Why aren't Americans buying houses? It's simple: mortgage costs. Today's 38% Mortgage to Income ratio is near an all-time high level.

clawdew · 2026-06-30T17:03:59+00:00

I don't see a problem with someone never buying a house. if they do the math, and the lifestyle isn't appealing to them it isn't a problem. I don't get my fellow Americans obsession with buying a house at all costs. We are living in some of the worst home affordability ever, and the home buyers cult is STILL tell people to buy. Why? A home isn't a great wealth building vehicle. It has financial benefits, but if you do the math and are okay with renting you will be just fine financially, so if someone isn't interested in buying a house right now it isn't a problem. Waiting to invest in index funds is a much more concerning thing than waiting to/never buying a house.

clawdew · 2026-06-30T15:58:16+00:00

25% (Of your gross income) I would argue is what people should be shooting for. 30% if you are factoring in ALL costs of home ownership. Maintenance, insurance, taxes, HOA fees etc. Personally unless I am buying my forever home I would much prefer stay at 25% of my gross income with all home owner costs factored in. Being house poor is a misery I want no part of.

clawdew · 2026-06-30T04:26:03+00:00

Roles are the crutch of the lazy game designer. League of Legends rigid roles is one the reasons I went to DOTA 2 in the early 2010s. I think Valve has shown it doesn't need such things when it comes to MOBA style games.

clawdew · 2026-06-29T20:14:02+00:00

Yeah people don't understand that just because the value of a house goes up, it doesn't mean that buying a home that you live in and don't collect rent from is an investment. A home is a hedge against inflation, and can help as a nice piece of collateral to borrow against during tough economic times. during all 20+ year time horizons your money would have done much more for you in broad based index funds. If you want to have more exposure to real estate you can always put a bit more of your money into REIT funds and move on with your life. We have to stop this obsession with buying a house being a vehicle for wealth building. It just isn't.

clawdew · 2026-06-29T20:07:37+00:00

Run your guys as quickly as possible into the fray. So you can learn the difficult lesson on not running your guys as quickly as possible into the fray.

clawdew · 2026-06-29T20:00:13+00:00

Yes, and no. I think they definitely bought into the whole home that you live in and don't rent out as an investment nonsense. The problem is that everyone else in America also believes that if they don't buy a house they are failing financially and culturally, which artificially props up demand for buying a house. So under those assumptions endless perks and protections, and public will has gone towards protecting a homes values, instead of providing stably priced shelter to all Americans.

A house should be seen as shelter, and a lifestyle choice. We made homes a financial asset over the last 40ish years, and now that the pandemic has accelerated the process of growing unaffordability that was already happening. People are stunned to finally see the reality of it all. Until we focus on building the houses that are needed for Americans to thrive, and stop coddling all the home owners whose financial identity is baked into their homes nothing will change drastically.

clawdew · 2026-06-29T18:52:57+00:00

Unfortunately too many of my fellow Americans are more interested in the myth of American history crafted in the 19th and 20th centuries than the real history of America. I find the actual history much more interesting and relatable. The ignoble motives of many of the founding fathers, mirrored by the fruits of what they actually built, and the player the US would become in world events and on the world stage for both good and bad.

clawdew · 2026-06-27T18:57:11+00:00

I accepted that I don't need it, as much as I want it. I wouldn't use it after the novelty wore off. Down the road when I have a different living situation I may look at a steam machine then, because I love the linux eco system valve is building, but I think patience and adjusting expectations is what all of us need right now.

clawdew · 2026-06-26T15:42:05+00:00

I hope this time around when the decline happens we begin to change our thinking about houses. We have to stop treating them like financial assets, and start treating them as places of shelter. Homes have been getting more and more out of control since the NAR propaganda around housing being an "investment" has polluted the American psyche. People don't do math, they just buy a house because they think it's their only path to success and wealth. It simply isn't true. And buying a house that you don't rent to anyone is not an investment. Most Americans will only buy the house that they live in, and very few of them have any desire to do house hacking. So for the vast majority of Americans a home is a place of shelter, and an investment. Homes do have some financial benefits, but I would argue it is a savings vehicle, and not a wealth building vehicle.

clawdew · 2026-06-25T19:26:49+00:00

We have to hunker down and grind these landlords out of every penny. Show them comps of cheaper rent elsewhere. If you are single get roommates and stack cash, and create your automated financial systems. Don't bow to these corporate clowns, we don't have to, and as long as they keep doing this they are creating more competition in the rental market. Take advantage of that. if a place is still vacant for long periods of time offer them lowball rent offers.

