If you ever want to see how Europe was rebuilt, look up the Marshall Plan. Germany, in particular, benefited because many massive military bases were built in Germany, which gave Germans access to many goods and resources directly from the USA before the rest of Europe.
I have to disagree with the fact that you say you can hear everything in the home. It depends on the insulation. Most houses are very well insulated now. The siding that is put on homes are isolated. Depends on what you put into your home.
Military Bases, either American or multi-national (NATO) also brought lots of badly-needed civilian employment to devastated people in the European countries.
The Marshall Plan was not a gift. It allowed European countries to buy US products on credit! Without it, the US economy would have imploded after the war. Win win situation. Share of the German economic miracle about 10%. We, German taxpayers, are helping to finance the US military bases in Germany. "which gave Germans access to many goods...." what are you talking about?
Yea glad to see someone added this as American provided a lot of money and supplies to Germany after the war while others quietly said "They started it"
The "subsidies" she talks about includes deducting property taxes from your income for tax purposes. Its not like homeowners are getting cash from the government. We are just avoiding getting double taxed.
yeah man this couple has a political agenda. I'm on the left myself but not as far to the left as them. They would probably argue that it should be illegal to build a SFH and also illegal to own your own car lol at them
@@neutrino78x - You have to remember how long they have lived in Germany now (11 years they said). What we in the US consider someone who is just moderately left-of-center would be considered a almost a right wing nut in much of Europe. The difference in the political spectrum between most of Europe and the US can be extreme.
As someone that has worked in construction and remodeling, The wooden frame is not the reason they hear everything as there is many ways to soundproof even with wooden frames. Not to mention there is different ways the walls can be built you can have staggered studs or even double walls. Everything you can get done in Germany or any country as long as it does not go against housing regulations can be done here as well. Even after the walls have already been built we could go in and sound proof it pretty quickly. It is mostly up to the home owners if they want to pay to have it done or not. Also interior walls is not required to be insulated the same way exterior walls are but that doesn't mean that people don't do it.
I am 68 and I have lived in many houses in 5 states and could not hear anyone talking in another room. I have been inside houses that were constructed cheaply that I could. BUT it is not a problem with most houses.
Why do all these people think that wood framed houses are built like a kid's clubhouse in the woods from scraps? Like if you slam the door the whole house will fall down? It's ridiculous!! Wood houses are solid and sturdy and can last hundreds of years. Wood has a lot of benefits over stone masonry. Materials are inexpensive, it's easy to maintain. See a slat not looking so good - replace it over the weekend. Want to expand a room, enclose a room, add some more rooms, want more outlets, put in more plumbing, want some skylights - with simple power tools and some knowhow, these can all be done by the homeowner in their spare time. (Following local regulations on permits and inspections, of course!). Wood also breathes - which with so many places in our country have extreme temperature and humidity ranges - becomes pretty important.
The USA prevented Western Europe and the Far East, including Japan, from falling to a wave of aggressively expansionist communism. America saved the world.
Great investment by the US posy WWII. Bad economic conditions & strife historically leads to the rise of strongmen & dictators claiming they can solve things.
The Marshall Plan was not a gift. It allowed European countries to buy US products on credit! Without it, the US economy would have imploded after the war. Win win situation. Share of the German economic miracle about 10%.
I enjoy the beautiful streets, large homes, and pretty gardens as one drives throughout the US. There is nothing wrong with having a generous sized house, a big yard for your kids to play in, and plenty of space for when family and friends visit, or in some cases move in due to age or health.
Academics tend to overthink and over-explain. They usually don't have any real-world experience. I checked this reaction to find out what the differences are between houses in the U.S. and Germany. We are over 16 minutes into it and still havne't learned anything useful.
German before WWI was the second most spoken language in the USA. After WWI people were embarrassed because of the perception of Germany's aggression that brought about the war. The British royal family also changed their German surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor.
They didn't mention how these homes made of stone, brick and concrete would hold up in a major earthquake??? If Germany isn't in an earthquake zone, maybe they should mention this tiny fact when talking about solid home construction? I'm not suggesting the German solid homes would collapse in a major earthquake, but I wonder what the cost would be to repair them (cracked walls, etc.) compared to wood construction? Having lived near San Francisco for 22 years, it's the first thing I thought of.
My husband and I bought a ten year old townhouse in Germany. Loved it,but hanging a picture, shelf, mirror, etc in a house cement walls was really a problem requiring way more than a hammer and nails😊! We also had to put insulation into the roof which had none!
I have German ancestry. One of my ancestors was a Hessian soldier who came to fight in the Revolutionary War and decided to stay here. What subsidies is she talking about? I don't know any any homeowners who ever got any kind of subsidy. We have homes here that are anywhere from 50-200 years old. So they weren't built to fall down. Sheesh.
They may be talking about tax deductions? Like for your home loan interest? Actually, they sound a bit jealous when they say their house is ½ the square footage of the American houses they are comparing.
Oh. No home loan or mortgage here. My parents did a private purchase and paid it off. At least my Dad enjoyed knowing it was paid off and secure for several years before he passed in 2015. More rural out here and a lot of owner financed sales when they put the down payment on it in 89/90.
@@bob_._. I also was able to buy my home in the mid 80's with a government program for 1st time homebuyers. but I think it was 10% or less. Certainly much less than the insane 18% home mortgage rate that a lot of buyers had to contend with a few years earlier. The biggest thing for me was that I was able to purchase my $30,000 home with only a $300 down payment, only 1% vs the typical 20% requirement. I was only a year or so out of college, and had just moved more than a 1,009 miles from home, and was paying on multiple student loans, so I hadn't been able to save up a down payment. The program also allowed the seller to pay my half of the closing costs, and to pay down my interest rate for the 1st 3 years. It was the best deal I've ever gotten. After writing off my mortgage interest, and my property taxes. I came out far ahead of continung to rent.
She's right. Most Americans aren't aware. Your lack of awareness should not imply she is wrong. She's not. As of right now, the government is giving out grants of $150,000. Biden provided over a billion dollars in grants for various ways to help Americans. It's just that most Americans don't know.
I think they failed to mention the benefits of wood frame for the natural disasters common in the U.S., we get our fair share of strong earthquakes here which wood frame homes are excellent to live in for. Also wood framing is easier and cheaper to insulate then most concrete or block construction methods. This helps a lot when it comes to energy efficiency. They mention the noise blocking of concrete which is actually the effect of the foam blocks they're using to insulate it (I'm pretty sure if you put 4-5 inches of insulating foam blocks on a wood frame house it would block noise just as well) but that's one of the benefits of a wood frame house. you can have thinner walls which can make it so the floor area is larger for any given exterior dimension
I love my wooden frame US house. I can open up walls to do my own plumbing and wiring, or to change things around, over a few weekends with my own basic tools, and without having to hire an expensive professional with serious tools. I don't want to live in the same house as the person before me, I want to make it my own (history be damned).
I have spent *most* of my life in American houses, but I have been in some German houses too. No matter how nice German houses may be, American houses win, because there's just SO MUCH MORE SPACE. Larger rooms, wider hallways, more total floor area inside, bigger yards outside, more distance between neighbors… and all of that is Good. :)
When you buy your house, you have the possibility of PAYING IT OFF!!! then you won't have a house payment. You rent, you will pay for the roof over your head your entire life!!! I paid my 30 yr mortgage off in 15 years... no more house payments for ME!!!
One is housing, the other is to live. Children from 7 go to school on their own. There are bakeries, butchers, grocery stores, etc. all within walking distance. There is also public transport. I live in a 3k suburb of a 30k city.
I “ stick built” my house 26 years ago in the US Midwest. I live in the Midwest and I’ve been through tornadoes and numerous high wind, velocity storms, and the house is still standing! The only damage I’ve had was a couple roof shingles that blew off during one particularly bad storm.
Their acting as if homeowners here are all wealthy. This is not true!! All my life I’ve been poor and I own a home. My parents and grandparents were poor and they owned homes and farms. It’s true the government gives tax breaks to homeowners as incentives to buy homes. But most homeowners are poor and middle class. The few people that are wealthy of course own homes, but they certainly are NOT the majority of homeowners. It’s also true there are fewer rentals than single family homes. That’s because most people own homes and don’t need to rent. It’s true our homes and yards are bigger than in Europe. We have the room for it so why not?
My house is 75 yrs old and only 750 sqft. As are a lot of the houses in my town. But I own it, paid off the 30 yr mortgage in 15 years so that I'll never be homeless. I've had extremely rich people tell me I'm super fortunate to own my home (paid off the mortgage). They won't ever "own" their giant house!!!
@@OkiePeg411 My first home was 875 square feet. and located on a long narrow lot along an alley, which I purchased for $30,000 in the mid 1980s. Because I was a poor single mother, I qualified for a first time homebuyers program, and was able to buy it for only a $300 down payment. My mother insisted I should post off my student loans before I bought a home. but I knew better. Even though my total house payment was $70 more than my rent at the time, I came out waaay ahead every year. after writing off my mortgage interest, and also my state property tax payments from my federal taxes. Unlike my rental, my house was within half a mile of my job and of my son's preschool. I wish it was still that easy for my son and his girlfriend to buy a house.
