Latest / The imuRgency Room / The Real Reason Gen Z Isn't "Growing Up"

Transcript

The Real Reason Gen Z Isn't "Growing Up" · The imuRgency Room

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I don't know anybody who owns the house.
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I'm even thinking like adults as well.
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And I know a lot of adults like I, I have a wide range of like
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friends. And I'm even thinking about my
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adult friends who can even be like 40-30, you know, 50, like,
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'cause even when I think they own their house, know their
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partner owns the house. The concept of anyone owning a
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home under the age of 35 feels like just that, a concept,
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because who's paying for all that?
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Hey guys stuff. It's emergency and welcome.
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Welcome back to my channel. And today we're talking about
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housing. You know the place you live, you
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love, you sometimes share with roommates you don't know, and
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sometimes pay half your paycheck to live in a room with a shared
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space. And we previously talked about
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the economy and the job market on this channel and more
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specifically how it impacts Gen. Z.
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So that's nothing new. And because everything is so
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closely connected, we have touched on housing.
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But it's time we get deeper into it and see not only what the
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state of housing really is like for Gen.
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Z and some millennials do, but more so getting into how and why
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we are in this position. And the answer to that may just
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surprise you, but for this one, we are running it back.
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And I'm turning the mic back over to y'all because similar to
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the 80 hour Workweek video, if you haven't seen that, you have
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to go check that out. I did some interviews to hear
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directly from y'all for what y'all's experience is with this.
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Now, it's literally not news if you've been conscious over the
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past few years that the housing crisis is getting worse and
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worse. And like most evil, nefarious,
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sinister things that happen to us as Gen.
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Z, we tend to like to joke about it.
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You know the classics like I'll never be able to afford a house
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because I keep spending $10 on a match every day.
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And it seems pretty standard that a lot of people have
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resigned the thought of ever really owning property.
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And that feels like the general consensus, at least online.
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We wanted to talk to people who have a range of housing
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situations to see exactly what's out there for us and what is
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possible. In these interviews, we tried to
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capture a range of what's out there, like mostly renters, some
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owners, and some that don't necessarily fall into either
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category but may still have home owning aspirations.
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Now, I don't need to tell you all that there are frustrations
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within Gen. Z, which we've definitely talked
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about in the recession video and the ADR work week video, because
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conditions have changed so much and the lives that we were
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promised if we worked hard and got our degrees just simply does
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not exist anymore. And we know this.
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But I think seeing where we all are in this journey, seeing
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alternative perspectives and lifestyles than ours, we can
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learn and make the best informed decisions for our own personal
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lives. Because I think the Internet has
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skewed a lot of people's perceptions of what it means to
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be successful or at least on track.
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As a young adult with people on social media flexing houses in
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their early 20s, these crazy apartments and living situations
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which can make you feel like you're not doing enough or that
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you're behind or have your priorities wrong.
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But I really hope this video gives some perspective as to
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what the reality is offline, because none of us are on the
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same track or timelines, but all of them are equally OK because
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we are all moving at our own pace.
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And I do want to also add a quick disclaimer that this video
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in no way is endorsing that home ownership is like the right way.
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Because as we're going to see in this video, that's not
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necessarily the right path for everybody.
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And not everyone needs to aspire for that.
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And that's OK because housing can and will look different for
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all of us. And while the type of housing
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can vary from person to person, the act of having housing should
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be consistent for everyone. And unfortunately, we live in a
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time where that is not a reality for many people.
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And housing prices, whether for rent or to own, are soaring.
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And again, literally always talking about this kind of stuff
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on this channel. And oftentimes when we do, we
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reference the quote UN quote powers at B.
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Now let's talk about the rise of the renters market in the
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Goodyear of 2025. It's safe to assume that the
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majority of Gen. Z are renting or living at home
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with parents. But surprisingly, there is a
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small percentage that is creeping up there of homebuyers.
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I mean, we are the youngest generation of actual eligible
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homebuyers. So it makes sense that we aren't
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taking up a huge percentage. But what is interesting to know
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and less tangible to find actual results in is seeing these
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sentiments of home buying within our generation.
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Is that still something in our milestone goals like other
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generations or are we just nixing it completely?
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And as I spoke to some of y'all, it seems like there is some hope
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for homeowning just further down the line.
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Because I'm 22 and I'm still in school, it feels like out of
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reach the whole I would love to go back to thinking small town,
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out of the way kind of deal. Also, like I work and go to
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school here, so it's just so not on my radar.
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It's not something that I think about.
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I want to own property. I absolutely do.
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Unfortunately my biggest barriers are financial barriers.
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As an adult, I've never really had a whole lot to my name,
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especially not with working restaurant and retail my entire
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working career. I do want to own property.
