Since this (my) generation is all the rage right now, why not a thread?

 

Generation Y chooses to rent

February 16, 11:29 AMGeneration Y ExaminerSharalyn Hartwell

 

The majority of Generation Y will continue to rent this decade, rather than purchase a home, predicts the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global nonprofit education and research institute relating to the use of land.

 

The pinnacle of the American dream has long been home ownership, complete with the white picket fence. Generation Y is helping to redefine that aspect of the American dream.

 

http://www.examiner.com/x-13207-Generation-Y-Examiner~y2010m2d16-Generation-Y-will-rent-this-decade

I think I somewhere stuck between Gen X and Gen Y.  Anyone know how to determine which one I am in?

I'm Generation Y!  Whohoo!!

I guess I am Gen X then.  Much more original anyway.

I think I somewhere stuck between Gen X and Gen Y. Anyone know how to determine which one I am in?

 

I think definitions vary from person to person and academic to academic. Wiki defines generation x as birth years 61-81 and Y as birth years 1982 to around 1998. Generation Y is actually considered by most a 'tweener' generation. I don't think those numbers are exactly right. Of course there are always gray areas. I mean was the class of 1999 really that much different than the class of 2000? I suppose a line has to be drawn somewhere. The way I see it...

 

If your childhood was more rooted in the 70's/early 80's and came of age in the 90's you are a generation X. Probably graduation years 1996 or prior. The fall of Communism, the Berlin Wall, and the Persian Gulf War were significant events you remember and understood the ramifications of.

 

If your childhood was more rooted in the late 80's/90's and came of age around the millenium you are generation Y. Gruaduation years 1997 and after. Oklahoma City, Columbuine, and 9/11 were events you were aware of and understood their seriousness.

 

I would almost limit the Millenials to anyone born in the 80's. In terms of generation the Millenials are considered more of a transitional generation. I would probably say it spans probably anyone born in the 80's.Generation X remembers a world without computers and VCR's. Generation Y remembers a world without the internet and DVD/Blu-Ray.

 

I guess I am a big time Gerneration X person based on the way you describe it.

 

It's funny how you bring up those events that were probably the most significant events within my highschool/teenage years.  However, if that stuff happened today, and I was still 18 years old, I bet I would know a heck of alot more about them, and have a better understanding of why they were occurring.  I look at my generation very similar to my parents generation.  We were somewhat shielded from the reality of what was occurring oversea's, in politics, with the economy, and the state of the country.  The news was on from 6 to 7 every night followed by the nightly news, and that was it.  On weekends, who knows what was happening in Washington, or overseas.  There was really no news to peak of on Saturday and Sunday.  Just some low budget newscsater and Waylan Boot doing the sports.  Our information would have come from Front Page articles in the PD, the current weeks issue of Time magazine or Newsweek.  I for one wouldn't touch one of those.  They sat on the end table in the living room for my parents to read.  I am sure they would love if I put the Sports Illustrated down for a second, or picked up something other than the Sports Page or the Comics, but I guess that was the times.  The end of February when the SI Swimsuit Issue came out was pretty much the biggest day of the year next to Chrismas and my Birthday.  It was a chance to see skimpy clothing on women, and it came right to my mailbox.  I can still remember my Mom trying to intercept it every year, however, she never did. 

 

Today's kids seem to have so much more of a handle on what is occurring in Afghanastan, with the current state of the economy, with the housing market, heck, even Government Healthcare.  They click the internet and see it, they are on blogs and read about it.  I've notice on Urban Ohio that there are kids under 20 years old chiming in.  They know about current developments, regional economics, statewide policy etc.  htey know more about Cleveland than I do.  When I was a kid, I watched Society and Sohio rise out of the ground downtown, and wondered what they were going to be or look like.  For all I knew, they were big radio antenna's.  I remeber meeting George Voinovich at my Grandpa's stand at the Westside market, and I had no clue he he was.  Maybe I grew up in a box a bit, and surrounded myself with Sports, Metallica, and Nintendo...and sure, Atari, a bit too much.  However, my understaning of the world was very similar to others my age.

 

In short, I really am so pleased that I grew up when I did.  There were no worries...that I knew of.  You went to school and played sports and had friends and drove around in your friends car and talked about girls...or boys.  I feel bad that the kids in the current generation have so much knowledge of what is going on.  I really think that, combined with us adults seeing everything evolve over the past 2 years has made this bad dream into a full fledged nightmare.  It's almost like we can't get away from it.  We are literall wired in at all times hearing this stuff, and it is so sad.  Maybe if we stopped watching and reading and listening so much, the politicians and banks and foriegn officials would all figure it out.  Just like they say, a watched pot never boils.  I could only hope so. 

