George Kamel - The Housing Market Has People Spiraling

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

🏠 Check out the Home Buyers Guide!    Ah, the housing market . . . the only thing more triggering to Gen Z than a millennial referring to anything as a “slay.” But is it completely hopeless out there? We’re heading to TikTok to find out.   Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video How Much House You Can ACTUALLY Afford (Based on Income).  • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get up to 20% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Go to Boost Mobile to switch today!  • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle!   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's talk about the housing market. It's the only thing more triggering to Gen Z than a millennial referring to anything as a sleigh. Or Chugie, which I refuse to let go of, which I know is kind of Chugy. This is Chuggy? You don't even know what that means. But is it completely hopeless out there? Well, to find out we're heading to the Bastion of Hope and Happiness on the internet, TikTok. And with a salute to our channel sponsor, delete me.

Let the spiraling begin. I wasted time in my mother's womb, not buying property when it's a little. was cheap, that's my fault. I should have bought myself a home when I was a feet of feet. Okay, that drop was sick. This is a new genre of music I didn't know existed. It's like housing market club music. That's what I'm really into right now.

Okay, let's look at the actual lyricism here, because I think that's, it's understated. Property, when it was cheap. Ah! The scream really goes for me. That's my fault I should have bought myself a home when I was a fetus Should I got a nice cheap loan when I was a fetus

I should have got a nice cheap loan when I was a fetus I mean, truer words have never been spoken Is that Shakespeare? And while this is hilarious and tasteful at the same time It is true that like, you know, the older generation's like, You're wasting money on rent kid, go buy yourself a house What are you doing? Wasting time on your TikToks

Listen, all we have is TikToks. because we can't afford the home. So there's a lot of truth here. And we all wish we could go back in time to, you know, 1997, where we should have been buying homes when they were super cheap instead of, I don't know, being a child. But it's too late. And so all we can do is make some ironic comedic music.

Before we leave this amazing video, we should call out some numbers here. Okay, median home values have risen from $289,000 back in 2015 to $423,000 in early 2025. So 10 years, 46% increase. That is real. And if you look at the numbers, the median home price is now five times the median income. Back in our parents' day, it was more like two to three times.

So there's some real math here that is kind of depressing. And that's why we make Mimi Music. All right, next. Okay, this one says, POV, finding a place to rent in this economy. Let's go. Hi, welcome to the apartment tour. Come on in. So here is our studio apartment.

As you can see, it's very spacious. You can even stand sideways. It's three square feet. But we do have a shared bathroom, though. It's all the way up on level seven. And we don't have an elevator. So you're going to have to walk all the way up the stairs by yourself. Do you have any questions?

How much is rent? $8,000 a month. We do have something smaller. It's hot this size. It's not a studio apartment, though. It's just a stute. Stute apartment. Yeah.

And how much is that? That one is $7,999, so you get $1. dollar off. But we do have a look and leave special, so if you sign up in the next 24 hours, you do get another $2 off. I'll think about it. Okay, have a great day.

Oh my gosh. The most accurate part about this is that is how they all talk. It's what their faces do. So absolutely nailed it on that part. So we got three square feet, $8,000 a month. That's a lot per square foot. If we're just going to really zoom

in there on those three square feet. And it's obviously a large exaggeration. Very few places are renting for $8,000, even in a high-cost living area, if we're talking apartments. Now, maybe a penthouse in Miami, that's where I go. You can tell by the tan on my face. I hang out in Miami. There is a vibe to this from the leasing managers to the apartment salespeople. They always try to sort of minimize the bad parts and then maximize like the one or two good features like the fact that you can stand sideways in the door very impressive but it's the feeling behind this that causes people to go i just want to buy a house because rent's so expensive it's such a waste well it's not always a waste to rent mathematically it could make sense for a lot of people especially right now

median rent in twenty twenty four hit just over fourteen hundred bucks a month now let's compare that to the median monthly cost for a homeowner in twenty twenty four which was just over two thousand a month. So doing the math, it was $600 more expensive to be a homeowner in 2024 than to rent. Now, sure, you're not building equity, but you're also not needing to come up with a down payment and the closing costs in all of the risk and liability and the more expensive insurance and property taxes. So if you're renting right now, I know it's frustrating, especially if you're paying a lot comparatively to your take-home pay, but just know that you're buying yourself patience. You're not throwing money away. Let's keep going.

