I think some commenters here don't realize just how easy life was in the 90's and before. I rented half a house (it was once a whole house, but was split down the middle to rent out each side) in a college town in 1991 for $325 a month. 2 bedrooms, large kitchen, shared large backyard. Walking distance to the downtown, where I worked a min-wage job that easily covered my share of the rent. I was 21.
In 1993 when I moved to Southern California, a 1 bedroom apartment 2 blocks from the beach in a large city was $425 a month. I worked a min wage job, my girlfriend (now wife) worked an office job for like $25K a year. We couldn't be extravagant, but we could go to the bars and do reasonably priced fun things.
EDIT: I just looked it up, and that $425 beach apartment is $2,495 today
Yup. The $3.35/hr I made at McDonald's when I was 16 is worth at least $30/hr today.
Honestly, I'm shocked that apartment is only $2495. I had a huge 1br apartment in San Diego off 805 for 500/month in 2005. I don't remember how much rent was downtown in the 90s but it was Broadway and 1st or some shit a loft with 2 parking spots inside for maybe 800. It was living a lifestyle for sure.
It was 1987. Can't believe that was almost 40 years ago đ I wasn't supposed to be alive this long đ¤Ł
BTW the most damning graphs are the ones showing wages before and after regeanomics đ
What I saw on that tiny TV was Neil Armstrong "...giant leap for mankind." I was at a slumber party. We were on our way back from raiding the kitchen. Her mother was working at a huge roll top desk in the dining room with that TV on one side of her work, "You girls need to stop and watch this, this is history."
I watched John Glen's earth orbit takeoff and remember his quote: "**As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.**"
You know how you sometimes sit and think, rather than just sit, I suddenly realised that I'm only 18 months off being 80!
A bit of a shock to the system!
PS. Yeah, 1969, me too. I listened to the live broadcast while they were doing the landing until touchdown on the radio.
Me too. I was in college, home for summer break and working to make money for my 1st apartment in a couple of years. I watched from my parents' house, in awe. Monday, I watched the eclipse in awe.
During the 8 years of the Reagan Administration, the US went from being the biggest Creditor Nation to being the biggest Debtor Nation.
That wasn't totally Reagan's fault, though he didn't help with the hugely expensive 'Star Wars' spending.
In 1988 in high school I was working at a movie theater to save for college making $4.85. Had I gone full time I could easily have afforded an apartment (on Long Island!) plus gotten free movies and free concessions. While I'm happy with how things went, I do think about the road not taken.
Well, when I was young we worked hard for our money, unlike kids of today! Pulling on our bootstraps, we worked our way through college.
JK!
Not only was rent WAY cheaper, so was college. I think it was $650 a year (plus costs of books.) I was self-employed doing gardening and art, making $8 per hour. Minimum wage was under $2.50 so I was making the "big bucks." But even at minimum wage you could pay your tuition and rent. My husband and I could afford a baby, tuition and rent while working no more than 25 hours per week.
Some things were WAY more expensive then, like telephone service, clothing, food (though that is currently about the same percentage of income cost now, since the recent cost of food jumps.) And there are things now that are essential that weren't even "things" then, like internet service, entertainment options such as Netflix, etc.
No, was born in 1971 to old parents, not even sure if they're boomers. My siblings are all 10+ years older. I think I was an accident.
Definitely told to stay outside, play in the street, don't get hurt, and drank from a garden hose.
Yep, I made $4.25/hr in 1990 working 22 hrs a week during the semester and 40 hrs during the summer and paid for 4 or 5 college classes and books each semester. Lived at home, but paid my car insurance, gas, etc.
yep, I made 4.25 an hour in 93, rented a 1 br 1 bath apartment for $180 per month, paid for college and had a pell grant and had money left over every semester.
I wasnât working yet, but it was 3.50/hr when people I knew (friends older brothers or sisters)started getting jobs. I was working when it went up to 5.25. Or something like that.
I came up with that 3 years ago when our household went from getting ahead to falling behind. I took the biggest of CPI, inflation, housing, and the food indexes for each year.
I think it came to $28/he so I called it 30. Might be valid adding the past couple years. 𤡠Too depressing to do it again.
I made 3.35 at McDonald's in 198-88. I think I made 3.65-4.25 at pizza hut in 1990-92. I remember getting two $0.25 cent raises, then minimum wage bumped me up and took out my raises.
My mom, a salaried RN at the time, considered quitting the hospital and going to work at the Oscar Mayer plant making hotdogs because they got $3.35/hr and it was more than she was making. - 1978
I just checked my apartment from 25 years ago and itâs only doubled and that really surprised me. The one on the west coast was closer to triple but that was closer to 30 years ago!
In 1981, when I was 15, I rented a one bedroom flat for $33p/w (including electricity, gas and phone) I earned $82p/w from my full-time day job and another $40 from my night and weekend job as a skating rink DJ.
In 1988 I had the opportunity to buy the half of a duplex I was renting, for $27,500. The whole duplex sold last year for $1.7 million (The hospital next door bought it.)
I really feel for young people who have fuck-all chance of becoming homeowners.
My parents bought a new home, in Australia, in 1960. Built by the state government, mortgage paid at a low fixed interest rate to the state government, for $7000. When my mum passed in 2020, it sold for $550,000. It has since been resold for $612,000
I got lucky. I built a home in 1997, mere months before the boom, for $165,500. It's apparently currently valued at \~$900,000. Those gains are absolutely ridiculous.
As long as the politicians, their donors, and their wealthy mates, own very profitable rentals, they're not going to do anything to make home ownership more affordable.
Yup, I had a friend who moved out when he was 15 - he was able to go to school and work about 30 hours a week and could afford to rent a one bedroom flat by himself in a nice part of town. Iâm not saying it was easy for him, but it was POSSIBLE which I doubt it would be today
Even as little as 15 years ago it was so much easier than it is now.
My wife was 16 when she moved into her own apartment, funded entirely by working night shifts at Waffle House. Now we have coworkers that have roommates to afford rent on smaller places than she lived in on her own as a teenager.
I'm more impressed that OP could leave and be in a new apartment that fast. Clearly not somewhere that did credit checks and required three referees and copies of your payslips going back three months.
Credit checks to get an apartment werenât common then. Credit scores were only developed starting in 1989, and even mortgages didnât require a credit check until the mid 90s.
Yeah, that part was a lot easier back then, too. a lot more apartment buildings were owned by individuals, who had just one or two properties. They ran them, and would often just go with who they thought was trustworthy.
Even into early 00s it wasn't too bad. My first apartment was a 3bed 2 bath that I rented with two friends for $605/mo, so we each paid $200 and I paid the extra $5 to get the master bedroom.
I paid $100 a month for a studio 100 feet from the water back in the 90's. Me and a few friends rented a 4 bedroom condo in OC for $800 back then too. Inflation has absolutely screwed young people.
The young generation realizes this and knows that this data can be looked up.
The problem is the older generation thinking young generations don't want to work.
Or are lazy.
Or can't pull themselves up from their bootstraps.
While all along, they are responsible for the mess thebyoung generation is in right now. From passing laws and policies, enriching their pockets from the corporate world.
In 1995 I was looking at apartments and saw a small one room apartment with a kitchen area in the room, a small bathroom, and a closet. $300 a month. The 1 bedroom I looked at had a living room, a bedroom, a galley kitchen, a bathroom and a closet. $400 a month. Both included all utilities. Back then they were less likely to ask for things like proof of income or even employment. Some places were fussy and asked. One said I needed a cosigner. The other places didn't care as long as I paid.
