Episode 83 - Trash Builders & The Housing Crisis

Housing Crisis

Dec 22

Millennials have a median net worth of $15K, but the median price for a house has skyrocketed to $375k. But you know what’s free? Trash.

We’re the etsy generation. We’re the Pinterest, DIY-everything generation. We’re the upcycle, sort-everything-for-the-curb, weekend antiquing, threadbare jeans-wearing generation. So what the hell, Millennials? Why can’t we get our shit together and start building our houses out of nothing but hand-me-downs and scraps, like we’ve had to do with everything else?

On today’s episode we tackle the housing crisis piece-by-piece, starting with the economic stats on why “bootstrapping” your way to a house might take between 20 and 40 years…just for the down-payment. And we’ll talk about how older generations have “pinched” the wealth from the younger generation. This, according to a man who’s so good at economics he has the title of Lord in front of his name. Then Todd and Joe will try to hammer down the hurdles holding back future homeowners, one by one. Until we finally get to the gold hiding under all that trash. Building codes be damned! Zoning rights and NIMBY’s be damned! Today we build our trash house. (In our thought experiment, at least…)

History Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/garden/03recycle.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Willetts

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/dirty-money-jared-kushner-slumlord-netflix-1202216998/

https://vimeo.com/433471547

https://shelterforce.org/2013/03/14/building_codes_the_good_and_the_bad/

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/half-a-house/

Science Links:

https://www.earnest.com/blog/rent-and-the-30-percent-rule/#:~:text=We%20found%20that%20at%20salary,rent%20costs%20above%2030%25.)

https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/understanding-the-national-increase-in-house-prices/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-never-rise-like-this-not-for-long-11632851714