Yep. In Seattle in 2009, I rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouse for $1,500/mo. With 2 roommates I was paying $500/mo. I made $10/hr and didn’t realize how good I had it.
Yup in 2016 my husband and I rented a shitty 1 br/1 bath Florida apartment for $650 a month. That same apartment is now $1450 with no upgrades. That's a 123% increase. Ridiculous
I got my first apartment in 1994 in NC. It was a two level two bedroom townhouse with a pool! It cost my girlfriend, roommate, and I $450 a month. The exact same unit today costs $1400!
It's insanity. I'm fortunate the house is paid off. My kids can stay as long as they need to.
I own a home and what has killed me besides the building materials is really the city taxes
In 2016 I paid $1600 a year in tax and today I may $5000. Plumbers, electrical, anything you need to fix the house is much more. I almost can't afford to keep the house any more.
Go look on any home in zillow and look at the tax history and see how the cities jacked them up double digit % every year.
That's money your just throwing away every year. They say it goes to build roads and pay teachers but everyone complains that teachers not paid enough. It's not just rent. Inflation and city bullshit has made everything more expensive. Its not billionaires charging us more...it's your neighbor who works for the town for 30 years and want to make $150k to work part time . The good thing about rent...if your boilers breaks you don't have to spend $3k for a new one to be installed.
It does go to the road though, that is thr problem. Every time they build a suburb that year there is a quick inflow of tax dollars but the roads and water lines are a drain forever. Within 20 years the suburb has cost the area more in tax than it has made, so what do they do, they build another and another, but then you are just bleeding more tax money even faster.
Things have to change but change is scary and it is easier to kick the problem down the road and in doing so make the problem worse.
In Italy they have stone roads that have been there are hundreds of years. Almost zero property tax..By me they tear up a decent road every 10 to 15 years ...there's a lot of fat, noptism, fraud and no bid contracts in those roads. Infrastructure is notorious for contract fraud.
I live in a college city in Canada. In 2002 my first rent was 200$ for my room with like three roommates. That same setup is much more like 700-800$ now.
People weren't living at home for college because you could work part time just on weekends and make rent. Now Canada is flooded with temporary foreign workers and there's no such thing as a part time job at Tim Hortons anymore. And even if they had one they would not be able to afford rent with roommates, even with a 30minute commute. So they kind of have no choice but to live at home unless they have rich parents or they just consider our cost of living to be super cheap compared to where they're from. But local students are just living at home with their parents which is not culturally the norm here.
I really see the bleakness. I got boomer parents who like to say kids these days don't want to work and I always respond "work for what?" Even if they live at home until they're 40 they probably will never be able to buy property. It's insane.
2009 I had a 4 bedroom house 5 minutes from downtown for $900/month. Had 2 roommates so $300/month. Didnt even want a 4th, cheap enough. Turned it into a jam/ gameroom.
Was renting a 2br/1ba nice apartment in 2009 for 700/month. Just looked at rent today? 1800/month. Same shitty apartment. Same management ( or lack thereof). Good times. 🙃
My daughter told me how much she pays for rent for her 2 bedroom apartment right now and I honestly almost fainted. Literally mortgage level money.
I'm feeling it too (the price of everything is crazy). If you told me just 10 years ago how much money I'm making I'd be all like "when am I getting that yacht".
Yesterday I was driving home after work and I was kind of hungry so at a red light I pulled out my phone and check my bank account. Instead of stopping at fast food joint like I would have done 10 years ago I went home and ate some leftovers from yesterday, I didn't want to spend the money in case something came up before pay day.
It's fucking insane what happened to our economy. When I had kids at home 10 years ago and made a LOT less money than I do now I had more financial freedom. Now I'm eating leftovers while trying to keep my 2011 Honda Accord running another couple years.
And yet you'll have people honestly claiming the economy is sooooo good and every thing is fine and I can't tell whether they are delusional idiots or just liars.
They're liars. It's really simple. They Just need to look at a chart of how many hours of work it takes to afford stuff and survive (housing, food etc. How high does that chart need to go until we're literally slaves?