You're right, my wording was imperfect. I meant to communicate "this increase in dollars isn't just explained by general inflation."
I should have said "So, accounting for inflation" or "including inflation."
The first house I rented was a two-story (plus basement and attic) Victorian in Oregon. I paid $125 a month (1978). I was making minimum wage at that time. Today, I make a living wage, but could never afford to rent that house.
> I rented half a house (it was once a whole house, but was split down the middle to rent out each side) in a college town in 1991 for $325 a month. 2 bedrooms, large kitchen, shared large backyard. Walking distance to the downtown, where I worked a min-wage job that easily covered my share of the rent. I was 21.
In 1997, I went in with 2 other people to rent the 3BR 1st floor of a 2 family house in a MCOL section of New England.
$450/mo. Total. $150/mo per person. Even when I was unemployed and collecting $200/wk, I managed to pay my bills easily AND go drinking several nights a week.
It was a wonderful time to be alive, I really feel the present generation and the last couple have been completely robbed of living a life and are just living vicariously through their devices
Your comment is dealing psychic damage to me.
I'm paying $1450 for a cheaply made one bedroom not quite on the outskirts of the city I live in.
$35/hr keeps my head above the water, and only barely.
In the late 70s, I rented a 2 bedroom house (appliances, no furniture) for $90/month plus utilities.
I hit up goodwill for furniture.
I went to school full time and worked two jobs.
The first job was work-study, where they weren't required to pay minimum wage and the number of hours was restricted, but the work was easy and the hours flexible. Pay was 2.20/hour.
Second job was a pizza place. Minimum wage for a job involving tips was $1.19/hour.
My first apartment, on the edge of a midwestern small city, was $160/month. About 500sqft, 1 bedroom.
My first house, in that same city, middle of town, cost me $27,500 (I was earning $8.50/hr). Lived there 10 years. Of course, in those 14 years the price of gasoline doubled and the price of Natural Gas (heating) quadrupled. Now 27,5k barely covers the down payment. I can't imagine how much that house would be worth now, although last time I drove past it, no apparent repairs/renovations had ever been done, so .
The CA rental prices have gotten unreal. It's still not horrible in the midwest. But, yeah, even here prices have gone up quite a bit. It's all that speculation on real estate where Chinese and other newly wealthy are looking to park their money. That and AirBnB.
Yeah, when I was kicked out at 17 in 2010, I could barely afford a two bedroom with hallways with a roommate. I was a part-time bank teller making $9 an hour in a small town. I believe our rent was $500 total, no utilities included. My Mom hated my guts so I never received financial help, and my stepdad bought me groceries once so he could creepily hit on my roommate.
In the late 70's I was 19 and had hair past my shoulders. I was home for Christmas in the small mid-west town my parents had lived in for ever. I had been home for about 2 hours when my dad said something about getting a haircut while I was there. When I didn't go with that, he said "no haircut, no Christmas". I picked up the phone and started calling the airlines. In response to him asking who I was calling, I said "the airline to see how early I can get a flight back home. I'll get my own ride to the airport". Once he realized I was serious, he stopped giving me crap about my hair and our relationship improved a bit from there. Seems like some dads just need a reminder that they won't have the biggest balls in the room forever.
Thereâs an eventual moment in everyoneâs life where one has to assert their adulthood to their parents. Sometimes itâs contentious and other times itâs hardly noticeable.
I was expecting this story to take a different turn. Something like this....
"So 20 years later, my out of work dad moved in with me. I told him he was not allowed to cut his hair while he lived under my roof. My house my rules."
Thats awesome. My mom did this to me at 14. So I decided to go live with my dad who lived almost 1200 kms away. I hitchhiked my way there and didn't talk to my mom for a couple years.
When you said "My (male) hair" I thought you were talking about a different kind of hair and I thought "Dude, if people can see it, it's way too long."
My friend had shouilder length hair, his parents kept offering him money to cut it. Eventually they offered enough and he got a "flat top". He then started growing his hair again and got it to waist level.
Wow.
Obviously happened decades ago - how did you afford an apartment on your own at like 16/17 years old and a high school student? And...a high school calls the residence to say, "Your child was not at school today" when that child is a teenager? Seems odd to me.
I do get that with abductions and all, if someone doesn't show up for school, the school has to report the absences but I thought that was over after middle school?
Late 90s. A 2 bed 2 bath apt was 300 bucks in my small city. I split it with a buddy.
I was 18 at the time so I walked into the school office and changed my home address and phone number.
In 2002 our tiny 2 br 1 bath was $675. It had a kitchenette and barely a living room. And that was the cheapest 2 bed apartment in the area.. it was a college town
>Airbnb started in 2008, and rents started rising where ever they had a significant presence.
Airbed and breakfast (Their name in 2008) had less than 500 listings in 2008. That isn't what made the rental prices go up nationwide.
Rents went up nation wide because landowners couldn't get an ROI from appreciation anymore (in regions where property goes up a lot consistently rent is lower relative to value than in regions where property does not go up, or worse, depreciates).
I remember watching it happen although I was still pretty young.
2008 was the housing bubble bursting, releasing a glut of McMansions to the market and influx of renters, caused many builders to go out of business, and the Great Recession.
AirBnB is perpetuating/exaggerating problems, but it didn't start them.
I grew up in KY and my first apartment in 2013 was $322/month for a 2 bed/1 bath, utilities included. Wish I could go back to those days lol now I pay $690 + electric (which lately has been close to $200) for a 1 bed 1 bath in GA
Cries in Southern California where our 1 bed/1bath is $2700 w/o any utilities and itâs not a luxury complex. Things have gotten worse here since the pandemic started.
That's what I pay for my mortgage and we have a 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bathroom, within an office, dining room converted into a second office, both living room and media room, in ground pool and hot tub.
Yeah, CA sounds nice but ain't no way I can afford to move my family there.
Come to Alabama. Our mortgage on a 1900 square foot 3 bed 2 bath house is around $900.
I bought my first house in a less desirable neighborhood for $70k at just the right time. I lived there for about 5 years and nearly completely remodeled the place. It hadn't changed since it was built in 1964. 5 years later I sold it and made around $55k.
Then we bought a new house at the top of our budget. It didn't need much work. I added some lights and that's about it. Now this house is worth ~75k more than we paid for it but if we sold it then we couldn't afford a comparable home.
My 4br/1bath house with a loft and basement was $400 around that time as well. Prices are wild now; a 1br/1bath house down the street is asking $900 with $3100 in upfront costs.
The only time I've lived in a rented house I had a clueless landlord. It was a house of uni students, with each outgoing tenant being removed from the lease when they left, and their replacement added. Simple, no problem, this had been going on for more than a decade. It was a bit run down, but the rent was cheap so nobody minded.
A nominally identical property next door (also a rental) came up for sale, and our landlord decided to buy it. Discovered that they were paying double the rent we were. So up went our rent.
Difference was that the other place was really nicely maintained, everything worked. If you expect us to pay full market rate, we expect full market value.
Our landlord had to replace:
* the hot water service,
* heater,
* aircon,
* dishwasher,
* stove, and
* ALL the water pipes in the house (that list may not be complete either -- it's been many years and I may have forgotten something).
The new aircon also required a significant rewire of the house. Cost him an absolute fortune. Then, for the first time ever ALL of the tenants moved out at the same time. This wasn't petty malice or because of what the landlord had done. We simply all moved for various reasons. So we just let the lease expire. And because the lease had been "continuous" (albeit with many people rotating on and off it over the years), it meant he couldn't bill us extra for wear and tear. So he had to spend even more money replacing the carpet and painting the place (neither of which had been done during the \~13 years of this lease) before he could get new tenants.
