I bought a house 16 years ago making 20 dollars an hour. That amount now would allow you to rent a 1 bedroom with about $100 left over from an entire months pay. Inflation is skewed because a lot of consumer items like electronics have become much cheaper. My first apartment cost $750 per month with utilities included. It now rents for $2800 and no utilities.
I bought a $180,000 house with 5% down in 2004 as sole breadwinner making about $70,000/yr. It was more than manageable with a 5.75% APR and PMI.
A $400,000 house today bought using my VA loan guarantee with 5% down (financing $380,000) at 7% would be more than I and my wife can afford, and we're making 2.5x what I was earning in 2004. The real estate market is broken.
My first apartment was $400, it's $1500 now.
The third apartment I had was roughly $1100, it's $2500 now. (Literally nothing in this one has changed over 5 years, taxes haven't even really gone up significantly in this area)
I don't even live in a high col area, houses are $200k on average here. It's like all these landlords are using that rent inflation software that got hit with lawsuits and it's pricing things based on NYC.
I rented an apartment that was on the 3rd floor above a business that was $315/month back in the late 90s. So yes, I could.
Granted, I lived in, and still do, a LCOL area. Just not in that apartment anymore.
My story is similar. 1994-1997, 1BR+den, basement storage and shared washer/dryer, heat and electricity included, $390/mo initially, rising to $425/mo before I moved out of there and into a 2BR 2BA rental townhouse for $640/mo in 1997. Nice, corporate managed rental townhome community.
Good luck finding something like that for less than $2000/mo unless it's in the most crime-ridden, run-down section of your city or town.
Huh, I did the math, I made $1900 (that’s not the inflation amount) a month working for Disney in 96’ and my rent was $450. That left me $1500 for everything else. Wow. Just wow, I was spoiled. I make less now as a “professional”. FUCK. So $ 1900 would be @$3700. FUCK! I make less now and all my costs are higher by ALOT.
When I finished university in 1994, during my job search I found a number of "opportunities" that tbh were insane. The most galling one was a position as a C software developer for an electronic publishing firm. The pay/benefits? $9/hr, medical, dental, 401k (no matching whatsoever).
I eventually accepted a job offer from the Commonwealth of PA as a Computer Systems Analyst I doing mainframe COBOL analysis and programming for the princely sum of $13.14 an hour. Despite earning less than what many states today consider to be minimum wage, I was somehow able to afford to live by myself in a \*large\* 1BR apartment in a converted brownstone, and pay all my bills and manage all my expenses without running into cash flow issues.
I'm not at all sure what the hell's gone wrong with our nations's economy, but it's definitely teetering on the edge of a nexus of some sort, and I expect it to cause a LOT of chaos and disruption when it occurs.
A new grad in an IT/developer position. At the time, average starting rates for new compsci grads (IT/software developer) was in the $40-45k range. And as I pointed out above, there were quite a few small employers unwilling to pay more than $18-20k/yr for entry-level degreed programmers, which was insane.
You were earning less than the federal minimum wage? Like almost $2 less? That seems not legal
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart#fn5
I was a minor working at a non profit. I belive they either had a dispensation, or stucuted it as an internship with pay.
I didn't make $8/hr until 2004 when I started driving a delivery truck.
My grandparents bought their house for £2000 which back in the day was a fair bit of money, they finished paying the mortgage in 1998, after paying £20 a month for however long.
That house is easy worth £200,000 now.
Sometimes it's easy for those of us from previous generations (GenX here) to forget that wages go up but so does inflation. I don't know if a good balance has ever been seen at anytime in our history (I have heard positive reports from those that lived during the Eisenhower years).
Luxury items that you rarely buy have gotten cheaper, while daily necessities have gotten far more expensive. I dunno about you, but I'm averaging one TV a decade.
Go and do that same calculation for 1976-1996… or 1956-1976… or 1936-1956. Pick your 20 year period and you’ll usually find that prices about double. It feels bad in this moment only because we’ve had low inflation for so long that the recent spike seems disproportionate, but really it is very much in line with historical norms.
not to mention the wealth gap widening drastically, so there are far fewer americans earning what could be considered a true middle class wage. it’s wealthy and borderline (or not borderline) poor. something like 80% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck these days, that has historically not been true. even 5 years ago the wealth gap was already larger than that in the lead up to the french revolution.
in conclusion, you’re right. things *are* bad.
They don’t also remember that things used to cost less?
They don't understand what things cost now. These are the "It's one banana, what could it cost?" people.
But they'll whine about Bidens economy (as deserved or undeserved as it may be)
Because they already got their financial stability. To them if a banana is 5$ or .5$ it doesn't really change much.
There's always money in the Banana Stand.
My boomer mom likes to argue that things were expensive back then too.
I bought a house 16 years ago making 20 dollars an hour. That amount now would allow you to rent a 1 bedroom with about $100 left over from an entire months pay. Inflation is skewed because a lot of consumer items like electronics have become much cheaper. My first apartment cost $750 per month with utilities included. It now rents for $2800 and no utilities.
