The Depreciating American Dream

Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent

The Depreciating American Dream

Can you imagine this future? The social security payments decline (or stop), and more boomers are forced to sell their house. But will there be enough kids coming up behind who will keep paying these prices…..

Growing up, Paige Friscioni heard about the “American dream”: go to college, work hard, buy a house and have kids and a dog and live until you retire comfortably.

But as Friscioni has gotten older, the 38-year-old said she’s seen peers check those boxes and find themselves miserable or wanting something else.

“So maybe the American dream isn’t really the house or the job or whatever, the Goldendoodle. Maybe the real American dream is the freedom to decide what your life looks like,” Friscioni said on a recent TikTok post.

She’s not alone in her thinking.

The concept of the American dream is being redefined and becoming less standardized among generations, according to a new Simon-Kucher study.

The new American dream

“The last few years have been difficult for Americans,” Shikha Jain, a Simon-Kucher partner and lead of the consumer sector for North America told USA TODAY.

“The American dream is still alive, but it’s no longer defined by a shared and uniform vision from long ago, pining for home ownership, raising a family, achieving financial stability, and marked by hard work,” Jain said. “Today, the new American dream is very personal and represents making life work today, by making ends meet, covering daily expenses, and enjoying meaningful experiences.”

The American dream is about preserving a quality of life that aligns with individual goals, values and personal fulfillment, she said.

Simon-Kucher surveyed 5,000 adults representing Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and baby boomers, all across varying household incomes.

A majority of those surveyed still believed in the “traditional” “American Dream” of homeownership, family, hard work, stability and financial progress.

Sixty-six percent saw homeownership as central to the traditional American dream, while 61% said raising a family and 58% said seeing success through hard work were keys to the dream. Fifty-six percent rated financial stability and 55% rated stable employment as key.

“While baby boomers are retirement-oriented, younger Americans are focused on immediate financial goals like paying for essentials and discretionary experiences,” Jain said. “That tension creates trade-offs for Gen Z and millennials who are tacking on debt and sacrificing long-term goals like owning a home to maintain a quality of life in a challenging financial environment.”

For instance, the top category for baby boomers (71%) was retiring comfortably, while Gen Xers’ top category (60%) was tied with retirement and financial stability (meeting basic needs). The top category for millennials and Gen Zers were both “personal freedom and independence,” at 50% and 52%.

Read full article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/young-people-are-rejecting-boomers-view-of-the-american-dream-090512453.html

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The Depreciating American Dream

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The Depreciating American Dream

Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent

The Depreciating American Dream

The question of owning versus renting is something Nicolas Retsinas has studied quite a bit. He co-directs the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Retsinas sat down with WBUR to answer some questions about who should own and when.

Click here to listen to the interview

Click here to read the interview.