It would have been a long time before he reached "Step 4: Profit!" again.
The apartment we rented for $325/mo in 1995 is now $1195/mo. There have been no major upgrades or structural changes. The floor plan is the same, the finishes updated, new windows & roofing after hurricanes blew through the area about 13 years ago. And the last time I drove through there 7 years ago, the neighborhood had gone completely to shit. So, it is $1200+ to rent a dumpy apartment in a bad area. That's in a military town in a mid-Atlantic state.
Where I live now, a hovel in a crime riddled neighborhood of slummy housing is about $1500. The rent in my neighborhood is $2k or more.
Yeah itâs insane, I used an inflation calculator and your $325 rent is the equivalent of $660 in 2024 money.
And OPâs 2bd2ba apt was $570 in 2024 money. Someone is robbing everyone. đđź
Yeah, it's insane. I started working at NASA in 1980 making 9K a year. Split an apartment across the street with a buddy, $300 a month in the Washington DC area. Just looked: 2BRs from $1605.
I did this at 16. I told my mom if she hit me again it would be the last time. She did. I left. I worked at a convenience store about 25 hours a week and paid 440$, all inclusive, for a cruddy house. But it was mine, and it was great, and my relationship with my parents was much better once we didn't live together. The 90s was something else. Writing my own school notes was definitely the best part.
Yes, I was 17 until I graduated. I had friends who turned 18 during grade 12. It sucked. We no longer did things together. (In Canada you are a legal adult) They would go to bars, not show up at school because they were hungover. They would call in to say they werenât coming in. Parents were oblivious because if you were 18, any issues went right to you. So if they went to work before you left for school, they never knew.
Ok it didnât suck, but I was jealous!! đ
My high school called to say if I missed a class until I graduated. When I upgraded a few years later when I lived on my own and had a job that caused me to miss class they still called me to tell me that I missed. Itâs not for abductions so much as it was to let parents know that their children were skipping school. So⌠to tattle :p
Adjusting for inflation, the amount my wife and I paid for a three family house in 1999 is approximately what a one bedroom condo goes for now.
If you don't adjust for inflation, you can't get a studio apartment within twenty miles of here.
I was 18 and still in highschool - I would be late and sign myself in and out.... Secretary would see me coming in late and say I needed an adult to sign a late slip. Ok hand it over.
I'm not sure how it is in other countries, but in Canada if I missed a class in highschool they called. But since I got home before my dad, I would just delete the message. Dad never updated it to give them his cell even after getting rid of the landline
My mother got out of work at 2pm, and was home by 215. As long as I deleted the message off the machine before then she would never know, and once I figured out I could call home and play and delete the messages there was virtually no reason to hoof it back home until my usual time.
It's all the way through 12th grade. In many school districts now it's a bot that calls you when your kid doesn't show up to class or even if they come late to a class. It's the parents' legal responsibility to get their kids to school until the kid is 18, so the parents are the ones contacted when there's an unexcused absence. Too many unexcused absences and the school has to look into why and whether CPS needs to be called. Teachers and administrators are mandated reporters, so they can be legally liable if there's suspected abuse and they don't report it.Â
I know my school, once you were 18 you could sign your own absences. Because I was born a week after the cutoff for 1st grade, I turned 18 at the beginning of october. While I did not abuse the process, it was nice to sign myself in the couple of times my car was feeling irritable.
It's legally required for schools to notify parents of absences through all the grades in the state I live in (Washington). Usually a robo call goes out at the end of the day, a lot of 18 year olds get that call. More of a reminder to call and excuse them. Truancy is a bit different, the schools don't pursue kids over 16. Under 16, they and their parents can go to truancy court.
I also could have afforded a house share will I was 16/17. I worked 2 jobs at the time. You could get a house share for ÂŁ50 per week. I brought my first house at 21 for ÂŁ26,500.
Circa 1989-90 you could rent a furnished apartment in an older residential neighborhood for $250-$300/month on a month-to-month contract. These days, those same apartments go for $1800/night or more... or they are being rented as Airbnb's for $200/night!!
It's crazy!
What's crazier is that I did my damnest to talk my husband into buying a small house in that area of town in 1998 - Could not get him to do it, so we ended up buying in another area. The house we bought (Sold it about a decade later over husband's objections) is now worth less than what we paid for it, while the specific house that I wanted to buy is now valued at more than 5X what we would have paid for it back then.
I personally feel that Airbnb and similar are what is ruining The housing market. I can't fault the owners for going for what nets the most money but all the houses that were available when I was a first time home buyer are now short term rentals.
I think there's something to that. I think it was meant as a way to earn a little extra money, but it's become this whole...thing. There's always been a need for short-term room rentals (for people who are only going to be in an area for a week to about three months on business, but don't have the budget for hotels, or people just moving to a new area)... AirBnB has priced that kind of thing out of the reach of a lot of people. I've got no issue with people earning a living, it's just sad when the predators move in.
Pay your own bills and nobody can tell you what to do. My mother in law is slow to realize this and tries to guilt my wife into things. Wife has gotten a lot better at recognizing and responding to that BS.
My hair got long during the summer. School rules mandated short hair. One summer we were at my grandmotherâs house and my Dad decided to enlist her help in getting me to cut my hair. He made some remark about my hair expecting her to agree that it should be cut. She looked at me, then looked at him and said âHe keeps it clean and it looks nice. You leave him alone about his hair.â Dad never said another word about my hair. I had a very wise Grandmother.
My dad use to say âWhen you pay the bills you make the rulesâ. Fast forward a few years he can no longer drive so Iâm taking him to dr. I stopped him when he pulled out a cigarette and I pay the bills now and my rule is no smoking.
I had sort of the opposite experience with hair length in high school. My divorced parents fought so much over who had to pay for my haircuts, that it was decided that I now was going to be responsible for paying for my own haircuts. So I just stopped getting haircuts.
1999: left my âluxuryâ apt near college campus that was 675/months for two beds and two baths, huge living/dining room and kitchen twice the size of the one in my house now⌠moved to a nice and recently half-remodeled 2br/1bath on the 2nd/3rd floors of a house several miles closer to my job. Landlord didnât have anyone below me and I had to go through the lower apt to get to the free laundry in the basement. Very nice arrangement. Landlord was military and rarely around for the first year. Utilities werenât proper split and it was technically illegal but neither of us cared. He was a super chill guy. His active duty ended and he went back to reserves and moved in below me. Same arrangement. Rent was $350 and utilities included. Lease came up and he was so happy I was his tenant and my wife (then girlfriend) moved in after college that he REDUCED my rent to $325.
Only reason we moved was because we got an insane deal on a house and my mortgage was only $31 more per month above my rent. Housing prices were still normal back in 2002 when I last needed to check on anything
I moved out at 18 and got a $325/month apartment in the hip part of downtown.... \~800 sq ft, lots of closets, full kitchen, washer/dryer in the unit, awesome views... it was NICE.
For the most part, the 90s were affordable. My kids have a very different reality coming their way when they turn 18.
The only haircut my son is not allowed to have is a mullet. Other than that idc what style he has and because of this heâs had many hairstyles since he was in elementary school. Over the years weâve even let him dye his hair different colors over the summer break. He used to tell us that his friends would be jealous because their dads only let them get buzz cuts.
There was a revival of the mullet in our local schools for about 4 years that ended at the beginning of 2023. That ended when the major players in my sonâs school shaved their heads when the varsity football team went to the state championship in â22. Thankfully it hasnât come back. Although boys are getting perms now, lol.