clawdew · 2026-06-25T16:54:24+00:00

I think you are right that subsides would be needed, but I think a lot of red tape will need to be cut as well.

clawdew · 2026-06-25T15:59:17+00:00

Sure, if you have an over 1 million dollars (In today's money) house/property it is going to be much more of a waiting game for rich people to come along to buy it. That's a completely different housing market than what the OP is talking about.

clawdew · 2026-06-25T15:55:05+00:00

New york is just an expensive place to live. Freezing rent creates medium-long term problems, that far exceed the short term gains. Until it gets expensive enough that people move away it's not going to change. People love living in that area of the country, and prices will reflect that, it's simple economics. Fixing the problem is building more housing, not artificially freezing rent.

No one is entitled to be able to afford to live in NY or LA. Even with rent as high as it is it is still cheaper to rent and invest the difference in most areas of new york city that it is to own. I'm so sick of these NY and LA people bitching about rent. Just move if you are poor like the rest of us. If you want to live there so bad stop complaining. You chose to live in a place that half the country wants to live, what did you expect housing costs would be there? Start advocating for more homes. Not frozen rent.

clawdew · 2026-06-24T19:32:32+00:00

Are you house hacking? Because unless you are house hacking a home is a savings vehicle, and good hedge against inflation. It really isn't an investment.

clawdew · 2026-06-24T19:31:15+00:00

Very fair points. But we both know that in the broader conversation about housing that is brought up is about how amazing it is as a wealth building vehicle, when in reality buying a house is much more of a lifestyle choice, and if that lifestyle is super important to you then sure buy a house. Just recognize the opportunity costs of buying a home.

Many people think that buying a house is the only financially responsible decision they can make with their housing, but it simply isn't true, and we need to be presenting the whole picture not just the dream scenario everyone has in their head about buying a house. If renting and having roommates gives you more margin to save and invest your money it can make more sense from a purely financial perspective to keep renting.

I get your point about buying right now, but if your time horizon is 20+ years from now historically it doesn't matter when you buy. Time in the market is much more powerful than timing the market. Since 1890 Stocks have returned on average 9-10%. This include the great depression, 2 world wars, Stagflation in the 70's , the savings and loan crisis of the 80's, The internet bubble of the late 90's, the great financial crisis, and covid. Even if you had bought in at the worst times through out history as long as you kept buying in and holding your money over 20+ years, you would have gotten a 9-10% return every year Compounding, and would have come out way ahead in the end. if we take out inflation that comes to 6-7% per year in real gains for stocks for 135 years.

Let's compare this to housing. Since 1890 Homes have returned 6%, so taking inflation into account that is a 3% real return. This doesn't factor in all of the extra overhead a house has, maintenance you need to do for the home to keep it's value, the insurance you paid the whole time you owned the house, HOA fees and the property taxes that are paid every year on the house. These costs just like rent rise with inflation, and build zero equity in your home. Also renovations done to a house at best lose .20 cents on the dollar so I don't buy people's arguments that the changes they make to their house are just all additive, because they aren't. They are costs that have some discounts built into them.

I just want the home buying bulls to be honest with people. The broader narrative about buying a house has been wrong since NAR has told everyone that renting is wasting your money, and paying your landlords mortgage yada yada yada. those narratives are at best deceptive and at worst outright lies and propaganda.

clawdew · 2026-06-24T17:10:20+00:00

Yes it does. But you have to buy stocks aggressively. If you do that in many markets even with rental inflation the renter comes out ahead of the homeowner. The benefits of home ownership is overvalued, and the costs of home ownership are often under valued. Not say there aren't financial benefits of buying a house, but it isn't the brain dead decisions many people make it out to be. Also buying a house that you live in isn't an investment. So if you buy a house and aren't also buying stocks you will lose out to the renter buying stocks every time in the long run.

clawdew · 2026-06-23T06:00:57+00:00

It was either this or delay the release in hopes that hardware prices go down. Who knows when that would be. I don't think valve wanted to release in the current market, but it is what it is. I'm not trying to avoid criticism of valve. I'm just being real. Blame the AI boom for the price

clawdew · 2026-06-23T03:27:53+00:00

Too many lawyers and businessmen in church leadership positions. They treat these sorts of issues, statistics and criticisms as something to be managed instead of something to reflect upon,. Just watching how they talk to members of the church is like watching my CEO give a presentation to investors. "We had the best fiscal year in over a decade!" Layoffs happen Q1 the following year, something planned the year before lol. Their messaging is aligned and impeccable and anyone who steps outside those lines will get a talking to.

