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Exclusive: most renters surveyed by Harris Poll say the areas they live in have become so unaffordable they are ‘barely livable’
The poll, conducted by the Harris Poll Thought Leadership and Future Practice, asked survey takers to identify themselves as renters or homeowners, along with other demographic information. Those polled were asked their opinion on home ownership in the United States. For many, especially renters, the outlook is bleak.
Though the vast majority of renters polled said they want to own a home in the future, 61% said they are worried they will never be able to. A similar percentage believe no matter how hard they work, they’ll never be able to afford a home.
“When you think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and housing is right at that foundational level of security, the implications on consumer psyche when things feel so unaffordable is something that will impact everyone,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at Harris Poll. The American dream of owning a home “is looking more like a daydream for renters”.
Doesn’t even need to be middle of nowhere. Just needs to be ~30 minute drive away from city core. Cheaper suburbs are still very much affordable in every city I have seen.
Sometimes you gotta go out to that 20-30 min away “next nearest” smaller town that’s right next to the big city but isn’t actually in it. It has all your amenities and plenty to live off of, but if you wanna go to the big city’s malls, theaters, concerts, etc, you gotta drive 30 min instead of walk there.
Usually you can get very decent starter homes for 250k to 300k in said places, and usually in said “one off” towns the renting industry is much more slow, so you don’t have that “you have to buy NOW” pressure. Homes stay up for sale for a bit and you have more than 3 hours to make an offer lol.
Downside is now you need a car… though often even then the smaller towns have some form of public transport to the bigger city you can use, though it can be on a rarer schedule. IE your bus may only come every 2 hours so better not miss it.
I prefer “edge of the city suburbs” over “one town over” personally. Access to public transport means I skipped buying and paying for a vehicle and skipped straight to saving up for a house.
I’m gonna have to call bull on almost all of this, at least in my state. (The low listing times are real though… big money buying anything they can rent out)
To get to a starter home at $250,000 my commute would be 1hr and 50 miles minimum.
350k only gets me about 45 minutes and 30 miles.
And these time estimates are on a good day, because fuck good freeway design where I live. One goes north south, one East West, and that’s it. Everyone commutes on them and if you need to go anywhere in rush hours it’s three times as long
Checking Zillow for my city, it’s $500k minimum for a 2br an hour and a half away by car. That would also put me in the middle of a Republican area as a queer immigrant.
The “buy a house in the middle of nowhere” mentality doesn’t take into account the risks and depression associated with living somewhere red as a minority.
This is genuinely one of the first counterpoint I’ve seen that I have to say is actually super valid.
I completely agree on this, it’s a big factor to consider.
However, I will note often you see a sort of split where you have 2-3 suburbs/towns near a big city, and one of them goes blue abd the other goes red, and you can see a bit of polarizing that happens as folks switch between the two to polarize away from each other.
In my area, one smaller town just switch all it’s bathrooms to gender neutral bathrooms in the public office, the other one banned rainbow flags from being flown.
So if it’s a condolence, at least that sometimes happens.
I expect it depends how left/right the province/state as a whole leans. I expect this phemonina stops happening in places like texas :(
As an example, in my area the “magic sauce” for why it was so much more affordable is the same fact it’s heavily populated by imfolks from India and Africa. I’d say about half the people in this corner of the city or so, and I live in a much more right leaning province (Alberta, which is the florida of canada now)
So I expect a lot of… right leaning folks hate the idea of being neighbour’s with folks in this neighborhood.
Oh well, cheaper house for me, and I love my community.
I wonder to what extent some amount of “can’t afford homes” culture is influenced by racists who don’t count any homes that run the “risk” of having to live next door to someone who isn’t white.
I partially just assume people that “dont count” affordable homes because “I don’t wanna live there” are just racist at this point, or, minorities trying to avoid racists.
It’s not just this. Everything you said is objectivity bad advice.
K
Try looking in CO. The only house within 30 min of my job under $300k that isn’t a trailer or a tiny condo in this one old shithole building says, “everything needs to be repaired including structural repairs” in the listing. Trailers are still pretty much rentals and lot rent is outrageous ($800-1200 at basically every park that isn’t located directly on a hellmouth). Oh wait, I could go 90 min out and get a sweet deal of just $220k on a house that’s basically just a rotting outside and interior framing and insulation. What a great opportunity!
Try looking in one of the most desirable places to live in the country right now??? Are you all clueless???
Of course everything in CO is super pricey it got all that sweet Cali money flowing in.
If you’re expecting popular places to be even reasonably priced you’re kidding yourself.
It’s like going to a Bentley dealership and saying well where’s the bargain lot?!?!
You look foolish.
The original comment said, “Cheaper suburbs are still very much affordable in every city I have seen.” Denver is a city. Pretty sure if anyone looks foolish, it’s the person who couldn’t apply context to my reply…