The economy has shafted millennials: now it wants their offspring too

[CarryOnNurse20]

AIBU to ask your opinion on this article?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/economy-millennials-children-low-birthrate?CMP=fb_cif&fbclid=IwAR1C57OgCdGCGhSr5uVLI5tRVeMCq-eNtyyxEuUiYOjYgSn5P2w3yMHQeTM

As a dreaded millennial and a mother I find it very sad and very true for a lot of people I know.

There are 30 properties within 10miles of where I live. Most are mobile homes. A few are garages and land for sale. A couple of 1 bed flats in truly awful locations. A few auction properties. And this gem, which is called a bungalow, but from the floor plan - is actually just this one room and a shed outside.

I'm a millennial (just) and was lucky enough to get on the property ladder in the early 2000s. But I've only had one child as we couldn't have afforded any more. I worry that my DC will be at home until mid-30s

^30 properties under £80k, I should add

I'm 34 and most people I know have second hand furniture. I'm not sure why people think this isn't a thing anymore. Facebook marketplace is absolutely thriving isn't it? Equally you can now buy new from IKEA or Dunelm for very little so I can understand why some peoole just do that. I also don't know anyone who buys avocado toast... Maybe that's a city thing, but all my teacher, nurse and social worker friends are like me and cook tea at home every night and perhaps have an occasional take away at the weekend.

I also think the divide isn't for older millennials. My Dsis is an older millennial and struggled just a bit more to get on property ladder in the early 2000s than we did in mid 90s. Younger millennials (I guess those born from 1988 onwards) have been dealt a worse hand due to housing boom.

One of my friends did the help 2 buy scheme & got one of those "show homes". She would have loved a better value old home however she couldn't afford one & her h2b mortgage was cheaper then her rent.

Avocado is rank.

Never mind even being able to buy somewhere to live, round here there isn't even hardly any rentals for anyone and social housing is pretty much unavailable.

But yet there's loads of NMW caring, cleaning, shop jobs - and not enough people who can work for that, and pay their rent.

It is totally fucking shit and I'm 59, finally buying a property after my well-paid, hardly over-worked DM died. I've still got a small mortgage to pay until I can get State Pension at 67 and I think DS will be living with me until I die and he inherits whatever I can manage to leave,

I'm currently unemployed and actively looking for work..

It's not so much down to doing the right thing or luck, it's more down to how much support or help you get when things go wrong. I've certainly never felt in awe or inferior to anyone whose life has panned out well.

[quote CarryOnNurse20]@chocolateorangeinhaler I sometimes wonder whether people want luxury things (eg smartphones, large tvs etc) because at least these things are within reach and can give a tangible result of hard work. Because deposits need to be so high and houses are so expensive they’re almost so beyond reach people don’t bother to save. I dare say the vast majority of people (certainly my friends and myself) would prefer to have an affordable house and cut back significantly on other things but that’s not an option really these days.[/quote]
I scrimped and saved and spent on naïf all and it still took me into my 30s to afford a house with my partner. Our spare room still has no furniture and everything we own is 2nd hand so no it isn’t simply that millennials won’t do without in order to afford the big purchases. The rise in house prices and the cost of the rental market is far more to blame.

226 of 1+ bedroom for under 80k around me.

I'm from a working class background and a millennial. Most of the people I went to school with have at least one child albeit those who went to university mostly had them in their 30s. A good number own their own homes but no idea if they're in debt (other than mortgage) or how they achieved it. Did take longer than my parents took to buy though for example

@EatYourVegetables

www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

According to this, £7000 in 1974 would be about £74 600 in 2020.

I don’t think there are many houses or flats you can buy today for £74 600, avocado or no avocado.

Exactly this!

Would love to know the salary of the person who bought the house for £7000.

Bet you anything it wasn’t £500, which is the equivalent of where we are today.

Are smart phones really a luxury these days? surely access to the internet is a necessity as we live in a modern world.

During lockdown my kids had lessons on ipads, apps to go on etc we actually ended up buying an extra ipad to allow for it. My dc still have online learning things now & would be disadvantaged if they couldn't access the stuff.

@Annoyedanddissapointed

226 of 1+ bedroom for under 80k around me.

Good to know for when I sell up to supplement quitting teaching lol

Who actually has new furniture? I am just about a millennial and know some definite millennials. Everything in my house is charity shop, Gumtree or eBay; same for them. We didn’t go on holiday for 5 years after buying our first place and haven’t been abroad since 2013

@Bloose I think my parents were on around £1200 a year for their £3500 mortgage in 71.

I have mix of old and new.

