Comment by rayajason | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rayajason | Hacker News Reader

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> I have noticed that most millenials seem to have completely forgotten the concept of "starter home" and assume that as soon as you turn 25 you should be entitled to a 4 bedroom house with a pool, huge yard, wonderful neighborhood, three-car garage, etc

I don't know where you live but I almost find this insulting.

I'm from Amsterdam my self and friends of my are being forced out the city because of the high rent prices. I'm 32 year now and because of some shitty new rent laws that says every tenant needs to have an individual rent contract which our landlord refuses to give I'm also being pushed out of my home. I tried to find something for my self just anything would do, but I'm kinda skewed because I just earn above social housing and here in Amsterdam there is not really a market anymore for middle incomes. So yeah I'm being pushed to either live in a room or move out of the city. But I also couldn't find a room in time so now I'm going back to my parent. So yeah your comment kinda hits a nerve for me.

As I mentioned in my comment, there clearly are actual real estate issues in some metros, and Amsterdam may be one of them. But your situation is often conflated with the issue I am describing in my comment.

I live in DFW, and there is an abundance of middle income places to rent and even buy. The problem, as described in my previous comment, is that those middle income places are in older buildings, or have older appliances, or aren't within walking distance to the hip nightclub area, or have a 10 minute longer commute, and thus my fellow millennials seem to deem them unacceptable places to live. These are the same people who have complained to me that their high-rise condo downtown across the street from the nicest steakhouse in the city is driving them into debt, or have complained that they're depressed that they will never be able to afford a home while linking me a Zillow page of a $1.5m newly renovated house in the premiere neighborhood in Dallas.

Housing in the Netherlands is really awful, in the '90 the boomers have build smaller apartments for their parents to move in and actually profit in an illicit way 2x of their real estate gains of sometimes 6x. No boomer is living smaller to make room for the next generation. I think the best way to combat current shortage in housing is putting up a limit on m2 that an individual could claim. 300m2 for a single person in a metro area while being on a pension is not sustainable in current conditions.

Not sustainable for whom? If their pension covers the taxes and they can support themselves so they are not a burden on social services or something else what do you care?

No country for old men indeed.

BTW, I'm mentioning social services because here we do have some complain how hard life is with their meagre pension... all the while living in a 3 room flat in the middle of the city. I find those people unreasonable and I believe if they would sell / rent that property and downsize they would have a much better quality of living.

So, someone who worked their entire life and paid off their house should be forced out of that house and made to move in retirement because...you'd rather be able to live there with a roommate?

They did that to their parents, and on top of that advantage they systematically didn't build enough houses for the projected population growth.

I think it is reasonable to ask if you set up a whole generation for failure yourself. Millennial choices are severely handicapt considering how we inherit the world versus how the boomer in the 90ties got it.

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