First time home buyers looking in their price range. Oh, brutal. Oh, not the pink bathroom tile. Oh, man. Yeah, at some point, you have to realize you want an LA-9. You can only afford a Cleveland four. And that's depressing. But you've got to go, like, this is really where I'm at.

Based on my finances, this is what I can afford. And truthfully, very few homes look that terrible. And also, to be fair, the home that I grew up in looked very close. close to that. We did have pink bathroom tile. We did have terrible pink shag carpet. We had the naughty pine wood walls that were like pliable. You know, you can kind of like push into it. It was that thin. But you got to start somewhere. And so you got to look past the things you can look past and go, all right, we can replace tile. It's not that expensive. We could eventually redo the kitchen, get new cabinets, you know, do a paint job here and there to make it work.

And so if that's what you can afford and you feel like this is the house for us right now, or at least the next five years, then go for it. And if not, you just got to go, all right, we got to keep saving up. We got to move to a different area that's maybe a little further out from the city. And buy a place you actually like more that doesn't have as much negative curb appeal, if you will. But gosh, who is this guy? It's just men being boys. Okay, so it's like a bunch of sons and their dad making funny content.

That's wholesome. I got to say, if my kids one day want to start a TikTok with me and we have 2.5 million followers, bringing joy to humanity, I did a pretty good job as a dad. But if they're TikToking solo, I did a terrible job as a dad. It's a fine line. Bring pops into it, okay? He's only gonna help you with the view count. Next, started looking at houses for rent,

and it is cheaper for me to get along with my family. This is legit. Like, I know you can fake tears. This is not fake. This is that like puffy, red, or I can't even hold it together look. And so I don't know if she acted in this video. or if this was out of a real moment.

But either way, 10 out of 10, chef's kiss. And the overall vibe here, and this is what I'm guessing is happening, is she's like, hey, I gotta live with my family, therefore I need to get along with my family, even though they're kind of dysfunctional and I want nothing more than to have a place of my own. But rent is $2,500 or whatever. She's going, all right, I'll learn to live with them.

You know, they're not so bad after all. You start sort of bargaining, if you will. It's the bargaining stage of Greek. of grief, five stages, in case you're counting at home. I will work three jobs just to protect my peace. Way to go, Alicia. My rent is almost $1,700. Sometimes I eat ramen or starve, but I'm at peace.

There's no price for peace. A lot of people, this is really sad. It points to a lot of dysfunction in families, probably a lot of trauma, maybe even some abuse, I don't know, but it's sad to see how many, like, 18 to 25-year-olds are like, get me out of this place. It is toxic. It's hurting my mental well.

being. The economy doesn't understand my relationship with my mother. I laughed, dot, dot, dot, but then I got sad. I think that sums up how we all feel about this. But hey, living with your family, if you can stomach it, not a bad idea until you can get on your feet. But don't stay there forever just because rent's expensive, you know? I believe once you are like a salaried employee, you got a stable job, you're making some good money, especially if you're out of debt with an emergency fund, it's time to fly the coop. Even if rent's expensive, get a roommate, do what you need to do. So let's look at the median rent. As of April 2026, 1370, versus little over $1,000 back in April of 2017. So, I mean, that's 10 years. Yes, it's high, a little less than $300 more. But 26% over 9 years, not bad compared to home ownership and what home prices have done during that time.