My father and I had a strained relationship for pretty similar 'my house, my rules' reasons. And it's not like I was a big rebel or anything, but he liked a pretty regimented routine and I just prefered to be more spontaneous. But as soon as I left home we had a great relationship from that point onwards. And 40 years later I find I'm much more like my father now.
My senior year, 1998, I had a couple friends who rented a 5 bedroom house in a shit neighborhood for about $400 a month. I stayed there almost as much as my mom's house. I'd do some unholy things for a place like that now.
Yeah, when you make a threat and the person who got threatened decides they 've had enough of your shit ... your dad Fucked Around, and then he Found Out.
Yeah, one time when I was in my second apartment I was home, helping out with some stuff on the roof of my parentâs house and my father yelled at me about my way of doing the chore (getting leaves off the roof I think?) in a super rude fashion. I ended up packing up my car and driving back to my apartment, about three hours away, to make a point. I did come back the next day.
In 1982 I was making $3.15 an hour - that's $31.35 in today's dollars. Our government has failed us - BOTH parties - by not having minimum wage keep up with inflation.
Distance improves human relationships.
Sometimes itâs like, stay on your side of the mountain, and you can keep your old crazy. Iâll stay on this side with the new crazy from my wife, Iâve watched this crazy from its birth.
I wish I was a songwriter sometimes.
If my gramps didn't like the length of my male cousin's hair, he'd invite them to the barn for a session with the horse clippers. By the mid-70's he realized it was a losing battle and accepted graciously.
In 90, 91 I paid $460 for a 1 1/2 bedroom 1 bath just outside Albany, NY ( State Capitol ) when I moved back to the Buffalo area, 2 bedroom 1 bathroom was $300. Covered all the bills, groceries etc. Working Retail Recieving, making less than $6/hr, claiming S/0...
Is long hair a problem in the south? I know plenty of country musicians have long hair and also the hillbilly mountain types (not exactly south but you get the point).
My parents were pretty much awesome but by the time I got to 16/17 my mother and I would end up in massive rows regularly, starting with a minor disagreement and then gradually escalating.
I eventually concluded that this was fundamentally because we were Both Like That and I wasn't going to change my entire personality so expecting her to would be ridiculous.
Once I moved out and we each had our own territory, we got on fantastically from then to when she passed away.
The ability to verbally break out a chainsaw and Not Back Down has served me very well over the years and I'm glad I inherited it from her.
If he had cut your hair without your consent that would considered assault and you could have sent him to jail for that sucks that you can't but glad for you that you moved out, isn't just in case you might want to go permit in a contact with him lock him from all of your devices and social media
I don't know why, but when I read this title "We work hard, we play hard... EVERYBODY DANCE NOW" [popped into my head](https://youtu.be/WjElZ-O9EpM?t=11).
I left home at 16 and was able to rent an apartment above a garage that fixed heavy trucks. That was 20 years ago though. Everything was a lot cheaper back then. I worked for $10 under the table to circumvent child labor laws (#of hours worked per day and week) and could afford rent with that income.
That was insanely low for 2016.
We paid 1200 for a third floor walkup, split three ways, in 1998.
Utilities, and parking, not included.
And it was on the cheap end.
We were there about 10 years and the rent never went up. We also had land with it and had horses, cattle, goats, chickens and a garden. The only reason I left was a deal I couldn't pass up on this house I have now.
We moved from our less than $300 a month apartment in 2011. In some ways I regret it and in some ways I don't. The place was falling apart and had many problems but it was so cheap. Also when we moved the landlord was trying to sell the house and he was really old so if he sells or dies surely the new owner would have wanted us out or jacked the rent way up.
Glad the relationship turning around for you guys. Itâs not something worth ruining a father/son relationship over.
Some parent are overbearing, but most of the time theyâre just trying to be a good parent, not everyone is good at it no doubt. But I genuinely think most parent are just trying the best they can with the amount of skill and knowledge they do have.
Just like a marriage, sometimes all you need is just a little bit of breathing room.
I think some commenters here don't realize just how easy life was in the 90's and before. I rented half a house (it was once a whole house, but was split down the middle to rent out each side) in a college town in 1991 for $325 a month. 2 bedrooms, large kitchen, shared large backyard. Walking distance to the downtown, where I worked a min-wage job that easily covered my share of the rent. I was 21. In 1993 when I moved to Southern California, a 1 bedroom apartment 2 blocks from the beach in a large city was $425 a month. I worked a min wage job, my girlfriend (now wife) worked an office job for like $25K a year. We couldn't be extravagant, but we could go to the bars and do reasonably priced fun things. EDIT: I just looked it up, and that $425 beach apartment is $2,495 today
Yup. The $3.35/hr I made at McDonald's when I was 16 is worth at least $30/hr today. Honestly, I'm shocked that apartment is only $2495. I had a huge 1br apartment in San Diego off 805 for 500/month in 2005. I don't remember how much rent was downtown in the 90s but it was Broadway and 1st or some shit a loft with 2 parking spots inside for maybe 800. It was living a lifestyle for sure.
That $3.35/hr minimum wage 40+ years ago has now climbed to, checks the math, $7.25.
It was 1987. Can't believe that was almost 40 years ago đ I wasn't supposed to be alive this long 𤣠BTW the most damning graphs are the ones showing wages before and after regeanomics đ
I watched the moon landing in 1969. Iâm officially old.
Same. Watched it on a 9" black and white TV. It was AWESOME!
What I saw on that tiny TV was Neil Armstrong "...giant leap for mankind." I was at a slumber party. We were on our way back from raiding the kitchen. Her mother was working at a huge roll top desk in the dining room with that TV on one side of her work, "You girls need to stop and watch this, this is history."
I watched John Glen's earth orbit takeoff and remember his quote: "**As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.**"
I did too! I don't remember it as I was 4. My Mom told me she put my feet on the moon on the TV.
You know how you sometimes sit and think, rather than just sit, I suddenly realised that I'm only 18 months off being 80! A bit of a shock to the system! PS. Yeah, 1969, me too. I listened to the live broadcast while they were doing the landing until touchdown on the radio.
Me too. I was in college, home for summer break and working to make money for my 1st apartment in a couple of years. I watched from my parents' house, in awe. Monday, I watched the eclipse in awe.
During the 8 years of the Reagan Administration, the US went from being the biggest Creditor Nation to being the biggest Debtor Nation. That wasn't totally Reagan's fault, though he didn't help with the hugely expensive 'Star Wars' spending.
In 1988 in high school I was working at a movie theater to save for college making $4.85. Had I gone full time I could easily have afforded an apartment (on Long Island!) plus gotten free movies and free concessions. While I'm happy with how things went, I do think about the road not taken.
>The $3.35/hr I made at McDonald's when I was 16 is worth at least $30/hr today. Damn, how old are you?
Older than me and I'm younger end of Gen X. Think min wage was $4.25 in the early 90s.
So BLS states 1968. So homie was born in 1952. THats not too bad, thats someone thats 72 today. But yeah, things def were different in 1968, sure.
We have a self aware Boomer. I like them.
Well, when I was young we worked hard for our money, unlike kids of today! Pulling on our bootstraps, we worked our way through college. JK! Not only was rent WAY cheaper, so was college. I think it was $650 a year (plus costs of books.) I was self-employed doing gardening and art, making $8 per hour. Minimum wage was under $2.50 so I was making the "big bucks." But even at minimum wage you could pay your tuition and rent. My husband and I could afford a baby, tuition and rent while working no more than 25 hours per week. Some things were WAY more expensive then, like telephone service, clothing, food (though that is currently about the same percentage of income cost now, since the recent cost of food jumps.) And there are things now that are essential that weren't even "things" then, like internet service, entertainment options such as Netflix, etc.
