I have to vent out my real estate market frustrations somewhere, and there is no better place than HIVE, where real people share real views, and discuss openly about problems and issues... It's a bit ironic, but I do prefer a more real image, with all the good and bad, than the fake image shared on other social media where everyone has a perfect life, and everyone is happy with the state of life (and society)...
As usual, just to clarify 2 important things... What I will share in this post are my personal views, and I will drop some numbers that are valid in my surroundings, part of Spain where I live... These numbers can be completely different for you, even if you live in the same country as me... But, what is probably the same (I hope you will share in the comment section and we can compare), is the trend and direction in which we are moving...
The second thing that I want to clarify is that I'm extremely happy with my decision last year to finally buy a property and to "secure" a roof over the head for my family! I'm not sure that something like that will be possible to do even today, and can't even imagine in a couple of years...
Why the rant then? I have maybe mentioned a year ago something about my son continuing his schooling in Valencia and searching for a room to stay in... Almost one year has passed, and he decided to move from that apartment and rent another one... Why? Well, the room that he was renting was old, poorly isolated, situated in a very old building/apartment, and it was well overpriced!
Let's talk numbers, moneywise and timewise... I remember mentioning the real estate prices multiple times in the past, and recently, I did it again on the #HHHLive show... I mentioned the story of my father earning enough money working for two months to buy a house in the late 70'ies... And, he wasn't an isolated case... Many people did that in those times! Try to replicate that today...
Fast forward into recent personal history... I remember when I moved to Spain 13 years ago, and the search for an apartment for my family... As we have just one friend there, we decided to keep him close, and we rented the first apartment on the same street! Unfortunately, the whole town was a popular tourist place for wealthy people, and the initial price was already too high...
To be more exact, the evolution of the renting price for a 2-bed apartment was from 450 EUR to 800 EUR (all that in only 13 years)... The price has doubled in just a decade! We are talking about the country where the average salary is around 2K EUR, but it depends a lot on the place where you live, industry, experience, etc. For example, supermarket workers have around 1K per month... That should be enough for you to see how it's impossible to live and rent without working more than 1 job!
As my son was searching to rent a room, I checked out that market too... Oh, boy... What can you find there? It is cheaper than an apartment (obviously), but not that cheap... Also, the idea of renting rooms was most popular among students, but times are changing... For example, the room (400 EUR per month) which we checked a few days ago was in the 4-bedroom apartment, where other tenants weren't students, but rather people in their 30s, who work... I don't know about you, but when I was finishing school, I didn't imagine living in a rented room in my 30s or 40s! I doubt that those people live like that because they want to, but rather because they can't afford better!
I just want to reflect on the WHOLE apartment where my son was renting... It was a 5-bedroom apartment, in a 60-70 year old building, which hadn't been renovated for over 2-3 decades, and his room was the cheapest... Long story short, the landlord has invested almost 0 EUR in it, but it's renting the whole apartment for over 2K EUR per month!
I know, it is maybe even more expensive at your place... But let's try to keep our focus on direction...
The thing gets even messier if we think about retired people... Now, imagine yourself in 30-40-50 years, when you reach your retirement... If you didn't buy your home, and you didn't have stable work during your life, you will probably receive less than 1K EUR pension (sometimes a lot less)! How the heck can you decently live with that money? By renting a room in a shared apartment?
I don't know where all this will lead us, but it doesn't look good at the moment... It's getting impossible for young people to even think about buying their home, and as time passes by, it's getting more and more difficult to do it...
If there were no cryptocurrencies, I wouldn't have my roof over my head... That's probably the biggest motivation that I can get whenever I have doubts in crypto... It was worth it, and it is worth doing it... Spreading the word about it, helping others on the way, and accumulating tokens that are more valuable than soon-to-be-worthless fiat money!
Thank you for your time.
--ph--