The article does make sense to me in the current environment, but the market will tend to balance things out, so I don't think the trend will be that pronounced.  It will be there, but just not that strong.  As more and more people want to rent, the price of a good apartment will go up (and so even will the prices of lower-quality apartments).  Meanwhile, if people are afraid of houses and the financial commitment and risk they represent, the prices of houses will stay low.  Eventually, home prices will be sufficiently attractive to lure people back into the ownership market.

 

I agree that homes aren't the best places to build wealth.  It's simply too inaccessible; you have to borrow against the equity with a second mortgage in order to get at the wealth, or else sell the house.  The big advantage a home has over a stock portfolio is that you can't live in the latter, not that the latter will actually yield better returns (particularly after taking out everything spent on keeping the home in salable condition and the brokers' commissions--I can buy or sell $200,000 in stock for $7.95, but commissions on a sale of a $200,000 house would be in the $12,000 range).

So I'm between X and Y.  Weird.

I consider myself a Baby Boomer, though I was "officially" 5 years after the last boomer year, but given how we live our lives, what our ideals are and what things are "meaningful events" to us, I say we're boomers.  When all the Gen X stuff started coming out in the press, I always felt I was several years ahead of whatever they were talking about and couldn't relate, so it depends on where you are on the spectrum, I guess.  I suppose we're really a mix of boomer/gen x.  I would say stuff like Elvis dying, John Lennon getting shot and Reagan getting shot were pivotal moments I remember, or maybe the Challenger for a slightly later event.

The article does make sense to me in the current environment, but the market will tend to balance things out, so I don't think the trend will be that pronounced. It will be there, but just not that strong. As more and more people want to rent, the price of a good apartment will go up (and so even will the prices of lower-quality apartments). Meanwhile, if people are afraid of houses and the financial commitment and risk they represent, the prices of houses will stay low. Eventually, home prices will be sufficiently attractive to lure people back into the ownership market.

 

I agree that homes aren't the best places to build wealth. It's simply too inaccessible; you have to borrow against the equity with a second mortgage in order to get at the wealth, or else sell the house. The big advantage a home has over a stock portfolio is that you can't live in the latter, not that the latter will actually yield better returns (particularly after taking out everything spent on keeping the home in salable condition and the brokers' commissions--I can buy or sell $200,000 in stock for $7.95, but commissions on a sale of a $200,000 house would be in the $12,000 range).

 

Aside from financial reasons, I think many young adults look of it as simply too much of a chore to maintain a house.

 

 

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

I consider myself a Baby Boomer, though I was "officially" 5 years after the last boomer year, but given how we live our lives, what our ideals are and what things are "meaningful events" to us, I say we're boomers.  When all the Gen X stuff started coming out in the press, I always felt I was several years ahead of whatever they were talking about and couldn't relate, so it depends on where you are on the spectrum, I guess.  I suppose we're really a mix of boomer/gen x.  I would say stuff like Elvis dying, John Lennon getting shot and Reagan getting shot were pivotal moments I remember, or maybe the Challenger for a slightly later event.

I'm not sure what year you're using to define "the last baby boomer year," but according to various sources I've seen over the years, it's 1964. I think revised definitions that try to shave off a few years to 1961 are engaging in wishful thinking in order to identify with a younger demographic :wink:. In any case, baby boomers probably have had more influence in shaping culture (as exemplified by your own references)--whether that's a good thing or bad--than any group since; and of course  all of these groups inevitably overlap near the "official" break-off years chronologically.

Yes, I was using 1964.  I was born in 69.

Yes, "officially" it is a Gen X birth year.  I just don't consider myself a Gen X person given the traditional identifiers.

 

For example (from Wikipedia): "Other attributes identified with this demographic are Dot-com businesses, Desert Storm, 80's rock, such as Van Halen and Bon Jovi, Heavy Metal, grunge and hip hop culture..."

 

Um, No. Just no.

Yes, I was using 1964.  I was born in 69.

okay, you're young then! I think a lot of people born just a few years after the "official" b-boomer years were greatly influenced by older siblings who were still connected to that whole hippie/rock/counterculture era, and just how the music from that era hung around until...well, is still around to this very day (a few years ago I had two neighbors--total airheads who I think went to NYU--who, although only about 19-20 years old, listened to nothing but Motown! I was tempted to ask them if they had borrowed the music from their grandparents). It's impossible to describe how transformative that period was--again, both good and bad.