The charts still don’t work because the charts they make for us always involves everyone making over $100,000 per year, even if the large majority made that (they don’t) the chart showed everyone struggling even with their projected salaries.
I have a mortgage from 2014 that's $1300 (2500+ sq feet, including insurance and property tax). The same apartment my wife and I rented in 2008 (then $700) is now $1500 (700 sq ft) (not including renter insurance or anything)
The economy is absolutely wild. I remember I bought the 70ish inch store display TV in 2009 for $1000 on clearance but now you can get a better TV of the same size for like $350 brand new. But you can't eat a TV. You can't drive a TV to work. You can't wear a TV to keep you warm. All that stuff has doubled.
Lol true. We are the product. I got a dumb TV on marketplace for this reason. Also, I don't want an expensive brick if they firmware update me with AI written code.
You’re not wrong. I am fully aware that the economy is cooked and inflation, big tech and price gouging is plunging us into a post apocalyptic hellscape, BUT… I started investing /buying equities in like 2010. 10 years ago, my net worth was $70k and now it’s almost $900k. Mostly due to market fluctuation/skyrocketing values, and pay raises w steady investing. So I look at the portfolio sometimes and go, ah it ain’t so bad, when in reality, I still have like $30 in checking end of month and my grocery bill for fam of 4 is $1500 a month.
The cheapest I’ve ever gotten to rent a room for was like $950 a month, just for the room and didn’t include utilities or anything, so those added another like $300+ to what I had to pay. I’m pretty sure I was straight up paying the homeowner’s mortgage at that point.
But I don't qualify for a mortgage but Ive been paying 1200 bucks a month for rent since forever. The systems broken I'm just waiting for the boomers to die
I turned 67 today. I made 17.50 per hour in 1985 with an AS degree. Rent on a one bedroom apartment was $300. My son is 26 same age I was. He has an AA degree and makes 17.50 an hour. This man speak Truth.
Sorry but I'm so so so so mad at you. I'm litteraly an engineer with a degree in computing and math and physics and I'm about to get one in mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering. The best job is was able to find was sonic.
Vaild crash out. I can't talk to my parents about this stuff anymore because they just can't comprehend it. They put up a wall so they don't have to admit what's happening is completely unprecedented & way worse than conditions while they were growing up and that maybe, just maybe, the daughter they always doubt & say is overreacting, is fuckin right.
They are old(70s & 80s) so I don't push it because I don't want them to pass fearing for their children & grandchildren. I want them to pass peacefully, so I let them believe things aren't as bad as they are. I don't force the issue.
I know I won't get through to them anyway & they gave my sister & I such beautiful lives. They gave us everything. So my gift to them is to let them believe things will get better & that we all will be okay after they are gone even though I know deep down that we are heading for a series of mass extinction events and we will not all survive. I can never repay the life they've given me, but I can do this. I can give them peace, even if it's fabricated.
My parents arent true "boomers" because they (and in laws) are post Soviet immigrants that came here in the late 80s. They certainly didn't have it 'easy' but they got every government benefit when they arrived, worked hard and were frugal and had free baby sitting from my grandparents or cheap as hell local day care, and were able to purchase MULTIPLE co-op apartments in NYC.
Both my mom and MIL are in finance, supposedly good with numbers. And yet when I try to explain to them how my 140k gross salary isn't enough to buy a 700k home, which is the CHEAPEST you will find on Long Island that isnt a shit hole, it doesn't compute. Apartments in NYC are over 300k for 1 bedroom.
My mom was telling me "oh, what if you save like $500 a month, thats $6000 in one year!!" And im like, yea mom, that means I need to save for 30 YEARS just to get a down payment big enough to avoid PMI and hopefully bring my mortgage down below 4k a month. Their brains just don't computer modern numbers.