@@OkiePeg411 My home is about 1200 square feet and 61 years old, and it is also paid for like yours. I have plenty of yard if I want to expand it. A lot of the houses built in the 30’s 40’s and 50’s were this size. So all US houses are neither big or new like the video said. There are whole cities with houses like mine and yours. Although, I imagine most of the new houses are big.
We have 3 houses. Our main house which is a very nice converted barn done in the early 1960s. (Originally built around 1900) We paid it off in 8 years. In that time we drove old cars, and did little else to the house. Over the next few years we put away a lot of $ that we would have paid on a mortgage. So 4 years later we bought a 1978 modest vacation home on a canal connected to a resort lake. We paid that off in 8 years also. In the meantime we bought several modest rental homes with the banks $. 1 completely paid for itself in 4 years. The other 3 did well but we still owed $. In 2021 we decided to sell all 4 with about 1/3 of that cash we then purchased a very modest 1200 sq ft double wide in central Florida for cash . So no mortgage. Our three houses total cost less than $400,000 total. Value today is about $1,000,000. + If you are smart with $ you can do it. All three of our current houses were move-in condition. Now our rentals were not. I put new bathrooms in 2 a new kitchen in one . The other two were not too bad with little work needed. Less than a part time month on each. We bought our first house in 1991 for $49,500. A nice in town house. We lived in it 4 years rented it 4 additional years and walked away at the end with $25,000 in our pocket after paying off the mortgage. ( That helped up pay off our current home in 8 years. ) The key to pay off a home is pay as much as you can every month.
Exactly right. My parents' first home was a small bungalow with a small yard in a decidedly NOT fancy area, AND, they were able to do that 5 years after immigrating here from Italy.
There are a lot of ungrateful people in the US. I for one am extremely grateful to live in the US and for all the advantages that come with it. I don't take it for granted.
Well, how nice for you. Try being poor and not knowing where your next meal will come from, or having a serious medical condition and no insurance. It's easy to say America is lovely when you're an entitled white guy.
Huh? You can love your country and still criticize it. Blindly loving something is as unhealthy as blindly hating something. This country is amazing. I feel blessed I was born here and would never leave. But doesn't mean there aren't legitimate gripes to have living here. I think the biggest issue is these sorts of videos represent such a minority of Americans and their experience. A lot of us work hard to stay above water. That isn't me taking it for granted, I love America. But there are absolutely things we could improve to the benefit of the majority who live here. Like it bothers me that we are the richest country, by far, yet so many homeless people, and horrific healthcare. That being rich in this country is a cheat code, that is squeezing the middle class out of existence. You could argue there is no longer a middle class. To me, no matter what your job is, if you work 40 hours a week, you shouldn't have to decide if you want to eat a meal or afford medications. Not saying a person working retail should be able to travel to Hawaii, but they should be secure enough to have a roof over their head and meals to eat. Ignoring American issues will only guarantee that they will keep existing, while getting worse. In a nutshell, fair criticism doesn't equate to "taking it for granted". We are a fantastic and unique country, with our fair share of problems. Ignoring those problems does nothing positive for the vast majority of Americans.
@@YerpDerp17 THANK YOU. That "love it or leave it" crap is so unhelpful. When you love your country, you _must_ criticize the bad things to help it improve. I wonder about people who say that kind of thing - do they just let their kids fail when they make mistakes?
I'm at minute 28:44, and I had to stop the video to call BULLSHIT on that couple! (Be prepared for a LOT of anger towards that couple from American viewers.) I live in a low-income apartment building, built in 2018 and open in Feb. 2019, so it has a lot newer construction than whatever they were living in when they lived in America. I'm 50, and I have lived in at least 9 different apartment buildings over the last 30 years, with all kinds of styles, all kinds of income levels, in Florida, Arizona, California, and now Washington state (where Seattle is, not D.C.) and I have NEVER EVER heard a conversation through the walls! When someone drops something really heavy on the floor above me, I hear that. If I went outside whatever apartment I was living it at the time, then I could hear if people were yelling or playing music loud. But if I could hear anything through the walls, then it was probably time to call the cops (lol). Where I live now, I'm at the end of the hall, with one wall shared with the residents across the hallway who have 3 young kids, and another wall next to the elevator. My bedroom wall, where my bed is, is right next to the only elevator in the building, and I hear absolutely nothing. My mother had her Master's degree in architecture, and she said building with wood was great because you could tear down a wall to make a room bigger, run new wires inside the walls so you don't have people tripping over wires everywhere, add additions to existing walls without too much fuss, and if you bought a house and don't like it, you can bulldoze the whole thing and start from scratch.
It is very overstated yea. Between apartments you will have insulation which will dampen the majority of sounds. Maybe with a normal house as they don't generally have insulation in-between interior walls but you can get that done cheaply as well.
Wood frame construction for residential homes is usually superior to concrete. Earthquake damage, poor thermal insulation properties, limited remodeling possibilities make concrete houses a hard sell in the States.
Just google it instead of assuming: Durability: Concrete is a highly durable material that can withstand extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Unlike wood, it is not susceptible to rot, termites, or other pests.
As someone from the US, I’m all for single-family homes. I think it’s a good idea; especially in the USA where land is plenty. Also homeownership is very common in the USA, especially in the middle class. You do not have to be wealthy to own a home, and rental is actually the minority. Another thing is, this couple (no hate, just a small mistake they made) overlooked some very big reasons why American homes are typically built mostly with wood rather than harder, more rigid materials. In the US, as you may know, natural disasters are very common; earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. This means our homes are built to be replaced and maintained cheaply as well as able to be rebuilt fast, compared to concrete or brick homes which would be rather costly and time consuming.
As a country that is affected by earthquakes on a somewhat regular basis, these solid construction buildings are the ones that break apart because they have no flexibility. Wood is somewhat flexible and is less apt to crumble. The USA is not the only place that uses wood framing, either.
95% of US states have no earthquakes ! And in the "tornadoes states", people stupidly keep on re-building wooden houses, again and again, and each tornado destroys them ! European stone houses resist to tornadoes since the middle-age, so ... what is the most logical and cheapest option, on a long term ?!
I'll take the USA any day. I am used to having beautiful open spaces and not feel like I am being squished into a small area. I don't know why she is downing the US despite being born here. Whatever, to each their own. BTW I live in New England and we have houses that are very old.
One is housing, the other is to live. Children from 7 go to school on their own. There are bakeries, butchers, grocery stores, etc. all within walking distance. There is also public transport. I live in a 3k suburb of a 30k city in south Germany.
My folks are building a new house this year, and hired Amish for the framing, siding - I think they finished in about 3 weeks, and they don't work on Sunday, obviously. The plumbers, electricians and inspectors are slow though!
Homes in a development in my area take about 3-4 months to build. Granted the planning and permitting can take over a year, and the excavation and laying down of utilities takes several months. But the actual build is only a few months.
I live in the Midwest. My house is 950 square feet. I had a home 12 years ago that was a 3 bedroom-2 bath 1500 Sq. Feet. These guys are talking about a lot more money than I have.
Andre, I did not care too much for the way this couple implied that German Houses were built to last and American wooden homes were not. I grew up in a wooden home that my parents still occupy that was built nearly 250 years ago. The wood-constructed Texas home I live in was built in 1898 and is still in wonderful condition. Over the years changes like adding new windows, better/safer electrical wiring, and adding air conditioning have changed the home a bit but the bones of my house still date back over 125 years. (My house has survived 3 major hurricanes and numerous tornados over the years and still keeps my family warm and dry.) Plus we sit on over 16 acres of land that is full of cows, cotton, corn, and wild flowers. I love it and would not have it any other way.
Near my home, I've been able to watch the land of a small hobby farm transform into a fully moved-in neighborhood of 30-40 new homes ($700-$900k) in less than two years.
Lots of Portuguese in San Diego, my friend. They’ve been there for generations and used to dominate the local fishing industry until they were cut out by foreign competition in the 1970s.
San Diego here too. I had a woman delivering grub hub to me who got very lost trying to find my house. So, I started speaking broken Spanish to her UNTIL it was clear she didn’t speak Spanish but she was Portuguese! It was crazy mix up and a gaping void in communication. Oh well.
The Actor you were asking about is definitely famous here in the US. His name is Will Ferrell. He is in a lot of movies. Check out Elf. He is the main character in that one.
The concept of a multi-family dwelling in the US is a very alien concept to us. The whole idea around the American Dream as they mentioned is that once you are financially able to, you move out and either rent a place of your own or buy a place of your own once you are able to afford it. Building your own house is also becoming popular. But the cost of building material since the interruption of the supply chain from Covid and the inflation afterwards have made them quite high. A single 2x4 was onky like $2 for an 8 ft board. Now they're like triple or quadruple that.
They mentioned that Germany had to rebuild after the war. The US had HUGE demand for houses to buy right after the war. The military was coming home, and they needed housing. That also played a huge role in the style of housing. Simply because they had to build a lot of houses very fast.
