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”.
Very easy to own a home. Just buy a house in the middle of nowhere, and then have a campervan
Even the houses in the middle of nowhere are $400K in my state. Rundown, off State Route X, nearest neighbors are all poor trash house? Still $400K.
I’m looking to build in the next year, and just expect that housing will be 50% of my pay or more because I’m sick of renting and being unable to prepare for when the rent shoots up $300 a month like it did last year.
Unless you’re in California or some other very high CoL in a city area that’s pretty doubtful.
In 2018 purchased an 1800sq ft 3 floor town home in northern Virginia in the fair fax area (very wealthy area) for 420k. 2 bed room 2.5 bath, built 2005.
I sold it in 2021 for 550k, probably could have made a bit more but we wanted to move . So there was definitely a big increase. But that’s a very nice, 2 BR, etc. there were cheaper ones. Down in the 300 range would get you a smaller home. Bought a nicer home in 2021 in a wealthy ish town of a small city. 2300 sq ft, 2 car garage, good schools, half acre to relax on. 450k after a second round of 3 way bidding.
The idea that you can’t purchase a decent home in a nice area for 400k is entirely incorrect. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5908-Founders-Hill-Dr-UNIT-302-Alexandria-VA-22310/51919565_zpid/
And to be clear, 400k isn’t affordable, we should drive that down, I just didn’t think what you said is realistic for most areas. It sounds unique ish to your area.
I don’t know what to tell you. I’m in Ohio, and everything is $400K, hence why I’m planning to go for a new-build…at over $400K.
Look I don’t know your needs but what are you talking about? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17307-Laverne-Ave-Cleveland-OH-44135/33378853_zpid/
Pretty sure Cleveland isn’t the only place in Ohio, and also I don’t think it’s even the top 3 centres people want to live? I remember a thread on Reddit a long time ago that people would rather live in Cincinnati or Columbus.
Futhermore, unless you actually live or have local knowledge of the area, random zillow postings are useless without context of whether it’s a “good” or “bad” part of town. I could post several “affordable” places in my city, but they’re next to meth dens. The real estate listings make them sound REAL NICE, though.
The original comment specified in the middle of nowhere. I choose a random city to price that’s bullshit. You can very much have your top choice of city .
https://www.zillow.com/cincinnati-oh/
There are hundreds of decent houses under 400k. 4br 2100sq ft 325k. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7977-Heatherglen-Dr-Cincinnati-OH-45255/34274700_zpid/
You do not need 400k to purchase a home in the vast majority of the country and certainly not in bum fuck Ohio. Imagine thinking this place is a meth den 🤣.
Again I’ve purchased a home several times in the last year in a high cost of loving northern VA as well as a ticket away white rich suburban neighborhood for 450k and it’s a FANTASTIC house in a low crime area. The sentiment expressed here is bullshit.
They will not let facts get in the way of their narrative of maintaining hopelessness, apparently. It’s like you handed a starving man a piece of pizza from Sam’s Club and they slapped it down because they wanted a Papa John’s pizza.
Ok, the biggest thing that stuck out to me was
Why are you buying “a home” several times in a year?
Years, it was a typo.
Maybe even down by the river.
A cardboard box can be a home!
Doesn’t even need to be middle of nowhere. Just needs to be ~30 minute drive away from city core. Cheaper suburbs are still very much affordable in every city I have seen.
Sometimes you gotta go out to that 20-30 min away “next nearest” smaller town that’s right next to the big city but isn’t actually in it. It has all your amenities and plenty to live off of, but if you wanna go to the big city’s malls, theaters, concerts, etc, you gotta drive 30 min instead of walk there.
Usually you can get very decent starter homes for 250k to 300k in said places, and usually in said “one off” towns the renting industry is much more slow, so you don’t have that “you have to buy NOW” pressure. Homes stay up for sale for a bit and you have more than 3 hours to make an offer lol.
Downside is now you need a car… though often even then the smaller towns have some form of public transport to the bigger city you can use, though it can be on a rarer schedule. IE your bus may only come every 2 hours so better not miss it.
I prefer “edge of the city suburbs” over “one town over” personally. Access to public transport means I skipped buying and paying for a vehicle and skipped straight to saving up for a house.
I’m gonna have to call bull on almost all of this, at least in my state. (The low listing times are real though… big money buying anything they can rent out)
To get to a starter home at $250,000 my commute would be 1hr and 50 miles minimum.
350k only gets me about 45 minutes and 30 miles.
And these time estimates are on a good day, because fuck good freeway design where I live. One goes north south, one East West, and that’s it. Everyone commutes on them and if you need to go anywhere in rush hours it’s three times as long
Checking Zillow for my city, it’s $500k minimum for a 2br an hour and a half away by car. That would also put me in the middle of a Republican area as a queer immigrant.
The “buy a house in the middle of nowhere” mentality doesn’t take into account the risks and depression associated with living somewhere red as a minority.
This is genuinely one of the first counterpoint I’ve seen that I have to say is actually super valid.
I completely agree on this, it’s a big factor to consider.
However, I will note often you see a sort of split where you have 2-3 suburbs/towns near a big city, and one of them goes blue abd the other goes red, and you can see a bit of polarizing that happens as folks switch between the two to polarize away from each other.
In my area, one smaller town just switch all it’s bathrooms to gender neutral bathrooms in the public office, the other one banned rainbow flags from being flown.
So if it’s a condolence, at least that sometimes happens.
I expect it depends how left/right the province/state as a whole leans. I expect this phemonina stops happening in places like texas :(
As an example, in my area the “magic sauce” for why it was so much more affordable is the same fact it’s heavily populated by imfolks from India and Africa. I’d say about half the people in this corner of the city or so, and I live in a much more right leaning province (Alberta, which is the florida of canada now)
So I expect a lot of… right leaning folks hate the idea of being neighbour’s with folks in this neighborhood.
Oh well, cheaper house for me, and I love my community.
I wonder to what extent some amount of “can’t afford homes” culture is influenced by racists who don’t count any homes that run the “risk” of having to live next door to someone who isn’t white.
I partially just assume people that “dont count” affordable homes because “I don’t wanna live there” are just racist at this point, or, minorities trying to avoid racists.
It’s not just this. Everything you said is objectivity bad advice.
K
Try looking in CO. The only house within 30 min of my job under $300k that isn’t a trailer or a tiny condo in this one old shithole building says, “everything needs to be repaired including structural repairs” in the listing. Trailers are still pretty much rentals and lot rent is outrageous ($800-1200 at basically every park that isn’t located directly on a hellmouth). Oh wait, I could go 90 min out and get a sweet deal of just $220k on a house that’s basically just a rotting outside and interior framing and insulation. What a great opportunity!
Try looking in one of the most desirable places to live in the country right now??? Are you all clueless???
Of course everything in CO is super pricey it got all that sweet Cali money flowing in.
If you’re expecting popular places to be even reasonably priced you’re kidding yourself.
It’s like going to a Bentley dealership and saying well where’s the bargain lot?!?!
You look foolish.
The original comment said, “Cheaper suburbs are still very much affordable in every city I have seen.” Denver is a city. Pretty sure if anyone looks foolish, it’s the person who couldn’t apply context to my reply…