Millennials Are Screwed, but Maybe Not so Much in Dallas (on E. University)?

I love this story because the guy in the WSJ photo is working in a coffee shop in St. Charles, Illinois, on the Fox River Valley where I grew up. He had two years of college and dropped out, for whatever reason with $14,000 of debt, and now the Wall Street Journal is using 26-year-old James Roy as a poster child for the tough life the Millennials face: it takes kids today to age 30 before they earn a median-wage income of about $42,000. Back in 1980, kids at age 26 were hitting $42,000 a year. That $42,000 is apparently a marker of independance from mom and dad. 

About a third of adults in their early 20s work full time, a proportion that rises to about half of adults in their late 20s. The labor-force participation rate for young people last year declined to its lowest point in about 40 years, according to the report:

-The decline in employment among young people mirrors a drop among the broader population. The share of U.S. adults who work peaked at nearly 65% in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and has trended downward ever since. An aging population explains part of the decline, but even workers in the prime of their professional lives are less likely to work today than a decade ago.

-In recent decades, the U.S. has seen a gradual outward shift in people’s professional lives: Americans today tend to start work later and continue working longer than in past generations. A decade ago, a boy in his late teens was twice as likely as a man his grandfather’s age to hold a job; today, the teen is actually less likely to be working.

-For young people, the delayed entry into the world of work is partly a reflection of the recent recession, but it is also driven by long-term trends, including more jobs that require advanced skills and fewer high-paying factory jobs that required little more than a high-school diploma, the report found. The “new knowledge economy” has spawned more internships and bite-size credentials as a result.

More than any age group, the Millennials have taken a lick from the Recession: between 2000 and 2012, the employment rate for people ages 21 to 25 dropped from 84% to 72%. Young men experienced an even steeper decline, from 80% to 65%. For those without post-secondary education, it’s worse: dropping from 66% to 53%, while the peak unemployment rate for young African-Americans’ AFTER the recession reached 30%, double that of young whites.

So of course, how are these people going to afford a house? It sure is not going to happen in the large metropolitan areas, and we know that many Millennials move back home with mom and dad.

And is that really so bad?

Of course, one of the good things about our economy in Dallas is our well-priced homes, making home ownership available to more Millennials… and long as they are not mired in student or other debt. More education has traditionally been a plus in future earning potential, but the high cost of higher education today is making many young people reconsider the priciest private college educations and studies.

Of course, look at this FHA approved, one level, updated,  2 bedroom, 2 full bath condo within walking distance to Central Market on Lovers lane, LA Fitness and less than a mile from SMU. The condo is on the second level, has assigned covered parking and a laundry room within the unit for a washer and dryer. There is also a large covered patio overlooking the beautiful courtyard and pool below. Listed with the darling Tony Nuncio, at Dallas City Center, asking $109,000 and that’s not too shabby for a Millennial!