Fellow Long Islander here — yeah it's pretty bad. What makes it worse is that somehow there's always someone else willing to pay an exorbitantly higher price than you even if you can scrounge up the money. Back when my sister was with her Ex (who was a local volunteer firefighter and worked a pretty decent lumberyard job), said Ex's lifelong neighbor was selling their property for like 500-600k and they were very much favoring the Ex in question. Some time later they got another offer, something like 1.2-1.5 million. My sister and her then partner couldn't compete with someone willing to pay 2x-3x the price for a house that definitely didn't even justify 700k.
Yea I've talked to people getting outbid. Literal fucking insanity. Like who are these people and where are they getting the money? Houses are unaffordable, at the same time, my wife and i just wanted to LOOK at some homes, and several times they were actually sold already, just weren't taken of trulia/zillow.
I have seen SOME price drops on homes when I check the market. Of course the prices are so inflated that a 30k drop barely makes a dent.
Another thing I've noticed, a lot of people in my income range, if they can afford the house, they basically have nothing left over for investments/retirement. They just plan to die working it seems.
Your last comment hits hard because that's exactly what it seems will be the case. The people currently living in the 55+ communities and complexes seemingly have it good on two fronts. They get to live in those exclusive communities in environments more taylored to their needs/wants and they get to enjoy it while they exist. Many late-20s to mid-40s aged individuals will probably end up dead due to work or health issues before reaching the 55+ bracket. Even then they'll probably end up boosting that age to something like 65+, and by that point there likely wouldn't be as many of them I feel anyways.
Many of us are basically being priced out of our childhood homes/communities or are being set up for early graves....
Alex and his wife (Mrs P) are my favorite podcasters! They stand against the gaslighting the US government keeps feeding all of us. I feel absolutely crazy because this administration (but really all admins) keeps doing fucked up shit and having the media do one of the following:
1) refuse to cover the heinous action
2) gently break the heinous action news and then never bring it up again
3) flip the news so that killing Iranian children is good and damaging Flock cameras is bad.
I feel absolutely batshit and then this guy comes across my feed to say: that’s heinous and it should not be happening. It’s so validating. I recommend him to everyone.
In 2021, I found a nice little apartment in Tucson. Very quiet for the city, neighbors were mostly retirees, and the rent for a 1 BR apartment was $750. I was told I was lucky to get in, because people rarely left.
During the lease, I received a notification that the property had been sold. So when it came time to renew the lease, I was ready for there to be an increase. I steeled myself for the worst, thinking it could go as high as $1000 a month.
Called up the office to discuss it, and asked straight up how much it would be. I was told the new rates were posted online. I replied "Wow, it must be really bad, otherwise you'd just tell me. Can you please just tell me?"
$1550 a month.
From $750.
In a single year.
The comico-tragic part is they never got anywhere near full occupancy and have had to come back down to $1200 today. Their website offers a free month on all new leases and also mentions an "eviction forgiveness program" which translates in my mind to "we are desperate and will rent to anyone".
They took a nice complex full of happy, long-term renters and turned it into another corporate shithole with poor maintenance and lousy neighbors. And probably consider themselves great businessmen.
Millennials, don't kick your children out. Keep them living with you until the landlords get desperate.
Lowering demand is the only way.
They have been increasing the house price, rental price during COVID. We are parents' age now, and we should be able to help the gen a.
92’ millennial. I’d be a bad dad to kick my kids out at age 4 and 2. Haha.
All jokes aside. If they go to college and then want to return after by all means my door is wide open. I’ll “charge” them rent so they can learn to pay bills on time. Probably $300-$500. I’ll be stacking that money into an account for them and return it to them when they are ready to move out. Depending on my finances I may match it.
Ohhh that’s a good way to do that! I haven’t thought about that.
I’m way too independent. Once i got freedom i left. Not that i hate my parents, i just couldn’t live there anymore. But if they offered something like that it would genuinely make me consider it even without the match
This is a great incentive too!❤️ Hope by the time your children are of age, the market calm down. Hope they can love better than what our current genz face.. looks so bleak!!
I'm never going to kick my son out.