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I think the only thing that's stopping me right now is time
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because I'm young and I need to build up, I mean credit and then
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also just finances in general. But I do, I want to own property
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in like a career sense business wise, like an office space.
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But this does differ from previous generations where
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things like family building and home buying were almost expected
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in their 20s and 30s. Crazy.
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That Gen. Z's parents bought their houses
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when they were younger than Gen. Z was.
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Like for instance, my parents when they were 21 purchased a
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home. I'm 23 and live in an apartment
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and rent's going up. It's it's not going down South.
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Between home prices going up, rent increasing, the just
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overall cost of living going up. It's kind of crazy how much
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times have changed from previous years where in the early 2000s
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you could be 21 years old, fresh out of high school for a few
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years and be able to purchase a home.
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But now today you can go to college, get a degree, and not
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be able to find a job and let alone get a house because you're
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living in an apartment with probably 1 if not multiple
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roommates. As of April 1st, 2025, Baby
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boomers, or the boomers which are those aged around 60 to 75,
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account for around 42% of all homebuyers in the US, while
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Millennials are around 29%. Meaning that boomers own the
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most amount of property out of all of the generations alive
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right now. And maybe that's because they're
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more responsible, maybe because they've been on the earth
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longer, or maybe because they're able to buy a house for like 25
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K. Maybe a little jig and like, I
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don't know, some toothpicks. And now they can be landlords
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first of all. They need to downsize.
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Part of the problem is that none of the boomers want to downsize
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and they are in these massive houses and the market is
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completely trashed because of it.
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And people need to stop counting out Gen.
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Z in general, which is also why I love your channel, because
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people need to stop counting out Gen.
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Z. Like we, yes, sometimes we are
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the problem, but a lot of the times we're not.
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Every generation has their problems, but we're doing a lot
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with what we're given. We were handed a crappy housing
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market, we were hitting a crappy economy, we were handed
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bachelor's degrees that don't get U.S. jobs.
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And it's like we're doing the best that we can and we're still
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succeeding anyway. Hey everyone.
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I was just talking to one of our managers here who's well into
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his 60s and just bought another house that they're going to plan
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on flipping to make money on. And when I mentioned that my
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generation has next to no probability of ever being able
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to afford their own homes, I was told that that's just a mindset
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that we're getting ourselves stuck into and that we need to
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think outside the box. According to realtor.com, mom
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and pop landlords or just independent landlords not tied
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to a development company own the majority of housing.
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Real estate in the US is independent individuals who are
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landlords and not just Blackstone.
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Take that as you will. Like renting has always existed
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but like if you think about it, rent is kind of like the OG
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subscription service, like a monthly charge to have a place
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to exist and live in. And housing has become so
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commodified which is so so nefarious.
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My heart take is that housing should be a human right and the
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fact that it's only getting harder and harder to grasp is
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again nefarious. And renting as we know is not
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all fun and games because there has been some serious rent in
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even in the past five years alone.
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According to NerdWallet. Still rents are 36.2% higher
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than before the pan. And the dramatic increase from
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before the shutdown to now is very hard to grapple with,
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especially considering how the job market is right now and how
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minimum wage hasn't significantly gone up in years.
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Makes of the fact that the places that people are renting
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that are having the rent increases are not getting any
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newer or any more premiums. So I'm like, why are we doing
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all this? So with rent rising and salaries
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not so much, it's kind of hard to abide by the gold standard
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rule of your rent being a third of your monthly pay.
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And if that's the case for just renting, owning is a whole other
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ball game. So right now I'm living in a
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homeless shelter. I didn't know there were so many
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different types of homeless shelters.
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The one I'm in right now is dorm style, so it's a renovated
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warehouse and then the main room it has like really little
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cubicles with a bunk bed in each cubicle.
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There's 85 women here. Staff is great.
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It's a women only shelter. They have great amenities.
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I'm in one of their little office rooms now, and the
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shelter I was at before this was a renovated Motel 6.
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So that one was nice because it was just two people to one room
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and you had a private bathroom. But because of the homelessness
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crisis in Los Angeles and funding issues, that homeless
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shelter are closed. So that's why I am I am now.
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Like let's debrief for a second. There's been some speculation
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for a while now that short term rentals like Airbnb and Verbo
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have contributed to certain neighborhoods families not
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having as much of an ability to buy a single family home as
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before. And while it definitively is not
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a main driver for the housing crisis, it's something that some
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cities like Irvine and California are pushing back
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forward to let families have a chance at buying homes first.
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Like not everything is all doom and gloom.
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And again, this is not saying that renting is all bad either.
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Like I am a chronic renter and the majority of young people
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living in a big city are. That's just the reality of the
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situation. And while yes, it may be some
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people's only option, renting is a very valid choice even if you
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do have prospects of homeowning. And we've heard some of those
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pros to renting directly from y'all so.
