According to Redfin, there are currently 28,508 homes for sale in New Jersey. The median list price for a home in New Jersey is $579,000. In my town of about 30,000 residents, there are only 30 homes for sale. Those homes range in price from $685,000 to $6.3m, with an average cost of over $1 million.
There is no way that a young family can afford to buy a house in my town without double-law-partners income or a substantial handout from their parents. None. No way. My sons have zero chance of ever buying a home in this town.
Read more at Apt. 11D, the newsletter
Apt. 11d 
Our kids have discreetly inquired about the future… the answer is, how much is left will depend on how expensive our final illnesses are. One of my favorite checkers in the local grocery store lives in the house she inherited from her parents, expressed the view that no way in Hell she could have bought it.
We need to learn from the khruschyovkas. We can do them better! But to dispense with the niceties of name architects etc and to get units built.
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2019/2/25/life-inside-a-kiev-khrushchyovka-soviet-architecture-in-ukraine
LikeLike
You can still buy small houses close to public transit in my neighborhood for somewhere in the low $300,000s. Anyway, I doubt I’ve ever made as much as a starting associate at a NYC law firm and my main financial worry is that I’ll get Alzheimer’s.
LikeLike
My go-to cheerer-upper for my kids is that the median may be very high, but half of all apartrments/houses are less than that. If you don’t insist on amenities that didn’t even exist when we were young (central AC, granite countertops, 2 bathrooms in a 2 bedroom apartment, etc) you can do OK. This reality privileges those who have lived in an area for a long time, so that they know where to look and/or have connections with landlords of people with a basement apartment that they want to rent.
LikeLike
My oldest kid is applying to grad school this fall. The relationship between stipend and local rent is going to be an important factor in choosing where to go if she winds up with a choice. There are some programs where you can easily live by yourself and some where that doesn’t really seem to be an option. (For MH: Carnegie Mellon is on the list. How do people look for Pittsburgh apartments these days?)
I’m not really thinking about home-buying time for our kids yet, although the answer may be, buy during a recession. That’s what I tell my millennial friend who is stuck renting as a family of 3…The big Boomer die-off is already underway. It’s kind of macabre to talk about, but it is happening.
AmyP
LikeLike
I don’t know how people look for apartments. The market is full of new 1 and 2 bedroom units in downtown, the Strip, East Liberty, and similar. Those are very expensive. The older units in Squirrel Hill are still mostly pretty reasonable, I think. They haven’t been updated since I moved here. But I don’t know how you find them now. I knocked on a few dozen doors on Beeler Street last weekend and that street appears to be like 90% CMU graduate students. I knocked on a few dozen doors on Atwood Street too. That’s area is a bit nicer, apparently code enforcement is more active, but still not fit for anyone over 20. I put a Harris flyer on someone’s beer pong table using their full White Claw can as a weight.
LikeLike
When I moved into San Francisco as a 23 year old it was only affordable to live with roommates and due to rent control you could get good deals moving into a roommate situation where the lease was older. Here in Denver per my wife’s grad school friends it’s similar since there are landlords who are cool with swapping out roommates and not looking for new tenants so the rent is usually a little cheaper than market rate. Do colleges have on line housing sites where you can find these situations these days or does everyone use Craigslist?
LikeLike
I would check out the CMU subreddit and search for housing/apartment hunting. If nothing comes up it would be worth a post asking for advice.
LikeLike
Thanks!
AmyP
LikeLike
I have a relative whose son is an autistic teen. My relative and his wife are building a garage apartment in their back yard. The plan is to use the unit as an airbnb/whatever until their son is ready to move in and live semi-independently.
AmyP
LikeLike
As young people always have, they’ll need to move somewhere cheaper, or have a bunch of roommates. In part this is an NYC metro/big city problem. In Illinois, the average home price is $279k. In rural areas like mine – where you could move if you can work remotely, and some people do this – the average is $97.5k. You’re paying a lot to be an hour or two from one of the top five cities in the entire world.
Fun fact: I lived in DC 20 years ago in an apartment that I shared with another grad student I found on Craig’s List. My bedroom was a converted sun porch off the tiny galley kitchen. The rent was the about the same as what my mortgage payment is now.
Most people from cities and urban regions think they cannot possibly give up the good restaurants, shopping, etc. that cities provide, or – different kind of problem – making new friends and settling in somewhere else. But you could, or at least most people can.
There is a housing shortage affecting a lot of people, of course. This is in part due to increasing home size, and I’m especially struck by the huge houses that have been and continue to be constructed. In my parents’ old suburban neighborhood, a mansion just went up on *three lots* across the street from three one-story, probably 2 BR houses. This is in an excellent school district, walking distance from the high school. New 5 BR/5BR, $1.4 million homes are right down the street from $350k 3BR homes.
LikeLike
The problem with working remotely from a rural area is that it makes it harder to find another employer. I’m not saying it isn’t the best option for many people, and I worry about it less the more senior I get, but you get worse raises the more they know it is harder for you to switch jobs.
As for living in a small, rural town, I’ve done it and won’t willingly do it again. I do go back for visits to my old hometown. Many of those my age that I knew and liked best, don’t go back after their parents die. It’s not a matter of friends and restaurants. If you aren’t plugged into the local power structure, your life can be very hard. I had a pretty easy time of it for a bookish kid who couldn’t play football and it took me years to realize that’s because of who my dad was and not my innate charm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re currently driving thru rural NH. Slightly more Harris signs. But we just stopped in a brewery w a Norse theme and Steve’s convinced that it’s a Nazi hangout.
LikeLike
I don’t know New Hampshire at all, but I’d ask around if I saw something Norse themed here. A bouncer was explaining things to me one night.
LikeLike
I mean, for some people it means never finding a partner or having a family. That’s a pretty big sacrifice to make for home ownership. An academic friend ended up in a place where she was one of five lesbians. That’s a mighty small dating pool. It was a great job but she left as soon as she could.
LikeLike
There was only one guy from my school that I ever knew of who was gay. He plead guilty to crimes connected to Trump’s attempted coup. But he had lived in NYC for a couple of decades by then.
LikeLike
Yes we call it the “gay tax” where safe places to live cost more. My Asian American friends say similar things about small town US communities – they tend avoid a lot of them. And yes, if you want to date and marry within a small minority you generally need to be in a city.
LikeLike
Off topic, but I remember you have in-laws in NC. Everyone OK?
Selfanalyst
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! They are in the side of the state. But we’ve spent some time in Asheville over the years. Just looking at my pictures. It’s all gone.
LikeLike