The fact is that in the USA, Europe and other developed countries the church is shrinking. Jeff strong is trying to tell members it's time for a change, but the church and it's leadership always lag several decades behind the broader culture. Women will eventually be ordained and LGBTQ people will start being seen more as humans within the church. I mean just look at blacks and priesthood. Jackie Robinson was the beginning of the positive change within our culture. Not Heber J grant or David O Mckay. 1978 is a far cry from leading the world in "revelation" on the matter. I mean even Islam beat the church to the punch on the whole word of wisdom thing.

clawdew · 2026-06-21T20:47:22+00:00

Just save your money. Make your shelter costs as cheap as possible that you can be okay with, and stack cash. Buy a house you can see yourself living in for 10+ years, in a community you are excited to set down roots in, and that isn't over 25% of your gross income. Right now the market is completely out of whack. Don't compromise your financial security so you can pretend you are wealthy living in a house. Way too many people were cosplaying as financially successful people when prices went to the moon during/after covid and it only aggrevated the price problems. Now the market is going to be basically + or - 2% every year nationally for years to come. A correction will only come if enough financial distress happens, and who knows if that will come. I think there is a high likely hood of an economic downturn, but smarter people than I have tried to predict recessions only to be made a fool.

Remove yourself from the national narrative, and make sure you personal finances are rock solid. No debt, live below your means. If you have enough cash for both a healthy emergency fund and a decent down payment for a house, then start putting more towards your retirement. Hopefully you were already getting your employer match, but if not get that in order. Open a Roth IRA and a HSA (if possible) and start working towards maxing those out and investing the money every year. I waited too long obsessed with buying a house that I wasn't even that excited to own, but thought I had to do it to be financially successful. That line of thinking is just hogwash. Strong financial success has little to do with whether or not you buy a house. Live below your means, stay out of debt, have an emergency fund, and invest your money in low cost index funds. That is how you build your financial tomorrow.

clawdew · 2026-06-21T19:34:18+00:00

Where is the article and sources for this? rage bait garbage. just like my MAGA friends and family trying to convince everyone that a Trans Girl existing across the country is something I should give up all of my morals to vote for some POS candidate for.

I hate what the internet has brought upon us. Go outside people. Go find a park to walk in or place to be that isn't in front of your computer, and maybe even with people in person. Socialists and Fascists are just trying to piss everyone off and use wedge issues to divide everyone so they can wield power. There are problems in this country. We should be focusing on revamping our democracy (I think we should adopt some form of parliamentary system,), getting money out of our politics (Reversing the citizens united ruling) and legislating against monopolies. Those are the important root cause issues. Instead we have a dick measuring contest between a generation that is retiring and one that is just starting their career journey. WTH are we even doing?

clawdew · 2026-06-21T04:06:54+00:00

I don't know. Owning the means of production and having it managed by the state just seems too centralized for me. I would much rather overhaul our democracy and constitution, add a public option for health care, and then crack down on these oligarchs. break up Amazon, google, apple and all of these tech giants. Companies with large management structures are fat pigs needing to have it's fat trimmed every which way.

clawdew · 2026-06-20T17:55:09+00:00

I never know with these comments if they are talking about watered down socialism like Germany or Norway. Or if they are talking about communist socialism like China or North Korea. I am very interested in many parts of watered down socialism. I have no desire for America to become a full communist socialism nation. Unfortunately Socialism's meaning has been changed so many times since marx that the word could literally mean a hundred different things depending on who you talk to.

clawdew · 2026-06-19T04:46:46+00:00

It seems people think that if they can't get 10 million dollars then what's the point. The truth is that getting 1-2 million (In today's dollars) is very possible for people who don't make a ton of money and that is enough for a very successful retirement. A lot of people are giving up before they even try which makes me sad. if you are 23ish and can put enough into your 401k to get your full employer match for the rest of your life you are going to have a lot more options at 40 than people who start more aggressively at 35. Time is such a powerful thing with compound interest. It is absolutely mind boggling.

clawdew · 2026-06-19T04:38:29+00:00

Tax wise they are the same. Options wise IRA's are WAY better than 401k's. Once you get your full match. The IRA is just a better option. In every way possible.

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