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In my mind, if you asked me earlier in the year, I was like,
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I want to buy something so at least my, my rent, my mortgage
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will be really stable so I can stay kind of near all the busy
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things. But now I'm more so like, oh, I
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don't mind renting if I want to like pick up and leave and go
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somewhere else. It's so much easier.
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I, I just broke my lease recently so I can just send a
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little message like I'm leaving and they're like, OK, cool.
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But with a mortgage, you do have to be a little bit more
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conscious of like your payments are going to get renters to go
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there. I think the responsibility with
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renting is better for my situation now, but I like the
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idea of owning in terms of the control of nothing's going to
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change here in my little my little cabana, whatever it.
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Is it's interesting, I've never really dreamt about owning a
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house that much. Maybe one day.
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I really like the convenience of renting and kind of the open
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opportunities with renting. You could go anywhere you want.
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If you want to live in a different state, you can just
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pack up and move. And when you have a house,
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there's a lot more commitments and maybe it's just settling
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down that I don't want, but I don't really, I don't really
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look forward to owning a house. We'll get into the hidden cost
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of home ownership soon enough and it's very valid to not want
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to deal with that because renting means you can hit up
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your landlord to fix things and not dealing with maintaining a
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property because that's just like not your job.
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Owning a property, on the other hand, is not just a price tag on
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the House. There's so many other things
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that go into it that people just like don't talk about, and it's
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a lot of time, work and money and heavy on the money if you
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want someone else to go and do those things for you.
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I kind of have like that's my my hot take is I don't think
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renting is something where you're like you're putting money
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into nothing. You're exchanging your money for
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a place to stay. Like I know people are very like
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I know that the landlord comment.
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I know it's an exchange of a service and like, but we're
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paying your mortgage. But like when you need a new
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refrigerator, I still go to my landlord.
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I got I had a white refrigerator when I moved to and I called
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them. I was like, I don't want a white
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refrigerator, which is a stupid request really, but I didn't
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want my friends to joke around me having a white refrigerator
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and my landlord went and bought like a refrigerator
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refrigerator. So that's something I can do as
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someone renting, but if I was my own landlord, if I was, I bought
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my house. I had to just go and buy a
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refrigerator. OK, so we have a baseline for
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renting and rentership, but what does it look like to actually
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own? And I think a good way to start
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this section off, I know this is kind of academic, but is to look
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at this graph. Like we all know how expensive
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homeownership is. And while I do think that the
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dollar is adjusted for inflation in this, it's still so crazy to
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see the drastic and dramatic increase in housing over the
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last 60 years. Like this is from the US Census
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Bureau. So it's understandable why
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people feel hopeless at this prospect with everything else
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considered. But again, Gen.
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Z is now at the age where some of us, I can join the homeowner
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group and let's review a little bit of what that's like.
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First thing that shocked me when I was learning about all of this
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are really those hitting costs of homeownership, like owning a
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home is not just paying a monthly mortgage like that would
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be nice. The main three things you have
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to keep in mind are property tax fees and homeowners insurance.
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And especially if you're buying a house right now, the property
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taxes can be pretty expensive since it's sort of relative to
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the price that your house was valued at when you made the
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purchase. And since the homes right now
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are valued very highly, I'll let you do the math.
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The fees part are only really if you have an H or homeowners
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association or buy a condo, but that's still a monthly payment
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on top of your mortgage that you're paying every month.
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And the homeowners insurance is required for you to have in
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order to get a home loan. But although that doesn't cover
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natural causes of damage or as this article puts it, acts of
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God, which I guess is pretty all-encompassing.
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So for all of those things, you do have to get an additional
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insurance on top of that. And that's something to consider
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what state you're buying in. Like if you're living in LA,
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there are houses that are majorly expensive and part of
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the cost has to go to fire insurance.
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And of course, lastly, I do have to harp on just one more time,
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just any maintenance or fixings or renovations or upgrades to
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your house, whether that be lawn services, routine maintenance
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like plumbing, electric, gas, roofing, maybe there's mold,
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pests, Wi-Fi issues, etcetera, etcetera.
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Like you're paying out of pocket for all of that.
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And many homeowners actually advise that.
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On top of that, you keep a emergency fund for maintenance
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on top of the monthly mortgage and down payment for the house
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during the process of saving, just so you can be prepared
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ahead of time in case any of those emergency things do
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happen. I guess a little tidbit of
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advice I can offer. When I bought my house, that was
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like a huge word in my house. Like what if this thing breaks?
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What am I going to do? And then I was watching some
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YouTube video and they and I was like, this makes perfect sense.
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Why haven't I been doing this? They were like for, I don't know
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if I came up with this, but basically the average cost of
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like issues in a home is something like 1 to 2% of the
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value of the home per year. And so you save a 12th of that
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every month along with your mortgage.