Well, this chick must know more than me as the government never helped me with any of my homes. My husband and i bought all 3 of our homes with hard work and, honestly, i am proud of that. Nobody i know had government help to build their house, either! I see this speaker doesn't mention that the United States gave billions of dollars to rebuild Germany after WWII! We also need to remember that the US has so much more space than Germany, therefore more multi-family units. I knew these folks were going to be anti-american but i don't think our homes are put together "slap and dash". If you want a cement home here, you can have one! We have wood homes here that are over 200 years old.
the US military will help retired military members buy their first home, that is how my younger brother got his house and there is a 10 year limit to apply for help getting it.
I've been looking at fixer upper homes. My local government has a program that will pay closing costs for the house. There's another program that will fix up the house for me.
The main problem with housing at the moment is the prices of a lot of locations has way outpaced the income and the younger generation can barely afford rent let alone a chance of owning a home.
My house is 2500 square feet total but the original house portion is 1500, the sunroom addition is about 300, and the finished portion of the walk out basement is roughly a 700. The original house has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths with a large living room and a kitchen which is open to the dining room. It was built in the 1960s so the bedrooms and bathrooms are fairly modest sized by current standards but it's just me and my husband, no kids so we care more about having the separate rooms for our hobbies than just having huge rooms. We don't have tons of clothes or furniture just plants and craft supplies 😂 The basement has a large living room area, a bedroom, an open room off the living space, and a full bath. In the unfinished space there's the laundry machines and a garage, not for cars but as a workshop and space for the mower and other tools. Upstairs the sunroom is our chill space for gardening, lots of plants that are toxic to pets so we keep them out of this room. Overall we love the home as is but the upstairs bathrooms are just too small and not well arranged so eventually we're going to gut them, and they need new piping anyway so we'll get it done at once. We're also planning to refinish the hardwoods to make everything more cohesive. To us this is a huge house but i think if it were a couple with 2+ kids it would feel a lot more modest.
I’ve lived in an apartment when I was younger. You CAN’T hear your neighbors talking! The only problem was inconsiderate neighbors would blare their music into the early hours of the morning. You can always call the police for a noise complaint, after you’ve asked them to please tone it down. My home was built in 1965, with two thousand square feet, on about a third of an acre. We have 6’ tall wooden fences in the back yard. You can’t put a fence around your front yard in our neighborhoo d. (It’s restricted by our HOA)~ Home owner’s association. Unless you go into a rural area. These two seem to want to bash American houses because we use wood frame inside. Our house has been through many hurricanes, and we’ve had very little to no damage. Our large oak trees lose some branches, but nothing serious.❤ from Houston, TX
something you'll find is that americans that live abroad generally have a very anti-american viewpoint on things. you brought up not understanding why they were presenting fewer multi-family houses as a bad thing. they present it as a bad thing because it's different from where they live now, so to them it's automatically worse. you reacted to a video with an american couple comparing houses in the US to the UK and the US couple in that video spent the entire time talking about how much better it is to live in tiny uk homes. anything perceived as american is bad to them.
Housing market is not good in America right now. Interest rates on loans are extremely high. And it doesn't help that Blackrock is buying up a lot of homes. If you move here, investigate first. When you travel here, try to go to some open house tours of homes for sale. It is a set date and time that a property is open to the public for viewing. Call a local real-estate agent and see if and where some open house viewing are while your here.
Big historical aspect overlooked. In the 1600s, the motivation for coming to the New World was for land. There were no opportunities to own land in the Old World... it was all owned by the kings and nobles. The laws of primogeniture usually "boxed out" younger siblings from owning land, too. So immigrants risked their lives to cross the ocean for an opportunity to own land. I bet most land in Europe has been in old families for generations, so there is none available.
Exactly. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as a subsidy, because I kinda think that misrepresents it a little. Comparing that to the fact that renters get much less federal assistance is perhaps more subtle, but I think an even worse mistake. By this I mean that renters don’t pay a tax every year for the privilege of renting a place, but homeowners continue to pay taxes for any property they own. I tend to think of the deduction for homeownership as a recognition of that fact.
Well Andre, ironically, a lot of houses in the Western States, especially California take their design cues from Spain. Lot of arches and stuff like that.
Tax ‘subsidies’ are given by the federal government through tax deductions for mortgage interest payments and with preferred mortgage interest rates for certain buyers. These are available, of course, to people who actually owe federal taxes - many people who file federal income tax returns, in fact, don’t owe taxes because of standard deductions available to all tax filers. This couple IS presenting single-home ownership as a bad thing - ‘the American Dream’. Frankly, most people anywhere would prefer to have a home separate from those around them, with unconnected walls. It isn’t an “American” dream, in my opinion. So far, not too impressed with these young expats who are impressed with their own credentials. Remember, anyone can do a ‘research’ paper or dissertation to support one’s own belief in what is or is not fact. I know - I did one myself.
They appear to be missing the obvious. Solid construction is simply not safe in many parts of America (there are ways to make it safer though). Unreinforced masonry (solid) construction turns to rubble in earthquakes. Wood, because it has some give-and-take, can survive earthquakes better.
They only looked in mild climates in the US. I live in Northern Minnesota where winter temperatures can dip to -25F/-31C. Our Houses are built to withstand that extreme. while a good video, their comparison seems definitely one-sided..
I agree, it's a great thing! And we don't all get housing subsidies. There are programs to help first time homeowners and for buying in certain rural areas. And we aren't taxed on money used to pay mortgage interest. Nobody handed me any money to help buy my house lol, and though we are homeowners we are not wealthy.
He's kidding about the "white picket fence". It might have been a deal at some point in the past, and there may be regions where it is still a thing, but I don't know a single person that has a white picket fence, and can't recall the last time I saw one, several months if not years. Also, that suburb that they show is not your typical suburb. It's pretty upscale, with large lots and large houses. Most Americans don't live in that level of home.
Any tax data collected before 2018 does not apply to the current situation. The tax code was significantly altered and far fewer homeowners itemize now compared to 2017 and before.
yeah...... the government doesn't subsidize homeowners.... you can deduct what you pay in taxes on the property from your taxable income.... very bullsh*t misinformation they gave
One Main reason houses are built larger today than 70 years ago is economics. After WW11 Tiny houses were built to accommodate all the men returning from the war and getting married which were dubbed a Starter Home... But as the family grew they had to buy or rent a larger house to accommodate a growing family...Housing today is built to accommodate a growing family so they can stay on that plot of land until retirement and beyond. Today it is almost reverse.. The retired couple usually will buy a smaller retirement home and pass the larger family home onto the children to raise their children in.
Buy the home that fits your needs and invest the rest in stocks, bonds, rental properties, etc. Stop treating your home like an investment. A bigger home will cost you more in heating/cooling costs, maintenance, etc. Rental property will bring in income every month.
I agree, even being on the left myself, I'm definitely not far enough to the left that I would say it should be illegal to own your own home, that's ridiculous. You buy a SFH, or in a denser area it will probably be a condo in a building other condos, but you own that and you pass it down though the generations and it builds generational wealth. Also let's not forget that the GDP of just the Great State of California (my state) is greater than that of Germany, so if they want it to take longer to build things, and they don't want ownership passed down, well, that's probably part of the reason why the USA has the GDP we have and Germany has the one they have, which is much lower. lol 🙂
That actor is Will Farrell. He's a well known and loved comedian in the US. Watch the movie Elf. It's a great movie about one of Santa's elves coming to the big city and Will Farrell plays the elf.
I just saw a video that you will really like. She visits the home and grave of Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln museum in his hometown of Springfield IL. The video is Route 66 Adventures: First Time trying Dippin Dots, Antique Shop, Abraham Lincoln Museum, Drive-In by FrenchTastic Explorations
Ok...time to break a myth here. The white picket fence. This trope was born in the 1950s during the American post-war boom when everybody else was rebuilding from the war, America was just building up and modernizing. However, that appearance really never lasted much past the 70s or maybe 80s. In fact, most homes don't even have fences. As you can see from their B-roll footage of American subdivisions, no one has a fence around their yard. The level of manicure of one's yard is a bit of prestige for a home owner. If your yard is well cared for and landscaped with bushes, trees, and flower gardens, you get some major Brownie Points with your neighbors.
I'm wondering how regional this is. Because I've seen a few comments like yours but where I live, we actually DO have a lot of white picket fences; both pvc and wooden.
I am ; English, Scott, Danish and german on my mothers side. My father was French and Portuguese. Sooo, I am English, French, Danish, German, Scott, and Portuguese. My step grandfather was Irish. My wife is Danish, Scott, Sycilian and American Indian. That makes my kids American.
I lived in a California bungalow in Los Angeles for a few years. It was a completely 71-year-old wooden kit-house sold by a catalog company in Chicago called Sears Roebuck and delivered with hardware and wiring instructions by truck, especially in the 1930s. The neighborhood I lived in had been damaged by an earthquake in 1931 because the homes there had been constructed of concrete block. The Bungalows survived because the structure of wood and nails flexed more and survived the earthquakes that are still quite common there. I only experienced three while living there.
Most Americans are mix of European decent, Im German, jewish, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Hispanic, great plains American Indian mostly German according to DNA test. My family came over end of 1600s. Most American have mixed heritage.
Things like light switches don't seem like a big deal - until the first time you want to turn on a light in a bathroom and can't figure out how it works.
