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Notes -
Generation X. It was the only one on offer. Well except we didn't have the consumer products.
GenX here. I got into this with my supposedly intelligent GenX peers, both PhDs, who simply couldn't believe that at 19 years in the early 1990's I could see that all of this housing stuff was an unaffordable nightmare. Maybe half (if I'm being generous) of my friends own their homes and most didn't buy until well into their 40's. People pretend like this is a new problem but it was well in play 30 years ago.
My supposedly intelligent Gen X peers were buying houses like mad during the bubble, using ARMs. I'm looking at them doing this and thinking they're crazy, using an ARM when interest rates were at historic lows (about where they are today, in fact).
My view of that is that we (as a cohort) couldn't really afford the houses either. I'd add it as another chit in the 'this isn't a new problem' bucket.
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I think you're right.
This sets up a whole other piece about how they were hoodwinked into it. Probably something about the false promises being hard to see before 2008, as well as a lot more social pressure from Boomers to conform.
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