OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
5:25 PM – Monday, January 15, 2024
Residents in the United States must make $120,000 a year in order to afford an average middle-class lifestyle and to have the ability to purchase a house, at least according to one realtor in Orlando, Florida.
Freddie Smith, an Orlando realtor and TikTok social media influencer, expressed in an interview with Fox News that American residents now need to make at least $120,000 a year to afford the middle-class homes and lifestyle that was once achievable for many single-paycheck households in the past.
“I think most of us in America would define the middle class as [those] who can work a 40-hour-a-week career and can have the income to purchase the average home in America,” said Smith.
The male influencer, who posts a wide range of videos illustrating the struggles that Americans currently face relating to affording a home and living expenses in the current economic climate, examined the characteristics shared by those who are “middle class.”
“A lot of us grew up middle class, and we watched what middle class was in the 80s and 90s as millennials. And nowadays, what has moved the goalpost more than anything is the housing market,” Smith stated.
Smith demonstrated how making $60,000-$70,000 a year would have been reasonable enough to qualify for a home just a few years ago.
Smith clarified that with 2024’s average cost of a nice, adequate house being between $400,000 and $420,000, this would mean that individuals need to make approximately $120,000 annually to even be eligible.
The realtor also emphasized how many people have been forced to rent for extended periods of time due to the wage-to-housing gap.
“Rent prices are taking up 30-40% of people’s income, making it harder for them to save for a house. So it’s this perpetual cycle that is keeping people out of the middle class,” Smith explained, highlighting that this pattern has been continuing at a quick velocity over the last few years.
Additionally, Smith mentioned how the crippling debt that the majority of Americans are currently facing requires a salary of at least $120,000, even without children, much less.
“Most people are carrying student loan debt, which is at an all-time high, and the average payment in the country is $500 a month for your college degree. [There are] some people I’m seeing in my comment section saying ‘$500, I wish, it was $1,200 a month for me’,” said Smith.
Smith also asserted that the middle class is now divided and is primarily based on debt levels.
“If you are someone who bought a house before 2020 and you have it paid off or you have a 3% interest rate, you are not burdened by the housing costs like the 2024 adults are now,” the realtor said. “People are spending about $1,200 to $1,500 a month on daycare, and I’ve even heard it is as much as $3,000-$4,000. So when you add in somebody who’s renting for $2,500, $2,000 for daycare, $1,000 for two college loans, just that alone, you need $100,000 as an income just for that.”
As a result, many young Americans are opting to save money by living at home with their families due to the high cost of rent and housing.
Additionally, a number of young people on the app have also explained how their parents make them pay rent to live in their own childhood homes since the parents are frustrated that their child’s paycheck cannot fully cover housing and other living expenses like theirs could in a much better past economy.
Smith went on to describe how he is witnessing a trend of communal living in states like Florida, as some families are choosing to share a single residence.
“Many families [with] 3 or 4 adults and [say] five children, they all split a big house, and they all take care of each other. You can see that they have a lot of toys and they’re pooling their money,” Smith expressed. “The millennials, they’re the pinched generation where college essentially stopped working for most. The debt piled up, and the old American dream died, and we got left holding the bag,” he added.
Smith continued, saying that through his posting on TikTok, he has seen a variety of viewpoints addressing the everyday struggles that real Americans face through social media posts and comments from different users outlining their situations on his videos.
“People in America, real society, are sharing all this with me. And I’m learning at a rapid pace from all different individuals. It’s not just googling it, or asking 100 college students what they think. It’s thousands and thousands of people sharing what’s going on,” said Smith.
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