That actor was Will Ferrell. He is a pretty famous comedic actor who started on Saturday Night Live. He also stars in my favorite Christmas movie, _Elf___😊
This is off topic and I know you'll probably never see it but there's a state called New Mexico and I see that you like scenic areas and New Mexico is like a painter's Paradise when it comes to beautiful landscapes so I have a video for you that called (10 Best places to visit in New Mexico - Travel video) by touropia.😊
I’m mostly German. It was my Gramma’s first language. I think she was second generation US born. She went to a strict Catholic school where the nuns taught both languages. They almost literally slapped English into her. She spoke with no accent whatsoever.
I think that the wooden houses are a necessity in certain areas of the US, especially those of us who live in a more prone weather area that can be dangerous if the structure is made of bricks, like the West Coast in the earthquake zones. We also are a culture that has a habit of trends, that means we do a lot of renovating, many would not be happy with a certain feature they cannot get rid of that the original owner thought was a grand idea. More modern buildings, especially with skyscrapers or in the downtown regions, can also be made of steel too but the walls tends to be mainly drywall.
Both America and Canada are in the middle of a housing crisis, both for home ownership and renting. Incomes for most people simply has not kept pace with increasing prices of homes and rent. This is precipitated in fact by the encroachment of private investors on the market. There is increasing private equity firm ownership of single family homes *and* rental properties which is making it increasingly difficult for people with marginal incomes to purchase homes *or* rent. This is an expected complication of our very lopsided distribution of wealth. Over the last 30-40 years the majority of gains in wealth have gone exclusively to the top 1%. This would actually make a great topic for future videos for you. I found this particular video to be very misleading on this point.
The US government gives low interests loans. Not give money away exactly. There are a few 'perks' like they were paying for your solar energy system at one time. Some local governments do heavily invest in helping you buy a home in their area. including (rarely) giving away homes (conditions do apply).
Only part of the mortgage tax can be deducted, and it isn't much. Made no difference with my income taxes this year. I bought a small 981 sq ft home that is over 60 yrs old because thats all I needed. I think more people would buy smaller homes if they were being built.
It is an interesting topic for sure! It is just very difficult/unappealing looking forward for a lot of people, due to homes being outrageously expensive at the moment in a lot of areas. Also, you should definitely do a reaction to more immigrant groups of America! There is so much to cover and so many different people came here! Lots of Irish and Italians, etc. as well as the Germans!
You had some amazing timing! 😭 And just overall, that’s really good for you! Hopefully one day that will be the dream. But I’m just happy I was able to grow up within one/not have to move at least. 😂
André, you like the é, not e - lol. Some people in the comments are defending the poor construction here, which is stupid, and wasn't always the case. For example, Most houses in central Utah built before circa 1920, have18''/45.7cm thick stone walls. There is one advantage of wood construction; they can flex in an earthquake.
Wood framed houses in the North require much thicker walls to add for more insulation on exterior walls, my state just required moving from 6"(15cm) to 8"(20cm) insulated exterior walls being required. Another thing is that Brick houses tend to do very poorly when confronted with Hurricanes, Tornadoes, High wind storms and Earthquakes,and worse bury victims under heavy bricks. Timber framed house by comparison, can flex, and are less likely to be destroyed by near miss wind storms, and don't completely collapse during earthquakes.
Yep. Lots of history for me in Baden Wurttemberg, Bavaria, and Switzerland. You can roughly think of it as "The British started the colony, and the Germans populated it."
Come to Kansas City my friend. That is where I live. Those houses you saw go for about $600-$700K. Maybe $1m but you don't have to be a millionaire to have one. In LA or Miami area houses are high right now, coming down, but if you buy a house in the midwest you can end up with a huge house and a big yard for a very reasonable price.
The biggest delays in home construction here (USA) and over there in the EU and UK are caused by government bureaucracies slowdowns with all of the regulations and inspections required, so that's something we all have in common.
I wasn't impressed with these two the lack of knowledge concerning the newer construction innovations in building homes makes the process much more efficient including the updated appliances make American homes extremely user friendly.
I started my home ownership with a smaller fixer upper and then after 6 years sold and upgraded to a larger one. I put a lot of sweat equity into them by doing what I could myself or with my friends help. When I pass I will pass on my wealth to my children. They can take their portion and start out like I left off.
I live in Florida, and I believe that most homes built in the last 50 years (my home is about 32 years old) are now built on a solid concrete foundation( the water table in Florida is too high to allow basements or cellars), and the walls (exterior) are concrete block construction, isually finished with stucco. This does not include the roof, which is usually wood frame construction. The reason for this is because of hurricanes. The block construction is better able to withstand the high winds and driving rain that accompanies these storms. I would think this holds true for most of the states that border the Atlantic and/or Gulf of Mexico, where hurricanes are common.
20:25 that is the awesome comedy "Anchorman", highly recommended 🙂 At least that is the USA title. They might market it by a different title in Portugal 🙂
My house? 2356 square feet. On almost 5 acres. When we bought it we had 6 kids living with us and it was three years before I retired from the Air Force. It was the retirement home my wife and I wanted. The kids have moved out for the most part. A friend lives with us and my wife's mother who has Alzheimer's lives with us now. One of my sons has a room here as well, since he travels for work and is out of town Sunday afternoon through Friday and it would make no sense for him to have an apartment. If he transfers jobs at his work and starts staying in town, he'll get a place of his own. But for now that wouldn't make any sense. We shares expenses, so it's very easy to do this. And I've got a good job and should have the mortgage paid off before I retire in seven years. We then plan to give the house to our son since he's paid for many repairs and improvements, while my wife and I travel in retirement. We'll maintain our address here and have a room, but the place will be Timothy's.
Sorry to disagree with this video. Most Americans do NOT live in brand new huge homes. They are in debt. My family was building codes inspectors, engineers and construction co owners. New home are not built a solid as some older ones.
I watched content from both of these creators nothing valuable to gain … they repeat the same thing video to video and pander to what audience will accept them…as for the construction of US to Europe houses the particular type of construction they are talking about is stick framing which comes from timber framing one requires huing or chiseling larger timber to get them to inter lock the other uses nails or fasteners to get them to interlock.. now as to homes built out of masonry US has plenty in its inventory.. as for concrete you can find that aswell Florida … and apartment buildings complexes aswell… the US builds to geographical location some houses are built to withstand earthquakes… others are constructed for hurricane or even tornadoes 🌪️ northern area homes are built for heavy snow loads and and cold weather conditions… you can’t build that type of building in the south because of humidity issues.. like you can’t build a full concrete house due to heave or soil with too much moisture… in short US homes are built for there environment.. also food for thought 💭 there is a concrete shortage due to lack of usable sand or sand the is affordable to reclaim… and this will force Europe and all nations to reconsider how it sees construction… there are many benefits of stick frame construction…
If you ever want to see how Europe was rebuilt, look up the Marshall Plan. Germany, in particular, benefited because many massive military bases were built in Germany, which gave Germans access to many goods and resources directly from the USA before the rest of Europe.
Yeah did you see one of the pictures there was just Quonset huts all down the street those were gifts to our enemies
I have to disagree with the fact that you say you can hear everything in the home. It depends on the insulation. Most houses are very well insulated now. The siding that is put on homes are isolated. Depends on what you put into your home.
Military Bases, either American or multi-national (NATO) also brought lots of badly-needed civilian employment to devastated people in the European countries.
The Marshall Plan was not a gift.
It allowed European countries to buy US products on credit! Without it, the US economy would have imploded after the war. Win win situation.
Share of the German economic miracle about 10%.
We, German taxpayers, are helping to finance the US military bases in Germany.
"which gave Germans access to many goods...." what are you talking about?
The USA rebuilt not only Germany but Europe and Japan after WWII.
Short memories so many have.
What a tosh ......US definitely built the arm bases...
thank you for saying something that I 've been only partially been aware of
@grash4435 yeah, wrong. Check your sources.
Yea glad to see someone added this as American provided a lot of money and supplies to Germany after the war while others quietly said "They started it"
The "subsidies" she talks about includes deducting property taxes from your income for tax purposes. Its not like homeowners are getting cash from the government. We are just avoiding getting double taxed.
The interest deduction is the largest actual ‘perk’ to the indebted property owner
The way that they explained this felt almost a bit deceptive to me.
@@belindarocky961 it's almost like expats tend to be angry with the country they left and their viewpoint comes from a negative position in that case
yeah man this couple has a political agenda. I'm on the left myself but not as far to the left as them. They would probably argue that it should be illegal to build a SFH and also illegal to own your own car lol at them
@@neutrino78x - You have to remember how long they have lived in Germany now (11 years they said). What we in the US consider someone who is just moderately left-of-center would be considered a almost a right wing nut in much of Europe. The difference in the political spectrum between most of Europe and the US can be extreme.
As someone that has worked in construction and remodeling, The wooden frame is not the reason they hear everything as there is many ways to soundproof even with wooden frames. Not to mention there is different ways the walls can be built you can have staggered studs or even double walls. Everything you can get done in Germany or any country as long as it does not go against housing regulations can be done here as well. Even after the walls have already been built we could go in and sound proof it pretty quickly.
