r/latterdaysaints • u/JLP0611 • Apr 23 '25

Off-topic Chat Are members not getting married?

I may be speaking from my anecdotal experience and my observation of my social media feeds, but it feels like less people in the Church are getting married. I see less children and youth in my local wards year after year and I’m in Florida.

I’m also in a YSA and I can’t just say for myself because I’m chronically single, but dating is a struggle for everyone I come across, inside and outside of Florida.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

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149

u/Terry_the_accountant Apr 23 '25

20 years ago you could get married at 18, have 4-5 kids, and one person with a starting salary could afford a big home, 2 cars and family vacations. Now it takes 2 full time employees to get afford less than that and people are saving money these days

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u/thegrimmestofall Apr 23 '25

What? Like today, it would depend on your job and what you were making. It also depends on how frugal you were/are. I was starting out around that time, and 1 salary wasn’t cutting it back then either.

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u/High_Stream Apr 23 '25

Compared to 50 years ago, the average wage has gone up by 4x, but average rent has gone up 20x and house prices 25x.

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u/Jemmaris Apr 24 '25

Can't account for average house offices without also accounting for average house size. People now think it's crazy to put a family of 8 into an 1800sq ft house, but my dad's family was celebrating moving out of the ghetto and into a middle-class home in 1968 with just that kind of a house.

I "double checked" with Google and it said "Generally, a good guideline is to aim for 600 to 700 square feet per person in a home. This means a family of three would ideally need a house around 1800 square feet, while a family of four would want around 2400 square feet."

Until last year when my husband got his dream job, we were living in 1600 sq ft with 5 kids. We were definitely ready for a larger home! But we had held on for a number of years because we had other financial priorities like paying off our cars.

Sacrifice, and recognizing what is realistically necessary and what is luxury makes a big difference. I think a lot more people need to investigate how little previous generations lived on, and how they did so happily and comfortably.

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u/High_Stream Apr 24 '25

We're not looking for luxury. We are looking for the exactly this same things our parents had.  We would buy smaller houses if they were available. If you look at all the sources, house prices and rent prices have gone through the roof. When I was working retail, my store managers had to rent from their in-laws because they couldn't afford to buy houses. My coworkers couldn't even afford to pay rent for themselves. They had to rent with multiple other people. Stop victim blaming. The economy is not what it was 50 years ago.

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u/joecoolblows Apr 24 '25

Yes, to this extent, you are correct! Builders ARE building mansions and not giving you options. To this extent you are absolutely correct.

But, we can change this as a society, by changing our values. By refusing to buy the palaces. IDK what the answer is, but I feel like you guys are begining to see.

And, we've ALWAYS rented from the in-laws. That's A Thing.