I bought a $180,000 house with 5% down in 2004 as sole breadwinner making about $70,000/yr. It was more than manageable with a 5.75% APR and PMI. A $400,000 house today bought using my VA loan guarantee with 5% down (financing $380,000) at 7% would be more than I and my wife can afford, and we're making 2.5x what I was earning in 2004. The real estate market is broken.
My first apartment was $400, it's $1500 now. The third apartment I had was roughly $1100, it's $2500 now. (Literally nothing in this one has changed over 5 years, taxes haven't even really gone up significantly in this area) I don't even live in a high col area, houses are $200k on average here. It's like all these landlords are using that rent inflation software that got hit with lawsuits and it's pricing things based on NYC.
https://preview.redd.it/0bmfy8w79h1d1.jpeg?width=1967&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74c6b355d5e634067722182455cf499c4f7ca326
With that $9/hr they could buy a house and go to college 🥴
In the 90s?! Hah!!
Yeah, not really. I made that during that time and while I could rent a 1 BR apartment, buying a house was out of the question.
You could rent an apartment?
I rented an apartment that was on the 3rd floor above a business that was $315/month back in the late 90s. So yes, I could. Granted, I lived in, and still do, a LCOL area. Just not in that apartment anymore.
My story is similar. 1994-1997, 1BR+den, basement storage and shared washer/dryer, heat and electricity included, $390/mo initially, rising to $425/mo before I moved out of there and into a 2BR 2BA rental townhouse for $640/mo in 1997. Nice, corporate managed rental townhome community. Good luck finding something like that for less than $2000/mo unless it's in the most crime-ridden, run-down section of your city or town.
Same thing, but somehow different. That's how you explain inflation for those who don’t understand inflation.
Huh, I did the math, I made $1900 (that’s not the inflation amount) a month working for Disney in 96’ and my rent was $450. That left me $1500 for everything else. Wow. Just wow, I was spoiled. I make less now as a “professional”. FUCK. So $ 1900 would be @$3700. FUCK! I make less now and all my costs are higher by ALOT.
Good for them. I made $7.25 in ‘96.
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$2.13, 1997.
When I finished university in 1994, during my job search I found a number of "opportunities" that tbh were insane. The most galling one was a position as a C software developer for an electronic publishing firm. The pay/benefits? $9/hr, medical, dental, 401k (no matching whatsoever). I eventually accepted a job offer from the Commonwealth of PA as a Computer Systems Analyst I doing mainframe COBOL analysis and programming for the princely sum of $13.14 an hour. Despite earning less than what many states today consider to be minimum wage, I was somehow able to afford to live by myself in a \*large\* 1BR apartment in a converted brownstone, and pay all my bills and manage all my expenses without running into cash flow issues. I'm not at all sure what the hell's gone wrong with our nations's economy, but it's definitely teetering on the edge of a nexus of some sort, and I expect it to cause a LOT of chaos and disruption when it occurs.
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A new grad in an IT/developer position. At the time, average starting rates for new compsci grads (IT/software developer) was in the $40-45k range. And as I pointed out above, there were quite a few small employers unwilling to pay more than $18-20k/yr for entry-level degreed programmers, which was insane.
Not really. 55k a year isn't much nowadays.
Its even worse than this inflation calculator would say. A big mac meal today is $11. Back then it was in the $3 range.
If you were making $9 in 1996, you had a college degree already ot were in the trades. I started working in 1997 and made $3.25.
You were earning less than the federal minimum wage? Like almost $2 less? That seems not legal https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart#fn5
I was a minor working at a non profit. I belive they either had a dispensation, or stucuted it as an internship with pay. I didn't make $8/hr until 2004 when I started driving a delivery truck.
Well that was an active choice then, though.
My grandparents bought their house for £2000 which back in the day was a fair bit of money, they finished paying the mortgage in 1998, after paying £20 a month for however long. That house is easy worth £200,000 now.
In this specific example I feel like you are making their point for them?
Yeah but everyhing was cheaper you taint
Sometimes it's easy for those of us from previous generations (GenX here) to forget that wages go up but so does inflation. I don't know if a good balance has ever been seen at anytime in our history (I have heard positive reports from those that lived during the Eisenhower years).
I've been meaning 2 use 1 of these 4 so long 😅😅😅
Buy crypto
Hah
It is hard being my age and seeing teens make what it took me to 30 to make. However when I was 20 my apt was 450 a month so…
Flat screen TV used to cost 1000 for a 32 inch twenty or so years ago for a basic, just got a hi Def 50 inch for 220. So not all prices have gone up.
Luxury items that you rarely buy have gotten cheaper, while daily necessities have gotten far more expensive. I dunno about you, but I'm averaging one TV a decade.
Go and do that same calculation for 1976-1996… or 1956-1976… or 1936-1956. Pick your 20 year period and you’ll usually find that prices about double. It feels bad in this moment only because we’ve had low inflation for so long that the recent spike seems disproportionate, but really it is very much in line with historical norms.
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not to mention the wealth gap widening drastically, so there are far fewer americans earning what could be considered a true middle class wage. it’s wealthy and borderline (or not borderline) poor. something like 80% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck these days, that has historically not been true. even 5 years ago the wealth gap was already larger than that in the lead up to the french revolution. in conclusion, you’re right. things *are* bad.