While many today complain that US housing costs are much higher than earlier decades, data compiled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells a different story. The BLS has collected data for decades on how much US households spend on food, clothing and housing as a percent of total income. In 1901, 82% of household income was expended on those basic necessities. By 2023, only 37% was spent on food, clothing and housing.
In particular, housing cost has stayed roughly in the mid-20s since 1901 except for 1935 when it reached 31.8% of household income.
Housing cost in 2023 was actually slightly less than in the 80s and 90s consuming 25.4% of household income.
Unfortunately, many younger adults today struggle financially including paying for housing and saving to purchase a residence. Some of them even blame seniors for their financial woes because some seniors have owned their home for many years, even decades, during which time the value of their homes has increased significantly.
The reality is that the cost of housing in the US as a percent of household income has remained fairly steady over time and the combined cost of food, clothing and housing has declined significantly over time.
Unfortunately, some younger adults are easily influenced by secretive lobbyists (possibly paid or volunteer) who decline to identify who they are affiliated with. These individuals frequent social media sites and propound a variety of misleading statements to gin up resentment towards seniors claiming they are obstructing upzoning Lakewood. A central theme of their malicious campaign against seniors is that seniors are responsible for the high cost of housing simply because they often prefer living in their detached homes rather than selling their homes to developers.
Here are some of the misleading claims made by these advocates of upzoning the City of Lakewood:
CLAIM: Increasing housing density increases the number of homes in the city which will reduce the cost of housing.
FACT: Upzoners admit upzoning will not help home shoppers today because it will not significantly increase housing density for at least 10 to 20 YEARS!
CLAIM: Upzoning allows building smaller homes which will cost less because they are smaller.
FACT: These so-called smaller homes are expensive new construction, market rate homes. They typically cost much more than older homes of the same size already for sale today. New homes with 1,250 square feet or less compared to older homes of the same size on Zillow can cost hundreds of thousands more.
CLAIM: Seniors who are unwilling to sell their single family homes to developers are the reason younger home shoppers are not able to afford housing.
FACT: Housing costs less today as a percent of household income than in decades past. And combined costs of food, clothing and housing costs much less than in decades past.
The fact that Lakewood city hall including several members of the city council have no apologies for this campaign of negativity towards senior citizens in Lakewood reflects poorly on their character. Their minions on social media have even made biased and cynical allegations that some seniors are guilty of fear mongering for presenting facts that do not fit Lakewood’s upzoning narrative. Or that simply living in their own residence constitutes seeking to be ‘subsidized by taxpayers for a low-density lifestyle’.
The message here certainly seems to be that seniors are not welcome in Lakewood. At least not until they sell their residence to a developer.
Sadly, those who fall prey to accepting the false narrative of the upzoning scam may get side tracked from the discipline needed to save, budget, plan and sacrifice to purchase a residence. Nobody is saying it is easy to purchase a residence today. But the fact remains that the most basic necessities of food, clothing and housing formerly consumed over 80% of household income and now only require 37% according to BLS data. That historic decline in the cost of these important necessities has been totally absent from the conversation.
Now you know.