True.  I was the youngest in my family on both sides, so grew up with older references.  My sister is just shy of being born in 64 so she's kind of a boomer, and all my other cousins, particularly the ones we saw with regularity, were in their mid to late teens when I was in elementary school so I was influenced by them.

So I'm between X and Y. Weird.

 

You have a little x and a little y.  It defines who you are. 

:x

i feel like that article is sort of a "no duh" type of thing.  I mean, yeah...obviously seeing people lose value in their homes or get upside down and go into foreclosure is going to make younger people think twice about buying a home right away.  It's like our grandparents being thrifty because they grew up in the Great Depression.

 

Of course, other than that...those statements about the tendencies of Gen Y are pretty generic and feel like they were said before about Gen X.  I'm not sure which i'm in (born 1979) but, i do think it's weird that my older cousins (late 60s) and my younger cousins (late 80s) are in two separate generations.  Maybe we're a little quick on the label?

Changed the thread title to broaden the horizons of discussion.

 

thanks for accounting for us oldies :)

I have a few cousins born in the early 70's and I would say that their life experiences differ enough from mine to qualify them as a seperate generation. Given the fact they lived afar and I rarely saw them probably also attributes to this.

I think that i (and my other cousins of approximately the same age as me) fit in pretty well with our older cousins.  The only one of my cousins that i don't get (out of about 25) is my youngest cousin who's about 18.  I don't know if that's because he's a millenial or if it's a function of him buying into the Emo style or if it's because he's the youngest of the family (meaning we share the same grandmother...not that our family has mysteriously been unable to breed).  Hell, it could be just because his folks are divorced and his Dad was one of the weirdest people i've ever met.

They're not the only generation too broke to buy.  At least you young'uns have a lot of years ahead of you to build up some equity. 

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

 

Yes. This is the most highly mobile generation in history.

 

If our airlines continue to consolidate and airfare continues to climb we may see some pull back from that.

The pinnacle of the American dream has long been home ownership, complete with the white picket fence. Generation Y is helping to redefine that aspect of the American dream.

 

I love how they call it "helping to redefine" instead of "too broke to buy."

 

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

 

Yes. This is the most highly mobile generation in history.

 

Maybe it's being too broke to buy.  Maybe it's simply being too broke to buy in the major cities where many young people want to live: a reasonable number of my friends from OSU when I graduated went off to more expensive cities like Seattle, Chicago, New York, and D.C.  Let's just say not many of them followed the career path that took me to Akron.  And maybe I'm just projecting my own experiences too much onto others, but I really don't see too big of a home-buying wave among my law school graduating class, and most of us had/have the means to do so.

 

For the members of the so-called "<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/population/6762298/One-in-five-of-boomerang-generation-graduates-now-living-at-home.html">Boomerang Generation</a>," of course, I'm sure that there are a lot of affordability issues uppermost in their minds.

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

 

Yes. This is the most highly mobile generation in history.

 

If our airlines continue to consolidate and airfare continues to climb we may see some pull back from that.

 

For "mobile" in the sense of actually able to move, not just travel, though, I think airfare is only a small part of that.  I think mobile was meant to refer to people who are able to pack everything they own in a station wagon or maybe a small UHaul and move to Seattle, Portland, Austin, Charlotte, Cleveland, wherever they feel like working for a while.

For "mobile" in the sense of actually able to move, not just travel, though, I think airfare is only a small part of that. I think mobile was meant to refer to people who are able to pack everything they own in a station wagon or maybe a small UHaul and move to Seattle, Portland, Austin, Charlotte, Cleveland, wherever they feel like working for a while.

I think that travel is a big part of that.  One of the things that allowed people to move all across the country was the ease of traveling back home.  Family is still a pretty big tie for people.

The pinnacle of the American dream has long been home ownership, complete with the white picket fence. Generation Y is helping to redefine that aspect of the American dream.

 

I love how they call it "helping to redefine" instead of "too broke to buy."

 

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

 

Yes. This is the most highly mobile generation in history.

 

Is never been as easy to buy a house in the U.S. than it has in the past 10 years.  i think the big thing is, all the younger people want to live in expensive places like NYC, Chicago etc, and they simply can't afford to buy.  Stay in Ohio and build some equity. 

