Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum First time home buyers

First time home buyers have hit 21% down 3% from 2025. 21 mostly young Americans out of 100, what a terrible statistic.
I’m sure someone will be along to tell me their first mortgage was 15.5%, meanwhile the ratio was still reasonable on earnings to home prices.

This country has offshored many prosperous job and then been absolutely flooded with H1B’s and illegals.

Really is a sad state of affairs that GenZ and GenAlpha get to inherit

Al Bundy was a shoe salesman who had a wife who didnt work, two kids, and a 2500 sq ft house with a two car garage.

A lot of it has to do with mindset, priorities, and work ethic. If you look around, you will see a lot more younger people drawing a check on some government program because they are too lazy to work. There seems to be a lot more young meth heads running around as well and they sure aren't buying a house. Also, most younger adults are more focused on having the latest and greatest cell phone, new car, or buying those $7.00 coffees every day. Most of the young people I know, my children included, that have a mind to work, determination, and their priorities in order, are buying homes and raising families. Now, I will say that those type of young people are definitely in the minority.

And still had money for the strip club.

Bullshit.
$7.00 coffees are not the reason why younger Americans can’t buy houses.
Can $7.00 coffees be possibly indicative of a leaky bucket of consumerism/consumption, ya potentially but this country has much more fundamental monetary issues than Starbucks.
But even at a $7 coffee daily is $2,555, so I’ll round it up to $2,600 annually.
If they stopped buying coffee entirely and saved that $2,600, a major chunk of that money is losing more to inflation/home price increases.
Look up average earnings to average home prices in 1975, 1985 and 1995 VS 2025/2026, this ain’t a coffee issue.

Also consider that the young adults in your life are I’m guessing mostly here in Alabama.
The home prices here in many parts of Alabama are rising yes but not near as high the national average which makes it potentially easier to buy.
Noticeable exceptions in Alabama, parts of Baldwin Co, parts of Auburn, parts of Bham, parts of Huntsville.

Until the past 15ish years, this was a country of citizens not an economic zone to be flooded with H1B’s & illegals like what’s happening.

Earnings to price of homes is out of whack, but starter homes are looked down upon by young folks too. I’m painting with a wide brush but so many young folks seem to not be interested if it isn’t a 2,500 sq ft home in an upscale neighborhood. Growing up, if someone had a 2,500 sq ft home, they had a freaking mansion in our eyes.

I tell my kids all the time that they have an opportunity to excel in todays work environment. 1. Show up on time and ready to work. 2. Work when you're at work. Don't get involved in the workplace drama. Do your job. 3. Have a good attitude and appreciate your job. There are people all over the world that would love to be in your position. If they do these 3 things, they will be phenom's in todays working pool and people will seek them out for employment.

That said, my son just bought a home and is doing well while single and 28 years old. We lived in a single wide until we built our first home and I was in my early 30's with 2 incomes.

Could things be better ? Yes and I see your point AU708. Could they be worse ? Absolutely.

No offense, but you took his $7 coffee out of context and didn’t focus on the entirety of his comment. As an example he mentioned work ethic. I own a CPA for and can assure you that a disproportionate number of young people are lazier than historical when interest rates were higher. Just because you work hard and are younger doesn’t mean it is BS.

I agree that tastes have definitely gotten fancier, yes absolutely.
But often these starter type single family houses(sub 1,200sqft) are in areas that are less than safe and/or school systems that are completely trash.
I understand a starter house is not meant to be fancy or in an A+ neighborhood.

My first property was a 725sqft condo in 2018 bought for $95,000, that same condo today is closing in on $200,000

I think it's safe to say home prices and work ethic are both out of whack.

I wish a buck was still silver
It was back when the country was strong
Back before Elvis, before the Vietnam war came along

Before the Beatles and 'Yesterday'
When a man could still work and still would
Is the best of the free life behind us now
Are the good times really over for good?

Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the Liberty Bell
Wish a Ford and a Chevy could still last ten years, like they should
Is the best of the free life behind us now
Are the good times really over for good?

I wish Coke was still Cola
And a joint was a bad place to be
And it was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV

Before microwave ovens
When a girl still cooked [Incomprehensible] wood
Is the best of the free life behind us now
Are the good times really over for good?

Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the Liberty Bell
Wish a Ford and a Chevy could still last ten years, like they should
Is the best of the free life behind us now
Are the good times really over for good?

Stop rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell?
Stand up for the flag and let's all ring the Liberty Bell
Let's make a Ford and a Chevy still last ten years, like they should
'Cause the best of the free life is still yet to come
The good times ain't over for good

My son (and his wife) are guilty of this. Had to have a new home in a new subdivision with a nice school. Could have bought an older home in town for $100,000 less. Same school district. My first house was a fixer upper. Lived in it and improved it for seven years before I sold it for a nice profit and upgraded.

Sorry to step on your Starbucks. You picked the coffee out of all of what I posted to get upset about? Really? It was just one example of priorities being in the wrong place among many out there. Never mind all the other miss-prioritized things that people just have to have today. Let's not look at the lack of proper mind set and work ethic. Nope, that has nothing to do with it. Let's just put ALL the blame somewhere else other than ourselves. Yes, cheap labor is a problem but that's not the root of the problem. Like I said, those young people that have the drive to succeed are definitely the minority but they are out there.

Other than the obvious upfront price, why is this older house less expensive? Is this an apples to apples comparison or apples vs oranges.
Less square footage? Needs major systems/updating that’s going to run $65,000? Roof and windows combined are $30,000’ish easily. I just signed for $15,000 of windows.

I bought our house in 2021 and was strictly shopping older homes because often they have larger lots.
Seems like most new houses are on less than 0.25Ac lots and many are on 1/10th ac lots in my local area.

One of the biggest problems is - house location. If a good house at an affordable price is in a good safe location that will hold that way for a long time they get bought up quick. Now we got overpriced crap houses in good locations or great houses in bad locations.

Driveby is describing the leaky bucket with this comment, “ latest and greatest cell phone, new car, or buying those $7.00 coffees every day”. And those things will absolutely prevent someone from being able to buy a home. I try to mentor young folks about money when an opportunity presents itself. I have only ran into a couple of them that may have heard anything I said.

Choose a career path that has the potential to reward you with money, make purchasing a house your priority, save accordingly, shop for a house in a reasonable neighborhood, and purchase comfortably in your budget. All of those things are doable because my nephew just did it in Trussville.

The same dollar from what I remember.

There is a lot of truth in some of the previous posts. Like many things - the desire is greater than the income.

My wife and I have done this so I am certainly not pointing fingers - but being "house poor" is a real condition. Buying what the society tells you that you need vs. what you can afford is often two very different things.

Buying a home beyond your means and sacrificing things that can bring you joy; or worse continue to pile on debt with car, boat, camper, vacations, private schools,...etc and be stressed about money to the point that you begin playing the money game of minimum payments on credit cards, HELOC, stopping retirement contributions, and so forth.

Us old folks started out with what we could get and were glad to have it. That is not the mindset of most young people today.

Here's some numbers to crunch on, and I regularly have this discussion (usually with "old people") when they criticize younger folks for seemingly struggling more than the older folks did at their age.........1990 vs 2025 (1990 $'s have been converted to 2025 $'s for apples-to-apples comparison)

Median Household Income (AL)
1990 - $57,000 (again, converted to $2025)
2025 - $64,000
so roughly a 12% increase

Avg New Vehicle Price
1990 - $37,500 - 66% of yearly Household Income (again, converted to $2025)
2025 - $50,000 - 78% of yearly Household Income
so roughly a 34% increase, and a 12% increase in "percentage of Yearly Household Income"

Median Home Price (AL)
1990 - $130,000 - roughly 2.28x Yearly Household Income (again, converted to $2025)
2025 - $234,000 - roughly 3.66x Yearly Household Income
so roughly 80% increase overall, and 60% higher vs Yearly Household income.

The takeaway is that, after adjusting for inflation, households are making 12% more than they made 35yrs ago, but vehicles cost 34% more than they did 35yrs ago, and houses cost 80% more than they did 35yrs ago.

Homes and vehicles...the 2 largest expenses most people have...are rising a LOT faster than income. That simply isn't sustainable long-term. I don't know what the answer is.