Posts tagged as:

Baby Boomer

Is the Era of Rising Real Estate Prices Over?

May 6, 2009

in Get the Facts

era-of-rising-real-estate-over When I first moved to Calgary to work in the oil and gas industry in early 2006, it was right around the top of the property boom, and affordable housing was next to impossible to find.  Not wanting to shell out half my salary for an apartment, and spending months to fill it up with furniture, I decided to go the room rental route.

Little did we know at the time, but towards the end of 2006, the market was slowly but surely moving from sellers’ to one that favoured buyers.  Ones in the know, i.e. people with family members that dabbled in real estate, already sold in late 2005 or early 2006. But the media and the rest of us general public have always been slow to catch on.  And you wouldn’t know, from the construction buzz around the city, to the countless “For Help” signs hanging haplessly outside shop windows, to stories of McDonald’s and Starbucks paying upward of $14 an hour plus benefits to attract and retain employees.

My second landlord, a sweet spinster in her 60s, believed in the power of real estate as much as she believed in the miracle that is modern medicine.  She credited her various real estate investments for her comfortable lifestyle, despite not having worked out of her home for more than decade.  Her piece of advice to any young-uns that cross her path, is the adage that we should all invest in real estate sooner rather than later.  I can’t blame her or others her generation  for their spectacular confidence in the strength of the housing market.  Their experience of ever-rising property prices facilitated that expectation.  It certainly looked good at the time, with housing prices that doubled within a few years.  Houses that were hardly 1,000 square feet would go for 400,000 to 500,000 dollars in certain parts of the city.  The gains were ludicrous.  And the whole town was drunk on the sudden discovery that, thanks to oil sands in their back yards, a lot of them were paper millionaires!  Read more...

The Social Construction of Gen Y

May 1, 2009

in Social Trends & Investment

gen-y-and-the-culture-of-meA couple of days ago, a fellow blogger commented on this rather unfortunate Fortune article on his blog.  It is interesting for several reasons.

First, the ideas are cookie-cutter and stale.  Us Gen Yers had been told (to a certain extent) that we were on the cusp of a great demographic shift, where baby boomers’ impending departure would wreak havoc on corporate health.  True, some of us were led to believe that our contribution would be valued at a premium, which would in turn translate into lots of choices and result in us hopping through the corporate environment at break-neck speed.  In reality? Highly unlikely.  The smart ones among us always knew that good jobs are competitive, and supply almost always outstrip demand, especially at the bottom rung. But the media kept up the propaganda – to what end, I don’t know.  Every once in a while, articles like this appear.

Second, the timing is totally off.  Because of economic realities, many boomers simply can’t afford to retire.  More and more Gen Yers find themselves in a much more competitive environment than they were led to believe.  Now everybody is learning to make do with less and to compromise.  Exactly who is out pandering to those misunderstood geniuses, I’m not sure.

The somewhat hilarious prescriptions thrown around by the Fortune writer, and the kick my blogger friend got out of it, reminds me of a book I heard about recently.  In this book, the authors address the various social and consumerist constructions of the Gen Y generation.  I took some notes, here’s a broad overview of the ideas.

School: the obsession with feeling good at all cost

According to the book, the ME culture evolved over several decades, but found its decisive start within the school system.  The baby boomer generation struck out, rejected authority and tried to find its own path.  In their children, they instituted and obsessed over instilling self-esteem.  Subsequently, various forms of formal, or informal self-esteem programs were introduced in school.  They generally aim to make children feel good about themselves at all times and at all cost, with messages like: you are special, you are unique, you are fine just the way you are.  Read more...

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