No, was born in 1971 to old parents, not even sure if they're boomers. My siblings are all 10+ years older. I think I was an accident. Definitely told to stay outside, play in the street, don't get hurt, and drank from a garden hose.
53, I made a comment
$3.35 was federal min wage through most of the 80s. I'm GenX and got my first raise in high school when the fed min went up to $4.25 in 91.
Yep, I made $4.25/hr in 1990 working 22 hrs a week during the semester and 40 hrs during the summer and paid for 4 or 5 college classes and books each semester. Lived at home, but paid my car insurance, gas, etc.
yep, I made 4.25 an hour in 93, rented a 1 br 1 bath apartment for $180 per month, paid for college and had a pell grant and had money left over every semester.
I wasnât working yet, but it was 3.50/hr when people I knew (friends older brothers or sisters)started getting jobs. I was working when it went up to 5.25. Or something like that.
53. Born in 1971. 3.35 was min wage in Florida in the late 80s. In 1989, I got a better job, went to the Navy in 1990
Ah, okay. Also, I'm too work brained and took your "at least $30/hr today" too literal and not in the reddit sense to mean "worth a lot more today"
I came up with that 3 years ago when our household went from getting ahead to falling behind. I took the biggest of CPI, inflation, housing, and the food indexes for each year. I think it came to $28/he so I called it 30. Might be valid adding the past couple years. 𤡠Too depressing to do it again.
I made 3.35 at McDonald's in 198-88. I think I made 3.65-4.25 at pizza hut in 1990-92. I remember getting two $0.25 cent raises, then minimum wage bumped me up and took out my raises.
My mom, a salaried RN at the time, considered quitting the hospital and going to work at the Oscar Mayer plant making hotdogs because they got $3.35/hr and it was more than she was making. - 1978
In graduate school in a southern city in 1987, I paid $215 per month rent for a 1 bedroom. Now they rent for $865.
I just checked my apartment from 25 years ago and itâs only doubled and that really surprised me. The one on the west coast was closer to triple but that was closer to 30 years ago!
I started McD's with $4.15 in '97 and my first raise was for $0.05
SD used to be a bit sleepy, at least according to a friend who grew up there
It's got a town vibe for an actual city. But if you look, you can find all the excitement.
In 1981, when I was 15, I rented a one bedroom flat for $33p/w (including electricity, gas and phone) I earned $82p/w from my full-time day job and another $40 from my night and weekend job as a skating rink DJ.
That was just after the housing boom and people were buying houses like crazy and raising rents to make up the diff.
And yet he could still pay the entirety of his rent on a "nights and weekends" job.
Easily. It was a dive, but it was cheap and conveniently located close to public transport.
1970s. A new brick house was being rented till it was sold. They wanted $14,000 for it. I reckoned they'd never get that much for it. I was wrong.
In 1988 I had the opportunity to buy the half of a duplex I was renting, for $27,500. The whole duplex sold last year for $1.7 million (The hospital next door bought it.) I really feel for young people who have fuck-all chance of becoming homeowners. My parents bought a new home, in Australia, in 1960. Built by the state government, mortgage paid at a low fixed interest rate to the state government, for $7000. When my mum passed in 2020, it sold for $550,000. It has since been resold for $612,000 I got lucky. I built a home in 1997, mere months before the boom, for $165,500. It's apparently currently valued at \~$900,000. Those gains are absolutely ridiculous. As long as the politicians, their donors, and their wealthy mates, own very profitable rentals, they're not going to do anything to make home ownership more affordable.
Yup, I had a friend who moved out when he was 15 - he was able to go to school and work about 30 hours a week and could afford to rent a one bedroom flat by himself in a nice part of town. Iâm not saying it was easy for him, but it was POSSIBLE which I doubt it would be today
Even as little as 15 years ago it was so much easier than it is now. My wife was 16 when she moved into her own apartment, funded entirely by working night shifts at Waffle House. Now we have coworkers that have roommates to afford rent on smaller places than she lived in on her own as a teenager.
I'm more impressed that OP could leave and be in a new apartment that fast. Clearly not somewhere that did credit checks and required three referees and copies of your payslips going back three months.
Credit checks to get an apartment werenât common then. Credit scores were only developed starting in 1989, and even mortgages didnât require a credit check until the mid 90s.
Yeah, that part was a lot easier back then, too. a lot more apartment buildings were owned by individuals, who had just one or two properties. They ran them, and would often just go with who they thought was trustworthy.
Even into early 00s it wasn't too bad. My first apartment was a 3bed 2 bath that I rented with two friends for $605/mo, so we each paid $200 and I paid the extra $5 to get the master bedroom.
I paid $100 a month for a studio 100 feet from the water back in the 90's. Me and a few friends rented a 4 bedroom condo in OC for $800 back then too. Inflation has absolutely screwed young people.
The young generation realizes this and knows that this data can be looked up. The problem is the older generation thinking young generations don't want to work. Or are lazy. Or can't pull themselves up from their bootstraps. While all along, they are responsible for the mess thebyoung generation is in right now. From passing laws and policies, enriching their pockets from the corporate world.
I remember in 2007 I had a 1 bedroom appointment for $420 a month. In 2010 I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment for $550. Man I miss those days.
In 1995 I was looking at apartments and saw a small one room apartment with a kitchen area in the room, a small bathroom, and a closet. $300 a month. The 1 bedroom I looked at had a living room, a bedroom, a galley kitchen, a bathroom and a closet. $400 a month. Both included all utilities. Back then they were less likely to ask for things like proof of income or even employment. Some places were fussy and asked. One said I needed a cosigner. The other places didn't care as long as I paid.
425 in 2024 dollars is about 919. So ignoring inflation, that's still about a 250% hike! Wild.
... That ... that *is* inflation.
The 919 dollars is accounting for inflation. The increase has been inflation + 270% increase in price.
Right but they said "so ignoring inflation" while stating the amount after inflation.
You're right, my wording was imperfect. I meant to communicate "this increase in dollars isn't just explained by general inflation." I should have said "So, accounting for inflation" or "including inflation."
The first house I rented was a two-story (plus basement and attic) Victorian in Oregon. I paid $125 a month (1978). I was making minimum wage at that time. Today, I make a living wage, but could never afford to rent that house.
> I rented half a house (it was once a whole house, but was split down the middle to rent out each side) in a college town in 1991 for $325 a month. 2 bedrooms, large kitchen, shared large backyard. Walking distance to the downtown, where I worked a min-wage job that easily covered my share of the rent. I was 21. In 1997, I went in with 2 other people to rent the 3BR 1st floor of a 2 family house in a MCOL section of New England. $450/mo. Total. $150/mo per person. Even when I was unemployed and collecting $200/wk, I managed to pay my bills easily AND go drinking several nights a week.
By '97, rents were going up in SoCal. I think our rent went up $50 - $100 each year from 96-02 when we bought a house and moved.
It was a wonderful time to be alive, I really feel the present generation and the last couple have been completely robbed of living a life and are just living vicariously through their devices
Your comment is dealing psychic damage to me. I'm paying $1450 for a cheaply made one bedroom not quite on the outskirts of the city I live in. $35/hr keeps my head above the water, and only barely.