It is mostly up to the home owners if they want to pay to have it done or not. Also interior walls is not required to be insulated the same way exterior walls are but that doesn't mean that people don't do it.
I am 68 and I have lived in many houses in 5 states and could not hear anyone talking in another room. I have been inside houses that were constructed cheaply that I could. BUT it is not a problem with most houses.
Why do all these people think that wood framed houses are built like a kid's clubhouse in the woods from scraps? Like if you slam the door the whole house will fall down? It's ridiculous!! Wood houses are solid and sturdy and can last hundreds of years. Wood has a lot of benefits over stone masonry. Materials are inexpensive, it's easy to maintain. See a slat not looking so good - replace it over the weekend. Want to expand a room, enclose a room, add some more rooms, want more outlets, put in more plumbing, want some skylights - with simple power tools and some knowhow, these can all be done by the homeowner in their spare time. (Following local regulations on permits and inspections, of course!). Wood also breathes - which with so many places in our country have extreme temperature and humidity ranges - becomes pretty important.
Well the U.S gave germany a lot of money to rebuild after ww2.
also helped Japan as well
The USA prevented Western Europe and the Far East, including Japan, from falling to a wave of aggressively expansionist communism. America saved the world.
And still do.
Great investment by the US posy WWII. Bad economic conditions & strife historically leads to the rise of strongmen & dictators claiming they can solve things.
The Marshall Plan was not a gift.
It allowed European countries to buy US products on credit! Without it, the US economy would have imploded after the war. Win win situation.
Share of the German economic miracle about 10%.
I’m 14 min in and I agree with you. I think wow, look at all these dream houses, but they’re talking about it like it stinks.
I enjoy the beautiful streets, large homes, and pretty gardens as one drives throughout the US. There is nothing wrong with having a generous sized house, a big yard for your kids to play in, and plenty of space for when family and friends visit, or in some cases move in due to age or health.
Academics tend to overthink and over-explain. They usually don't have any real-world experience. I checked this reaction to find out what the differences are between houses in the U.S. and Germany. We are over 16 minutes into it and still havne't learned anything useful.
Yeah, a whole lot of words, but no point 😂.
I'm ditching the video at 7 min. This couple is mistaking UA-cam for higher ed
German before WWI was the second most spoken language in the USA. After WWI people were embarrassed because of the perception of Germany's aggression that brought about the war. The British royal family also changed their German surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor.
They didn't mention how these homes made of stone, brick and concrete would hold up in a major earthquake??? If Germany isn't in an earthquake zone, maybe they should mention this tiny fact when talking about solid home construction? I'm not suggesting the German solid homes would collapse in a major earthquake, but I wonder what the cost would be to repair them (cracked walls, etc.) compared to wood construction? Having lived near San Francisco for 22 years, it's the first thing I thought of.
My husband and I bought a ten year old townhouse in Germany. Loved it,but hanging a picture, shelf, mirror, etc in a house cement walls was really a problem requiring way more than a hammer and nails😊! We also had to put insulation into the roof which had none!
I have German ancestry. One of my ancestors was a Hessian soldier who came to fight in the Revolutionary War and decided to stay here.
What subsidies is she talking about? I don't know any any homeowners who ever got any kind of subsidy.
We have homes here that are anywhere from 50-200 years old. So they weren't built to fall down. Sheesh.
They may be talking about tax deductions? Like for your home loan interest?
Actually, they sound a bit jealous when they say their house is ½ the square footage of the American houses they are comparing.
I got a State subsidized mortgage when I bought my house in '84. Fantastic rate, way below normal at the time, only 11.8%
Oh. No home loan or mortgage here. My parents did a private purchase and paid it off. At least my Dad enjoyed knowing it was paid off and secure for several years before he passed in 2015. More rural out here and a lot of owner financed sales when they put the down payment on it in 89/90.
@@bob_._. I also was able to buy my home in the mid 80's with a government program for 1st time homebuyers. but I think it was 10% or less. Certainly much less than the insane 18% home mortgage rate that a lot of buyers had to contend with a few years earlier. The biggest thing for me was that I was able to purchase my $30,000 home with only a $300 down payment, only 1% vs the typical 20% requirement. I was only a year or so out of college, and had just moved more than a 1,009 miles from home, and was paying on multiple student loans, so I hadn't been able to save up a down payment. The program also allowed the seller to pay my half of the closing costs, and to pay down my interest rate for the 1st 3 years. It was the best deal I've ever gotten. After writing off my mortgage interest, and my property taxes. I came out far ahead of continung to rent.
She's right. Most Americans aren't aware. Your lack of awareness should not imply she is wrong. She's not. As of right now, the government is giving out grants of $150,000. Biden provided over a billion dollars in grants for various ways to help Americans. It's just that most Americans don't know.
I think they failed to mention the benefits of wood frame for the natural disasters common in the U.S., we get our fair share of strong earthquakes here which wood frame homes are excellent to live in for. Also wood framing is easier and cheaper to insulate then most concrete or block construction methods. This helps a lot when it comes to energy efficiency. They mention the noise blocking of concrete which is actually the effect of the foam blocks they're using to insulate it (I'm pretty sure if you put 4-5 inches of insulating foam blocks on a wood frame house it would block noise just as well) but that's one of the benefits of a wood frame house. you can have thinner walls which can make it so the floor area is larger for any given exterior dimension
I love my wooden frame US house. I can open up walls to do my own plumbing and wiring, or to change things around, over a few weekends with my own basic tools, and without having to hire an expensive professional with serious tools. I don't want to live in the same house as the person before me, I want to make it my own (history be damned).
I have spent *most* of my life in American houses, but I have been in some German houses too. No matter how nice German houses may be, American houses win, because there's just SO MUCH MORE SPACE. Larger rooms, wider hallways, more total floor area inside, bigger yards outside, more distance between neighbors… and all of that is Good. :)
I personally believe that single family homes are a very good thing. Some cultures don’t live that way but we do here in America.
When you buy your house, you have the possibility of PAYING IT OFF!!! then you won't have a house payment. You rent, you will pay for the roof over your head your entire life!!! I paid my 30 yr mortgage off in 15 years... no more house payments for ME!!!
One is housing, the other is to live. Children from 7 go to school on their own. There are bakeries, butchers, grocery stores, etc. all within walking distance. There is also public transport. I live in a 3k suburb of a 30k city.
I “ stick built” my house 26 years ago in the US Midwest. I live in the Midwest and I’ve been through tornadoes and numerous high wind, velocity storms, and the house is still standing! The only damage I’ve had was a couple roof shingles that blew off during one particularly bad storm.
Their acting as if homeowners here are all wealthy. This is not true!! All my life I’ve been poor and I own a home. My parents and grandparents were poor and they owned homes and farms. It’s true the government gives tax breaks to homeowners as incentives to buy homes. But most homeowners are poor and middle class. The few people that are wealthy of course own homes, but they certainly are NOT the majority of homeowners.
It’s also true there are fewer rentals than single family homes. That’s because most people own homes and don’t need to rent.
It’s true our homes and yards are bigger than in Europe. We have the room for it so why not?
My house is 75 yrs old and only 750 sqft. As are a lot of the houses in my town. But I own it, paid off the 30 yr mortgage in 15 years so that I'll never be homeless.
I've had extremely rich people tell me I'm super fortunate to own my home (paid off the mortgage). They won't ever "own" their giant house!!!
@@OkiePeg411 My first home was 875 square feet. and located on a long narrow lot along an alley, which I purchased for $30,000 in the mid 1980s. Because I was a poor single mother, I qualified for a first time homebuyers program, and was able to buy it for only a $300 down payment. My mother insisted I should post off my student loans before I bought a home. but I knew better. Even though my total house payment was $70 more than my rent at the time, I came out waaay ahead every year. after writing off my mortgage interest, and also my state property tax payments from my federal taxes. Unlike my rental, my house was within half a mile of my job and of my son's preschool. I wish it was still that easy for my son and his girlfriend to buy a house.
@@OkiePeg411 My home is about 1200 square feet and 61 years old, and it is also paid for like yours. I have plenty of yard if I want to expand it. A lot of the houses built in the 30’s 40’s and 50’s were this size. So all US houses are neither big or new like the video said. There are whole cities with houses like mine and yours. Although, I imagine most of the new houses are big.
We have 3 houses. Our main house which is a very nice converted barn done in the early 1960s. (Originally built around 1900) We paid it off in 8 years. In that time we drove old cars, and did little else to the house. Over the next few years we put away a lot of $ that we would have paid on a mortgage. So 4 years later we bought a 1978 modest vacation home on a canal connected to a resort lake. We paid that off in 8 years also. In the meantime we bought several modest rental homes with the banks $. 1 completely paid for itself in 4 years. The other 3 did well but we still owed $. In 2021 we decided to sell all 4 with about 1/3 of that cash we then purchased a very modest 1200 sq ft double wide in central Florida for cash . So no mortgage. Our three houses total cost less than $400,000 total. Value today is about $1,000,000. + If you are smart with $ you can do it. All three of our current houses were move-in condition. Now our rentals were not. I put new bathrooms in 2 a new kitchen in one . The other two were not too bad with little work needed. Less than a part time month on each. We bought our first house in 1991 for $49,500. A nice in town house. We lived in it 4 years rented it 4 additional years and walked away at the end with $25,000 in our pocket after paying off the mortgage. ( That helped up pay off our current home in 8 years. ) The key to pay off a home is pay as much as you can every month.
