According to world economic forum by 2030 you will own nothing and be happy. With rising inflation and cost of living happening on a global scale, it looks like things are going according to plan. All the young will be priced out of housing market, and forced into City renting.
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I’ve become quite patient and selective about gear purchases, doing plenty of research and waiting for sales. With the pandemic, I’ve also had to learn to roll with things being back-ordered for several months. So, in general, I’ve learned to savor what I eventually get.
@afre, I also live in Toronto, and the escalation of housing prices here has been crazy. I would hate to be trying to break into home ownership at this point in time. And with the government eliminating rent controls, the other alternative is also getting expensive.
I can barely wait to have my entire life as a subscription, what a wonderful future! /s
We should start becoming more independent from the state and crops, not the other way around.
In some rural areas of the US, that amount will also rent a modest house with a yard.
Some of my photographic work is on film, and those costs have risen dramatically over the last couple of years. A 100’ roll of 35mm HP5+ used to be <$60 USD just a few summers ago, and now is well over $90 USD and should approach the $100 USD mark very soon. The last roll of 35mm Kodak Ektar I bought was $16 USD. I don’t trust my home processing for color work, so to do that commercially will be $6 USD per roll, with costs for scans/prints on top of that. I can easily be into the $40-$50 USD range for a single roll of film. I have budgeted for 5 color rolls this year, and a bulk roll of HP5+ that I will do myself at home.
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Student housing is always extremely expensive/lucrative for landlords. That is the source of controversy in many locations - most new housing development in my area (Binghamton, NY) is focused on the student market, and there are few new apartment complexes constructed for those who are actually working for a living. (The local university is kind of notorious for attracting students that are from wealthy Long Island families - families wealthy enough that some of them will buy a house for their kid for four years, and sell it or become a student slumlord after their kid graduates.)
For reference, when I was a student: A single bedroom in a multi-tenant apartment ran $450-500USD/month 20 years ago, and that was actually on the cheap side of things.
My last apartment (which I lived in for a decade) was around 800 square feet and had a riverfront balcony for $500-560/month (rent slowly increased during the decade).
My current location is $900/mo for 1400 square feet with a garage, but I got extremely lucky - it has a long waiting list usually. Student housing only a few miles away goes $1500-2000/month for less space and amenities, and all new construction is focusing on that market.
Please explain: How do you do that? 
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I wish I knew! 
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Wow, such variability in your accounts. That is why I love creating Lounge topics. It can be a hit or miss: usually people don’t bite, but I was sure this one would because of the effect of COVID-19, economics, politics and even war on our respective nations.
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That is called DIY, I believe.
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I live in southern Ontario about 45 min from Toronto in the direction of Niagara Falls…the pandemic has accelerated the expansion of the GTA firmly into our city. Average house prices are now over 1M CAD and people often pay something like this or close and then tear down the house and build some monstrosity that basically fills most of the lot.
I am of a generation that went through some booms and busts…this boom is so far out of control in my head that I fear the crash that might have to follow…I would have expected it by now …many people are so leveraged. I fail to understand how the banks will loan out so much money and how people float multiple credit cards…oh well…
I am entering that pre retirement phase so I am saving already and the pandemic actually helped as my expenses basically went down to almost nothing…only the basics…
No gear purchases other than a new PC as mine died…
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I saw on 60 minutes that there are 2 large firms in the US buying up whole neighborhoods for that express purpose…ie drive up the price and rent back the dream home to the younger generation because they can’t afford to buy it and they have also become accustomed to paying for everything on monthly bills and not owning things…
It is like Dream bigger. Creative Cloud. (Exorbitant Prices.) but with homes and food. It has been the case for as long as I have been alive but it has certainly not uncommon anymore, affecting this and generations to come.
Oh yes, 1-2 years ago, I noticed a hotel or professional firm like building with full wall windows. I had to do a double take before realizing it was a mansion of some sort.
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Preaching to the choir my friend. Unfortunately the globalists are not part of the choir…
And the rich get richer…
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Just want to add: as I am working on alternative holiday plans, I realized that one night at a middle class hotel in the alpine regions of Lower Austria meanwhile costs around 100€ (well, I guess May/June is pre-season) - before the pandemic it was more like 60-80€. So that seems to be an increase of almost 100%?
That one is especially controversial because those companies have been targeting neighborhoods that have ethnic minorities: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/31/charlotte-rental-homes-landlords/ is one example. There was another one I read within the past month or so that also discussed Charlotte and how some HOAs (which are usually evil) are enacting rules to keep rental properties out of the area.
I spent at least $240 on groceries this past week. This amount only includes what I paid using my credit card. If I were to include cash, then maybe $160 on top. I do not spend on frivolous items. That is super expensive for two people for minimum grocery ($200/person).
Indeed, my mortgage is about that much, if I were to buy my place now it would probably be double that thought.
I’m out in a rather rural area and the town isn’t NYC, Denver or SF. Just a university town/mountain resort vacation town so prices are unbelievably inflated especially considering the lack of real employment opportunities around here. Housing costs used to drop off sharply outside of town limits but that’s changed recently too. At least here the driving force has been a transient price insensitive population (students with federal student loans) and rich retirees buying second vacation homes up here. Most of the people near me have sold in the last two years and most of the places sit empty 75% of the time or are AirB&Bs now.
The good news is graphics card prices seem to be coming down so if you’re wanting to pick up a new RTX or RX 6000 card for OpenCL acceleration things are far less bleak.
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No house in sight but at least we got cheap accelerated darktable 