Made from the finest in cardboard material that every builder has assured me has the same structural quality as brick.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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Both are heavily overpriced.
Is this Canadian or something? Average house prices peaked in the United States in Q4 2022. House prices are only marginally higher than they were in Q1 2021 rn and are lower than Q4 2021.
Can Also be titled why birth rates are low or why no one has spending money and sooo much more
Actually I get angry when see women with babies. They all look stupid and I feel sorry for the baby.
Because anyone paying attention would not bring a child into this world.
Mmmmm, if humanity doesn't get babies for say 40 years in a row, we'd be extinct
If humanity wouldn't have babies for say Even 5 years, it would have enormous disastrous consequences for almost all of us
It's actually really important for all of us (even for the ultra rich, but also the ultra poor) that people have enough babies. China knows what I'm talking about, they're heading for a huge population crash
Same for south Korea, same for Germany
And now that'll be the baby's problem too.
Then lets go extinct, nothing of value would be loss.
Ok, you first.
And there's the problem. All the evil geniuses and mad scientists want everyone else to go extinct, but not themselves.
Let's break this down. Plugging these numbers into a mortgage calculator, yes a $600,000 home with a 3% interest rate would be a payment of ~$2024/month. However, this assumes a 20% down payment, $0 property taxes, $0 insurance, $0 HOA etc.
However, an 850k house at an 8.5% interest rate with those same numbers would "only" be $5228/month. Additionally, as other commenters have pointed out, interest rates are not that high.
OP is straight up lying to you at worst, or just cherry picking numbers in a very deceiving way at best.
Not that I'm trying to argue housing is affordable. Just that people will go on the Internet and tell lies to spin a narrative and drive engagement.
In addition to the crackpipe interest rates OP is proporting, house prices peaked in the US in Q4 2022. House prices are actually currently lower on average than they were in '21.
Donald Trump wants the interest rates to go down, so wealthy people can have more free money.
It would take about 45 years to pay off the house with the monthly payment on the left. The one on the right for some reason randomly increases the monthly payment so that you'd pay off the house in around 24 years.
Only 850k? What's the catch, is the house in North fucking Dakota?
Gary’s Economics has as usual many great videos about this
It sucks because this ridiculous setup distorts everything about the economy and benefits no one except banks and the rich
Gee, I wonder how that came about.
and benefits no one except banks and the rich
Ah, so you mean a typical Tuesday on earth. :/
On the bright side, banks and the rich finally having their day in the sun!
Well, the banks can't be loaning just anyone money for a home. They need that capital to be able to give loans to billionares, so they can fund their lifestyle and allow them to avoid paying any taxes.
Now do 2016
Point taken, but where are you in the world with an 8.5% mortgage? Rates in the US for 30 year mortgages are around 6.5% right now (source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US)
the baseline is around 6.5% but I don't think most people get that, plus it was up around 7.5% six months ago
the numbers in the meme are definitely closer to what we've seen recently
When I bought my first house - doing so with decent income but pretty bad credit - I did so at 6.25%.
Everyone in the room recoiled at such an apparently high number.
Funnily it's better the higher it is.
Someone complained wildly when we bought an appartement at 3.5%, they were ha ha that's so easy I had to pay 12%!
But my price was much higher, as everyone now can borrow more, and it makes sense to take on a 20 year loan. With 12% you borrow less, and also it doesn't make sense to borrow for more than like 12 years, so prices adjust. On top of that, if ever you lose your house (or it's degraded) I personally prefer the base price being 150K instead of 450K...
So yeah it's not just lower is better in the housing market.
What? You're confused. Lower is always better. I bought my house when interest was 2.5%, pretty much the bottom of the interest rates during the start of covid. My house loan was around 450K. By the time I've paid off my loan (if I were to make the normal monthly payment) I'll have given the bank over 750K dollars. Even at an amazing rate, some bank gets 2/3s the cost of my house in interest. At 12%, a 30 year, $450,000 loan would have you paying the bank 1.8M dollars, meaning some bank gets over 3x the cost of your house in interest. That's insane. I get that you're saying people will buy worse houses to not borrow as much money, but that's not really a win. A family of 5 can't fit in a one bedroom apartment.
Nowhere but then the infographic would have been less shocking.
My math says that the monthly principal+interest on that house is more like $4,300 a month, assuming:
- Purchase price: $850,000
- Down payment (20%): $170,000
- Loan amount: $680,000
- Interest rate: 6.5% fixed
- Term: 30 years (360 months)
Not insignificant, but not wildly off like the infographic.
You gotta roll home owners insurance in there, and taxes.
That's realistic, but the infographic doesn't include tax and insurance. Working backwards, it has:
- Home price: $600,000
- Down payment (20%): $120,000
- Loan amount: $480,000
- Interest rate: 3.0% fixed
- Term: 30 years (360 months)
The monthly principal-and-interest payment is exactly as the post said, $2024 / month.
Has insurance gone up? Absolutely? Have property taxes generally rise? They have. But this is an honest like-for-like comparison.
Who has 120k lying around for a down payment?
Someone selling a home they already own. I know thats not helpful to most, but thats the only realistic way to have 120k sitting around
$2024 > $4300 is more than double, while also assuming saving an extra $50,000 in downpayment while that cost increased.
Although the down payment has less impact. But nonetheless, that lower payment boosts the loan to about $4600.
Wages aren't doubling.
Oh, I agree with you, and concur with the spirit of the infographic. I just like accurate calculations!
We don't do 30 years here anymore. Its 25, and most people can't do the 20% down, its 5% for first time homebuyer
A house of that size would probably go for over a million euros here
Deepening on what "here" means but us houses are built like room dividers here in Germany. No hate (okay, a little hate) but objectively there is a reason for that price difference just based on the materials and cost of work.
Your guys have fixed interest rate for housing ? Here their is only composed one. We used tu pay 50k of interest for a 20 year loan
30 year fixed rate mortgages are still the predominant mortgage type here in the US. There are other products like shorter term fixed rate and adjustable rate mortgages. (See https://www.mpamag.com/us/mortgage-industry/guides/the-7-most-popular-types-of-mortgage-loans-for-home-buyers/255499 for a good overview).
There are always going to be pros and cons to any situation but as a Canadian I'm thankful our system is setup where the amortization is set but you redo financing regularly. I'd hate to have to buy a house and be paying a set percentage the rest of the life of the mortgage it causes situations just like this.
That said, I wish we could claim the interest paid on our homes with our taxes which we can't.
Unfortunately being forced to refinance can also screw you over, like it did a few years ago to a lot of people who had it locked in at 2-3% and then had to get it at 5-6% instead, massively increasing their monthly payments.
I've been open variable I like that my rates went up and down with prime over the last 5 years but didn't sit at an artificial low only to poison pill me at the end of the term. I'm renegotiating right now and as I told my broker if anyone tells me they know what the rates are going to do in 1 year let alone 6 months I have a bridge to sell them lol
As far as I know they still have opportunities to refinance if rates go down (get new mortgage at lower rate, pay off old mortgage in full). There are probably fees associated with it, but you aren't necessarily trapped at the high rate for the full period.
On the other hand, in our system there's a real risk that you may struggle to afford your home simply due to rates climbing.
Ya as I said Pros and Cons.
My parents at one point in the 80's had a 3 month mortgage term because the rates were like 20%
These days, you gotta have good credit to get a cardboard box..
/s, maybe 🤷
Me sad