Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The NYT had an interesting piece on new research from the Urban Institute showing that young people are faring very poorly in the economy. In presenting the list of problems facing young workers it included the collapse of the housing bubble.
In fact this was great news for young people in terms of their ability to buy homes. (The impact on the economy was of course devastating.) Since the overwhelming majority of young workers were not homeowners prior to the collapse of the bubble, the drop in prices means that they can buy a home for close to 30 percent less than what they would have paid 6 or 7 years ago. This is effectively a transfer of tens of thousands of dollars from older generations to the young. This is very good news for them.