Ramit Sethi explains why a guest's immigrant parents can't afford the five-bedroom house they want despite their success. NIMBY attitudes and restricted housing supply have made homes unaffordable for younger generations, even as cultural expectations demand each generation do better financially.
Hold on. Only in America do I talk to a couple that went bankrupt a few years ago, now has hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. They go, Ramit Sethi, I need a 5-bedroom house. Craziest part is that both of your parents are immigrants. Just call them right now and say, how many 5-bedroom houses exist in the country you were born in? What would they say? The president lives in one.
That's it. I guess it's hard for me to accept again because I grew up and my parents provided a 4-bedroom home in the same town that we're in right now.
So in America, we like to believe that each generation will do a little bit better, have a little bit easier. Yeah. And because of NIMBYs, everybody who bought a house, the minute they buy a house, they go, I don't want anybody to develop any houses around me. So they've stopped more housing from being built. Now it's incredibly expensive. And so the very same house you grew up in, you could never afford it. It's impossible for you. You realize how frustrating that is. I totally get it. And so your conclusion is, fuck it, we're going to do it anyway.
Yeah, you're right.