The pinnacle of the American dream has long been home ownership, complete with the white picket fence. Generation Y is helping to redefine that aspect of the American dream.

 

I love how they call it "helping to redefine" instead of "too broke to buy."

 

Many young adults simply want the flexibility to move around without worrying about selling a house

 

Yes. This is the most highly mobile generation in history.

 

Is never been as easy to buy a house in the U.S. than it has in the past 10 years.   i think the big thing is, all the younger people want to live in expensive places like NYC, Chicago etc, and they simply can't afford to buy. Stay in Ohio and build some equity.

 

The real rate of return on real estate has been low, approaching zero, over the last decade or two.  The nominal rate of return can be duplicated by investing in things that are much more mobile and don't come with property taxes, condo/HOA fees, or substantial maintenance costs.  I realized much of the same explosion in paper worth that some people did in their houses through 2007 even though I've always been a renter; I had shares in a trust heavily laden with commodity interests, particularly oil.

 

Buy a house if you want more freedom to make alterations than you'll enjoy as a renter and have the wherewithal to do minor repairs yourself, saving on actual expenses by replacing those expenses with sweat equity.

 

  "The pinnacle of the American dream has long been home ownership, complete with the white picket fence. Generation Y is helping to redefine that aspect of the American dream."

 

  I agree with C-Dawg that they sugercoat it by saying "redifine that aspect of the American dream" when they also could have said "They're too broke to buy a house."

 

  There's an awful lot of people in the 18-24 age range that are living with their parents. Are they redifining the American dream too?

 

 

I'm less confident in this theory than I used to be, but I actually once considered it highly likely that urban America would gradually move in the direction of extended family, rather than nuclear family, living arrangements, due to increasing population pressures in major urban areas.  I was less cognizant then of just how much people move around, which makes such arrangements harder.  Nevertheless, I still think we may see a small but noticeable tick upward in that kind of living arrangement even after the economic crisis passes.

So I'm between X and Y.  Weird.

 

I always thought that you play for both teams ... maybe in more ways than one. ;)

I think females can get away with a lot more here in terms of dating. I've never met a guy who cares that a girl lives with her parents,

 

I don't know about that; it's a big minus for me if a girl past college age lives with her folks.

I don't think living at home at 24 or 25 is bad, especially if someone's employed and trying to be financially responsible.  It would probably be a little different at 29 or 30.

I view living at home to be entirely situational...if someone is being responsible about it and using the time at home to save money for a house or doesn't really see the need to find somewhere else because they are able to be independent even while living with their parents then it's alright.

 

If the person were living at home and their mother were cooking their meals and doing all their laundry and they were expected to be home at certain hours...well, yeah...that'd be a problem.

 

 

Is that a function of their generation or simply a function of their age, though?  My gut feeling is that they just happen to be in the age group that most CEOs of Fortune 500 companies fall in.  If you looked at the people at the helm in the recession in the early 80s, I'll bet that most of them were children of the Depression, just based on their ages.

 

Sure, you've got some people who are way older (Lex Wexner was born in '37), and some who are way younger (Sergei Brin and Larry Page were both born in '73).  But I'm guessing the "main sequence" of the ages of current corporate honchos is 50-60.

It's tough to blame the Boomers for being a certain age at a certain time. Any kind of baby boom has negative repercussions due to the fact that there is a "dominant generation" that is catered to more than others by companies and the government. The other generations are left unneeded and unnecessary except to keep the dominant generation prospering. Many of Medicare and Social Security's problems can be traced to the smaller number of individuals paying into the programs compared to the number taking from them. Baby booms should be avoided in the future.

Born in 66 and am absolutely a Gen Xer in most every way.

rockandroller, you are in denial if you consider yourself a Boomer

It's true, I am in denial.  Def Leppard and Bon Jovi et al. are just not my thing and I'd rather not be associated with their era.  I like being in denial!

I am a Gen Y kid all the way. And I have to confess that when I first read that article, I ran up to my coworkers and said, "Wow, these bullet points describe me to a T"

 

I've spent my entire life in Milwaukee and it should be home, but when I went to college, my family moved away.  My mother is now in Annapolis, Dad in Peoria, Sister in Germany...

 

...so there's no point in calling Milwaukee home anymore.  I decided a few years ago, before the recession hit, that I never wanted to own a house.  I want to rent my whole life and experience different cities.

