A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth - African Proverb
The average house, in an area where there are jobs, has become unaffordable to the next generation. So unaffordable that many young people have given up on the idea of ever having a house. Even renting one room is a stretch for many who are just starting out.
Unfortunately, this was not by chance. This was planned out.
And when something happens where a focus is placed on the people who caused this, a large amount of anger is going to be focussed there.
This anger is going to be hot and destructive.
It all started with the boomers
Boomers were sold the lie "your house is your biggest asset", and so naturally what followed is that "We must keep property values high". Unfortunately, this created a condition where the next generation was screwed, and the one after that, screwed even worse.
Our system of land ownership only works if the number of people entering the system balances with the number of people leaving the system.
What has happened instead was the number of people entering the system continued to rise (many people even postulating about excess population, and destroying the planet) and thus, each new generation had to pay for a house what all the previous generation paid plus outbid all the other in their generation. And thus, prices skyrocketing.
We never built enough houses for the up and coming generation. In fact, we did all we could to keep them down. We suppressed home building by many means. The worst of which was mandating that we could no longer build small (starter) houses. We could no longer build affordable houses, because that would bring the value of the boomers' houses down. City building ordinances where created that said houses had to be "large" and include all the amenities.
NIMBY-ism
The boomers wanted to maintain their good looking communities. So, all of the troubles had to be pushed away. The homeless had to be pushed off. The teenagers weren't allowed near the "adults" sections of town. All the problems were pushed out; Not In My Back Yard was the motto.
However, you cannot just ignore part of society. You cannot leave them without a place to stay, a place they can call their own. Unfortunately, this is just what we did.
By pushing everything they didn't like out, they have destroyed what they were most trying to hold on to. Or maybe not. With latch-key kids, and day cares, we seem to have given up on family and community. So, the house, the asset, is all that remains.
The inevitable collapse
What happens when everyone tries to sell the same stock at the same time? The price plummets.
What happens when all the boomers try to sell their houses at pretty much the same time? Most houses get abandoned.
There really isn't a market for houses... let me explain. So, over the past few years, we have seen house prices go up and up and up. But this was because of a very limited supply of houses, and a just slightly larger group of people who could qualify for loans for those houses.
The huge group of people who would like a house, can't afford the sky high prices, nor can they get a mortgage. So, when the small group of people who can afford get satiated, it is a LONG way down before the next group will enter the market. And even further to go to get the jaded group to enter the market
Further, with the all causes mortality still increasing, along with the boomers being the largest demographic, there is going to suddenly, for the first time in a long time, going to be a glut of houses. We will solve today's housing problem by finding we have built way too many suburban houses.
The people who sell there houses now, will get about half what they expected
A year from now, a quarter
and it just goes down from there.
And the young people of today just may not care. Not care about property rights.
They will find an empty house and just move in.
And there are so many reasons a house could be seen as empty
Like having to go to the hospital for 6 weeks. (yes, i have seen this happen)
But this is what happens when you keep the new generation from becoming part of the society.