[quote=davelj][quote=Scarlett][quote=davelj] As has been pointed out here before, this is largely a matter of choice. The size of the average house in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1960. So, people CHOOSE to spend more today on housing than they used to – wisely or not, mind you. I’m quite certain that if you cut your housing (size) expectations in half (to live like those folks in the ’50s and ’60s)… the ratios will follow accordingly. But I’m betting you have no interest in doing so… what with the Jones’ big house and all…[/quote]
You are dreaming. The size might be cut in half, but it still would be much more expensive relative to the income than how it was then. My house expectation is below 1900 sf, probably more like 1700-1800 sf. for 4 people. Don’t consider that huge. How can you can cut that in half??? Maybe we could squeeze in 1500 sf. I am not keeping up with any Joneses, FYI. Not even close. Let them have the McMansions and BMWs and other toys.[/quote]
The typical family of four lived in a 1200 square foot home in 1960. I will grant you that even that size house in SAN DIEGO might be more expensive on a relative scale than it was 50 years ago, but… in most of the country it is not. You’ve simply chosen to live in a “glamour market” (as Robert Shiller calls it)… with all that entails, sacrifices and all.[/quote]
I want to appeal all native San Diegan and lifetime San Diegan Piggs to think back to your “home turf” as you remember it. Bear in mind that relatively low cost cosmetic and heavy “fixers” still exist there today, whether currently listed or not. Think back to the house you grew up in. Do your parent(s) still reside there?
Now ask yourself, would I raise my family in this home? Even if I inherited the home free and clear, would I raise my family in it? Would I move back to my home turf and raise my family in my deceased parent(s)’ home or buy a fixer there on the cheap near my relatives so my family could live on one income? What if it was situated on a 9K sf lot??
These +/- 1200 sf homes in SD that davelj mentioned here still exist in abundance today. The $64M question is, would you buy one of them on the cheap today to move your family into or move in if one was given to you??
Some of your parents and grandparents raised their families in them, and many also had to fix them up upon purchase just to move in. I think we tend to “glamorize” in our minds the “Leave it to Beaver” existence in previous generations and how many families back then were living on one income. It is very possible our moms DID want to work back then but no one would hire them and/or some of our moms may have not finished high school. Bear in mind that public assistance did not exist back then as we know it today. It was just a small pittance and barely a leg up … food stamps, maybe.
Also, free school-lunch recipients were stigmatized … forming a separate lunch line with different-colored cardboard lunch tickets than the students whose parent(s) were able to pay real money for them. Portable trailers with public health nurses moved from school to school to administer mandatory smallpox, diptheria, whooping cough, oral polio, tetanus and later rubella vaccines to every student :={
I don’t feel life was “better” back then, for parents OR children … maybe different, with less choices and thus less worries, but not “better.”
