Deficits, Immigrants, Tariffs ... Housing
Peter Zeihan lays out the forces against working Americans.
The Boomers are retiring in place and the capital they were providing is exiting the market, this more than anything else is responsible for the rising cost of borrowing. Pile the Trump administration’s policies on top of this and … look out.
Agriculture is the top employer of undocumented workers … construction is the second. Chasing out Central and South Americans will chokepoint building new housing, as the prior generation “ages in place”.
Tariffs are going to raise insurance rates 20% - 30% this year for both cars and homes. The major inputs - wood, steel, aluminum, copper - are all tariffed. The speculative home buying by corporations during the pandemic seemed madness last year, but now it’s genius.
Sucks to be a younger Millennial or older Zoomer just starting out, doesn’t it?
Many of my generation Z friends say “should have been saving for that house back in 2004” (before they were born). As generation X the thought of buying a home is a meme all the same, to me.