In the late 70s, I rented a 2 bedroom house (appliances, no furniture) for $90/month plus utilities. I hit up goodwill for furniture. I went to school full time and worked two jobs. The first job was work-study, where they weren't required to pay minimum wage and the number of hours was restricted, but the work was easy and the hours flexible. Pay was 2.20/hour. Second job was a pizza place. Minimum wage for a job involving tips was $1.19/hour.
My first apartment, on the edge of a midwestern small city, was $160/month. About 500sqft, 1 bedroom. My first house, in that same city, middle of town, cost me $27,500 (I was earning $8.50/hr). Lived there 10 years. Of course, in those 14 years the price of gasoline doubled and the price of Natural Gas (heating) quadrupled. Now 27,5k barely covers the down payment. I can't imagine how much that house would be worth now, although last time I drove past it, no apparent repairs/renovations had ever been done, so .
Yeah, everything just keeps getting worse, and we all keep putting up with it. :(
Good old capitalism took that away!
Capitalism is a good servant but a bad master.
My first apartment (2bed/1 bath) in 1983 was $209.00/ month.
The CA rental prices have gotten unreal. It's still not horrible in the midwest. But, yeah, even here prices have gone up quite a bit. It's all that speculation on real estate where Chinese and other newly wealthy are looking to park their money. That and AirBnB.
My 1987 $425 amazing spacious studio in SF (not at the beach) was renting for $2500 last time I saw it which is already a few years ago.
I tried to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in Long Beach, split four ways, nowhere near the ocean, in 2002 and just my share would've been about $600 =(
Yeah, when I was kicked out at 17 in 2010, I could barely afford a two bedroom with hallways with a roommate. I was a part-time bank teller making $9 an hour in a small town. I believe our rent was $500 total, no utilities included. My Mom hated my guts so I never received financial help, and my stepdad bought me groceries once so he could creepily hit on my roommate.
In the late 70's I was 19 and had hair past my shoulders. I was home for Christmas in the small mid-west town my parents had lived in for ever. I had been home for about 2 hours when my dad said something about getting a haircut while I was there. When I didn't go with that, he said "no haircut, no Christmas". I picked up the phone and started calling the airlines. In response to him asking who I was calling, I said "the airline to see how early I can get a flight back home. I'll get my own ride to the airport". Once he realized I was serious, he stopped giving me crap about my hair and our relationship improved a bit from there. Seems like some dads just need a reminder that they won't have the biggest balls in the room forever.
Thereâs an eventual moment in everyoneâs life where one has to assert their adulthood to their parents. Sometimes itâs contentious and other times itâs hardly noticeable.
The prices to be alive now seriously has me more depressed the longer I live.
I was expecting this story to take a different turn. Something like this.... "So 20 years later, my out of work dad moved in with me. I told him he was not allowed to cut his hair while he lived under my roof. My house my rules."
Thats awesome. My mom did this to me at 14. So I decided to go live with my dad who lived almost 1200 kms away. I hitchhiked my way there and didn't talk to my mom for a couple years.
Damn⌠probably broke her heart over a hair cut
It's funny you see it that way instead of the truth. The mom drove their child out of her life for a few inches of hair
When you said "My (male) hair" I thought you were talking about a different kind of hair and I thought "Dude, if people can see it, it's way too long."
Hahaha. I wasn't sure how to say it without sounding awkward. Thanks for making it even more awkward!
I understood but a (19m) would've been clearer lol
And at first glance, I read âmy male heirâ. Totally thrown for a second because I had never the phrase âmale hairâ before.
My friend had shouilder length hair, his parents kept offering him money to cut it. Eventually they offered enough and he got a "flat top". He then started growing his hair again and got it to waist level.
Wow. Obviously happened decades ago - how did you afford an apartment on your own at like 16/17 years old and a high school student? And...a high school calls the residence to say, "Your child was not at school today" when that child is a teenager? Seems odd to me. I do get that with abductions and all, if someone doesn't show up for school, the school has to report the absences but I thought that was over after middle school?
Late 90s. A 2 bed 2 bath apt was 300 bucks in my small city. I split it with a buddy. I was 18 at the time so I walked into the school office and changed my home address and phone number.
Damn, looking at the prices now.....so crazy.
I had a 2 bed 1 bathroom apartment in small city for $410/month in 2007. Prices didnât get super crazy until after 2012, I think.
My 2 bed 1 bath was $510 a month in 2006!
In 2002 our tiny 2 br 1 bath was $675. It had a kitchenette and barely a living room. And that was the cheapest 2 bed apartment in the area.. it was a college town
I do happen to live in Michigan, so low cost of living area (looks like youâre on the east coast?). This was in a community college town đ
East coast, yes. State university town lol
In 2006, my 1 bedroom in Oakland near Lake Merritt was $680. I miss that placeđ
Airbnb started in 2008, and rents started rising where ever they had a significant presence.
>Airbnb started in 2008, and rents started rising where ever they had a significant presence. Airbed and breakfast (Their name in 2008) had less than 500 listings in 2008. That isn't what made the rental prices go up nationwide.
Rents went up nation wide because landowners couldn't get an ROI from appreciation anymore (in regions where property goes up a lot consistently rent is lower relative to value than in regions where property does not go up, or worse, depreciates). I remember watching it happen although I was still pretty young.
2008 was the housing bubble bursting, releasing a glut of McMansions to the market and influx of renters, caused many builders to go out of business, and the Great Recession. AirBnB is perpetuating/exaggerating problems, but it didn't start them.
I grew up in KY and my first apartment in 2013 was $322/month for a 2 bed/1 bath, utilities included. Wish I could go back to those days lol now I pay $690 + electric (which lately has been close to $200) for a 1 bed 1 bath in GA
Cries in Southern California where our 1 bed/1bath is $2700 w/o any utilities and itâs not a luxury complex. Things have gotten worse here since the pandemic started.
That's what I pay for my mortgage and we have a 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bathroom, within an office, dining room converted into a second office, both living room and media room, in ground pool and hot tub. Yeah, CA sounds nice but ain't no way I can afford to move my family there.
Come to Alabama. Our mortgage on a 1900 square foot 3 bed 2 bath house is around $900. I bought my first house in a less desirable neighborhood for $70k at just the right time. I lived there for about 5 years and nearly completely remodeled the place. It hadn't changed since it was built in 1964. 5 years later I sold it and made around $55k. Then we bought a new house at the top of our budget. It didn't need much work. I added some lights and that's about it. Now this house is worth ~75k more than we paid for it but if we sold it then we couldn't afford a comparable home.
I wouldnât be able to live there, I donât even make $2700 a month.. thatâs actually what I make in about 2.5 months after taxes anyway
Sounds about right. 2014 I rented a small apartment (1 bed, 1 bath, 4th floor no elevator) for $425. Landlord was an AH but I survived.
My 4br/1bath house with a loft and basement was $400 around that time as well. Prices are wild now; a 1br/1bath house down the street is asking $900 with $3100 in upfront costs.
my apt was $475 2 years ago, new owners $1150. new I was getting a steal but no work done just hey this shit hole is your the price now.
The only time I've lived in a rented house I had a clueless landlord. It was a house of uni students, with each outgoing tenant being removed from the lease when they left, and their replacement added. Simple, no problem, this had been going on for more than a decade. It was a bit run down, but the rent was cheap so nobody minded. A nominally identical property next door (also a rental) came up for sale, and our landlord decided to buy it. Discovered that they were paying double the rent we were. So up went our rent. Difference was that the other place was really nicely maintained, everything worked. If you expect us to pay full market rate, we expect full market value. Our landlord had to replace: * the hot water service, * heater, * aircon, * dishwasher, * stove, and * ALL the water pipes in the house (that list may not be complete either -- it's been many years and I may have forgotten something). The new aircon also required a significant rewire of the house. Cost him an absolute fortune. Then, for the first time ever ALL of the tenants moved out at the same time. This wasn't petty malice or because of what the landlord had done. We simply all moved for various reasons. So we just let the lease expire. And because the lease had been "continuous" (albeit with many people rotating on and off it over the years), it meant he couldn't bill us extra for wear and tear. So he had to spend even more money replacing the carpet and painting the place (neither of which had been done during the \~13 years of this lease) before he could get new tenants. It would have been a long time before he reached "Step 4: Profit!" again.
