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Comment by ajross | Hacker News Reader

> a good chunk of the population live paycheck to paycheck.

Is that not true in other economies? Was that not true at some (mythical?) point in the past? What number, specifically, would you like to see before you're willing to declare "The Economy is Good"?

Basically the point you made is an example of the Economics of Vibes. It's non-falsifiable and allows you to justify any position you want. We're about to start a global trade war, it seems, based on those vibes.

In point of fact household savings rate as a proportion of household income is not particularly low right now. In fact it had a huge spike during the pandemic (lots of assistance and nothing to buy, same thing that caused the inflation burp).

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Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home.

Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year.

Median salary in the US is $59,300

What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200

According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually.

That means about 50% of the US can not afford a place to live.

> That means about 50% of the US can not afford a place to live.

No, at best the conclusion is that 50% of the US can not afford to own a home. But not owning a home != homelessness. Renting still exist. Roommates still exist. There's a house in my neighborhood that has 3 (El Salvadorian, I believe) families living inside of it, and they are contributing 3x income to make it work (this depends on zoning laws though).

> at best the conclusion is that 50% of the US can not afford to own a home.

More particularly, 50% of the single person households in the US. This does not apply to a couple unless they are aiming for the Leave it to Beaver dream of a stay-at-home wife.

I wouldn't consider $5,833 a moderate cost rent. ($70k / 12) 3 bedrooms inside the loop in Houston is ~$2,100 / month. https://www.apartments.com/vintage-at-18th-street-houston-tx...

The average apartment in a moderate-cost area is 5833 per month? Where is that number coming from?

The average rent for an apartment in the United States is between $1,559 and $1,748 per month, depending on the source (google AI). This would be $21000 per year in rent.

> That means about 50% of the US can not afford a place to live.

And yet, they do. I don't think your numbers lead to your conclusion.

Being single and wanting to own your own home is going to be the closest situation to your conclusion. 50% of those folks being unable to achieve that dream sounds plausible.

The median rent is $1621. One bedroom and studio apartments will be on the lower end, and a $60K salary is likely to be sufficient.

For everyone who wants to obtain housing for themselves and a significant other, they have $120K to work with. Now the house looks achievable.

>moderate-cost area

The problem is that moderate cost area is of now has a lot better quality of life, with plenty of things in short driving distances, compared to what it was back when housing was "affordable".

You can go browse Zillow across US and find ~100k houses, which even at higher interest rates are affordable on a $60k household salary. Of course the quality of life is going to be much worse than what you normally know, but it would be similar to what your grandparents had when they bought the house.

> Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year.

... in what sane world is that a "moderate-cost area"? $70k/yr is well over $5k/month, and looking right now at the prices in my metropolitan area, you have to pretty much get a combo of 3 bedroom, luxury, and city-center to get something that expensive. And even then, I'd consider this metropolitan area to be high cost, just not obscene cost like SF or NY.

Renting a 2b2b in the middle of Manhattan probably costs 100k a year, but that is very far from a "moderate-cost area".

A house in a nice part of Chicagoland walking distance from a train stop will run you 300-350k.

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