The New York Times reports that Americans in their 20s and 30s, even if they know they are not poor, feel the “basics of a middle-class life are unattainable” or they require terrible trade-offs. Things like homeownership, supporting children or occasionally dining out are not available to them like they were to their parents.
Full-time Pennsylvania department store manager Keyana Fedrick told the Times that she and her friends feel stuck in jobs that do not pay enough to rent an apartment, never mind buy a house.
“I’m 36, and I don’t have children yet,” said Fedrick, who still lives with her parents, despite occupying the highest position at her store’s location. “I should have a flipping life by now. I should be traveling. I should have a luxurious closet. But instead, all I have is a good credit score and a paid-off 2013 Nissan.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to retire,” she said, adding, “Boomers made out like bandits.”
One of Fedrick’s parents was a teacher and another a bus driver. Both retired with pensions, and Fedrick sees a stark contrast between their generation and hers.
The Times also interviewed Eric Fuqua, 25, a structural engineer who still can’t afford a house in the Atlanta neighborhood where he grew up and where his parents still live, despite earning $86,000 a year. Fuqua was willing to settle for a small condo, but rising home prices and high mortgage rates mean settling for a place far out in the suburbs, adding as much as 90 minutes each way to his commute. So, he keeps renting and occasionally splurges on visiting friends in other cities.
“There’s a sense of futility at this point,” said Fuqua. “I’m not going to rough it for five years to save for a house I’ll never be able to afford.”
The Times reports the financial pessimism is being “felt en masse,” according to a study published last month by economists at the University of Chicago. Young adults with few prospects of buying a house are disproportionately “more likely to spend on leisure or risky investments like cryptocurrency,” reports the Times.
Of the homeowners interviewed who did own a home, nearly all got financial help. Energy researcher Jesse Iverson, 28, and graphic designer Macy Mack recently bought a house in Minnesota, but they had to rely on a loan backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs to get it.
“I don’t think the bar to entry should be joining the military, having to work full time during college, and getting a loan from the V.A,” said Iverson.
Children, meanwhile, are a near impossibility for many.
Alicia Wrigley and her husband, Richard Gailey, own a home in Salt Lake City and want another child, but doubt finances will allow that.
“I know it’s possible,” she said, looking through the window at her next-door neighbor’s house, which is exactly the same size. That neighbor raised six children there in the 1970s.
Read the New York Times report at this link.