Do young homeowners have a sense of entitlement?

[DianneS]

but on the flip side even if your mortgage is paid off it still costs money to own a house which you don't have with renting.. basics like upkeep, repairs, taxes, garbage/water, yardwork, snow removal can often cost a fair bit which are often covered in rent

That is true....home ownership does cost money out of pocket even when a mortage is paid off, However, when you pay rent you are usually covering a lot of those expenses for the landlord. i.e. when a landlord calculates/sets the rent, s/he factors in the total property costs which include the items you listed. Bottom line is that life is just darn expensive!

[MillieH]

When I look at the cost of items now compared to when we brought our home.. it freaks me out.. we paid for our house in 11 years way back when the rate was at about 5% and shot up to over 11%.. There is a huge difference in lifestyles now then back in the 70s etc .. I feel that credit cards have changed how people view $$.. I was fortunate to live pre credit card time so view it as a convenience to buy somethign at the moment but only items that I will come home and pay for right away. If I cant afford to pay for it when I buy it, I dont buy. Unfortunately they are keeping the interest rates for mortgages very low and if they shoot up, many will be in trouble.

I think this problem is not young people in general its just to people starting out.. so it applies to someone starting over as well.. ie divorce .. when I look at all the expenses involved in owning a house.. I often wonder if a disciplined couple would do better to rent and invest the extra funds that would be spent on the upkeep of a house.. its not cheap..

If someone has gotten in over their head with a house , if they lose the house, they can go back to renting.. sometimes the loss of access to credit is a good thing.. what I find worrisome is how with all the expenses involved in raising a family, owning a house.. if they would be able to put away $$ for their childrens education, a crisis and for their own retirement.

[CanadianDaniel]

Thanks for all your comments, everybody. Many great comments and yes, I finally "get it" ... http://www.creditcards.ca/credit-car...mortgage-debt/

[matrix82]

Thanks for all your comments, everybody. Many great comments and yes, I finally "get it" ... http://www.creditcards.ca/credit-car...mortgage-debt/

Nicely written.

[katenbentley]

I'm 22, I own a home (bought 1.5 years ago) I work full time in a skilled trade and live with my fiance who also works full time in a trade. We have no student debit, no consumer debit and a small vehicle loan. We have emergency savings and are working on getting our RRSP set up soon. I think it really depends on the person not the age.

[matrix82]

I'm 22, I own a home (bought 1.5 years ago) I work full time in a skilled trade and live with my fiance who also works full time in a trade. We have no student debit, no consumer debit and a small vehicle loan. We have emergency savings and are working on getting our RRSP set up soon. I think it really depends on the person not the age.

Well said.

[shirl57]

I think it would be unfair to categorize all young people as free spenders.

I'm in my 20s, and I wouldn't dream of buying a house right now. I personally would require a sizable down payment (over $75,000 - and in my area I'd never go for a house more than $150,000 no matter what size mortgage I qualify for) before I would take on that event. I don't own a car, because it makes more sense to pay cash then take on payments - and I can't afford to pay cash.
I own nice clothes, but none of them were full price (I cringe at paying more than $15 for a top).
I have an old laptop and old TV that were given to me.
The only furniture I've bought in the past few years are a couple of bookshelves - everything else is from when I was a teenager, found at the side of road (my dresser which looks great painted with new handles), or passed down to me (a great metal train trunk from my mother that I painted leather brown).

I grew up in a household where I was never want for anything. All my needs were met, and I was never necessarily spoiled, but at Christmas and birthdays we'd get more expensive things (video games or clothes). But that doesn't mean that I believe I'm entitled to everything I want.

I'm working on paying off my student debt, and that is most important to me. I'd rather wait until I can afford something than go into debt.

From reading your post, I think you are nice young person with "an old soul". I hope you understand that that is a compliment, which means that with your youth, you are at the same time you show such maturity and respect that nothing comes on a platter, which is usually what people after many years on this planet learn.

I may not know you, but I truly, truly respect you.

I am a lot like you. I grew up not wanting but never having a lot. Even from an early age I never believed I had to have "like the Jones" to be "like the Jones". But that's because I had faith in myself. I see that "old soul" in you because that is what I was from the time I was very young. In fact, I'm close to 60 now, but I still can recall some of my thoughts at age 14 as to how and what I wanted out of life, and looking back, those were mature thoughts at that time, and I didn't even know they were mature thoughts, but that is just the way I looked at life.