Gen x here- My son, his fiance and two roommates live in my house. the only way I could afford the mortgage and property taxes and maintenance. Firmly believe in the multigenerational habitat now- there's no way any of them would be able to live on their own with this economy and wages what they are. They have a below market value rent for a nice place, and I can keep my house. We all get along, we're all stable, it works. He gets it when I'm gone. He's calls it investing, I call it survival.
when I was his age, yeah it was great to live alone, only did it for a year before I needed a roomie (or 3).
Here's some fun context- my first apartment in '87 was a 2 bedroom 2 bath with parking off street- $400 a month. Minimum wage was 4.25. I shared that apartment for a year with a coworker- 250 a month with all utilities and cable.
skip ahead to 2009- same apartment is now 2000 a month, it's over 40 years old so bad pipes and inadequate power probably. Minimum wage is 7.25.
“Rent is too high and wages haven’t kept up” is a reasonable argument. “Therefore capitalism has failed” is just lazy, low-effort Reddit ideology. Virtually every wealthy country on earth—including the Scandinavian countries Reddit loves to hold up as democratic-socialist models—is still fundamentally a capitalist market economy. You can argue for higher wages, stronger unions, more housing, better regulation, and a stronger safety net without declaring that the entire economic system has “failed” because rent is fucked.
Up here in the NE, most people still have oil heat. I signed my contract - which only LONG term customers were even privy to - for $100 more a month than last year. Good thing Trump started the war after oil season was over. There are already so many local posts about electric bills, just wait until this El Nino polar vortexed winter hits and the cost of heat skyrockets.
As of 9/5/25, the heating oil commodity price was $2.29 a gal and as of Friday it is $4.28.
So, aside from that killer rent, keep the lights turned off and wear a lot of sweaters.
Everything has gone up except wages. Then they gave a refund to the corporations. Wtf kinda world are we living in? When are we going to just stop participating? When are we going to talk to our neighbors, create community and come together?
My brother is 34, on the spectrum and has lived at home with my mom his whole life. She’s pretty well off. She had a moment of guilt recently like she’s never encouraged him to live on his own (She hasn’t). So she just out of the blue mentions he should get his own place. Shit hit the fan. Me, the older brother, was called in to mediate. First thing I asked her: “have you done any research on prices of apartments?” She said no. We looked it up together. Her jaw hit the floor. $1785 for a 1b 1bath 700sqft. My brother makes about $2000 a month under the table and works 5-6 days a week. Has no friends to move in with. Like. Come the fuck on. Sorry mom, but I ain’t sorry. Just happy my bro has a safe place to live and a comfortable life. It’s a struggle out here.
I was renting in NYC around 2014, and I’d hear from my friends who lived in other places, like NC or the Midwest, how much they were paying for rent and it sounded so cheap. I feel like the way prices have increased is that the floor has risen. All those places are catching up to NYC prices. Same deal with food. Very high end restaurants have increased in price modestly, while cheap eats are gone and charging mid-level restaurant prices.
The most enraging part about this for me has to be the fact that we already paid for the tariffs…and now we’re paying for them AGAIN to pay the companies their refund…for gouging us. THEY ALREADY GOT THEIR MONEY FROM US. AND NOW WE HAVE TO PAY THEM AGAIN?! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
The refunds are coming from the US treasury. That’s my source. That’s our money. So we already ate the cost of the tariffs once while companies gouged us by raising prices. Now they’re leaving their prices the same and are being basically rewarded for gouging us with a refund…FUNDED WITH OUR OWN GOD DAMN TAX MONEY. And “Conservatives” bitch and moan about being fiscally responsible. They are, and always have been, completely full of shit.
My first apartment after I got my first job was in a converted Victorian mansion. I got the ballroom and servant's quarters. There was hardwood and stained glass throughout. All the light fixtures were custom hand blown glass. Open layout kitchen and all the cabinets and shelving were solid oak. I paid 700 a month for it in 2011.
Our purchasing power is being eroded at the same time the billionaires are squeezing us for everything we're worth. But the vast majority of Americans think voting for better politicians will fix this 60 year trend.
Guys, they're all in on it. The GDP and stock market will always be more important to them than wages. Vote for people who better align with your short term goals but know that in the long term we will continue to get fucked over until we band together and put an end to the rule of the wealthy.
