• theangryseal@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In 1990 my mom stayed home and raised us. My dad worked a measly construction job and we lived in a two story, 5 bedroom house (which they lost after the 2008 collapse, I took it over and lost in 2012).

    My mom was also able to borrow against that house over and over again for cars.

    Around 1996 my dad got his CDLs and drove a coal truck.

    We bought that house for 30k.

    My aunt bought a huge colonial house with 8 bedrooms for roughly 60k in 1979-80. She never worked. Her husband was a coal miner.

    When it burned down in 1996, she bought a beautiful brick home in a wonderful neighborhood for 100k. She sold that same house recently for 600k.

    The difference is absurd.

    • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      A “measly construction job” is a good paying one. A person working at a McDonald’s for 40 hours a week at that time would not be able to afford an apartment let alone a house. When your aunt bought her house interest rates were in the teens, today they are 7% and that’s a record high. My parents bought a house in 1976 for $28,000 dad worked full time at a city job plus always had a second job or side hustle. Our family would strip copper to make ends meet. Mom cooked every meal, eating out was a rare treat. Never once did we even order pizza, Mom make it with powder dough. We didn’t have cable. Got by on two junker cars sometimes one.

      Every generation has it’s challenges. This is the first to have a public circle jerk/pity party

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        My dad’s construction job was working for my mom’s brother for next to minimum wage. Not that it matters.

        • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          A minimun wage construction job? Someone is lying to you. Dad was probably working the glory hole at kwik-e-mart. No bank is going to give a house loan to someone making minimum wage.

          • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Well, they did.

            As a matter of fact they gave my parents multiple loans until it exceeded the value of the house so badly that we couldn’t keep up with it.

            They did this so many times for so many people in my neighborhood that the place is now nearly rubble because of it. Oh, and that kind of irresponsible lending led to the 2008 collapse.