Comment by GolfyMcG | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GolfyMcG | Hacker News Reader

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I have trouble believing this without more detail. I'm an older millennial and have a very similar situation to what you're describing (good university, tech industry, run my own business), but I can say with great confidence that I can buy a house.

In fact, I own a condominium already which I lease for passive income. I've also invested heavily into some other real estate holdings. I do this while paying off student loans, saving for a wedding, and starting a startup where I made very little for over half a year (1.5 years ago). Perhaps, I stumbled upon some large sums of money without realizing it but I also know I don't buy any video games, I don't go to concerts, I don't go on lavish vacations, I don't buy coffee in the morning or really party on the weekends. I challenge myself to spend where it's necessary and on very few indulgences, though obviously I do every once and awhile. I cook at home, I refrain from feeling obligated to have a drink in my hand when out, and I take vacations to see my family via middle of the night trains.

The average software engineering salary is easily into the 6 figures but there are people doing well making half of that. I don't buy that you have this oppressive force dragging you down and I would be inclined to say that most people in my generation and onward think $40 bottomless brunches, multiple $15 cocktails on the weekend, a week long vacation to the Bahamas, etc. are normal, in the same way people think that a college degree guarantees a job. The harsh reality is that Millennials take too much for granted and life has always required people to make sacrifices.

I don't know your particular situation, but head over to http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance and you'll probably discover a few changes you could make to your lifestyle.

You appear to be assuming that I live in the US and that I spend frivolously. Both assumptions are incorrect.

In fact, I live in Cambridge, UK, where we're comfortably in the London commuter belt and have many nice new million pound flats for sale. On the other hand, if you're a nurse working at the local hospital and you want to raise your kids in your own house, you can expect to live far outside the city with a substantial commute into work. Because, you know, we don't overwork and underpay our medical practitioners already in this country!

I do know people around my age who have managed to buy in the city itself, but almost all of them had an unusual source of serious money for someone our age, and often for an unfortunate reason (big inheritance that arrived a lot earlier than expected, compensation lawsuit, that kind of thing). A few bought very young and got lucky to be on the ladder before prices got really crazy, though for every one of those I probably know someone else whose financial development was set back a decade after finding themselves in negative equity too early in their careers to cope with it. In any case, the latter was never an option for people a decade younger who are in the middle of that Millennial bracket and might traditionally have been buying their own place by that stage of their lives.

For "normal" people (and remember there's quite a high upper bound on what I'm calling "normal" in this discussion) looking for a normal family house because they've had a new baby or relocated to change jobs or have an elderly relative moving in, the reality here is that by the time they have got home from work, seen a nice place in the listings, and called the estate agent to arrange a viewing, the property has often already been sold. The better-looking properties are currently being bought literally within minutes of being available and without the purchaser even visiting them, such is the confidence in the market that the property can be sold at a substantial profit in a few months even if it turns out to have problems on closer inspection. Sealed bids is becoming a popular sale method, and winning bids on £400-500K family homes are coming in £100K+ over. No normal person can compete with professionals who have the time and resources to play the game by those rules.

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