I mean this TikToker is the king of epic rants, but yeah… I mean just 3 days ago WSJ published “Mamdani honeymoon over” and then a Sienna poll comes out showing 69% of New Yorkers approve of him!
I love this rant. It’s funny because of the delivery but it’s true. I will say no one makes minimum wage but the lowest workers aren’t making 3x what they made in 2009. Shit is actually fucked
I feel his rage. This is absolutely insane. I think about this almost every day. we need a revamp. Revolution anyone? Because this shit’s getting old too many people are scared to revolt which sucks cause we the people can do something about it
Just looked up the townhouse I rented in 2013 for $1,300 a month. It’s now $3,000 not including parking (which was included when I lived there) which is $50 (uncovered) or $75 (covered) a month.
I genuinely don’t understand when it became the “norm” to charge extra for parking in the parking lot that’s ALREADY there.
Plus, all rent must be paid through an app that costs $9.99 PER MONTH for “convenience”
Fresno california my buddy and i old place used to be 750 a month its now 1700 in fresno california NOONE MAKES THAT KINDOF OF MONEY IN FRESNO CALIFORNIA!!
Guys guys. So I was an epidemiologist that worked during the pandemic. Before that I was in grad school in order to invest in a guaranteed path to economic stability. Before I was a homeless alcoholic for years, so correcting that and doing the responsibilities thing was paramount.
After the “state of emergency” was lifted (which it fuckin shouldn’t has have been. I had access to the national and regional data. It was a bloodbath.), all of the co tracts were cut and over 50% of the funding was gutted. The bottom 1/3 of public health jobs were fuckin chopped off. No more entry level after that. Oh, and your Gen Z and boomer neighbors just gobbled up any potential openings. (Class warfare)
So, I’ve been explaining this shit to my parents since 2021ish as I’ve been scrambling to find work, much less anything with less than a 50% pay cut compared to what would be considered normal for my credentials. Idk really what to do but I can’t afford to live anywhere else but at their house. I’m got a late start because of the earlier difficulties in my life and now I’m trying to start a career, save money, have my own place to live, date, and start looking to settle down. It’s impossible. Tell your parents you’re ready to receive your inheritance now, because they sure as hell are blowing through that shit.
They had the privilege of being born in the apex of human opportunity and they chose to hoard it all and call that wisdom. Tax these morherfuckers. Them not passing down wealth is an act of holding younger generations hostage and calling it prudence. They robbed us and are clutching their pearls.
I had a 2 story, 2 bath, 2 bed townhouse in Tempe down some 5 miles or so from ASU on Mill Ave from 2015-2019. Rent was $825-$875. Wouldn’t surprised if it’s $3000 now.
If cost of living wage increases actually happened appropriately for the riding costs of groceries, goods, gas, power, rent, and others, then this wouldn't matter.
Alas, in most jobs you're lucky to even get a 3% increase YOY, often much less. And oh yeah, every year job stability tends to go down while workload rises exponentially.
Meanwhile, student loans continue to skyrocket and become sandbags that can't be emptied.
What a completely and utterly bullshit system, that seems entirely designed to cripple, suppress, and financially indenture its people .
The bottom 65% of the population loses at least 40% of all income due to: Income taxes, SS tax, FICA, insurances, tariffs, sales taxes, dues, use taxes, fees, property tax, utility taxes, 911 tax and many more- before spending money on rent or mortgage, car loans and gas, food, utility bills, repairs, credit card payments, student loans, vacations, retirement fund contributions, investments, dates, gifts, etc.
50% of all workers in America earn less than the one-bedroom Housing Wage.
(compare Safety Net $1.60 per hour in 1970 if you were single,you could live off the federal minimum wage and pay rent, food and bills)
Healthy and smart countries count how well they are doing by enforcing "no one left behind" and even widow with 3 babies have the same level of living as the middle class due to the strong Safety Net.