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And then you have like and that's how you create like a
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home savings fund and. Then another aspect that impacts
13:56
homeownership is the whole concept of like, the dual
13:58
earner. Like, obviously carrying the
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burden alone of paying a monthly mortgage can be hard to bear.
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So it makes sense why buying a home was usually the next step
14:07
for a married couple as opposed to a single person.
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Not to say that it's not possible for anyone else, but
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yeah. It's harder to buy a house by
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yourself and I think that having two incomes massively allowed us
14:18
to buy a house. So I, I think it was my
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mentality about like the clock starting from marriage.
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I think it was also my upbringing, like buying a house
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is always going to be a thing that I was going to do.
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But I think it, it kind of got accelerated by me getting
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married. And that like allowed it to be
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more real because if I was by myself, I would be in an
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apartment. I would honestly, I'd probably
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be with my parents. That's the other thing.
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We both lived, lived at home until we got married.
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So that was something else that we did says like save or
14:46
whatever, but. I do I my plan is to own
14:48
property. I think I've changed my, I guess
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like more rigidity with being like in the states because I was
14:56
in like a very hardcore. I was, I had a realtor.
14:59
Everything was approved for like a really good loan and had a
15:03
great down payment that I was saving for for a few years.
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And I was being outbid like because I'm also going into the
15:09
housing market as like a single woman.
15:11
Like my income is very strong in tech.
15:13
So I'm very comfortable with my income and my savings.
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But I was being outbid. I think at one point $60,000 I
15:20
was already over asking and they went 60 over me to get a home.
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And then I was thinking it's not that serious.
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The the roof needs to be done and they don't have a washer and
15:30
dryer and there's a radon in the basement.
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That's not worth paying $4000 a month in mortgage even though if
15:36
it's stable if I were to lose my job.
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Tech is very the AI bubble and things are rough right now.
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So if I bought my house and got laid off, I'm like in the worst
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position and. That doesn't even get into the
15:47
privileges of owning a home because of course buying a home
15:50
is a privilege. Having parents that would be
15:52
your cosigners pay or down payment in closing or I'll even
15:55
know the process in the market. There's so much to know when it
15:58
comes to actually owning a home that it can be incredibly
16:01
overwhelming if you don't have someone in your corner that
16:04
knows what they're doing or you yourself don't know the process
16:07
or what you're doing. Even in this article by CNN
16:09
stating that Gen. Z are becoming homeowners, the
16:11
people that they interviewed have that support from their
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families. And that's like no tea, no
16:14
shade, because regardless, it's still a huge responsibility.
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But obviously having a support network to help you or even foot
16:20
the bill for some of if not all of these costs is definitely a
16:23
help. And in that same CNN article,
16:24
quite a few of the young home buyers credit their parents and
16:27
families for the help. And even one of the buyers
16:29
credits the seller for helping them with the closing costs and
16:31
even some of the maintenance before actually selling the
16:33
property. Which just goes to show that
16:35
like, yes, if we don't have like, elder vultures and greedy
16:38
people as the gatekeepers of selling, then maybe, just maybe,
16:41
it could be possible for more young people to start buying.
16:43
But that's neither here nor there.
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Sometimes like you'll see those posts on Twitter where it's like
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23 owns home fully paid off car, like that like whole thing.
16:53
And like I'm always very candid about this.
16:55
I own a home because my mom was able to help me own a home.
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And I think having transparency around that is really important.
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I'm not going to like sit here and pretend like I did that by
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myself because I didn't, that wouldn't be honest.
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And most of the people I know my age that do own property are in
17:12
a similar situation to me. They also experience and benefit
17:15
from that privilege. With that privilege comes
17:18
understanding that that is not the norm and that is like an
17:21
abnormality. But I always try to be as
17:24
truthful about that as possible that like, I own a home, yes,
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but I also own a home because my mom has been able to help me get
17:34
that home. Like she was like my cosigner on
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my house and everything like that.
17:38
So technically, like we both own it.
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Let's talk about those of us who.
17:42
Were actually raised you you felt like you were kind of rich.
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You had a MC mansion, 345 bedrooms.
17:49
You went on vacations to other countries, your parents.
17:52
Had nice cars, my dad drove BMW's, my mom had big cars.
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Denali Land Cruiser, best car ever.
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Stand by that. You kind of want it for nothing.
18:02
You got the new iPod every Christmas.
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Very privileged, right? But now you're like, oh, I went
18:08
to college. I actually went to grad school
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and I'm living in my mom's house.
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As most things, some people just have more privilege when it
18:14
comes to housing security and home ownership.
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And I do want to say that it's a very American thing to want to
18:19
live individually, especially individually while you are
18:22
young. Like the whole idea of financial
18:24
independence and stability is the crux of the good All
18:26
American dream. But for many cultures, it
18:28
actually is the norm to live intergenerationally, communally.
