Wait until Zoomers and Millennials find out that the house grandpa bought was probably under 900 sq feet, didn't have any AC, had one bathroom and if he was lucky had 2 bedrooms for the 2 adults and 3 kids. And when he furnished it, at most the family had one 13" B&W TV (if they were lucky), the tiniest fridge and the washing machine probably had a handle which you needed to crank by hand and the dryer was the clothesline out in the tiny backyard.
Every prospective homebuyer under 35 these days would turn their nose to a house that small and with such few amenities. And god forbid it actually needed some work done to it. With how mechanically inept (and lazy) younger folks seem to be these days, they aren't even willing to look at cheap fixer-uppers to save money in exchange for sweat equity.
Zoomers and Millennials would be lucky to find a small home for sale, as greedy real-estate and construction industries have pretty much decided that building starter homes isn't profitable. My local 900 ft sq home costs just 20k less than a larger home, and they're all over 300k
Kids? Who can afford kids? Zoomers and Millennials aren't likely to be in the position to have multiple kids.
But go on claim a worldwide housing crisis is due to a generation of lazy people and definetly not due to giant investment industry that 's squatting on top of housing. Did you have to fight airBNB to get a bid in in your day, grandpa?
I've heard that before, then you tell someone they might have to add 10 minutes to their commute, or you tell them the closest Starbucks is 15 minutes away, or Gb internet wasn't offered, or some other lavish luxury that people are spoiled with these days wasn't available, and all of a sudden it is a dealbreaker.
Used to be in the /realestate sub on Reddit and the number of spoiled buyers who would endlessly complain about not being able to find a house was infuriating. And when you'd point out to them that with their budget maybe since they were single and had no kids, they might not actually need a 3 bedroom house, they would get all snippy.
Man, I saw houses in Portland that were smaller than 900 sq ft, did not have central AC, no appliances, and had water damage and wires ripped from the walls above $200k. That's not the case in all markets, but it is for a great many. Get on Zillow and start looking around as if you were in the market. Ask yourself if you'd be willing to offer some of these asking prices.