So, living with parents, you might have to do it. What? Having multiple roommates might have to do it. Lowering your expectations and not having the super fancy apartment, you might have to do it. you might have to do it. It's not ideal, but it's a short season while you get financially prepared to do something bigger and better, like own a home or get out of debt. While you're hopelessly tapping the hard icon on your dream home listings, something else is happening behind the scenes. Data brokers are scooping up your personal data and selling it off to the highest bidder.

Your phone number, your email, your past addresses, your family's information. It's basically a scammer's buffet. And cleaning it up yourself, it's a nightmare. I mean, you'll try and try and fill out all these forms and try to find where all your info is and keep track of it and still not have much luck. And that's why I use DeleteMe, one of today's sponsors. DeleteMe has data privacy experts who kick in the door of those data broker sites to remove your info, saving you a ton of time and a ton of hassle. DeleteMe has already saved me over 140 hours, which is more time I can use to plan, start, and then promptly abandon a DIY Backsplash project. And right now, you can get 20% off their annual plans by going to join deleteme.com slash George. And housing isn't the only thing that's

become crazy expensive. So have most phone plans. Seriously, 50, 80, 100 bucks a month per line, just to doomscroll videos of some broccoli-haired goober telling you to arbitrage a fourplex? It's madness. So do the smart thing and switch to Boost Mobile, another sponsor of today's video. Their unlimited plan is just $25 a month. That's right, $25 a month forever. Plus, you can bring your own device and keep your own number just in case your old high school flying wants to reignite the spark. Switching is simple and the savings are real. So go to boostmobile.com $25 forever requires customers to remain active on Boost Mobile Unlimited plan. All right, back to the videos.

Okay, this one says I just bought my first house and I don't like it. I assume that's the tone. We'll find out. I just bought my first house and I don't like it. As you guys know, my boyfriend and I just got a house together after only dating for a year. And it's not like I don't like the house itself. There are just some things that I'm extremely eager to change. This green turf stuff on the front porch, why would anyone put that there? We remove that immediately after closing.

And then this blue wall, which I found out that a copy used to live here and He's the one that painted this wall blue. Which in my opinion should be illegal. But I went ahead and painted in it green. And there's this random bar right in the middle of the living room that has me extremely confused. We took that out. This sunroom is my nightmare and dream come true all in one. It smells like cigarettes and the carpet is, in my opinion, hideous.

But after removing the carpet, already smells so much better. But now we need to do something with this floor. And then we have a random wood wall next to the fireplace. I'm letting my boyfriend do what he wants with that because I want to get rid of it, but he wants to keep it. There's a lot going on in this house, but fortunately I have some time to make some changes before officially moving it. And my boyfriend is very handy with this stuff. I just tell him what I want and he makes it happen. It's so nice.

Now, did I rush into buying a house with my boyfriend up one year because I knew he could fix it up for free? No comment. Watching this place come together is so satisfying and at the same time, overwhelmed. I feel like when one problem gets fixed and new problem surfaces, and it's never ending. We still have a lot of work to do. So I'm not going to break up with him yet.

Wow, there was a lot going on there. But she is right. I mean, home ownership is no joke, especially when you buy sort of a fixer up her. But they knew that going into it. And let me just point out, this was a terrible idea. You should never buy a home with someone. you are not married to. It has never worked out. And all the calls I've taken on the Ramsey show,

no one's ever gone, yeah, I bought a house my boyfriend in it. Everything's great. No financial problems, no relationship problems. It worked out exactly as we planned, and nobody's resentful. Doesn't work out. What happens is she owns the house. They're both on the mortgage, but she's the only one on the deed. They break up. He wants out, but she needs to refinance now, and she can't afford it on her own and so she needs to sell the house. Do you see what's going on? It's just too messy. Marriage gives you some financial protection.

And without that, you're sort of just fingers crossed. Let's just Venmo each other. Who's going to cover the roof repair? I don't know. It's your house, not mine. I'm not going to pitch in. Why would I? Why would I build equity for you?