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But we currently live in a western individualistic society
18:34
that perpetuates the idea that to own a home, especially if you
18:37
are young, is a major flex. It's like you're just doing
18:39
something right, following the blueprint to be the ideal adult
18:42
and the model citizen, even though that blueprint might not
18:45
be as vibrantly blue anymore. It might even be just a little
18:47
bit torn up in age with the times.
18:49
But it's still considered to be like what you should be doing,
18:52
especially after you've graduated college and hopefully
18:54
have earned your first job. But as we know, in reality,
18:56
especially now, it is even if you did land your first job,
18:59
most positions don't pay you enough to actually allow you to
19:02
pay off a house comfortably. And this sort of brings me to
19:04
the conversation that we've had actually in another video
19:06
talking about the rise of Gen. Z Living at home and the stigmas
19:09
around that. Because while it definitely is
19:11
more normalized now, at least within Gen.
19:13
Z, it's still almost sort of feels looked down upon coming
19:16
from other generations. If you are in your 20s and
19:18
living with your parents, because people's idea is like,
19:21
by then you should be self-sufficient, especially
19:23
after graduating high school and college.
19:24
But again, with the job marketing economy that we have
19:26
been so graciously left that we're all experiencing, I think
19:29
that sentiment and stigma is on its way out.
19:32
And like culturally, we're getting to a point where it is a
19:34
little bit more acceptable and understandable given the
19:36
situation, which is honestly kind of shifted that dialogue
19:39
internally because now not as many people outwardly are going
19:41
to say anything about you living at home with your parents.
19:44
But from what I've heard of friends, family and y'all, a lot
19:46
of that dialogue of like feeling the shame of like, oh, I should
19:48
be moving out by now or like you feel like you're behind or like
19:50
having your adult development be arrested is coming from inside
19:53
the house in my inside the house.
19:55
I mean, inside the house, it's you telling yourself that babes.
19:58
And I feel like if that is the case, if that does sound like.
20:01
Then you need to give yourself some grace.
20:02
I just want people to in general, especially Gen.
20:06
Z, like I I have a sister who's like younger Gen.
20:09
ZI want people to feel OK with just having different benchmarks
20:15
than maybe our parents. Did I?
20:17
I think every situation is valid.
20:19
It's really just figuring out what makes sense for you and
20:22
what's best for you and what is hopefully.
20:25
Financially feasible if it's something you want to do and if
20:29
you are serious about home. Ownership, whether you're doing
20:32
it by yourself, whether you're doing it with a partner, just
20:35
having those conversations, even if you have to have them like 50
20:38
times, it's the best way to go in with a clear head and a plan.
20:43
Everyone has different situations, so I don't like to
20:46
assume that like one situation outweighs the other, but I hope
20:51
people feel OK that where they're at in life is not
20:55
linear. Kind of like you said, like we.
20:57
Know that owning a home is a luxury, but I'd argue in major
20:59
cities because the market is so to be able to rent your own
21:02
place is a flex and is a luxury because the reality is for a lot
21:05
of Americans, we don't have the safety net to help pay cover
21:08
costs and guide us through the process of homeownership.
21:10
And I think the most important part of this section is to
21:12
highlight the fact that everyone is truly on a different path.
21:15
And I don't say that to be woo woo.
21:16
I mean that to be like real like everyone is on a different path,
21:19
on a different timeline and there shouldn't be a pressure to
21:21
be at a certain place before you are ready.
21:23
And not because everyone around you is ready.
21:25
Like you have to be ready to make that decision for yourself
21:28
because you are the one that is going to be 1 footing the bill
21:30
and two, living with that decision.
21:32
And I asked everyone I interviewed whether they owned a
21:34
home or not, what their peers living situations were and their
21:36
takes on that. And this is what they said all.
21:38
My friends actually own. Houses, but they rent an
21:42
apartment. I'm like trying to think of
21:44
anyone even within five years of me, I don't think I know anyone
21:49
that owns a house or is even thinking of owning because.
21:52
As you can see, everyone has their preferences and should and
21:55
can do what they want. Now for this next stage of the
21:57
video, I do have to hop on my high horse.
21:58
I do have to Cape for Gen. Z right now against the other
22:00
generations because I'm just a little confused.
22:03
And this is a section I will call the Gen.
22:05
Z Scarlet letter of actually becoming an adult.
22:07
As we know and as we've talked about, this generation did not
22:09
get the payout of adulthood that we thought we would going to
22:12
college, getting one or multiple degrees, working hard in the
22:15
legs for inflation to go up, minimum wage stay the same.
22:17
The price is everything going up seemingly just for fun.
