If owning a home is still the American dream, then it is increasingly out of reach for many young Americans. The average age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40, up from 33 just a few years ago and 29 in 1981.
To which I say: It’s just as well. Buying a home in your 20s is not the best financial goal, nor should it define the American dream of financial success.
I am not here to minimize the housing affordability crisis, which is driving economic populism on the left and the right. And I acknowledge that homeownership has a special value in the US, both psychically (it is associated with “making it”) and financially (it has tax benefits, in the form of the home mortgage deduction, and real estate is seen as a good investment).
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (paywall)
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Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
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