Younger generation moving to rural regions because they cannot afford housing

During the pandemic we joked that we hired so many new programmers that we have never met in person because everyone was working from home. Now 3 years later we are still working from home or hybrid and many of those people have left the company without ever seeing another person live.

 

Were they people straight out of college?

 

That was my point. High speed rail can know travel 100 miles in the same time. Does that open up more opportunities? The Chinese trains are even faster. What if we could live 200 miles away and still commute to work? That would be a difference maker. Elon's hyperloop is suppose to reach speeds of 700 miles an hour. Couple that with designing more efficient modern cities and these type of innovations can make a huge difference.

 

Theoretically you may be right. But, for a variety of reasons, I think it's extremely unlikely they're ever going to build high speed rail connections to the inner cities in the U.S. like exist in Japan and China.

In fact I'd bet money it will not happen within the next 15 years.

(Discussing why it will not happen, and why it might be less viable in a country like the U.S. compared to East Asian countries, would be the subject of another thread)

 

A significant portion was.

 

Unfortunately I think you may be correct.

 

The math all too often just doesn't work: Richmond Fed President on what's wrong with the U.S. housing market

As mortgage rates and home prices stay elevated, the U.S. housing market has become increasingly challenging for aspiring homeowners -- and too many are being shut out, according to one Fed President.

Homeownership is "becoming increasingly unattainable for too many workers," Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said during a speech in Hampton, Virginia.

"Take teachers for example. The math all too often just doesn't work for them," Barkin explained. The median wage for a middle-school teacher in 2022 was just over $60,000, he noted. At that salary today, that teacher could afford a $228,000 home without becoming cost-burdened, he said. But the median price of a new starter home last year was $71,000 more than that. And that’s also "on the off chance you could even find one," he added. The housing market today is reeling from high mortgage rates and a persistent shortage of homes, which is intensifying competition among buyers and pushing up home prices. Both of those forces have resulted in housing affordability dipping to the lowest level since 1984.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remains far above the pre-pandemic level of 4%, at over 7.5%, and the median national sale price of a home was $412,502 in September, up 2.2% from last year.

"The math for renting also isn't great," Barkin said. Consider the teacher from the previous example who is looking for a place to live. If they were looking to rent last year, they would have had to fork out about $1,643 per month, the median asking rent that year, Barkin explained, versus $2,011 today -- an increase of 22%.​

'The math all too often just doesn't work': Richmond Fed President on what's wrong with the U.S. housing market, Aarthi Swaminathan, MarketWatch, November 16, 2023

 

Did all of that and more. Collaboration meetings were scheduled during overlap times. In the instances where either the US based or overseas based meeting attendees were on opposite schedules designated members worked different hours in their respective areas. For example if someone was in Chicago or LA they would start their day at 6 am and leave at 3 pm, same for those overseas. Some people actually preferred these shifted schedules because they avoided rush hours and had shorter commutes as a result. There were no complaints because no one was forced to change their schedule if that would result in causing other issues in their lives. One might of expected that from parents with school kids but instead it was a bonus. One parent would be home to get the kids off to school and the other would be home in time when they were back from school.

 

It is hard for the west coast. Even starting at 6:00 am in California it is around 7:00 pm in India. If people in India were ask to start work at that time their schedule would be like from 7:00 pm to 3:00 am. I know there are some cities in India that runs on North American schedules but our offices are not in one.

 

I think you are being extremely ignorant about this. If American companies paid Indian workers what the minimum wage is in many states, Indian workers would easily work night shifts and sleep during the day.

 

Indian workers are being paid far more than minimum wage. The competition for these workers is high. We had huge turnover rates in India over the last two years.

 

The average salary of a computer programmer in India is $29300 per year. That would be considered a good salary by Indians in India.
If every company hiring computer programmers in America only paid $29300 per year, I do not think there would be many Americans entering that career field wanting to fill those jobs. I think that is very obvious.

This article points out that software developers in the U.S. are paid three times what software developers in India are paid.
Developers in US earn almost 3 times more than Indian coders, India Today, Yasmin Ahmed, Feb 21, 2020

I suspect the salary difference would be even greater if it were not for U.S. companies choosing to outsource some of their coding work to India, and U.S. software companies bringing in workers from India under an H1-B visa.

Obviously many other typical office jobs could pay less than the pay for a computer programmer.

 

Those numbers sound about right. I have always been told we can hire about 3 programmers in India for everyone 1 in North America. 1/3 or our median wage in North America would put it fair bit higher that $30K but I can see how it varies from organization to organization.

Even the 30K average you quoted would put it close to double our federal minimum wage.

 

more related threads:
Mother rants about how unaffordable life is for her adult children
Nearly half of U.S. women under 45 are childless
Fewer young people can afford to have a car
Another Leftie Liberal getting priced out of Seattle
Housing affordability over time
College education and the U.S. Economy
Are Millennials screwed?

 

Millennials priced out of homeownership are feeling the pressure

Dylan Rose recently got married and moved to Beacon, New York, outside of New York City, for his wife's job. They make a combined income of $200,000.
But when it came to his dream of buying their first house, the 29-year-old came to a sudden realization: they were priced out.
In fact, mortgage payments on a home would be nearly $4,000 a month, roughly $1,000 more than what Rose and his wife would pay for rent.
"Just that gap between renting and then owning, not even a big house, just kind of a starter house, it's like it's not even possible for us," Rose said. "Not now or probably not any time soon."

The last couple of years have seen a frenzy of competition for similar homes that has led to bidding wars and prices soaring, according to Bridgette Claro, a real estate agent in [the Chicago area] Cook County, Illinois. "I'm seeing sellers get prices that they never imagined," she said.

Around the country, some communities are reporting a crisis of affordability where residents are priced out of renting as well as buying.

On top of this perfect storm is the fact that prospective millennial buyers are competing with older generations, according to experts. This year, the average age of a homebuyer was 49 years old, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Two decades ago, it was 39.​

ABC News, November 24, 2023, "Start Here" podcast series, by Brad Mielke, Jen Newman, and Ivan Pereira

It looks like the problem of housing shortages and unaffordability is spreading outwards from the New York City area.

 

Meh… we’re all just a bunch of introverts who aren’t worth a damn in the real world and try to make a difference here by imposing our line of thought upon others.

Affordable housing is a real crisis though.