We're not even married. I have no ownership. As you can see, been around the block with this one, taking calls like this. And I agree with this comment that green is worse than blue. Why would you pick baby diarrhea green out of all the colors? Go with a sage. You know, something, something a little warmer. Less chartruse. I digress. And yes, I use charteroose in a sentence. Keep the wood wall. Please, please, please. Green. Inside pool or gaming room is

other giving her ideas. Did you look at the house before you bought it? Roasted. I truly hope it works out for you guys. I hope you get married now that this man has sunk his entire life into this house project for you. I hope we put the ring on it. Well, the only nice thing I can say about this video is that they looked past some of the cosmetic issues and they knew, hey, we can swap carpet out. We can knock out the bar over here and make it a little more of an open floor plan. And because of that, they found a better deal.

And it was cheaper than finding a more expensive house that was structurally exactly how they wanted it. And always get an inspection because you never know what's behind the surface. So hire a really good inspector to make sure that what you're buying isn't a total lemon that's going to cost you $100,000 in repairs. This is a long-term decision and probably the biggest one you'll ever make financially. So go slow and do it right and get married. All right, time for a cartoon. Congratulations on paying off your house.

Thank you. I finally own my home. I love that for you. Now pay property taxes. Wait. For what? For owning the home. But I already paid for the home.

That was for the structure. And the land? That's rented. For who? Us. For how long? Forever. And if I stopped paying?

We take the house. But I bought it. Correct. And now you maintain it for us. So this is renting. No. This is homeownership. So what did I actually buy?

A lifetime subscription with surprise price increases. And what do I get with that? The privilege of not being evicted this year. Love it. Five stars. Okay, this is probably the most true video we've seen today. Property taxes are not a fun thing to pay, even when you own your house.

So I don't. have a mortgage anymore, but I still got to pay property taxes every single year, and I have to pay the homeowner's insurance every single year. And so here's how property taxes work. It's an assessed value of your home multiplied by the property tax rate. So this varies depending on where you live. But as an example, let's say your house is assessed at $300,000. That's not what you paid for it. It's the assessed value, which is different and likely lower. So let's say you have a 1% tax rate. That means you would owe $3,000 in taxes that year. So $3,000 divided by 12 months. It's about $250 a month that would be added to your mortgage payment through escrow,

which is the holding account for your insurance and taxes. So while you have a mortgage, property taxes are paid out of that, so you don't necessarily feel it as much. It's just sort of all bundled into that monthly mortgage payment. But once you pay off your mortgage, you've got to do that on your own. And so I got to pay attention. I got calendar reminders every year, and I try to do it way earlier than I need to just to get it off my plate and out of my head.

But I do see this comment a lot of people going, George, you never own your house. What's the point of paying off your mortgage? Well, I got rid of the mortgage payment, you dingus. So that's nice. And to be fair, property taxes pay for things in my community, like roads and schools and police officers' salaries and teacher salaries and fire department, all things that I do use.

And if you don't use them, just use it. Go to the park more if you're going to complain about it, all right? It's part of living in a society. You want to go off the grid and live in the woods. Go for it, but I'm not going Leo DiCaprio and Revenant, all right, living out of a bison carcass. It's disgusting. Me judging million-dollar homes with no money to my name. This is going to be good.

I hate the color of that one. Yeah, not my favorite. It's not for me. I would like that one a little bit better if it had like a balcony to like, you know, for hanging out. It's kind of a small front yard. I don't know. It's like fine. I just wouldn't want to live this close to like a popular street.

You know what I mean? Why would you get those shutters? What were they thinking? Not the cutest porch I've ever seen You think so? Uh-uh. I love that one just not big enough for me. Not like, what do you mean?

Like for me and the kids. You don't have any kids. For the amount of kids I want to have, what's wrong with you? Ugh. What? I just don't like that one. I just, I can't. Yeah, I know what you're about to say.