Exactly right. My parents' first home was a small bungalow with a small yard in a decidedly NOT fancy area, AND, they were able to do that 5 years after immigrating here from Italy.
There are a lot of ungrateful people in the US. I for one am extremely grateful to live in the US and for all the advantages that come with it. I don't take it for granted.
Well, how nice for you. Try being poor and not knowing where your next meal will come from, or having a serious medical condition and no insurance. It's easy to say America is lovely when you're an entitled white guy.
I have seen many countries, and I think the USA is great, and I would never move.
Yeah just walk right in and we give you everything for free. Great Country.
Huh? You can love your country and still criticize it. Blindly loving something is as unhealthy as blindly hating something. This country is amazing. I feel blessed I was born here and would never leave. But doesn't mean there aren't legitimate gripes to have living here. I think the biggest issue is these sorts of videos represent such a minority of Americans and their experience. A lot of us work hard to stay above water. That isn't me taking it for granted, I love America. But there are absolutely things we could improve to the benefit of the majority who live here. Like it bothers me that we are the richest country, by far, yet so many homeless people, and horrific healthcare. That being rich in this country is a cheat code, that is squeezing the middle class out of existence. You could argue there is no longer a middle class. To me, no matter what your job is, if you work 40 hours a week, you shouldn't have to decide if you want to eat a meal or afford medications. Not saying a person working retail should be able to travel to Hawaii, but they should be secure enough to have a roof over their head and meals to eat. Ignoring American issues will only guarantee that they will keep existing, while getting worse.
In a nutshell, fair criticism doesn't equate to "taking it for granted". We are a fantastic and unique country, with our fair share of problems. Ignoring those problems does nothing positive for the vast majority of Americans.
@@YerpDerp17 THANK YOU. That "love it or leave it" crap is so unhelpful. When you love your country, you _must_ criticize the bad things to help it improve. I wonder about people who say that kind of thing - do they just let their kids fail when they make mistakes?
I'm at minute 28:44, and I had to stop the video to call BULLSHIT on that couple! (Be prepared for a LOT of anger towards that couple from American viewers.) I live in a low-income apartment building, built in 2018 and open in Feb. 2019, so it has a lot newer construction than whatever they were living in when they lived in America. I'm 50, and I have lived in at least 9 different apartment buildings over the last 30 years, with all kinds of styles, all kinds of income levels, in Florida, Arizona, California, and now Washington state (where Seattle is, not D.C.) and I have NEVER EVER heard a conversation through the walls! When someone drops something really heavy on the floor above me, I hear that. If I went outside whatever apartment I was living it at the time, then I could hear if people were yelling or playing music loud. But if I could hear anything through the walls, then it was probably time to call the cops (lol).
Where I live now, I'm at the end of the hall, with one wall shared with the residents across the hallway who have 3 young kids, and another wall next to the elevator. My bedroom wall, where my bed is, is right next to the only elevator in the building, and I hear absolutely nothing.
My mother had her Master's degree in architecture, and she said building with wood was great because you could tear down a wall to make a room bigger, run new wires inside the walls so you don't have people tripping over wires everywhere, add additions to existing walls without too much fuss, and if you bought a house and don't like it, you can bulldoze the whole thing and start from scratch.
It is very overstated yea. Between apartments you will have insulation which will dampen the majority of sounds. Maybe with a normal house as they don't generally have insulation in-between interior walls but you can get that done cheaply as well.
Look at who does almost all of the talking
Wood frame construction for residential homes is usually superior to concrete. Earthquake damage, poor thermal insulation properties, limited remodeling possibilities make concrete houses a hard sell in the States.
Just google it instead of assuming: Durability: Concrete is a highly durable material that can withstand extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Unlike wood, it is not susceptible to rot, termites, or other pests.
As someone from the US, I’m all for single-family homes. I think it’s a good idea; especially in the USA where land is plenty. Also homeownership is very common in the USA, especially in the middle class. You do not have to be wealthy to own a home, and rental is actually the minority.
Another thing is, this couple (no hate, just a small mistake they made) overlooked some very big reasons why American homes are typically built mostly with wood rather than harder, more rigid materials. In the US, as you may know, natural disasters are very common; earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. This means our homes are built to be replaced and maintained cheaply as well as able to be rebuilt fast, compared to concrete or brick homes which would be rather costly and time consuming.
As a country that is affected by earthquakes on a somewhat regular basis, these solid construction buildings are the ones that break apart because they have no flexibility. Wood is somewhat flexible and is less apt to crumble. The USA is not the only place that uses wood framing, either.
95% of US states have no earthquakes ! And in the "tornadoes states", people stupidly keep on re-building wooden houses, again and again, and each tornado destroys them ! European stone houses resist to tornadoes since the
middle-age, so ... what is the most logical and cheapest option, on a long term ?!
The "white pickett fence" was a big thing in the 50s. I have never seen a huge house in the US with one of those.
Maybe it varies by region. They are not uncommon here in New England. I live in Massachusetts and we have one.
I'll take the USA any day. I am used to having beautiful open spaces and not feel like I am being squished into a small area. I don't know why she is downing the US despite being born here. Whatever, to each their own. BTW I live in New England and we have houses that are very old.
nothing is "very old" in US, dude !
One is housing, the other is to live. Children from 7 go to school on their own. There are bakeries, butchers, grocery stores, etc. all within walking distance. There is also public transport. I live in a 3k suburb of a 30k city in south Germany.
“My baby took longer than that” - lol! Yeah, construction on everything is very fast here.
That was great!😂
When our home was built in 2017, on average, 12 men worked on it six days a week. The build time was about 8 months.
My folks are building a new house this year, and hired Amish for the framing, siding - I think they finished in about 3 weeks, and they don't work on Sunday, obviously. The plumbers, electricians and inspectors are slow though!
Homes in a development in my area take about 3-4 months to build.
Granted the planning and permitting can take over a year, and the excavation and laying down of utilities takes several months.
But the actual build is only a few months.
I live in the Midwest. My house is 950 square feet. I had a home 12 years ago that was a 3 bedroom-2 bath 1500 Sq. Feet. These guys are talking about a lot more money than I have.
Her post war 'history' was selectively edited to make her point. These are not ex-pats, they're bashers. How did you find this couple?
They are Immigrants in Germany. Good ppl good channel.
Andre, I did not care too much for the way this couple implied that German Houses were built to last and American wooden homes were not. I grew up in a wooden home that my parents still occupy that was built nearly 250 years ago.
The wood-constructed Texas home I live in was built in 1898 and is still in wonderful condition. Over the years changes like adding new windows, better/safer electrical wiring, and adding air conditioning have changed the home a bit but the bones of my house still date back over 125 years. (My house has survived 3 major hurricanes and numerous tornados over the years and still keeps my family warm and dry.) Plus we sit on over 16 acres of land that is full of cows, cotton, corn, and wild flowers. I love it and would not have it any other way.
She is talking about new buildings today.
Not of individual houses, but of the new settlements.
The actor you were curious about is Will Ferrell. The movie that is from is The Anchorman. It is an absurd comedy but very funny.
"Idiocracy" is the most realistic film about US. At least 1 US guy (the director) is conscious about his country...
Near my home, I've been able to watch the land of a small hobby farm transform into a fully moved-in neighborhood of 30-40 new homes ($700-$900k) in less than two years.
7 months actually seems like a long time to me. I’ve seen actual businesses be built much more quickly than that. 7 months is a long time.
Lots of Portuguese in San Diego, my friend. They’ve been there for generations and used to dominate the local fishing industry until they were cut out by foreign competition in the 1970s.
Its the same here in Sonoma County, I am a quarter Portuguese. There are alot of Portuguese and Italian dairy farmers here.
a huge population of here in Southern Massachusetts too
San Diego in the house! Watching the beautiful sunset as I type this 😎
San Diego here too. I had a woman delivering grub hub to me who got very lost trying to find my house. So, I started speaking broken Spanish to her UNTIL it was clear she didn’t speak Spanish but she was Portuguese! It was crazy mix up and a gaping void in communication. Oh well.
The actor in the meme is Will Ferrell playing the character Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman.
Private ownership generally leads to things being taken care of better than public property.
The Actor you were asking about is definitely famous here in the US. His name is Will Ferrell. He is in a lot of movies. Check out Elf. He is the main character in that one.
the fact they think "qualifications" matter here is pretty funny.
The concept of a multi-family dwelling in the US is a very alien concept to us. The whole idea around the American Dream as they mentioned is that once you are financially able to, you move out and either rent a place of your own or buy a place of your own once you are able to afford it. Building your own house is also becoming popular. But the cost of building material since the interruption of the supply chain from Covid and the inflation afterwards have made them quite high. A single 2x4 was onky like $2 for an 8 ft board. Now they're like triple or quadruple that.