22:20
And as we mentioned, we as Gen. Z tend to take things like that
22:23
that are typical like negatives and spin them into positives or
22:27
just meme on them on social media.
22:29
Hence the whole Gen. Z in corporate content vertical,
22:32
which in turn spawned the whole like Gen.
22:34
Z doesn't want to work discourse.
22:35
That is what I like to call the Gen.
22:37
Z work scarlet letter. However, and if you're familiar
22:39
with the Scarlet Letter, it's basically like this brand that's
22:41
put on you that's meant to symbolize like shame in like
22:43
shunning, because that's essentially what was happening
22:46
to Gen. Z in the workforce.
22:47
People were seeing younger people or Gen.
22:49
Z and assuming that because they were Gen.
22:51
Z that they're lazy, they don't want to work and they're not
22:53
responsible. That's fine and dandy.
22:55
We've handled that in another video.
22:56
It's just interesting to see that that same principle is
22:59
being carried over to other aspects of life, namely when it
23:03
comes to other indicators of adulthood, like per SE housing.
23:08
It's kind of like a damned if you do, damned if you don't
23:10
situation where like if you don't want to buy a home or like
23:12
get your own place or can't do those things, you're seen as not
23:15
meeting the moment and like not being an adult.
23:17
But also if you are someone who is able to do that and wants to
23:20
do that, you're looked at as like not experienced and like
23:22
immature and not competitive. So it's like which is it I.
23:25
Had a close family member that was not very supportive, that
23:30
didn't really think that we were being serious.
23:33
And that thought, you know, you're, you're just too young
23:35
for this. And even some loan agents, some
23:38
people when we were touring houses, treated it like we were
23:41
just, you know, playing around, like we just weren't being
23:43
serious and like, we weren't ready for the next step.
23:47
And we got the same thing when we got married.
23:49
So we were kind of used to it at that point.
23:51
Like, people just don't take you seriously until you do it.
23:54
So we're just like, OK, we just got to do it and show them that,
23:57
you know, we are serious. I had AI, had a bad realtor, and
24:01
I had a really good realtor. They were, I don't think they're
24:03
real bad in their own way. But the first one was bad where
24:06
she wouldn't even put in my offers what the situation was
24:09
that made me fire her because you can fire her realtor, which
24:11
is great. And we went to a home.
24:13
I loved it. The woman had to leave like
24:14
immediately. She like broke her leg.
24:16
It was a condo. She broke her leg and she
24:17
couldn't get up and down the stairs.
24:19
And she went over asking for that property.
24:22
I'm making up numbers. Let's say she paid like 300,000.
24:25
That was the original and she went 350.
24:27
So now she was selling it for like 460 because why not?
24:30
And I was like, I'm not going to give you that much.
24:32
I'll say I'll do 400. It's above what you originally
24:34
paid. No problem.
24:35
And my realtor refused to put the offer in.
24:37
She was like, it's kind of a smack in the face to her because
24:40
she put it at 4-6 in your offering 400.
24:42
And I'm like, so she wants to leave fast.
24:43
I can do a quick move because it's only me.
24:45
You don't have to worry about like, oh, we gotta move the kids
24:47
out of school. We can only do it in the summer.
24:49
And she wouldn't put in my offer.
24:50
So I just I left and that woman still hasn't sold at home.
24:52
So when I was buying my house, you know, you deal with your
24:56
realtor and then also the like mortgage person, the loan
25:00
officer. And I think that those people
25:03
really thought that I was just going to be like super excited
25:05
to own a home because I was like 22 and this is so exciting.
25:08
And so I remember the realtor like really seeming surprised
25:13
whenever like she took Macy's certain house and I was like, I
25:15
don't think I want to live here. I don't want the neighborhood
25:17
that much. The house seems kind of old,
25:19
like different little things would come up.
25:21
And I think she was genuinely pretty shocked by that.
25:24
She was just like, I mean, we have to put an offer somewhere,
25:27
you know, it's a house, you know, especially she showed me,
25:30
I ended up buying a town, but she showed me a few single
25:32
family house and she was just like, it's a whole house.
25:34
And I was like, this house is like so old.
25:36
It looks dusty. I don't want to live here, you
25:38
know, So I do think there was an expectation that I'd just be OK
25:43
with things and also that I'd not be very intentional in the
25:47
process. I didn't know a ton about home
25:48
ownership, but I knew enough to know like, this is a huge thing
25:50
that I'm doing. And so I asked a lot of
25:52
questions, like with the down payment assistance, like I was
25:55
asking, so how do these programs work?
25:56
What's going to happen? Why should I choose this one
25:58
over that one? And I remember one of the first
26:00
loan officer that I worked with really didn't like that at all.
26:02
So I ended up working with somebody else because I was
26:04
like, you're going to answer my questions.
