Exclusive: most renters surveyed by Harris Poll say the areas they live in have become so unaffordable they are ‘barely livable’
The poll, conducted by the Harris Poll Thought Leadership and Future Practice, asked survey takers to identify themselves as renters or homeowners, along with other demographic information. Those polled were asked their opinion on home ownership in the United States. For many, especially renters, the outlook is bleak.
Though the vast majority of renters polled said they want to own a home in the future, 61% said they are worried they will never be able to. A similar percentage believe no matter how hard they work, they’ll never be able to afford a home.
“When you think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and housing is right at that foundational level of security, the implications on consumer psyche when things feel so unaffordable is something that will impact everyone,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at Harris Poll. The American dream of owning a home “is looking more like a daydream for renters”.
When I was in my late teens/early twenties I truly thought that in ten years I’d own a home for sure, with some hard work and dedication.
Ten years later, I don’t even get to buy groceries every week or eat every day. I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last year just from skipping so many meals.
I can’t wait to see what the next ten years holds.
And if one more person tells me I should make sure to invest for retirement… I can’t even feed myself, what you want me to invest? My retirement plan is work until I’m too old/sick/injured and then off myself.
You should at least put in as much as your organization matches because that’s income you’re missing out on otherwise.
Have you tried having rich parents? That helps…
/s
Corporations should not be allowed to own and rent out multiple dwellings beyond a single apartment building.
Corporations can’t be trusted to run an apartment building either.
Apartment buildings should be owned by their tenants.
There is definitely situations where renting is preferable. Ideally (imo) all rental buildings would be government owned an not-for-profit.
Renting by itself would be fine, it’s just that there’s barely any rent control in North America, and you’re constantly at the mercy of your landlord, inflation and general greed. Put national standards for renter protection and rent increases in place and this would be much less of a problem.
Renting should never be the goal and always leaves you at a disadvantage and subject to market forces.
For decades renters were “pulling one over” on landlords and told there was no reason to ever own a home. Now it’s come back to bite them in the ass.
Rent wouldn’t even be an issue if everyone had been fighting for unions and min wage increases all along.
Wouldn’t it make sense to minimize that disadvantage then? There will always be people who have no other choice but rent, so they should be protected from exploitation. And stronger renter protection could cool down the housing market, because it makes being a landlord work multiple properties less attractive. Win-win if you ask me.
Off topic tanget but I’m pretty tired of being told “housing is affordable, just not where YOU want to live” I’m in a midwest state and buying a home anywhere near a city is apparently now a luxury.
All my home owning friends keep telling me to stop throwing away my money on rent, and just move somewhere the nearest grocery store is quick 40 minute drive away. There are USDA loans to help, no city tax, no homeless or crime, if I could only stop clinging to “societal interactions and infrastructure” I could have a great homestead!
What a joke.
if I could only stop clinging to “societal interactions and infrastructure” I could have a great homestead!
This is so true, and something that really gets ignored in the discussion. I don’t WANT to move to bumbfuck nowhere where I have no roots, I want to stay and give back to the community that raised and nurtured me into the person I am today. Unfortunately I (and a lot of others) have been priced out by home speculators.
How is there a loneliness epidemic in all age groups of our society, and yet no one is asking if one of the factors might be people having to move for education and then work to chase affordability, while getting pushed further and further away from their social networks?
It’s not actually a joke, it’s the reality of the current housing market. If you want to own a house now or soon, that is where they are affordable. The other part of that reality to face is that this situation is not going to be fixed anytime soon, so you will have to deal with it by renting a high-priced small place in a big city, or taking the option to own your home where you can afford to buy.
I’m on track to have my house paid off about 15 years early, out here in rural USA where houses can still be bought. I would never trade this life to live in a big city, unless it was free to do so. It’s 5 minutes away from 2 grocery stores, 30 minutes away from the largest city in this part of the state. Most people in my area commute about 20-30 minutes to work. All of my peers own their own houses here too.
So you can laugh all you want at that “joke” but those of us living it are laughing at you paying $2000 a month for rent.
What you’re describing is a suburb.
About 36% of US population rents (same as developed countries like Denmark and New Zealand), so I am confused why this is being framed as a uniquely American problem? I think the issue with real estate being sold to corporations is the main problem (which happens everywhere) as unreasonable expectations for continued growth and lack of new housing prices people out. Where I get the figures: link
If the article was titled differently it could say American dream of becoming a millionaire is dead, majority of non-millionaires say.
Just another article creating division in America during election season.
Creating the division?
Aren’t you shooting the messenger a bit here?
You make a good point.
My wife is selling her first home now that we’re in our first joint home. For reference, she’s 26, I’m 28. I have some thoughts about this whole thing because the house is not selling and it’s generally for stupid reasons:
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Interest rates are high, so the monthly payment is going to be twice what ours used to be when the house was bought in 2020. Interest rates are never going to be that low again and anyone without a sizeable down-payment just can’t afford it. Young people generally don’t have sizeable down payments, because they’re not selling a home to get their first.
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People continually complain about inexpensive cosmetic work like cabinet doors and floors. They walk away from a house with zero real issues because they don’t want to fix things like that.
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Builders are offering great deals on new homes. No closing costs, paying lawyer’s fees, etc. The problem is that new build quality has been fucking awful lately. Before my wife and I bought our current home, we took a look at a new-build neighborhood and even the example home had glaring issues.
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Investors. We had an offer for cash, as is, and took it because people with loans just can’t compete with that. Why wouldn’t we take someone who can pay cash and doesn’t care about inspections or cosmetics?
My take? Young people have no money, interest rates suck, but when a home becomes available that is affordable, they don’t want to put in the work to fix up cosmetic issues. They expect new-build appearances, but don’t realize that comes with poor new-build quality. It’s a multi-faceted issue.
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Veterans get their loans backed by the government, so no down payment.
It allowed me to get a decent sized 3 bedroom house on almost an acre inside of a metro location… For $400 more than a 1 bedroom apartment down the street a decade ago. I got two friends as roommates at first, paid lower than my old rent and they saved up their own down payments and both moved out into homes they bought in just a few years because I charged really cheap rent.
I just checked, my old apartment has went up $700 in that decade.
The Down Payment is the hardest part of buying a home. You can’t save up 25k while paying what’s essentially a mortgage payment.
Give first time homebuyers the same program, and loads of people who think they’ll never own a home would be able to do so and pay less than renting within just a few years.
If we don’t do anything, those people are going to be lifelong renters.
If we don’t do anything, those people are going to be lifelong renters.
Yeah, that’s the current idea. We’ll all own nothing and we will like it