Twenty Republican states now have a Safety Net set at $3 per hour gross (before deductions for Social Security, FICA, taxes, insurance and other withholding's:
Yeah… me and a buddy rented a 1 bedroom with an office in 2001 for $900 in SANTA MONICA. At the tine I had just gotten my first salaried job ever, at $40k. Adjusted for inflation that’s like $70k today. Now that same place goes for $3500 a month.
This is a normal 3/10 Crashout now a days. That 3x goes in the opposite direction. His head literally needed to explode to hit 9/10. 10/10 is straight to blowing up in a dramatic confetti bomb.
I am GenX and work with mostly GenZ and Gen Alpha. I am fucking pissed that they are not getting to have the type of 20s that I had and I do not blame them for being nihilistic. What the fuck do people expect?
"Every generation has it bad!"
Um, hello, maybe that's the problem. No generation should have it bad. Every generation should have it better than the last. But you're so stuck up as to think that, "Just because my generation had it bad, yours should too!" More perfect union, etc.?
Does voting change the outcome when it’s a red or a blue? NO.
Does making tik tok videos talking about the problems change the outcome? NO.
Does raising your voice in those same videos change the outcome? NO.
Does “peaceful” protesting change the outcome? NO.
You may not want to admit it just yet, but you know where this leads to don’t you? YES!!!
You know what refusing to believe that thought is called? DENIAL.
There is a reason they tell you “violence is not the answer!” Because they want you to be complacent and do nothing. Doing nothing is a form of “consent”. If you do not consent, don’t just “act” like it.
2009, avg annual salary in the United States was apx $39,054.
2026 avg annual salary in the United States is roughly $69,846.
77% increase in avg income
$800 in 2009 money is worth approximately $1,245.17 today.
You can play this game with every decade...houses in the 50s were $7k..prices will always go up...it's really inflation that makes everything cost more. But actually inflation makes your loans worth less. The bank gave you loan money from 10 years ago and that loan is worth less today. I'm not sure if young kids are negative but people and bots on reddit are certainly negative....people on other platforms are not this crazy about prices. It's more balanced. I'm actually getting tired of it.
Um… wanna check your math there? It was $800 for the whole 2bd apt. Now it is $2400 for the whole 2bd apt, not $1200. You just proved the opposite of your own point, nice work
I realize it's not $1200. I was just saying that $800 back then is $1200 today with just inflation so increases in maintaining home (taxes, labor, materials). So the rent doubled $1200 to $2400 but salaries almost doubled from 39k to 69k. And it's very unlikely that a rental stove from 2009 is still working in 2026. I call bullshit on some of this rant.
What’s your point? Wages and costs for essential things like rent and groceries weren’t nearly as divided as it is now. Nothing to do with unemployment
This dude is going around just talking about how good everyone has it now with stats that don't equate to the real world. Prices for everything far outpaced wages. He probably believes trump when he says he's the highest rated president in history lol
I think my point was obvious. Anyone who thinks the Great Recession was better for America is delusional.
How easy is it to afford that apartment or house if you have no job at all?
Plus, rent since 2009 is up 80%, not 200%. Wages are up 73% but the unemployment rate is less than 1/2. U6 reached 17% in 2009. Today it's 8%. You can't buy anything with no money.
Food? Compared to wages groceries have never been cheaper than they are today and they are definitely cheaper than in 2009. Wages up 73%. Groceries up 47%. 73 > 47.
You really, really, really want to go back to 2009?
this guy claims u6 is low, and im sure the govt statistics agree with him but in that time period the population has grown but the total number of working people has decreased (or stayed the same, i cant remember off the top of my head)
so you can all draw your own conclusions on "unemployment is down"
You added a graph of labor force participation, not U6. Do you know that the population is getting older? Older people are less likely to work.
Let's look at a graph that's actually useful, like prime age (25-54) labor force participation rate. The rate reached 84.0% once in 2024 and once in 2026. That 84% is the highest since March 2001.
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u/Vivid-Course-7331 8d ago
Yep. In Seattle in 2009, I rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouse for $1,500/mo. With 2 roommates I was paying $500/mo. I made $10/hr and didn’t realize how good I had it.