The thread started with a Twitter user named Josh Kruger, a Philadelphia-based writer and commentator. He asked homeowners to share how they were able to afford the down payment and closing costs for their homes.“If you are a Millennial or younger homeowner talking about homeownership, you have an ethical duty to disclose the source of your down payment and closing costs,” Josh tweeted on September 16.
Josh added in another tweet: “If it was thanks to an inheritance or tax free gift or the like, please disclose this since many people will assume you were able to save $10,000-$30,000 over several years while paying bills too.” The author of the thread also shared that in his case, “the only reason I could afford the upfront costs was a modest, unexpected inheritance.”
He explained: “My dad secretly kept several life insurance policies, leaving them in a file I was to open only in the event of his death. It covered the downpayment and closing costs for an FHA.” Josh concluded in yet another post that “thanks to privilege, a few decisions made by my dad, and fate, I fell assbackwards into the ability to buy.” He then added that it was a “good decision but only possible due to unearned resources.”
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this eye-opening Twitter thread Josh Kruger who is a Philadelphia-based writer and commentator. Josh told us he was totally unsurprised by the responses people shared in response to the thread. “My primary goal was to confirm my suspicion that, anecdotally, Id see a bunch of middle and upper-class white people and few people of color and even fewer people who saved up for their downpayment and closing costs while working,” he said.
“Sure enough, the vast majority of responses were from middle and upper-class white people who got a bailout from their parents, either by way of a loan, gift, or inheritance,” Josh added.
When it comes to the current housing market, making it virtually unaffordable for most of the Americans to buy a house, Josh said that he blames it on Republican policies. “Personally, I blame Republican policies hostile to public programs and supply-side economics that have been debunked as junk economics repeatedly for 40 solid years. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget is, adjusted for inflation, about 25% what it was in 1978. What happened? Ronald Reagan.”
Moreover, according to Josh, “we've transferred the cost of goods and services away from the bosses and consumers and put it onto the workers by artificially depressing wages.” He believes that housing costs wouldn't matter if we had an adequate wage structure in the US.
Having said that, Josh believes there’s hope “if they vote for Democrats.” He explained: “The responses lay bare, at least anecdotally, the fact that race and class-based privilege are tools used by their beneficiaries, which backs up data about the racial wealth gap amongst other things.”
“In the US, we have a mass delusion and perversion where we hobble people at the start of life with multiple barriers then blame them for not meeting or exceeding the performance of people who start life not with barriers but multiple helpful tools. This is why the work President Biden is doing must succeed. It helps remedy this.”
The author of the thread concluded by saying that “those who think both parties are the same, I'd question why you think giving working people money is the same thing as giving them COVID.”
According to an extensive study by the rental firm Apartment List, affordability remains the biggest obstacle for millennials who want to own a home. This also means that they are forced to rent much later in life than previous generations. Many believe that millennial renters prefer this housing choice because they have more flexibility and they don’t have to deal with the hassle of home maintenance and unexpected housing costs. Many also claim that due to this reason, the renting lifestyle is much more attractive to millennials and this is why they are not so eager to become homeowners. This is not true.