I can't see myself in that one. It's just not screaming my name. Right, right, right. That house is actually gorgeous, but the numerical address is just ugly sounding. It's numerical address. Oh, this is relatable content right here. So what's behind all of this complaining and judging?

Human nature. Fall of man. Go back to Genesis. You'll figure it out. But beyond that, I think we're also trying to cope with the fact that we don't have the nice thing. So then we kind of, you know, poo-poo the nice thing. To go, well, that's not even that. I wouldn't even want that car or that house.

It's not even that great. And the truth is there are a lot of very expensive homes that I don't like, that I do find ugly. So it does make me feel better. I'm going, just because you're rich doesn't mean you got taste. Money can't buy. taste. I got money, but I don't have taste. So I'm working on it, guys. I'm working on it. Are the comments vibing? Normal houses on movies. I mean, I'm broke doesn't mean I don't have an opinion. Thank you. That's so true. You can be broke and have taste and have opinions. It just doesn't

matter as far as society goes. Just keep it to yourself in TikTok. Moving on when just two years ago, you both were selling your furniture to make rent. Today you just closed on your first house. Is this going to be heartwarming? I need a win. Come on. Okay, that was sweet. I think the less talking the better. You know, show, don't tell. That's an old filmmaker trick right there. But I do love this. I mean, she's showing you the journey. Two years ago, they were selling furniture just to make the rent, and here they are closing on the first house. And what we didn't see in that journey was all the sacrifice they made. They probably worked extra, got better jobs, saved up diligently for that down payment and the closing cost. This is what I'm hoping, at least. And that cost. And that cost

them to be able to become homeowners and they still look very young. Now, he doesn't seem as happy about it, to be fair, but I think he was dragged into making this video. In the comments are actually heartwarming. Congrats, congrats, congrats, congrats, congrats, congrats. There we go. That's what we like to see. The internet doing internet things that are good for humanity. All right, as per usual, producer Alex has selected a video that may or may not be related to the housing market for my entertainment and for yours. Let's see what he has for us today. Feel free to take your time. I'm here whenever you're ready.

Feel free to take your time. I'm here whenever you're ready. Can I get one million cheeseburgers? Okay, can you not? Okay, sorry. What? My guess is if that really went through, they got to make a million cheeseburger.

There's no other option. The system said, I love that she's me. So they're listening the whole time? What's the point of AI if you still require a human that you're paying for the, labor to listen to the mic. I just don't get it.

Oh, wow. Can you not? End quote. Lady, you're defending your replacement. Okay, can you not? Bro is literally trying to save your job. He's proving that we need humans because of humans doing stupid things. We need other humans to prevent humans

from doing stupid things. The circle of life. Because AI, as I mean, will not prevent us from doing stupid things. It will only encourage said stupid thing by saying, hey, that's a great idea. You know what? That's the best idea I've ever heard.

You should do that. It's like your most toxic girlfriend. He's like, girl, you should absolutely do that. Yes, I love that. So the overall vibe from these videos is we're going to cope with our low-key housing depression with memes and funny content. Which I get. That's a real reaction. But it's still possible to buy a home these days.

There's a right way to do it, a wrong way to do it, and you don't want to end up with a house payment you can't afford. So I made a free course to help you guys out. It's called How to Buy a Home You Can Actually Afford, where I walk you through the whole process step by step so you can buy a house that fits your budget and make this house a blessing instead of a dumpster fire. So I'm going to drop a link in the description to that free course so you can check it out. But before you even think about buying a house, you've got to answer two questions. How much house can you actually afford and how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a wood would chuck could chuck would? I'll help you answer that first question in this next video

if you click right here or use the link in the description. That's all for today. If you had fun, be sure to like this video, hit subscribe and share this with a friend who knows exactly How much wood? A woodchuck could chuck, could chuck wood. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.