The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in more than 20 years, grim news for would-be homebuyers already challenged by a housing market that remains competitive due to a dearth of homes for sale.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      7% on $416,000 (national average) is still more money than 16% on $47,200 in 1980…

      • hypelightfly@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Adjusted for inflation comparing interest paid for 30 year fixed:
        Loan Amount: $185,457 @ 16% - Interest Paid: $720,306 and Total Cost: $905,763
        Loan Amount: $416,000 @ 7% - Interest Paid: $580,923 and Total Cost: $996,923

        That’s closer than I thought actually.

        • ramble81@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I understand your math but I think the better view would be “what are the monthly payments at each point in time (no inflation) and how many of hours of work per month based on the median income of the time?”.

          Based on that the 1980 house would have a payment of $731/month. Median income was $21,020, which is about $10.11/hour. So it would take about 72 work hours a month to pay for a home.

          The current rates yield a monthly payment of $3,107. Median income is $56,940, which is about $27.37/hour. So now it would take 113.5 hours a month to pay for a home, an increase of almost 57%.

          To make it even worse, there are usually only 160 work hours a month, so that means you have to work 71% of a month just to pay for an “average” house and mortgage. I’m not even factoring in taxes or any other expenses.

  • iheartneopets@artemis.camp
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    1 year ago

    Rates shouldn’t have been so low in the first place. Home loans have basically been free money for the wealthy to acquire houses as assets in a sick fucking get-rich-quick scheme, where the consequences have been no one being able to afford homes. Now all we need is a tax on unoccupied homes.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I am so glad we have a fixed-rate mortgage, but I don’t know how we’re ever going to be able to afford to move out of this town.

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Zoning laws have a small part to play. The biggest issue is the privatization of the housing market. The government needs to get involved in building single family homes.

      • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Zoning laws absolutely play a huge part. They are the main tool of NIMBYs to prevent new construction of affordable housing.

        • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If you think developers well build housing that is affordable for the average American once zoning laws are changed, I have a bridge to nowhere to sale you. Zoning is an issue but there needs to be a counter balance of none profit based housing. Many modern nations have already switched the bulk of their housing to the nonprofit model and it works! Once zoning is changed Best case scenario is apartment buildings with rent no one can afford. We need more home owners in America. But the whole industry is focused on building rental properties.

        • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think we are saying the same thing. Even without zoning, now all that would change is chemical plants and dumps popping up around working class communities. Wealthy people will snap up rezoned land close to their houses. The housing crisis goes way deeper than just zoning laws, to the point they are just a tool of many.

          The tldr version: zoning was initially used to keep minorities out of areas and was changed into it’s current form once the majority of money had already pooled in to too few hands.

            • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The alternative is government building single family homes using eminent domain. I’m not saying zoning isn’t a issue but places have tried removing them and developers have zero incentive to build affordable housing.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Small part? My city is getting richer and richer while rents are exploding all the while my block is dying because zoning laws won’t let any of it be changed.

        • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          When it’s literally illegal to build dense housing within 50 miles of a big city it makes a big diffrence

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I am sorry for your situation but rage at me won’t change what your government did because people can’t be bothered to pay attention to local government.

        Name two people on your city board, tell me why you voted for your mayor, what was the last zoning board meeting about, the last time you spoke at a town.meeting what did you say?

        Yeah, thought so. Everyone is so worked up about what some asshole in Washington twatts at another asshole that they don’t notice or care about what happens right in their town. The thing they could actually work on.

        Can you call social services btw? How about a religious building in your area? Some of them do have apartments available temporarily.

        • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Not actually homeless, can you point out where I raged at you tho? All I did was ask a passive aggressive question pointing out the flaws in your logic…

            • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              I was showing empathy to homeless by spending a minute in their shoes. I went outside and sat by my garbage cans and everything.

              You might benefit from the glory of empathy, try it sometime ;]

              Edit: Thanks for not pointing out where I ‘raged’ at you. You don’t strike me as a very honest person either. 1200+ comments in 2 months… wow that’s a lot of hate to go through one poor soul.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Your mayor and city council is being lobbied by whom exactly? Who exactly is bankrolling the Faceboot page for Celitus to run for mayor? Why does some corporation have an interest in making sure that abandoned retail locations stay abandoned instead of being converted into condos?

        Go to your city’s website right now and check out the minutes from the zoning/adjustment board. Show me who has compelling interest in literal anything going on except the local Karens who want to keep POC out.

        • Match!!@pawb.social
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          1 year ago

          I appreciate that your overall intended message is “you have the power” but I do actually need to organize with others locally and not just vote

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Ok so why mention lobbying? From the strictly capitalist pov the less rules on what can be built where the better so I am not seeing where lobbying factors in. If the owning class had their way they would be building highrise apartments as fast as they could. I don’t give a shit about them, I care about us regular folks. I want cheap housing for the masses and if a few assholes make money that way then fine whatever. Let’s just get our cheap housing and tax those creeps to death later.

            Zoning came about in the US in response to the Civil Rights movement. It was a method of achieving Jim Crow by other means. It was never about neighborhood character or sewage or making sure industry didn’t setup next to daycares. It was about keeping the POC out, and it worked.