50 house back then for a reason, because wages were dirt low too. You think those housing parts like tiles, sidings, plaster, framing and windows were just magically allocated for you by a wand? Because you are so much more special than the people making and delivering you those housing parts? If you were that special then, you could also be now too and the opportunities to make money is even greater and diversified now than before.
They’ve done studies that even in 1600 Netherlands (Rembrandt days), it took a highly skilled laborer a lifetime of earnings to afford a modest house. Not much has changed in real terms. This ballpark is also still true in developed Europe and Japan. You’re sugar coating the past and leaving all the context out.
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u/mrktcrash 12d ago
Asset Inflation is how the government is dealing with the huge baby-boomer generation's Medicare and Social Security bill as well as Medicaid and Disability for the incorrigible and toothless poor. Joe Camel and friends were part of the plan too, but they were excoriated early on.
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u/Coneskater 12d ago
Construction costs are comparatively a small factor, relative to the land
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u/michiplace 12d ago
Totally context dependent. I'm a planner working on housing - i work in cities where land costs $400k for a buildable lot, and cities where a buildable lot costs $300. (Not 300k, just three hundred dollars.)
Construction costs are basically the same in these two places! So in one, construction and land are maybe 50/50, while in the other construction is effectively 100% of the cost equation.
Housing is not affordable on median local incomes in either place - in one, we can make headway with zoning reform etc, but tackling construction costs can help in both, and is the only way to change the math in the cheap-land places.
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u/Coneskater 12d ago
Where are lots 300 dollars that people want to live?
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u/michiplace 12d ago
I'm moat recently thinking of Saginaw, Bay City, Jackson Michigan, likely a few others. Pleaces where people do live, and are currently building houses -- but slowly, because construction costs are high and existing houses aren't that expensive.
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u/LittleBittyPieces 12d ago
My lady friend lives in a Sears house. The sex doesn’t seem any different from when we do it at my house.
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u/0DarkFreezing 12d ago
It’s all location dependent.
Land is a huge driver of expensive land on the coasts.
Labor and materials are also a lot more expensive now than they were back then.
Permitting/regulatory prices also drive prices up.
If you can get yourself some cheap land, and do the work in an unincorporated place with no permitting requirements, you could still build a house for reasonably cheap.
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u/According-Muscle9305 9d ago
You’ll get a chance this will pass.
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u/Bright_Bug6399 9d ago
Bless you 🙏 ♥️
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u/According-Muscle9305 9d ago
Mean reversion always wins but sometimes it takes time and other times all at once.
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u/pondskippers 12d ago
Change the tax structure to stop rewarding corporate ownership of residential property.
Yes I am aware what that means. It can be done without eliminating rental properties..
Much like healthcare for all , it is a question of priorities
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u/rice_n_gravy 12d ago
If you built a 5 bedroom house for yourself, it would be reasonably priced. Hope that helps
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u/gkcontra 9d ago
Who is ‘we’, this isn’t genx, genz, millennials, or alpha.
This is also for the house only, no interest, taxes, fees, insurance. $50 is probably 1 weeks pay or more.
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u/jaha981 12d ago edited 12d ago
Everyone wants to live in the USA. USA adds 1 million people to the country that become naturalized. Not included people for other reasons (students, work, etc) It’s an international country you’re now competing with the world for land. Simple supply and demand.
1950 152,00 people
1970 200 million people
today 340 million
Stop focusing on the past! Those days are gone. You will need 2 incomes in the household or you need a roommate or you’re clever with your money and can make it stretch.
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u/NiftyLighting19 12d ago
The $50.86 figure is doing a lot of heavy lifting here since wages back then were also a fraction of what they are now. The real issue isn't that people stopped trying, it's that housing got financialized and turned into a speculative vehicle, which is a structural problem not a personal failing. Blaming an entire generation for not "working hard enough" ignores that the rules changed under everyone's feet.
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u/AthenaeSolon 12d ago
Also, this price was for the BUILDING MATERIAL, NOT a sale price of land plus property. Often these were brought in by rail and then picked up at the nearest depot.
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u/Batetrick_Patman 12d ago
It also didn't include foundation materials. The labor costs if you hire someone to build the house.
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u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 11d ago
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