Hope you like your landlord, because you guys are officially in it for the long haul.
Great news, everybody! According to a new study from Apartment List, sad Denver millennials who rent a home will probably never become happy Denver millennials who own a home. Instead, because of nauseatingly high rent prices in the Mile High City, our generation is likely to become trapped in a never-ending cycle of renting and moving from now until eternity.
Hope you guys like your landlords!
For 8 in 10 millennials, rent prices are simply too god damn high right now to save enough money for home ownership. At the paltry current rate we're all saving, we won't be able to afford a down payment on a home for another 18 years.
EIGHTEEN YEARS. That's 18 years too long. Are we even going to be alive in 18 years? According to our crystal ball, the answer is no. Not if we have to keep moving from shitty apartment to shitty apartment.
However, Denver millennials are not alone in their struggle. The study found that respondents in other higher-cost housing cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and Denver also underestimate the down payment they will need, and don't stockpile the cash-flow for home buying either.
"Home prices in these expensive cities have risen a lot in recent years, and renter expectations may not have caught up yet," said Andrew Woo, a data scientist at the San Francisco firm, which surveyed more than 30,000 millennials in 93 metro areas and 130 cities.
Denver's millennial population is also one of the worst at saving money. In fact, we are the eighth worst savers out of the 93 metro areas the study observed. Metro Denver millennials estimated they need to save $26,638 for a down payment on a home. On average, they reported setting aside $171 a month and having saved $3,626. They also expect family and friends to chip in another $2,557.
At that pace, they think it would take about 10 years to reach their self-reported down payment goal.
But ha ha! They all thought wrong. Way wrong.
Putting 20 percent down on a home at metro Denver's median price would require setting aside closer to $42,500. At that rate, the millennials in the survey would need to save for 17.7 years to achieve a down payment, according to Apartment List.
So, what's to be done?
Well, you could just bend over and take your fate by finally painting your kitchen that neon green color you've always dreamed of, because it looks like you're gonna be in your rental for a while.
Or, you could move to Appalachia. Or Myanmar. Pretty sure Uber goes there.
Long story short? We're fucked. What else is new?
Photo cred: nff.org
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