26:05
I'm signing up for a lot of that here.
26:07
But yeah, definitely, I think there was an expectation because
26:10
of my age that I just kind of trust them to do everything,
26:14
kind of just go along with everything.
26:15
And he's just like, Oh my God, I'm getting a house rather than,
26:17
you know, being someone who wants to be informed.
26:19
And of course these examples aren't every single case, but it
26:22
is interesting to note that for some Gen.
26:23
Z we're not being taken seriously in comparison to older
26:26
families and couples are just older people regardless of if
26:29
the credit, the cosigners or the income is comparable.
26:31
Like while it is still technically possible for young
26:33
single people to own, it might be harder to get that pre
26:37
approval for a home loan. Generation Z, though still a
26:40
small segment of the market, 3% of all buyers have the highest
26:43
share of single female home buyers at 30%.
26:45
And like millennials they tend to purchase older homes compared
26:48
to other age groups. Gen.
26:50
Z is slowly entering the housing market with the lowest household
26:52
income and they're more likely to be single than other buyers.
26:56
So absolutely it's not impossible to buy a home being
26:58
single or being Gen. Z, but it definitely can be more
27:01
challenging because you probably need a cosigner or hope that a
27:04
couple isn't applying to that house as well because double
27:06
income is more competitive. Which actually leads to the next
27:09
topic around how shockingly the loneliness epidemic, you know
27:12
she keeps coming back around in trash dating sphere, in a
27:15
roundabout way, are also kind of tanking our chances at home
27:18
ownership. I know, I didn't think that
27:20
would be a sentence I would say either, but walk with me for a
27:22
second. This first graph shows just how
27:24
bleak the current situation is. Back in 1970, half of 30 year
27:27
olds were married and homeowners.
27:29
That's just unthinkable for Gen. Z.
27:31
Kids these days aren't just magically lazier than previous
27:33
generations. We work just as hard as our
27:35
parents did, and like them, we were raised to strive for the
27:38
American Dream. That's the promise of a stable
27:40
and dignified life available to everybody who's willing to work
27:43
hard for it. And the textbook example was
27:45
homeownership. It's the place to raise your
27:47
family and build the wealth that you'll pass on to your kids.
27:50
We're told to put in our 40 hours of work every single week,
27:53
but work just doesn't pay like it used to.
27:55
Americans haven't gotten a raise since the 1980s.
27:58
Wages haven't increased faster than inflation and cost of
28:01
living. So even if it seems like our
28:02
paychecks are higher, we've got less left in our pockets after
28:05
expenses like healthcare, housing, and insurance.
28:07
You. Know we love to talk about Gen.
28:09
Z and dating and love. It's one of my favorite topics
28:11
ever. But truly I say this all the
28:13
time. But everything is connected.
28:15
As we just talked about, buying a home on a single income is
28:17
incredibly difficult as it is and you may need a cosigner if
28:20
you don't have an insane income. But a dual income home, a double
28:24
earner, a DINK if you will, or even a twink?
28:27
So me and my boyfriend were talking about money stuff
28:29
earlier and he was like well we shouldn't stress too much
28:31
because we're twinks. I was like what?
28:34
And he was like, yeah, Twinks, 2 income, no kids.
28:38
And I'm like, it's Dinks. We're not skinny gay man.
28:42
Like what are you? It's more secure for payments
28:45
and all the other costs that come with owning a home.
28:47
So when we connect this with the Gen.
28:48
Z loneliness epidemic, more people just are statistically
28:51
dating and getting in relationships less often.
28:53
One definitely impacts the other.
28:55
If people are more single and isolated now more than ever with
28:58
rising housing costs, then it would make sense that it would
29:00
be harder than ever to become a home buyer because more people
29:03
would just have single income as opposed to a dual income.
29:06
Especially since these Realtors and sellers prefer selling
29:08
people with a better financial safety net, IE couples and
29:11
families because of the multiple incomes, which just adds another
29:13
barrier to people who just might want to buy their own home.
29:15
And the irony here is that it's harder for single people to be
29:18
actually alone because if you have no friends, community or
29:20
partner, you might need to be a renter longer.
29:22
And if you live in a city like LA, that might be just a room in
29:25
like a four bedroom home. In fact, marriage is
29:27
increasingly seen as something to opt in and out of whether
29:30
you're in one already or not. And these days the choice for
29:32
young people largely seems to be opt out.
29:34
The average age that adults are getting married in the United
29:37
States has significantly increased since the 19 50s, with
29:39
marriage rates in general on the decline.
29:41
Meanwhile, Pew Research Center found that in 2021, a record 25%
29:46
of 40 year olds have never been married, up from just 6% in
29:50
1980. These stats suggest a growing
29:52
number of young adults in their 20s and 30s are delaying or
29:54
foregoing marriage altogether. With Gen.