 

Right now my plan is to finish my undergraduate, move to Cincinnati...and then look for a job.  After living in Cincinnati for a couple of year, who knows where I'll go.  I might move to Minneapolis, or Baltimore...or I might go to grad school.  Who knows?

 

There's a distinct feeling among my peers that we grew up without experiencing life while at the same time seeing how money gets in the way of living life.  There's a huge new population of nomadic people in this country that will be happy with simply living on the cheap.

if this is the case then cities need to start setting up dating services to get these nomadic young people to hook up, fall in love and settle down for tax base.

It's true, I am in denial.  Def Leppard and Bon Jovi et al. are just not my thing and I'd rather not be associated with their era.  I like being in denial!

 

Everybody loves Bon Jovi. What are are you some sort of hippy/commie????  :-D :-D :-D

 

 

There's a distinct feeling among my peers that we grew up without experiencing life while at the same time seeing how money gets in the way of living life.  There's a huge new population of nomadic people in this country that will be happy with simply living on the cheap.

 

 

 

It's true, I am in denial. Def Leppard and Bon Jovi et al. are just not my thing and I'd rather not be associated with their era. I like being in denial!

 

Everybody loves Bon Jovi. What are are you some sort of hippy/commie????   :-D :-D :-D

 

 

 

Seriously. What are you going to say next, you don't like fringe jackets and acid washed jeans? pffft. Whatever.

 

There's a distinct feeling among my peers that we grew up without experiencing life while at the same time seeing how money gets in the way of living life.  There's a huge new population of nomadic people in this country that will be happy with simply living on the cheap.

 

Amen, brother! 

 

 

It's true, I am in denial.  Def Leppard and Bon Jovi et al. are just not my thing and I'd rather not be associated with their era.  I like being in denial!

 

Everybody loves Bon Jovi. What are are you some sort of hippy/commie????  :-D :-D :-D

 

 

 

Seriously. What are you going to say next, you don't like fringe jackets and acid washed jeans? pffft. Whatever.

 

Well, fringe jackets, SURE, I actually own one, but it looks like this:

 

Ah RnR, the Stephen Stills model circa 1968...

 

Reading this I have decided that I am an XY. I was born in 1978 and graduated highschool in 1996. I think kids my age shared the relaxed parenting that was associated with Gen X but I have had a computer and video games in my house since as far back as I can remeber (C64! Intellivision! Colleco!) and have grown up with technology much like the Gen Y.

 

 

I missed hair metal or at least was still a kid during it's reign. I am a 90's kid through and through as far as culture goes, I started junior high in 1990 and graduated college in 2001. That puts me at that impressional age for Warrant, (which was officially the death of hair metal), the emergance of "Grunge" and the Seattle Sub-pop bands, Metallica selling out and the move of Rap and Industrial music into the mainstream. Although my older cousins introduced me to the Dead Milkmen and NWA  when I was in 4th or 5th grade, but I guess that was just the leading edge of what was going to become popular in the 90's. 

 

Sorry for the ramble. Three sick kids at home so I am running on very little sleep and I am out of my mind on cold medicine....

 

The ultimate 80's artifact: Acid washed jean jacket with hair metal band panel on the back.

Yes, I guess I'm a BoomerX, like a boomerang but different. :)

Boomer X I like it.

 

My wife is an XY like me but you would have thought she graduated highschool in 1976 if you looked at her CDs and clothing....

Your wife is an xy?  James Dobson disapproves ... :-P

Your wife is an xy? James Dobson disapproves ... :-P

 

 

I was going to point that out but I couldn't come with anything witty referencing the male chromosomes...

XY, i like it...like CBC we always had computers in the house, from the Atari 800XL (still got one) to the Apple II, and on up through the 386-486-pentium-etc...we used Telnet to access libraries and other early web stuff...

 

I don't necessarily consider myself to be a 90s kid, though.  I graduated HS in '97 but i associate with a lot more of the cultural stuff from the 80s.  Not the music, so much...but the cartoons (Transformers, He-Man, etc) and movies (ghostbusters, star wars, etc).  At the same time, i didn't have much in the way of vinyl.  I remember tapes and CDs.  my first CD was GnR Lies and then to Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Public Enemy).

 

I guess that's what XY is all about.

Transformers and Nirvana were not really pitched towards the same age range, so it's no surprise that you remember 80's cartoons and 90's hard rock.

 

BTW, Atari 800XL rocks!  I no longer have one, but I do have an emulator for my PC.