Keep up the good work you do, one step at a time, and I hope all the best for your life in the future.

[shirl57]

I'm 22, I own a home (bought 1.5 years ago) I work full time in a skilled trade and live with my fiance who also works full time in a trade. We have no student debit, no consumer debit and a small vehicle loan. We have emergency savings and are working on getting our RRSP set up soon. I think it really depends on the person not the age.

I totally agree with you too.

Having recently retired from the workplace, I "grew" up in the workplace with people my age from the time I was in my early 20's, and have seen so much. Some people have struggled hard at their job and saved, others worked hard and didn't save, while others didn't really work hard and who knows what happened to them. But in the last approx 7 or so years, we, the senior staff at the dept I worked at, have noticed the trend that many of the young people, sadly, do feel entitled to have that top job as soon as they get in through the front door. Only a very few actually feel they have to work their way up.

So in some ways, just like owning a home, some feel it's an entitlement, others who are more mature for their age starting out in life, realize that nothing comes on a platter, and we have to work for it or wait to make the money to buy it. I also think when we actually work for it and save and save, that at the end of the day, when we purchase the house, or whatever big item, we appreciate it that much more.

Someone in this post wrote that the mortgage rates were 11%, etc years back. A couple years ago I paid off my house while the rates were at 8.5%. Sadly, I was caught in those years of the 11% and 12% era for most of my mortgage life. I envy some of the people who only have a 2.5% mortgage now, but then I also fear for them because what goes down always goes up, and it may be a couple years or more, but sooner or later, those mortgage rates will start skyrocketing.

It was just before my time, when I speak to people older than me that went through that era in paying their homes during the 18% to 22% mortgage era. Even that I can't comprehend as I thought my 11-12% was bad enough.

And then there are my parents, who in their lifetime never had such a thing as a mortgage. They saved and saved, and never had glamourous things in life but never felt shorted in life, but saved until they had the actual money to buy a house completely. I don't think we'll ever see those times again.

As for the younger generation, I do feel for them with student loans. Yet tonight on TV, I saw a news article on CBC that showed that some of the swing to have a degree might turn in years to come and that ingenuity and/or skill will determine your fate in career, because so many young people have so many loans and can't get a job. In some ways those degrees help, yet I think in many ways, we are seeing that being too learned becomes a detriment to having a decent job. Book smart counts for a lot, but actual experience is the other 50% of the equation at a job, and without the latter, all the book smarts in the world won't help. It's as though the pendulum has swung too far beyond from my day when I just had to have my Grade 12 and be willing to take on any job when I started working. Yet we did that, saved our money, weren't cheap and enjoyed our life, and had our goals.

I think some young people feel entitled and are immature in that way of thinking possibly because they've been too coddled in their growing years, while others weren't coddle so learned life's lessons the harder way, and from that their knowledge of life and maturity grew enough to realize that if they keep their feet on the ground, they will be further ahead in the long run.

How does that saying go, .... "There is no such thing as a free ride". That is very true.

[Slaney]

My husbands brother & his wife just bought a house they can't afford. Did everything they could to get the lowest payments possible & not have to put down a down payment. In the long run they won't be able to afford it but they always get what they want. Some people just won't accept the fact they can't have things

[couponclippercaitie]

I also think it depends on the person not age, and I think some (not all) young people give others a bad name. I'm only 22 years old, but my husband and I are already on our second home. We bought a little starter home when we were first togeather, and only recently sold that one and purchased a larger home since our family started expanding, and we actually NEEDed more bedrooms.

We try to be pretty resonsible with our money and live within our means. Our mortgage will be paid in full by the time we are 45 which is exactly what we wanted (or earlier of course). My logic is if I wanted to pay for my house forever I'd just rent, but thats our personal preference, some people prefer to draw it out over smaller payments. We have friends who took out a 40 year mortgage, but that's their choice.

[torontogal12]

People in every age bracket overspend.

I am really really tired of this young people being entitled argument being rehashed everywhere.I think everyone should read this and see the math: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle10327284/.

College and university degrees cost much more than they ever did for generations before. Young people are in debt because of student loans. They were promised that degrees would get them jobs. Those jobs never came. So how do you pay down this debt?

Some of my friends have had to go back to school and pay upwards $15K to get jobs in more in demand fields. That's on top of the previous debt. Does that sound entitled? More like doing whatever you can to make ends meet.

