Does Zillow Want People to Leave Multi Generational Housing?

Stan Humphries is chief economist of Zillow.com., the real estate listing service that recently went public on the stock exchange. He is literally gushing in his desire to get people move out of their multi generational housing arrangements which could create profits down the road for Zillow. And he is not alone. Bloomberg has a story through the IB Times about advertizing agency operatives wanting to brand young men who stay with their parents as losers.

This is a concerted effort at brainwashing people. This is metaprogramming, a method of mind control. The Ad agency guy, Peter Francese said this:

“In America, the extended family is a very unstable household,” he said. “Most guys who live at home beyond some young age walk around with a great big L on their forehead. It is just not acceptable. As soon as these young adults get a job and keep it for some reasonable period, they are gone. As more young people feel they will be able to keep a job, bingo, they are gone.”

The idea that the extended family is unstable is a ridiculous statement. And the "L" this guy talks about is really playing to the psychology of the young person, unsettling him with a manufactured Wall Street type message. The Wall Street boys want new family formation and indeed, Zillow's Humphries is just one fellow that seems desperate for new household formation. But just like we had to go to two worker households, in the last century, economic necessity has made multi generational living a very viable alternative. And not only can folks survive in this model, but they can prosper and save money and have a debt free life using this living arrangement!

Daily Ticker ran the Humphries interview and this is a paraphrase of a couple of points he made:

Rental supply is tight and prices could rise 4 percent each of the next two years. This is an opportunity for investors. We gotta get those people who are doubling up out of those multi generational households.

Anyone can plainly see, that getting those people out is key to future housing and rental demand. Zillow is not your friend, and they are out for profit. They don't care about your bottom line, but rather about their own bottom line only, IMO.

Katie from Zillow here. I work closely with Stan Humphries.

I just wanted to clarify that Zillow does not have a position on multi-generational housing. It is certainly a good choice for many families, for both economic and non-economic reasons.

What we addressed was involuntary doubling up because of the recession, and how the trend affects the housing market. Statistically, the incidence of households doubling up has increased by nearly 11% from 2007 to 2011, according to the Census. For adults aged 25 to 34, it has increased by nearly 26%. This takes a lot of potential homebuyers out of the market, and buyers are essential for an eventual housing market recovery.

Gary Anderson here:

I wrote the article because guys like Humphries were against the young being part of this multigenerational mix. While Zillow apparently is not opposed to mulitgenerational households filled with older people, that company knows what the IMF knows, that a cutback on household formation will cost the financial cartel dearly, and thus Zillow who lists houses for sale, dearly as well. But the morality of young people staying home with mom and dad in order to save money and secure a financial future is their choice, and is a slap in the face to big finance.

Perhaps big finance should have thought about this the first time they decided to create a real estate bubble and enrich themselves at main street's expense!

The Tea Party is out to attack many benefits that main street average folks get from the government. These benefits are being pared back, and the result will be even a greater need for multi generational or multi-generational living. Some Republicans want the cutting of social security, medicare and other benefits, while banks and the rich are untouchable regarding the raising of their taxes. We know that commodities are churned to higher prices not just by demand but by white hot trading of contracts and futures by the investment banks. This speculation is allowed by both parties and is an attack upon main street and your budget as prices are artificially high for gasoline, food and other commodities.

Of course, mainly the Republicans want another housing bubble, as they attack the Dodd-Frank law, and the IMF wants austerity and a rekindling of securitization of mortgages, that led to the last housing bubble. This IMF/Republican alliance must be fought, and the best way to fight it is by multi generational living. It is even patriotic to do so. Please consider it both as a means for survival and as an effective means to create wealth.

Wall Street wants old and young to be divided and there are many articles setting them apart, making them want to fragment. Multi generational house arrangements destroy this little Wall Street scam by bringing the generations together. It is good that the generations seek to be together because that strengthens main street.

Now we know that there could be a housing shortage in the big prosperous cities in the next few years. If that is the case people making big money will have much of that income eaten up in rent and buying expensive housing. This is where multi generational housing will become very important in the near future, as the new bubbles will likely start in the pricey cities that did not sufficiently crash!

In summary, we can fight the IMF/Republican attacks and all manner of speculative price gouging through cutting costs and frugality, and multi generational housing is a component of that frugality. And we can fight another easy money housing bubble by refusing the toxic and hurtful lending products that were offered in the last housing bubble.

Leave it to the NY Times, a newspaper that was once great when Will Rogers was a columnist but is now a shadow of it's former self, came out against graduates living at home saying that it robs the economy. Well, NYT how about the banksters robbing the economy? And right in your neighborhood. When are you going to forcefully and publically come out against the speculation that is causing people to have to live multigenerationally? I see that Gretchen Morgenson wrote an article recently about speculation, but that sort of thing should be front page. Will Rogers spoke about speculation in the Great Depression, and it was front page news. And instead of just one article, the great NY Times ran the Rogers column regularly so that many people understood the severity of speculatioon upon the economy of the Roaring Twenties.