29:56
Z having lower rates of marriage or being in couples due to
29:59
things like the rise of independence and other various
30:01
reasons, it makes it harder to imagine or strategize home
30:04
ownership without that secondary income.
30:06
Again, not saying that it's impossible, but definitely more
30:08
difficult because adding another, the person gives you
30:09
more cards. Maybe their parents could be
30:11
cosigners or they've saved for a down payment.
30:13
And if you have a stable and secure partner, that does make
30:15
the process a lot easier. So like maybe since like we're
30:18
not getting married, let's like forego like the lavender
30:20
weddings and start picking up like lavender homeownership.
30:24
Who wants to be my cosigning beard?
30:27
And it's just really interesting to see how, like, our avoidance
30:29
is bleeding into housing because one thing about our generation,
30:32
a lot of us are avoidant, and we can see that a bit in our living
30:34
situations. When I talk to people about the
30:36
prospect of being a homeowner, something that comes up a lot is
30:38
like not wanting to be tied down, not wanting to commit to
30:41
one place or a city for too long, which is valid, but still,
30:44
yeah, it's like the concept of not wanting to put all your
30:46
cards in one basket and commit to one place without really
30:49
thinking about the long term strategy of it all, if that's
30:51
something that you ideally want. Now, I wanted to end this video
30:53
off of the conversation around generational will because I
30:56
think that's an important part of this whole conversation.
30:58
Because I think that's a large reason around why we see the
31:01
patterns in wanting to buy a house or an apartment or
31:04
whatever, or not. Because there are definitely
31:05
some systems at play that have historically prohibited and
31:08
continues to discourage people of color, women, and other
31:11
marginalized groups from owning property.
31:13
People of color have historically been dissuaded from
31:15
ownership. And that kind of thinking, like
31:16
always wanting to rent as opposed to buying a home, gets
31:19
past time generationally because you tend to aspire to things in
31:22
your immediate vicinity, the people and things that you see
31:25
around you. Yeah, so growing up, we we
31:27
always lived in apartments. We moved a lot actually.
31:31
Not always apartments, always rented, never.
31:34
My mother didn't own. And so because of that, I
31:37
didn't, I knew that like people with more money owned homes.
31:40
And so I kind of had this idea that like one day I'll probably
31:43
make more money and own a house, but it was not really like a
31:46
specific goal in any way. And it really know too many
31:49
people who own homes growing up. So it wasn't something I was
31:51
really thinking about. And there are many factors that
31:53
have contributed to this, with some of the main ones being
31:55
government policies that have historically supported white
31:57
home ownership but did not do the same for black families,
32:00
discrimination for private mortgage companies, withholding
32:02
services from red light neighborhoods and offering
32:04
higher rates and fees to minority borrowers, And finally,
32:07
the economic well-being. Just generationally, white
32:09
families have had the means to pass family inheritance, income,
32:12
property, etcetera, whereas statistically Latino and Black
32:15
families get less assistance from relatives or
32:17
intergenerational inheritance than white Americans, which
32:20
makes sense because we historically have not been on
32:23
the upper hand of the economy in wealth building.
32:25
If you or your family have been lifelong renters, it's easy to
32:27
see why you might carry this mindset.
32:29
Any of you think that that's the best for your personal life and
32:31
situation? Then that's not a bad thing.
32:32
But I think the purpose I want to serve in this video is to
32:34
open up the conversation more and maybe see things outside of
32:37
what we have traditionally seen as possible for us, even
32:40
throughout this particularly frustrating time.
32:42
I think it's also good to see and to know that home ownership
32:45
isn't solely a individual thing or like a skill issue.
32:47
Like by and large, it is kind of bigger than us.
32:50
And when it is possible and represented for us, a lot of
32:52
home buyers do have assistance, which again, also is not a bad
32:55
thing. But it's just to show that
32:57
buying a home or even like renting an apartment for you
33:00
isn't a possibility for you right now when it is for others.
33:02
There are other external factors at play.
33:05
But regardless of everything that's going on in the world, it
33:07
is still important for us as young adults to take stock of
33:09
our finances and our mentality surrounding housing, to frame
33:12
our personal narrative and exercise our personal choice to
33:15
see what fits best for ourselves.
33:17
This is to say that you don't have to take the general
33:19
sentiment of, oh, we're screwed regardless, don't even think
33:21
about buying a house or like renting that apartment in this
33:23
lifetime. Because while those things can
33:25
be true, they also are not the ultimate truth, as like many
33:28
things in this life, we're all dealt a different deck of cards.
33:31
And what we do with those cards is up to us and our business
33:33
alone. So yes, while the state of the
33:35
world has drastically impacted Gen.
33:36
Z's housing options, it is up to us to redefine what we want and
33:39
where we're going from here.