Within 10 miles from me you can buy a garage for 25k, a static caravan or a house boat for 40k. At the other end a town house for 54m.

I bought my house in "92" for 16k . It has rotting windows, no central heating, no inside bathroom, no fitted kitchen and woodchip on every wall. We sat on my aunts conservatory furniture for 2years and the first winter in the house was bloody freezing. We didn't care though as we owned our home.
Very few people would live like that now days

A standard 3 bed semi here is £400k+. A house like you describe, with no kitchen or bathroom, would probably still fetch £200k at auction & you wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting a mortgage on it unless you had some serious cash in the bank to prove you could do the work immediately.
Most of the places that need serious work are "cash buyers only" and snapped up by developers.

We've been here 4 years, gradually working our way through the list of jobs (new roof, new boiler, new windows rewiring, rewiring, still waiting to replace the kitchen and bathroom).

Furniture is a lot cheaper now. We got our first ever new sofa & armchair (after having our previous, secondhand ones for 8 years) - they cost less than our monthly mortgage payment (by several hundred pounds).

[quote Monkeytennis97]@Bloose I think my parents were on around £1200 a year for their £3500 mortgage in 71.[/quote]
(We've had many conversations about it!) However DM still says "well we were only earning £1200 a year!"

[quote Monkeytennis97]@Bloose I think my parents were on around £1200 a year for their £3500 mortgage in 71.[/quote]
Makes you wanna cry!

@Bloose yup. I wish we were earning a third of the value of our house!

@jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey

I bought my house in "92" for 16k . It has rotting windows, no central heating, no inside bathroom, no fitted kitchen and woodchip on every wall. We sat on my aunts conservatory furniture for 2years and the first winter in the house was bloody freezing. We didn't care though as we owned our home. Very few people would live like that now days

I doubt any bank would lend a mortgage on a property in such a state.

The problem isn’t that millennials want takeaway every night and top of the range tech and gadgets. It’s that the cost of renting doesn’t leave much left over to save when you live in the more expensive parts of the country. And in the cheap parts, is there even enough employment to go round? Are the wages high enough to get even a tiny mortgage?

As a millennial with millennial friends I don’t know a single person who buys top of the range cars, TVs etc because they can’t afford things like that any more than they can afford a flat. I’m in London so obviously things are more expensive but of the people I know who have bought, including myself, we’ve mostly got tiny flats, second hand furniture and no gardens. Nobody is sitting around moaning they can’t afford a 3 bed semi because nobody thinks that’ll ever be remotely possible - living in tiny flats or leaving London for somewhere cheaper are the only options. Plus, I don’t think even the most voracious avocado eater could save a 5-figure sum in a year simply by not buying them.

A lot of people nowadays are more ambivalent about having children since it is more widely accepted that children aren't necessary for a life well lived. This can only be a good thing. Women should have choice. In the past, I'm sure many women were reluctant mothers.

That's probably half the story. I have many friends who are comfortably off but have no desire to have a child. They have spent time with friends' and family children and are well aware of the realities of being a parent. They have decided with their eyes open that it's not for them.

The other half of the story is economic factors - the cost of housing and childcare, low pay and job insecurity. While this may prevent some people from having children at all, I suspect its major impact is to make people limit their family size... to one or two children only.

And smartphones, internet, tablets and laptops are not luxuries nowadays. Unless you think access to education, information and employment opportunities are also luxuries.

@Annoyedanddissapointed

Now everyone wants an Instagramable house Mrs Hinch style. And weddings in the tens of thousands.

This is actually a thing I find more annoying than telegraph calling me a geriatric millenial who is ruing planet with my houseplant love.

No, we don't all want instagramable house. No we don't all want to be MRs Hinch. But we have nice things accessible. The reason why my parents saved for their living room wall furniture thong was simply because they did not have the shops like today. These things were usually ordered.

Actually, they have had more expensive stuff than I do!

But! Life did get considerably more expensive even without luxuries. They didn't spend on broadband connection, something what is today a basic bill for example.
And stuff doesn't last! Swear to god my grandma had (iirc) Candy fridge for 30 something years!
There is no way my washing machine will last 20. Just no way. It's 5 years old and I amgetting suspicious of some noises🙄

This btw

I have had to replace my washing machine three times in 8 years. I got a repair man out to look at my Samsung bubble wash when it packed in after 4 years and he honestly said "don't know what you expect these days"

My parents had the same appliances for years!

I swear my FIL has kitchen appliances from the 90s in his house. Nothing today is designed to last and no one questions it because we are such a throwaway society. Drives me nuts.