Jake Yanoviak is hunting for houses. On a weekday afternoon in North Philadelphia, the 23-year-old painter cruises along on his bike, its black paint obscured under stickers from breweries and rock bands. He turns onto a side street, where he spots a few elderly neighbors, standing on adjoining porches. He parks, leans on one handlebar and makes his pitch.
“Anybody on the block considering selling?” Yanoviak asks gently. “I’m not a developer, I’m not interested in renting to students. I’m just a kid trying to buy a house, fix it up and live in it.”
“We’re not going no place,” replies a 70-something woman, relaxing in fuzzy white pig slippers in the row house where she’s lived twice as long as Yanoviak has been alive. “All these houses are taken.”
Like much of his generation, Yanoviak is desperate to get a piece of an increasingly scarce commodity: prime American real estate. Millennials are finding themselves out in the cold because building has slowed, and longer-living baby boomers are staying put, setting up a simmering conflict between the two biggest generations in U.S. history.
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16 comments:
What a bunch of hogwash. There are 18 million vacant homes in the US. Sorry none of them are on the ONE street you want to live on.
Vacant house in undesirable areas like Salisbury.
12:43 right on
1:05 PM They are in every community. Even in the rich sections.
The "painter" can build and pay for a house just like I did.
12:43 I think 1:05 said it best. Why would boomers want to sell the homes the economy back in the day allowed them to buy with a 9-5?
Oh the boomers will sell eventually, for %1000 more than they paid with no renovations!!
My wife and I paid for our house through hard work. It's ours and will be passed on to our kids. Then they can sell it. Let the "painter" get his own home!
Before the 2007 recession, many older people could downsize to a smaller, more affordable (cheaper) house when the kids left home and then sell their current home for a profit.
Now, the same age category of people are staying put because they can't get a reasonable profit out of their existing property and they don't want to downsize because there is a good chance that their 30+ yr old children will be coming back home to live with them - if they ever left.
Riding his bike around town asking who's selling - SNOWFLAKES want it ALL and immediately!
Son, buy a house boat - then you can take it anywhere you want!
House price are higher than 2007 levels in many places around the country, here not so much.
1:29 There are no vacant homes in our community in FL. 80' wide lot with a teardown on it sells <30 days for over a million dollars.
I can tell you that my Mom lives alone in the 3 bedroom house my family grew up in but with a one bedroom rental going for 800+ per month why would she sell a paid off house with prices so low right now?
There are no vacant homes in FL because these criminal bankers bought them all up so that if they got locked up the property can not be touched.
"There are no vacant homes in FL because these criminal bankers bought them all up so that if they got locked up the property can not be touched."
Almost, but not quite, true. In Florida only your primary residence is immune from attachment. Investment property can be attached, seized or sold.
The market is booming
Give the guy credit for thinking outside the box. He will succeed in life.
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