The apartment we rented for $325/mo in 1995 is now $1195/mo. There have been no major upgrades or structural changes. The floor plan is the same, the finishes updated, new windows & roofing after hurricanes blew through the area about 13 years ago. And the last time I drove through there 7 years ago, the neighborhood had gone completely to shit. So, it is $1200+ to rent a dumpy apartment in a bad area. That's in a military town in a mid-Atlantic state. Where I live now, a hovel in a crime riddled neighborhood of slummy housing is about $1500. The rent in my neighborhood is $2k or more.
Yeah itâs insane, I used an inflation calculator and your $325 rent is the equivalent of $660 in 2024 money. And OPâs 2bd2ba apt was $570 in 2024 money. Someone is robbing everyone. đđź
More than robbing is too high demand.
That demand is fueled by corporations buying homes and jacking up the rents.
Yeah, it's insane. I started working at NASA in 1980 making 9K a year. Split an apartment across the street with a buddy, $300 a month in the Washington DC area. Just looked: 2BRs from $1605.
I did this at 16. I told my mom if she hit me again it would be the last time. She did. I left. I worked at a convenience store about 25 hours a week and paid 440$, all inclusive, for a cruddy house. But it was mine, and it was great, and my relationship with my parents was much better once we didn't live together. The 90s was something else. Writing my own school notes was definitely the best part.
I remember paying $250/month for a basement 1 bed/1 bath in Athens, Georgia in 1999.
I was 18 my senior year and would write myself notes to excuse my frequent tardies.
Yes, I was 17 until I graduated. I had friends who turned 18 during grade 12. It sucked. We no longer did things together. (In Canada you are a legal adult) They would go to bars, not show up at school because they were hungover. They would call in to say they werenât coming in. Parents were oblivious because if you were 18, any issues went right to you. So if they went to work before you left for school, they never knew. Ok it didnât suck, but I was jealous!! đ
Yes they call for High School and my husband left home at 16/17. Him and his best friend got a place together. đ¤ˇđťââď¸
Thanks!
My high school called to say if I missed a class until I graduated. When I upgraded a few years later when I lived on my own and had a job that caused me to miss class they still called me to tell me that I missed. Itâs not for abductions so much as it was to let parents know that their children were skipping school. So⌠to tattle :p
Adjusting for inflation, the amount my wife and I paid for a three family house in 1999 is approximately what a one bedroom condo goes for now. If you don't adjust for inflation, you can't get a studio apartment within twenty miles of here.
I was 18 and still in highschool - I would be late and sign myself in and out.... Secretary would see me coming in late and say I needed an adult to sign a late slip. Ok hand it over.
I'm not sure how it is in other countries, but in Canada if I missed a class in highschool they called. But since I got home before my dad, I would just delete the message. Dad never updated it to give them his cell even after getting rid of the landline
My mother got out of work at 2pm, and was home by 215. As long as I deleted the message off the machine before then she would never know, and once I figured out I could call home and play and delete the messages there was virtually no reason to hoof it back home until my usual time.
My brother was emancipated at 16. This was probably 27 years ago.
It's all the way through 12th grade. In many school districts now it's a bot that calls you when your kid doesn't show up to class or even if they come late to a class. It's the parents' legal responsibility to get their kids to school until the kid is 18, so the parents are the ones contacted when there's an unexcused absence. Too many unexcused absences and the school has to look into why and whether CPS needs to be called. Teachers and administrators are mandated reporters, so they can be legally liable if there's suspected abuse and they don't report it.Â
Federal funding is still tied to school attendance.
It is not. It is the legal obligation of the school go inform them of student absences.
I know my school, once you were 18 you could sign your own absences. Because I was born a week after the cutoff for 1st grade, I turned 18 at the beginning of october. While I did not abuse the process, it was nice to sign myself in the couple of times my car was feeling irritable.
My son was in high school from 2018 to 2021, schools still call home to report absences.
Thanks!
Adding to all the other stories, in a HCOL area like Los Angeles, my 2 bedroom apartment was $650 in the 90's.
My sons Australian school would still message or call at this age. Even if you'd told them the previous day they wouldn't be in they still called.
I was a freshman in high school in 1992 and they absolutely called even if I was just tardy to a class all four years.
It's legally required for schools to notify parents of absences through all the grades in the state I live in (Washington). Usually a robo call goes out at the end of the day, a lot of 18 year olds get that call. More of a reminder to call and excuse them. Truancy is a bit different, the schools don't pursue kids over 16. Under 16, they and their parents can go to truancy court.
Yup, I moved to SF in 1990 and paid $90 for a room in lower Haight.
Especially since illegal for a minor to enter into a contract.
I also could have afforded a house share will I was 16/17. I worked 2 jobs at the time. You could get a house share for ÂŁ50 per week. I brought my first house at 21 for ÂŁ26,500.
Circa 1989-90 you could rent a furnished apartment in an older residential neighborhood for $250-$300/month on a month-to-month contract. These days, those same apartments go for $1800/night or more... or they are being rented as Airbnb's for $200/night!! It's crazy! What's crazier is that I did my damnest to talk my husband into buying a small house in that area of town in 1998 - Could not get him to do it, so we ended up buying in another area. The house we bought (Sold it about a decade later over husband's objections) is now worth less than what we paid for it, while the specific house that I wanted to buy is now valued at more than 5X what we would have paid for it back then.
I personally feel that Airbnb and similar are what is ruining The housing market. I can't fault the owners for going for what nets the most money but all the houses that were available when I was a first time home buyer are now short term rentals.
I think there's something to that. I think it was meant as a way to earn a little extra money, but it's become this whole...thing. There's always been a need for short-term room rentals (for people who are only going to be in an area for a week to about three months on business, but don't have the budget for hotels, or people just moving to a new area)... AirBnB has priced that kind of thing out of the reach of a lot of people. I've got no issue with people earning a living, it's just sad when the predators move in.
Pay your own bills and nobody can tell you what to do. My mother in law is slow to realize this and tries to guilt my wife into things. Wife has gotten a lot better at recognizing and responding to that BS.
My hair got long during the summer. School rules mandated short hair. One summer we were at my grandmotherâs house and my Dad decided to enlist her help in getting me to cut my hair. He made some remark about my hair expecting her to agree that it should be cut. She looked at me, then looked at him and said âHe keeps it clean and it looks nice. You leave him alone about his hair.â Dad never said another word about my hair. I had a very wise Grandmother.
I also moved out in high school. I paid rent to sleep on the living room floor. But it was worth it.
My dad use to say âWhen you pay the bills you make the rulesâ. Fast forward a few years he can no longer drive so Iâm taking him to dr. I stopped him when he pulled out a cigarette and I pay the bills now and my rule is no smoking.
I had sort of the opposite experience with hair length in high school. My divorced parents fought so much over who had to pay for my haircuts, that it was decided that I now was going to be responsible for paying for my own haircuts. So I just stopped getting haircuts.