They mentioned that Germany had to rebuild after the war. The US had HUGE demand for houses to buy right after the war. The military was coming home, and they needed housing. That also played a huge role in the style of housing. Simply because they had to build a lot of houses very fast.
In Germany, housing had to be built for 3 million (!!!) people after the war. Due to the destruction of cities and german refugees from the East.
Well, this chick must know more than me as the government never helped me with any of my homes. My husband and i bought all 3 of our homes with hard work and, honestly, i am proud of that. Nobody i know had government help to build their house, either! I see this speaker doesn't mention that the United States gave billions of dollars to rebuild Germany after WWII! We also need to remember that the US has so much more space than Germany, therefore more multi-family units. I knew these folks were going to be anti-american but i don't think our homes are put together "slap and dash". If you want a cement home here, you can have one! We have wood homes here that are over 200 years old.
the US military will help retired military members buy their first home, that is how my younger brother got his house and there is a 10 year limit to apply for help getting it.
I've been looking at fixer upper homes. My local government has a program that will pay closing costs for the house. There's another program that will fix up the house for me.
The main problem with housing at the moment is the prices of a lot of locations has way outpaced the income and the younger generation can barely afford rent let alone a chance of owning a home.
Ah, to live in Florida with a concrete brick exterior with wood frame interior best of both worlds!
My house is 2500 square feet total but the original house portion is 1500, the sunroom addition is about 300, and the finished portion of the walk out basement is roughly a 700. The original house has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths with a large living room and a kitchen which is open to the dining room. It was built in the 1960s so the bedrooms and bathrooms are fairly modest sized by current standards but it's just me and my husband, no kids so we care more about having the separate rooms for our hobbies than just having huge rooms. We don't have tons of clothes or furniture just plants and craft supplies 😂 The basement has a large living room area, a bedroom, an open room off the living space, and a full bath. In the unfinished space there's the laundry machines and a garage, not for cars but as a workshop and space for the mower and other tools. Upstairs the sunroom is our chill space for gardening, lots of plants that are toxic to pets so we keep them out of this room. Overall we love the home as is but the upstairs bathrooms are just too small and not well arranged so eventually we're going to gut them, and they need new piping anyway so we'll get it done at once. We're also planning to refinish the hardwoods to make everything more cohesive. To us this is a huge house but i think if it were a couple with 2+ kids it would feel a lot more modest.
I’ve lived in an apartment when I was younger. You CAN’T hear your neighbors talking! The only problem was inconsiderate neighbors would blare their music into the early hours of the morning. You can always call the police for a noise complaint, after you’ve asked them to please tone it down.
My home was built in 1965, with two thousand square feet, on about a third of an acre. We have 6’ tall wooden fences in the back yard. You can’t put a fence around your front yard in our neighborhoo d. (It’s restricted by our HOA)~ Home owner’s association. Unless you go into a rural area.
These two seem to want to bash American houses because we use wood frame inside. Our house has been through many hurricanes, and we’ve had very little to no damage. Our large oak trees lose some branches, but nothing serious.❤ from Houston, TX
something you'll find is that americans that live abroad generally have a very anti-american viewpoint on things. you brought up not understanding why they were presenting fewer multi-family houses as a bad thing. they present it as a bad thing because it's different from where they live now, so to them it's automatically worse. you reacted to a video with an american couple comparing houses in the US to the UK and the US couple in that video spent the entire time talking about how much better it is to live in tiny uk homes. anything perceived as american is bad to them.
Housing market is not good in America right now. Interest rates on loans are extremely high. And it doesn't help that Blackrock is buying up a lot of homes. If you move here, investigate first. When you travel here, try to go to some open house tours of homes for sale. It is a set date and time that a property is open to the public for viewing. Call a local real-estate agent and see if and where some open house viewing are while your here.
Big historical aspect overlooked.
In the 1600s, the motivation for coming to the New World was for land. There were no opportunities to own land in the Old World... it was all owned by the kings and nobles. The laws of primogeniture usually "boxed out" younger siblings from owning land, too. So immigrants risked their lives to cross the ocean for an opportunity to own land.
I bet most land in Europe has been in old families for generations, so there is none available.
She is right and wrong. The “subsidy” is in the form for tax deductible mortgage interest payments. And property taxes are also tax deductible.
Exactly. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as a subsidy, because I kinda think that misrepresents it a little. Comparing that to the fact that renters get much less federal assistance is perhaps more subtle, but I think an even worse mistake. By this I mean that renters don’t pay a tax every year for the privilege of renting a place, but homeowners continue to pay taxes for any property they own. I tend to think of the deduction for homeownership as a recognition of that fact.
Well Andre, ironically, a lot of houses in the Western States, especially California take their design cues from Spain. Lot of arches and stuff like that.
Tax ‘subsidies’ are given by the federal government through tax deductions for mortgage interest payments and with preferred mortgage interest rates for certain buyers. These are available, of course, to people who actually owe federal taxes - many people who file federal income tax returns, in fact, don’t owe taxes because of standard deductions available to all tax filers. This couple IS presenting single-home ownership as a bad thing - ‘the American Dream’. Frankly, most people anywhere would prefer to have a home separate from those around them, with unconnected walls. It isn’t an “American” dream, in my opinion.
So far, not too impressed with these young expats who are impressed with their own credentials. Remember, anyone can do a ‘research’ paper or dissertation to support one’s own belief in what is or is not fact. I know - I did one myself.
You have to have income to get a tax break.
Yup just like the top 1% of earners in the US pay 45% of the income taxes.
But if you don't have income you don't pay taxes.
@@reindeer7752 Exactly!
They appear to be missing the obvious. Solid construction is simply not safe in many parts of America (there are ways to make it safer though). Unreinforced masonry (solid) construction turns to rubble in earthquakes. Wood, because it has some give-and-take, can survive earthquakes better.
They only looked in mild climates in the US. I live in Northern Minnesota where winter temperatures can dip to -25F/-31C. Our Houses are built to withstand that extreme. while a good video, their comparison seems definitely one-sided..
The actor is Will Ferrell started in SNL and left to make several good comedy movies.
I agree, it's a great thing! And we don't all get housing subsidies. There are programs to help first time homeowners and for buying in certain rural areas. And we aren't taxed on money used to pay mortgage interest. Nobody handed me any money to help buy my house lol, and though we are homeowners we are not wealthy.
The actor’s name is Will Ferrell. He makes a lot of comedy films. 😂
Some of which are very funny.
He's kidding about the "white picket fence". It might have been a deal at some point in the past, and there may be regions where it is still a thing, but I don't know a single person that has a white picket fence, and can't recall the last time I saw one, several months if not years. Also, that suburb that they show is not your typical suburb. It's pretty upscale, with large lots and large houses. Most Americans don't live in that level of home.
I don't remember the last time I've seen a "white picket fence". But a good sized yard and house is average, at least in suburbs. My home is 2.8k sqft
Any tax data collected before 2018 does not apply to the current situation. The tax code was significantly altered and far fewer homeowners itemize now compared to 2017 and before.
yeah...... the government doesn't subsidize homeowners.... you can deduct what you pay in taxes on the property from your taxable income.... very bullsh*t misinformation they gave
One Main reason houses are built larger today than 70 years ago is economics. After WW11 Tiny houses were built to accommodate all the men returning from the war and getting married which were dubbed a Starter Home... But as the family grew they had to buy or rent a larger house to accommodate a growing family...Housing today is built to accommodate a growing family so they can stay on that plot of land until retirement and beyond. Today it is almost reverse.. The retired couple usually will buy a smaller retirement home and pass the larger family home onto the children to raise their children in.
This couple seems anti prosperity ...if you want and can afford a larger home, buy one..
I’m pro-prosperity. I’m sure it’s a whole different world.
What you own will end up owning you. I watched it happen to my grandparents, they just couldn't take care of it all anymore.
Buy the home that fits your needs and invest the rest in stocks, bonds, rental properties, etc. Stop treating your home like an investment. A bigger home will cost you more in heating/cooling costs, maintenance, etc. Rental property will bring in income every month.
I agree, even being on the left myself, I'm definitely not far enough to the left that I would say it should be illegal to own your own home, that's ridiculous. You buy a SFH, or in a denser area it will probably be a condo in a building other condos, but you own that and you pass it down though the generations and it builds generational wealth.
Also let's not forget that the GDP of just the Great State of California (my state) is greater than that of Germany, so if they want it to take longer to build things, and they don't want ownership passed down, well, that's probably part of the reason why the USA has the GDP we have and Germany has the one they have, which is much lower. lol 🙂
@@dingus6317 well that's when you pass it down, you know. That's part of the advantage of owning property, you pass it down through the generations. 🙂
That actor is Will Farrell. He's a well known and loved comedian in the US. Watch the movie Elf. It's a great movie about one of Santa's elves coming to the big city and Will Farrell plays the elf.
The comedian you saw is Will Ferrell! Yeah he’s is many popular movies and memes
I just saw a video that you will really like. She visits the home and grave of Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln museum in his hometown of Springfield IL. The video is
Route 66 Adventures: First Time trying Dippin Dots, Antique Shop, Abraham Lincoln Museum, Drive-In
by FrenchTastic Explorations
I just watched it, too. The Lincoln Museum was very interesting.
