Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Floating in the bubble

By Kathleen O'Brien Newark Star-Ledger

Is there any joy when a bubble bursts?

Usually it means the fun is over – and given the fragile nature of a bubble, the fun could never last.

When the bursting bubble involves housing prices, perhaps there is a glimmer of a silver lining:

Maybe now our kids will be able to afford to live here on their own some day.

For many adults, high paychecks have put high mortgage payments within reach. But if you’re a young adult just starting out, then your entry-level job as a preschool teacher or car-rental clerk gives you zero chance at owning your own home or even townhouse.

You end up living with your folks – with all the fun that entails – while you “save up for an apartment.” This, of course, can go on for years.

Meanwhile, parenting experts wring their hands and fret about Generation Y’s foot-dragging. As a group, they’re slow to settle down, slow to decide on their life’s work, slow to marry.

The finger of blame usually waggles back and forth between the parents and the kids. The parents are smeared as indulgent helicopter types who failed to raise self-sufficient adults. The kids are slimed as iPod-ed slackers holding out for an apartment like they’ve seen on “Friends.”

The message is that any behavior of today’s young adults that doesn’t match previous generations must be A) wrong and B) someone’s fault. Either Mom and Dad are emotionally controlling or Junior is emotionally stunted. Step up and choose one!

Yet, maybe neither generation screwed up. Maybe neither generation dropped its end of the bargain. Maybe neither generation lacks “the right stuff.”

Just maybe housing costs and salaries are so out of whack that these young adults and their parents are making economically rational decisions.

For many families, it probably makes perfect sense to hang out at Mom and Dad’s until housing prices return from the stratosphere.

Consider: The percentage of households able to afford the cheapest homes (56 percent) has dropped in the last 15 years. Those in the group that can’t afford to buy are disproportionately younger.

Parents who own their homes have been in the enviable position of watching values rise at nearly bizarre levels. It has been reassuring, to be sure. Let’s face it: Few things are more fun than leveraged profit.

Yet they are also like passengers safely aboard a hot-air balloon: As they rise above the landscape, their stunning view is ruined by a disconcerting sight below: their stranded children. No matter how high the kids jump, they can’t catch up.

Parents watch their own net worth soar, knowing it becomes ever more difficult for their grown children to achieve full adulthood.

This isn’t “Failure to Launch” so much as “Can’t Afford to Launch,” which hardly makes for a funny movie.