A California man—and just about every commenter—was shocked to find out that his parents’ mortgage from the ’70s is $287. Meanwhile, his current-day mortgage is over $7,000 for a house valued at significantly less than his parents’. Make it make sense.
For context, a $287 mortgage is approximately the equivalent of buying a pair of AirPods Pro, nosebleed seats to see Bad Bunny, or a nice dinner for four.
The housing market in the United States (and even parts of neighboring Canada) has been difficult for some time now.
Rent costs are at a historic high, out of proportion with stagnant wages. Interest rates on mortgages don’t seem to be declining anytime soon, making buying a home more expensive, and all of this has made it so people have to find housing alternatives—like moving back home to live with parents, getting roommates, or moving to a cheaper area.
California is no exception. In fact, several of its cities continually top “most expensive” lists, from general cost of living to rent. That’s, in part, why TikToker Adam Lucas (@adamjlucas) was so shocked by the huge price jump between his parents’ mortgage and his own.
“I’m going to throw up. Okay. My mortgage is 27 times my parents’ mortgage. My house is valued at a third of my parents’ house. I would like to puke. I would like to throw up,” Lucas says in his video, still in shock.
@adamjlucas what a riot #housing ♬ original sound – Adam Lucas
In a follow-up video, he explains that his parents bought the land where their house was for a “handful of thousand dollars.” Let’s say they bought it for $5,000 then. That’s roughly $24,000 now, still affordable for land. For a summer and the better part of a year, Lucas’ parents and their friends built the house from the ground up. When the home burned from an electrical fire in 2006, they got insurance money to build a new home.
In comparison, Lucas and his husband pay about $10,000 after mortgage and fees for what Lucas says is a pretty standard home in Southern California, 45 minutes out from Los Angeles proper (though it is a waterfront property). He adds that for what he and his husband are paying it should afford them to live in a mansion.
Lucas said that home prices in Southern California are extreme and rather inaccessible, especially for a single person. He said that he and his husband both had to prove they made over six figures to qualify for their mortgage.
In September of this year, the median home price in Los Angeles was $1.3 million.
But, for Lucas and his husband, the price they pay for their home is worth it to them since they’re building equity instead of paying rent to another person.
“I would rather spend $10,000 a month to own, rather than $5,000 a month to rent, which is what we were paying,” Lucas says in the clip.
@adamjlucas Replying to @birdyjjones ♬ original sound – Adam Lucas
Combined the videos have nearly 400,000 views and over 700 comments as of Thursday morning.
“My parents: “our mortgage payment is SO HIGH.” Their payment is literally $487,” a top comment read.
“The fact that our parents mortgage is less than my electric bill has me questioning how they always acted like we had no money. like what!?” a person said.
“If my mortgage was 287, my house would be PAID OFF,” another wrote.
“My parents mortgage is $600 and I can’t even find a single bedroom in a shared apartment to rent for $600,” a commenter shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lucas for comment via email.