Ok...time to break a myth here. The white picket fence. This trope was born in the 1950s during the American post-war boom when everybody else was rebuilding from the war, America was just building up and modernizing. However, that appearance really never lasted much past the 70s or maybe 80s. In fact, most homes don't even have fences. As you can see from their B-roll footage of American subdivisions, no one has a fence around their yard. The level of manicure of one's yard is a bit of prestige for a home owner. If your yard is well cared for and landscaped with bushes, trees, and flower gardens, you get some major Brownie Points with your neighbors.
I'm wondering how regional this is. Because I've seen a few comments like yours but where I live, we actually DO have a lot of white picket fences; both pvc and wooden.
Enjoying your videos, keep up the great work! Also, I'm American with part German ancestry.
I am ; English, Scott, Danish and german on my mothers side. My father was French and Portuguese. Sooo, I am English, French, Danish, German, Scott, and Portuguese. My step grandfather was Irish. My wife is Danish, Scott, Sycilian and American Indian. That makes my kids American.
I also have about one-quarter German ancestry
3 of my grandparents were German, while 1 had English ancestry.
I lived in a California bungalow in Los Angeles for a few years. It was a completely 71-year-old wooden kit-house sold by a catalog company in Chicago called Sears Roebuck and delivered with hardware and wiring instructions by truck, especially in the 1930s. The neighborhood I lived in had been damaged by an earthquake in 1931 because the homes there had been constructed of concrete block. The Bungalows survived because the structure of wood and nails flexed more and survived the earthquakes that are still quite common there. I only experienced three while living there.
Most Americans are mix of European decent, Im German, jewish, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Hispanic, great plains American Indian mostly German according to DNA test. My family came over end of 1600s. Most American have mixed heritage.
Things like light switches don't seem like a big deal - until the first time you want to turn on a light in a bathroom and can't figure out how it works.
That actor was Will Ferrell. He is a pretty famous comedic actor who started on Saturday Night Live. He also stars in my favorite Christmas movie, _Elf___😊
This is off topic and I know you'll probably never see it but there's a state called New Mexico and I see that you like scenic areas and New Mexico is like a painter's Paradise when it comes to beautiful landscapes so I have a video for you that called (10 Best places to visit in New Mexico - Travel video) by touropia.😊
I’m mostly German. It was my Gramma’s first language. I think she was second generation US born. She went to a strict Catholic school where the nuns taught both languages. They almost literally slapped English into her. She spoke with no accent whatsoever.
I think that the wooden houses are a necessity in certain areas of the US, especially those of us who live in a more prone weather area that can be dangerous if the structure is made of bricks, like the West Coast in the earthquake zones. We also are a culture that has a habit of trends, that means we do a lot of renovating, many would not be happy with a certain feature they cannot get rid of that the original owner thought was a grand idea. More modern buildings, especially with skyscrapers or in the downtown regions, can also be made of steel too but the walls tends to be mainly drywall.
I got suspicious once they said Feli was great...🤔
Ikr. 😂😂
Both America and Canada are in the middle of a housing crisis, both for home ownership and renting. Incomes for most people simply has not kept pace with increasing prices of homes and rent. This is precipitated in fact by the encroachment of private investors on the market. There is increasing private equity firm ownership of single family homes *and* rental properties which is making it increasingly difficult for people with marginal incomes to purchase homes *or* rent. This is an expected complication of our very lopsided distribution of wealth. Over the last 30-40 years the majority of gains in wealth have gone exclusively to the top 1%. This would actually make a great topic for future videos for you. I found this particular video to be very misleading on this point.
That was Will Farrell in that clip! Which was the movie anchorman
The US government gives low interests loans. Not give money away exactly. There are a few 'perks' like they were paying for your solar energy system at one time. Some local governments do heavily invest in helping you buy a home in their area. including (rarely) giving away homes (conditions do apply).
That actor is Will Ferrell. He's a very well known comic actor.
Engineers are not qualified to talk about anything. The amount of things I've had to fix that they designed is scary.
Only part of the mortgage tax can be deducted, and it isn't much. Made no difference with my income taxes this year.
I bought a small 981 sq ft home that is over 60 yrs old because thats all I needed. I think more people would buy smaller homes if they were being built.
It is an interesting topic for sure! It is just very difficult/unappealing looking forward for a lot of people, due to homes being outrageously expensive at the moment in a lot of areas. Also, you should definitely do a reaction to more immigrant groups of America! There is so much to cover and so many different people came here! Lots of Irish and Italians, etc. as well as the Germans!
I thank God every day that I was able to buy my house in 2007 before these rediculous housing/rents.
You had some amazing timing! 😭
And just overall, that’s really good for you!
Hopefully one day that will be the dream. But I’m just happy I was able to grow up within one/not have to move at least. 😂
André, you like the é, not e - lol. Some people in the comments are defending the poor construction here, which is stupid, and wasn't always the case. For example, Most houses in central Utah built before circa 1920, have18''/45.7cm thick stone walls. There is one advantage of wood construction; they can flex in an earthquake.
Wood framed houses in the North require much thicker walls to add for more insulation on exterior walls, my state just required moving from 6"(15cm) to 8"(20cm) insulated exterior walls being required. Another thing is that Brick houses tend to do very poorly when confronted with Hurricanes, Tornadoes, High wind storms and Earthquakes,and worse bury victims under heavy bricks. Timber framed house by comparison, can flex, and are less likely to be destroyed by near miss wind storms, and don't completely collapse during earthquakes.
Yep. Lots of history for me in Baden Wurttemberg, Bavaria, and Switzerland.
You can roughly think of it as "The British started the colony, and the Germans populated it."
Come to Kansas City my friend. That is where I live. Those houses you saw go for about $600-$700K. Maybe $1m but you don't have to be a millionaire to have one. In LA or Miami area houses are high right now, coming down, but if you buy a house in the midwest you can end up with a huge house and a big yard for a very reasonable price.
The biggest delays in home construction here (USA) and over there in the EU and UK are caused by government bureaucracies slowdowns with all of the regulations and inspections required, so that's something we all have in common.
I wasn't impressed with these two the lack of knowledge concerning the newer construction innovations in building homes makes the process much more efficient including the updated appliances make American homes extremely user friendly.
I started my home ownership with a smaller fixer upper and then after 6 years sold and upgraded to a larger one. I put a lot of sweat equity into them by doing what I could myself or with my friends help. When I pass I will pass on my wealth to my children. They can take their portion and start out like I left off.
The actor is Will Ferrell. Famous comedian.
I live in Florida, and I believe that most homes built in the last 50 years (my home is about 32 years old) are now built on a solid concrete foundation( the water table in Florida is too high to allow basements or cellars), and the walls (exterior) are concrete block construction, isually finished with stucco. This does not include the roof, which is usually wood frame construction. The reason for this is because of hurricanes. The block construction is better able to withstand the high winds and driving rain that accompanies these storms. I would think this holds true for most of the states that border the Atlantic and/or Gulf of Mexico, where hurricanes are common.
20:25 that is the awesome comedy "Anchorman", highly recommended 🙂 At least that is the USA title. They might market it by a different title in Portugal 🙂
My house? 2356 square feet. On almost 5 acres. When we bought it we had 6 kids living with us and it was three years before I retired from the Air Force. It was the retirement home my wife and I wanted. The kids have moved out for the most part. A friend lives with us and my wife's mother who has Alzheimer's lives with us now. One of my sons has a room here as well, since he travels for work and is out of town Sunday afternoon through Friday and it would make no sense for him to have an apartment. If he transfers jobs at his work and starts staying in town, he'll get a place of his own. But for now that wouldn't make any sense. We shares expenses, so it's very easy to do this. And I've got a good job and should have the mortgage paid off before I retire in seven years. We then plan to give the house to our son since he's paid for many repairs and improvements, while my wife and I travel in retirement. We'll maintain our address here and have a room, but the place will be Timothy's.
Sorry to disagree with this video. Most Americans do NOT live in brand new huge homes. They are in debt. My family was building codes inspectors, engineers and construction co owners. New home are not built a solid as some older ones.
I watched content from both of these creators nothing valuable to gain … they repeat the same thing video to video and pander to what audience will accept them…as for the construction of US to Europe houses the particular type of construction they are talking about is stick framing which comes from timber framing one requires huing or chiseling larger timber to get them to inter lock the other uses nails or fasteners to get them to interlock.. now as to homes built out of masonry US has plenty in its inventory.. as for concrete you can find that aswell Florida … and apartment buildings complexes aswell… the US builds to geographical location some houses are built to withstand earthquakes… others are constructed for hurricane or even tornadoes 🌪️ northern area homes are built for heavy snow loads and and cold weather conditions… you can’t build that type of building in the south because of humidity issues.. like you can’t build a full concrete house due to heave or soil with too much moisture… in short US homes are built for there environment.. also food for thought 💭 there is a concrete shortage due to lack of usable sand or sand the is affordable to reclaim… and this will force Europe and all nations to reconsider how it sees construction… there are many benefits of stick frame construction…
American Construction is not always slap n' dash, we do have prefab houses that are like that. But most houses have proper sound insulation.