A millennial couple who make $250,000 say they can't find a home in their budget: 'We refuse to become house-poor'

Yeah. I hate the negativity of the Internet, but this is what "life" (at least in the first world) has become: the negative stories are amplified and the positive ones are short.

In a time of great planetary wealth creation, there is still disparity. One of the richest nations on the Earth has packed all of its citizenry onto the "liveable coasts", into cities.

The couple mentioned in the article tried to move away to a more affordable area with more land (Portland is Urban, and Spokane is rural), and were met with boredom and dissatisfaction.

They both earn collectively $250,000/year, which seems like a lot, and to many people in the U.S who earn the median salary of $52-65,000/year, it is.

They mention not wanting to pay more than 30% of their budget to mortgage costs, which they stated with "$5,000 being 50%", which means their real adjusted income is closer to $120,000, not $250,000.

That's still a lot, but more reasonable to the point of Median Salary × 2.

What this average couple demonstrates however, is that the erosion of the "middle class" in the United States is complete: The middle class is dead. They are both educated professionals who are working honestly, and don't make enough money to own a home.

That makes them poor. That makes all of us poor -- and it is a gross failure of the economic system with misplaced incentives and lack of regulations that has led us to this point.

The important thing to remember that this socioeconomic and political atmosphere is wholly contrived.

A better world is possible -- it however requires sacrifices that many people are unable or unwilling to endure. Whatever you are imagining going through your head right now, that's exactly what is necessary to change the first world for the better.

It's not any one individual's fault this happened. The honest working man and woman haven't done anything wrong here, and aren't to blame -- it's precisely because the honest (the just) have enabled the dishonest (the unjust) to continue to run amok, completely unchecked and unchained.

Here is to a better future, and for all the hardship we must all endure, to get there. 🍺

Fuck Private Equity.

This is the biggest reason I haven’t moved. I managed to buy a house in a low cost of living area, with a low interest rate. Any move would force me to throw away my money renting, take a massive size/quality hit, or become house poor. And like them, I make about $250k.

I was shocked to find out that over 50% of millennials own their own homes.

I've been house browsing in the Portland area for a couple years and am losing hope of ever being able to afford one. Last year I saw a frame of a house, basically a roof on studs with tarp and plywood as the "walls" being listed for sale. They were asking for $300k.

I'm not sure I understand the math in this article. At current interest rates, a $550000 is closer to a 3.5k mortgage, not 5k.

At 250k a year, they're making roughly 20k per month. If they're willing to pay 30% of their income to a mortgage, that's 6k. Even post-tax, that's still more than 3.5k.

I agree that the cost of housing is ridiculous. This sounds more like they have exceptionally bad credit or they're looking at homes that are way above their budget.

It's high time we get over this notion that in America, you rent for a couple years, save money, and then buy a house. It is simply not possible anymore. The only people buying houses are people that have a house to sell.

We are lifetime renters and we live in a community with lifetime renters. Some of us even have GASP kids in an apartment.

I totally get how they feel.

I got lucky with some investments I made in 2020 that appreciated post-covid and was able to pay off my student loans and put a down-payment on a condo.

If you're a wage earner, at least here in the US, the prevailing political thought seems to be that it's perfectly acceptable for you to live on gruel in your grossly expensive rented apartment. I wish I could hope that voting changed anything about that, but I don't think it matters who we elect anymore, at least beyond the local level.

Over the past three years, the couple, who are both 36 and live in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, have been looking for a home.

Yeah, it be like that here. Most houses are costing around 1,000,000 in the Portland area due to wealthy techbros moving from San Fran.

Renting for life, this is exactly what the landowning class, much of whom are now giant hedge funds that have been soaking up houses and properties for cash on the barrel head, in this country want.

We desperately need national legislation to put an end to people and corporations owning large swaths of homes in this country otherwise we will end up with fiefdoms and are in danger of returning to a world of medieval nobility in land ownership.

didn't they get the memo: houses are for the 1% now. 250K might sound like a lot enough, but you're still a peasant to the people who own you

Bringing in 17k+ per month after tax and cannot afford a home?? I call bullshit. A $750k home is 5k per month including HOA/tax/insurance. That’s less than 30% of their take home.

They could double their payment and pay it off in 5 years, with 7k per month to live on, then they live rent free for the rest of their lives.

This article feels like propaganda. Homes are over priced but 250k per year is a lot of money.

These stories are always bullshit. They can't afford a 3000sqft single family home on an acre inside the beltway of a HCOL city. Anyone making $250k can easily afford a condo or townhome anywhere in the US. If you really need useless interior volume or wasteful yard space then you can move farther out and afford that.

Mortgage == death pledge

If you can skip the mortgage, you also dodge the compulsory insurance as well as all that interest rate bullshit.

Location location location. Gotta expand your horizons.

I don't care about these rich people.

🤏🎻

I don't feel bad for these people

I guess I'm lucky that I don't get bored easily because I can afford a house quite easily since I don't have to live somewhere "fun."