When I was a kid and a couple married, they saved and saved until they could actually afford a little house. We reckoned 2.5 times your salary minus debt (who had credit cards?) After all, there was insurance, the utility bills, a few sticks of furniture, maybe a fence in the yard if children were in the offing, and always save a little for a rainy day. Friends would come over on a designated Saturday, bring their kids to play in the yard, and they'd help you paint, fix the small plumbing problem, do a little re-wiring and you'd do the same for them. Even if you wanted to buy a home large enough to grow into, banks were so strict on their lending practices you couldn't over buy. Foreclosures occurred when a factory town somewhere out in the middle of Unheardofville shut down the main and perhaps only source of income. When someone purchased one of those foreclosed homes, you generally walked into years of equity. Forget that today. You're lucky if you pay "market value," whatever that has come to mean. People used to have goals - college for the kids, retirement, the odd vacation usually spent at a retired in-or-out-law's home in a neighboring state perhaps.
Twenty-five years ago, it was very common for your Dad to go to work and your Mom stayed home, even if there was only one child. If your Mom got a little part-time job while you and your siblings were at school, that money was gravy. Workers got perks called raises and sometimes a bonus annually, and not just a turkey. Inflation has deflated the housing balloon.
In 2009 we just about have to have dual income households. Since child labor laws have eclipsed the Dickensian England, there's no one else to help with the slack if Mom and Dad both lose their jobs. What does that mean for families now - something's got to give if everything is being thrown on the mortgage such as your retirement. Our parents retired on a decent monthly income that were the benefit of putting in your thirty years. A matching program made retirement idyllic, but if you didn't have that, you still had your pension. Persons did not live or borrow against the equity in their homes.
I'm not touching healthcare with a ten foot pole today, don't get me started.
There's No Place Like Home!
"To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
No more from that cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like Home."
Melody by Henry Bishop
RE/MAX Paramount Properties 678-595-5283 Direct
Or 888-940-0074 Toll Free Office
Atlanta Real Estate Agents, Alpharetta GA Homes for Sale, Dunwoody GA Homes for Sale, Atlanta Real Estate & Atlanta Homes for Sale 
Gwinnett Homes for Sale
Atlanta Real Estate Blog, Cumming GA Homes 
Jim,
Thanks for the trip down memory lane and the smile for the final comment!
Downtown Portland Real Estate Broker~Herb Hamilton (RE/MAX Preferred Inc. Realtors) Herb, you're welcome. It made a lot more sense.
You know I often wish for the goold ol days!
Home ownership has changed forever in this country....
your friend in Charlottesville Virginia!
Today there is no way, with the prices where they are, that the ones graduating can ever afford to buy a home using the ways you speak of. Peoples salaries have not kept up with the inflation of products. There is quite a difference when 30 years ago you could buy a house for 17,000 when today the average is 264,000.
Charlottesville Real Estate - Your Trusted Broker Charles McDonald (RE/MAX Assured Properties - No one sells more Real Estate) I often wondered..., but I know we could make it a goal to return to those times. Buyers need to go with their needs instead of wants and be willing to work for it. The government should not just hand a home as an entitlement. I remember the second home we purchased I worked for over a year and had to save up over 35K to buy it, and then I paid my own closing costs.
Jim - Homes have changed just as have automobiles. A few years ago neither had A/C, and now it's a necessity, along with lots of other "conveniences." My first home cost $4,800, and when I moved up to a $15,000 home, I thought I had really taken a huge step.
Something must give. We can't continue down this road, but I have no idea how to turn things around.
Jim - I vaguely remember those times. I would give anything to go back. I wonder if our children will remember the recession of these times? I wonder if they will learn any lessons from it?
Heather Adkinson Moses Lake Real Estate Agent (Windermere K-2 Realty LLC www.propertiesinmoseslake.com) And that is the resutl of "Credit!" I see there will be a chance to obtain this again Home prices in the long run will continue to decline. What we are witnessing now is a government false bottom meant to hold the prices to keep the banks solvent. Part of the misery we have in today's society is indulgently self imposed. Why buy a used two year old Ford Taurus with low mileage when a person can buy a Mercedes or a Cadillac Escalade with low monthly payments? Another $550 a month to pay out each month vs. $150 a month or take 10K out of the bank and pay t off.
Choices add up quickly especially while it is so convenient to do so on credit. A lot of what we see in today's society is totally impulsive purchasing and self gratification. I am just as guilty. Cruises, granite countertops, color TV in every room, everyone in the family with a cell phone, and 2 two brand new cars was never how it was done. Today we think this is normal. It never has been normal. People saved forever to take a vacation. No one ever ate out, they brown bagged it for lunch...