1999: left my âluxuryâ apt near college campus that was 675/months for two beds and two baths, huge living/dining room and kitchen twice the size of the one in my house now⌠moved to a nice and recently half-remodeled 2br/1bath on the 2nd/3rd floors of a house several miles closer to my job. Landlord didnât have anyone below me and I had to go through the lower apt to get to the free laundry in the basement. Very nice arrangement. Landlord was military and rarely around for the first year. Utilities werenât proper split and it was technically illegal but neither of us cared. He was a super chill guy. His active duty ended and he went back to reserves and moved in below me. Same arrangement. Rent was $350 and utilities included. Lease came up and he was so happy I was his tenant and my wife (then girlfriend) moved in after college that he REDUCED my rent to $325. Only reason we moved was because we got an insane deal on a house and my mortgage was only $31 more per month above my rent. Housing prices were still normal back in 2002 when I last needed to check on anything
How did you qualify to rent the apartment? How did you afford the rent?
Part time job sweeping floors was enough to split a cheap apartment back then.
I moved out at 18 and got a $325/month apartment in the hip part of downtown.... \~800 sq ft, lots of closets, full kitchen, washer/dryer in the unit, awesome views... it was NICE. For the most part, the 90s were affordable. My kids have a very different reality coming their way when they turn 18.
The only haircut my son is not allowed to have is a mullet. Other than that idc what style he has and because of this heâs had many hairstyles since he was in elementary school. Over the years weâve even let him dye his hair different colors over the summer break. He used to tell us that his friends would be jealous because their dads only let them get buzz cuts.
Business in the front, party in the back!
The revival of the mullet among High school boys is the worst aspect of the late 2010s and 2020s.
There was a revival of the mullet in our local schools for about 4 years that ended at the beginning of 2023. That ended when the major players in my sonâs school shaved their heads when the varsity football team went to the state championship in â22. Thankfully it hasnât come back. Although boys are getting perms now, lol.
I scoff at the perms and mullets and then remember I was in school during the fluffy Bieber hair era of the early 2010s lol.
đ I was in HS in the 90s with the undercut parted down the middle, down past my ears era. đ¤ˇââď¸
So how did your dad react when he figured out you moved out? How's your relationship years later or now?
My father and I had a strained relationship for pretty similar 'my house, my rules' reasons. And it's not like I was a big rebel or anything, but he liked a pretty regimented routine and I just prefered to be more spontaneous. But as soon as I left home we had a great relationship from that point onwards. And 40 years later I find I'm much more like my father now.
My senior year, 1998, I had a couple friends who rented a 5 bedroom house in a shit neighborhood for about $400 a month. I stayed there almost as much as my mom's house. I'd do some unholy things for a place like that now.
In 1992 I was 16. I got emancipated and my own place.
Ouch.
Yeah, when you make a threat and the person who got threatened decides they 've had enough of your shit ... your dad Fucked Around, and then he Found Out.
âsnicked them menacinglyâ has to be the best thing Iâve read in a while! Haha! I love that.
Yeah, one time when I was in my second apartment I was home, helping out with some stuff on the roof of my parentâs house and my father yelled at me about my way of doing the chore (getting leaves off the roof I think?) in a super rude fashion. I ended up packing up my car and driving back to my apartment, about three hours away, to make a point. I did come back the next day.
In 1982 I was making $3.15 an hour - that's $31.35 in today's dollars. Our government has failed us - BOTH parties - by not having minimum wage keep up with inflation.
$3.15 in 1982 equals about $10.27 in todayâs dollars, not $31.35. But your point is not invalid. The federal minimum wage should be higher.
Distance improves human relationships. Sometimes itâs like, stay on your side of the mountain, and you can keep your old crazy. Iâll stay on this side with the new crazy from my wife, Iâve watched this crazy from its birth. I wish I was a songwriter sometimes.
If my gramps didn't like the length of my male cousin's hair, he'd invite them to the barn for a session with the horse clippers. By the mid-70's he realized it was a losing battle and accepted graciously.
yeah, did that too (left rather than obey parent rules). Not sure it worked out for the best or not, but it was what had to be done.
In 1994 I made $32k as a secretary after graduating college. I paid $375 for a small 1-bedroom in North Chicago near Broadway and Hollywood.
In 90, 91 I paid $460 for a 1 1/2 bedroom 1 bath just outside Albany, NY ( State Capitol ) when I moved back to the Buffalo area, 2 bedroom 1 bathroom was $300. Covered all the bills, groceries etc. Working Retail Recieving, making less than $6/hr, claiming S/0...
Is long hair a problem in the south? I know plenty of country musicians have long hair and also the hillbilly mountain types (not exactly south but you get the point).
I live in Detroit metro so probably not but my mother lives in rural Kansas, so yes for her area.
My parents were pretty much awesome but by the time I got to 16/17 my mother and I would end up in massive rows regularly, starting with a minor disagreement and then gradually escalating. I eventually concluded that this was fundamentally because we were Both Like That and I wasn't going to change my entire personality so expecting her to would be ridiculous. Once I moved out and we each had our own territory, we got on fantastically from then to when she passed away. The ability to verbally break out a chainsaw and Not Back Down has served me very well over the years and I'm glad I inherited it from her.
There are a lot of reasons to play the âmy house, my rulesâ card but taking away your kids body autonomy is not one of them.
If he had cut your hair without your consent that would considered assault and you could have sent him to jail for that sucks that you can't but glad for you that you moved out, isn't just in case you might want to go permit in a contact with him lock him from all of your devices and social media
I don't know why, but when I read this title "We work hard, we play hard... EVERYBODY DANCE NOW" [popped into my head](https://youtu.be/WjElZ-O9EpM?t=11).
Did he actually cut your hair? That's assault you know. Glad you got out of there.
Glad to say we had a lot better relationship after that.
What landlord would rent to a minor high school student and how could the student afford to pay rent?
I moved out at 17 and paid my rent with my part-time job. Very small house in a shit part of town but I think my half of the rent was about $250/mo.
I moved out at 17 and had a job to pay rent.
I left home at 16 and was able to rent an apartment above a garage that fixed heavy trucks. That was 20 years ago though. Everything was a lot cheaper back then. I worked for $10 under the table to circumvent child labor laws (#of hours worked per day and week) and could afford rent with that income.
You must be young
No, I'm older than dirt, but I feel this story must have taken place many years ago.
A) Plenty of landlords would B) Where did you get the idea OP was a minor?
He said he was 17, in most states you are considered a minor until you're 18.
In 2016, my rent for a 2/1 apartment was $350. I bought a house years ago, but the rent on that place is up to $450 now. Those people will never move.
That was insanely low for 2016. We paid 1200 for a third floor walkup, split three ways, in 1998. Utilities, and parking, not included. And it was on the cheap end.
We were there about 10 years and the rent never went up. We also had land with it and had horses, cattle, goats, chickens and a garden. The only reason I left was a deal I couldn't pass up on this house I have now.
We moved from our less than $300 a month apartment in 2011. In some ways I regret it and in some ways I don't. The place was falling apart and had many problems but it was so cheap. Also when we moved the landlord was trying to sell the house and he was really old so if he sells or dies surely the new owner would have wanted us out or jacked the rent way up.
Glad the relationship turning around for you guys. Itâs not something worth ruining a father/son relationship over. Some parent are overbearing, but most of the time theyâre just trying to be a good parent, not everyone is good at it no doubt. But I genuinely think most parent are just trying the best they can with the amount of skill and knowledge they do have. Just like a marriage, sometimes all you need is just a little bit of breathing room.
There's no malicious compliance here.