Some of my friends can't afford to get married. I haven't been to a wedding in 2 years (my own!). One of my friends scraped together enough money to have a small, lovely wedding after living together nearly 10 years, but couldn't even afford a drive to Niagara Falls for the weekend to get the honeymoon they deserve. Supporting their son is more important. This is entitled?

I have only one friend who owns a home. Not a lot of people my age (30) can afford to even buy a home, ever. And if that's the case, why is travelling, having a nice dinner, or nice clothes so awful? Is it entitlement? You can't take it with you and if you can't put it in a home, why keep it in a bank account? And no, I'm not suggesting people spend money they don't have, just make the most of what they do have.

Meantime, I'll keep paying rent to my landlord who lives in Hong Kong. In the long run, it is cheaper than buying a home at ridiculous prices they're at right now.

[torontogal12]

Oh! I forgot to add that my generation has to save for retirement too. Not like we're going to be getting a pension or anything like previous generations

[shirl57]

My husbands brother & his wife just bought a house they can't afford. Did everything they could to get the lowest payments possible & not have to put down a down payment. In the long run they won't be able to afford it but they always get what they want. Some people just won't accept the fact they can't have things

I feel sympathy towards these folks. Instead of buying the biggest and best house knowing full well they can't afford it, they've pretty much sealed their fate. And just wait until the mortgage rates start climbing. Even a 1% or 2% increase might mean they'll have to foreclose to the bank. Realistically, if they had opted for a smaller home with a smaller mortgage, live in the house and pay off some portion of the house to build up their equity, and then decided to buy a bigger home makes more sense.

In this situation, your family members have put the cart before the horse. And sure enough, the horse will eventually buck and upset the cart (they will lose the house) or will have to work 14/7 at multiple jobs just to try to make ends meet. That is a sad way to live, and burnout is inevitable.

But I do hope them all the best, nonetheless.

[shirl57]

I think tuition fees should be lowered so that those young people graduation don't owe hundreds of thousands of dollars right out of University.

It sickens me to think that my Daughter and Son In Law (who just graduated as an RN) will be paying back their student loans for years and years. Even with both of them working their way through school to pay for tuition and accommodations, they are still eyeball high in loans. Hubby and I are going to do what we can to help them out but it will still be years before they are school loan free and able to start saving for a home. It sickens me that an education costs so much money and the poor kids are not even guaranteed a job in their field. In my case, my daughter and SIL were very very fortunate to land jobs where they did their rotations so I am VERY thankful for that. It helps slightly but still disheartening to know how much debt they have racked up just to land a decent job. They own one car (given to them from a relative that upgraded.) They live in an apartment with average rent and don't have expensive things.

I don't think they are spending beyond their means. Would like like a new car, of course, who wouldn't but right now they are focused on paying back the student loans and adding to their saving so they can get out of the apartment and into something that will gain them equity.

For you and your husband, I suspect you lose sleep many nights worrying about your children. As for your daughter and SIL, as you have described them, even with all their financial debt so early in life, they sound like a very mature young couple at the way they look at their life and how they are handling that situation. Koodoos to them. And koodoos to you as parents because that shows that you've instilled upon your daughter to stay grounded.

[shirl57]

To comment on your concern about interest rates though (which I think is very real and valid) - I too worry about that.

My concern though, is more that mortgage lenders should be educating their applicants more. Just because a person qualifies for a $400,000 mortgage doesn't mean they should buy a house that costs that much. I think there should be more talk about how payments change if interest rates go up or what happens if a person loses their income.
Unfortunately most customers see the dollar signs and figure they might as well spend what they can in order to get the best they can (whether it actually is the best or not) - young, middle age, and older.

And to further complete your comment, the mortgage lenders don't even see us as people. Perhaps the individual mortgage lender has a human side to them, but in general, mortgage companies are in it to thicken their pocket, so if you walk in and want a mortgage and just squeak by and purchase a mortgage that is well above your means, they don't care. They've made their money on you. Then it's your headache to stay afloat to pay that mortgage for years so as not to lose your home.

A very good example is what happened in the US in the last few years, and now look how many people have lost their homes to foreclosure. Mortgage lenders didn't give a rat's behind if their customers were going to lose their homes, but as long as they (the companies) made their loot. That is so shameful.