John Mulkey, Housing Guru (TheHousingGuru.com) First of all I share those times, my first home was 40K in NY. We have to support one another, and think frugal. We must buy "American" whenever possible. How about supporting other workers and neighbors? High unemployment? WE could fix it easily. Buying American would lead to jobs being created here instead of in east Asia or Bangladesh. It was a sin that 80% of the carts sold under "Cash for Clunkers " were foreign cars. Maybe there is no hope for America, and maybe we canno fix stupid. No wonder whey so many town and cities are hurting here in America while Japan is almost out of the recession. No duh! Common sense for the average American is MIA. It is all personal choice, and budget.
Lina Robertson, ozarks-realestate.com, Springfield MO Real Estate For Sale (RE/MAX Solutions) Only if they learn by example.
I just want a geeked out Airstream. ;-)
Great quote at the end "there is no place like home" ! I still would like to see you blog about health care :)
Hear - hear, Jim! You must have been peeking in the window of the house I grew up in. My folks paid $3,450. 00 for it in 1941. 2 bed, 1 bath, coal furnace. Big celebration when that mortgage was paid off! Paid cash for everything.
Susie Blackmon-Maggie Valley Waynesville Horse Person/NC Broker/Realtor (Susie Blackmon LLC) That would work! LOL!
Jim, we need to go back to teaching how to save for the important things in life....not charge them and put ourselves on a payment plan.
Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate (Owner - RE/MAX Affiliates) Don't get me started.
Joan Snodgrass Tri-Lakes Realtors, Shell Knob, MO (Tri- Lakes REALTORS) Life made sense. You did not buy more than you could afford. You slept soundly at night. There were jobs in America, you had benefits, vacation time, and had off weekends, and no one had to work on a Sunday!
Kay Van Kampen, CDPE, Broker, Springfield Missouri Real Estate (RE/MAX Solutions) Life is too short to become indentured servants or slaves to credit!
People have short memories, so I fear many Americans will not learm much from this recession. I'm sure going to try, but I'm not perfect either,and when all the other kids in the neighborhood have game cubes,WII's and play Stations it's hard to preach sensible spending at home.
Rich Cederberg- Northwest Albuquerque Real Estate Expert (RE/MAX Elite) We're only in charge of the home in which we ourselves live. We have to create our own standards and not compare ourselves to the masses. Frugality is a plan that allows us to survive and prosper even in meager times.
What happened? and when did it all blow up. Sad that husband and wife both have to work to afford the simple things. The future will be multiple families have to live together to do the same.
Jim - Back then people were happy living modest lifestyles. Somehow we went from s generation of happy homeowners living in Cape Cod homes that were constructed after being ordered from a Sears catalog to a generation who is striving for the McMansion built by the national home builder who happens to offer severy amenity under the sun. Yes, what happened to simple? It's still possible to live on one income when the happy couple can still consider themselves happy in modest digs. I know it can be done, because my husband and I have always only used one income to qualify for all of our home purchases. No, we don't live in the modest cape cod, but that's where we started out and began setting goals. It took us many pay increases and five homes to finally get somewhere between the cape cod and the McMansion, to discover we really don't need anything biggere and better - and to still be able to pay the mortgage on just ONE income, while the other income is the gravy! It's the old fashion way. We worked for what we have and there was no such thing as instant gratification. Our gratification came from working hard and achieving our goals.
Charles Stallions Real Estate 800-309-3414 Pensacola, Fl. Everyone remembers the days, but no one remembers the triggers. We used to work a 5 day week,a on Sunday we had Blue Laws. Why? Because there was one day a week for a Sabbath. That Sabbath day also became a family day.Then we took God out of the schools to be more like Atheistic Russia. When all of that was stripped away then we got interested in stuff. Material things mattered, not spiritual things. It was the breakdown of the family unit as we know it. The rest is history. Substance of charachter disappeared and we became more interested as a society in "Brand names" and status symbols to boost our own importance. Actually the entire journey was one that is sad. It is a societal regression. A society going backwards with a political correctness that is absolutely moronic.
Carol Culkin (Houlihan Lawrence Realty) I feel the same way. Actually, years ago in New York City area, and New Jersey...persons would buy a home and stay in the home an average of 45 years. It was the highest percentage in the nation to do so. Why? Families we centered in job, community, church, children and neighbors. Today, society is looking to fulfill spiritual needs with the material. It is like 'Retail thereapy' only with houses and expensive cars. I personally feel it is a spiritual void that cannot be filled by many.