If you are "self made," could you do it again in this economy?

[Tobra]

Funny how smart people who work hard seem to be lucky in their careers

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Median house prices were 3.5x median income in 1985. $22.4k income versus $78k house cost.

That ratio was 5.8 in 2022, $74.6k and $433k.

Probably over 6 today. On average, houses do not appear to be more affordable, they are more like double.

Entry level home buyers do not make median income or buy homes at median home prices.

Maybe folks made that kind of money in some places (where there was a lot of industry) and it skews the numbers. It was not like that where I lived. I considered $20k to be wealthy when I started out. Home interest rates were 14% when I bought my first house. They are half that now.

The median income reflects the fact that poor folks today generally work 40 hrs per week or less. The government rewards them for making less so they do not put in the hours. Poor people (like me) worked two jobs (I worked 3) or long hours/double shifts if they wanted to get ahead.

[stevej37]

^^^ I was in at that time..14-15% home loan interest rate.
I laugh when I hear people complain about 6% now.

[fintstone]

The company that sold me my first house gave my wife another decent paying job in their office (on paper) so that we qualified for our first home. Of course, they never paid her. She already worked two and I worked 3.

Even then, to qualify, we had to get a mortgage where the interest rate started a 11% and went up a percent every year to 14. I put 5% down. We had pretty good credit because we had previously bought a used mobile home and sold it. We had to get a cosigner to buy that mobile home because we had no credit...although married for a couple years and working for several (poor folks did not have/could not get credit cards back then). We had never had a car loan or a gas card. We just paid for everything with cash or check.