Numismatics: Perfect For Urban Dwellers In Expensive Real Estate Markets?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Joe2007, Feb 21, 2020.

  1. Joe2007

    Joe2007 Well-Known Member

    In the U.S. it seems like more than ever most of the desirable employment opportunities and amenities that younger generations want are found in a few dozen large cities. As a result real estate in these markets is becoming very expensive and is causing many working and middle class individuals and families into smaller apartments, condos, and homes. In areas on the west coast it is not uncommon to see apartments occupied by several unrelated roommates due to unaffordable housing prices, cramming more people into smaller spaces. Micro apartments are also becoming popular with units often encompassing less than 300 square feet in space.

    In these circumstances collecting becomes much harder and I would think smaller collectables such as coins and jewelry would become some of the only viable collections to have since they are usually fairly compact and can fit into a small safe or safety deposit box.

    Your Thoughts?
     
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  3. ToughCOINS

    ToughCOINS Dealer Member Moderator

    To me, it seems that having several unrelated roommates and smaller collectables such as coins and jewelry should be mutually exclusive.
     
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  4. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I've been an "urban dweller" my entire life, and I think that if I were a young urban professional (what they called Yuppies 35 years ago) and living with unrelated roommates -- unless they were lifelong friends, and maybe even then -- the last thing I would ever do is keep easily portable valuables like jewelry or a coin collection around my apartment, even in a safe. Because even if I trusted the roommates themselves, people have friends they invite over, and knowledge tends to spread.
     
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  5. frankjg

    frankjg Well-Known Member

    Millennials and whatever the generation after them is called typically do not collect things. They tend to spend money on experiences (travel, concerts, etc..) rather than things.

    Primarily because they are highly mobile due to the nature of the modern workforce and the smaller living spaces the OP mentions.
     
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  6. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    What would you do with your computer, camera set-up, microscope and reference library. There are only four people that I would trust implicitly and two of them are my parents who passed away years ago. ~ Chris
     
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  7. Joe2007

    Joe2007 Well-Known Member

    I agree not optimal but having a decently well secured safe and the utilization of alarms/other technology may enhance security enough to keep roommates honest and decease risk to a reasonable level. If the value is significant enough they could always go the safety deposit box route which is not ideal but possible.
     
  8. Joe2007

    Joe2007 Well-Known Member

    Lots of millennials utilize their phones for just about everything including a digital books and to take surprisingly good photographs. More and more reference materials are found online like the Newman Numismatic Portal, not having a big physical library is more possible than ever. I am a millennial but live in the Midwest so luckily are real estate prices are not so insane but they are creeping up surprisingly fast in most of the more desirable city neighborhoods.
     
  9. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    People having random roommates and/or living in mirco apartments generally don't have much if any disposable income and the ones doing that by choice are probably doing it to save as much money as they can.
     
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  10. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    I just gotta flat out disagree with that ! There sure a whole lot of them that are members of this forum, many with extensive and expensive collections, with more and more joining every day. And even a lot of Generation Z joining every day.

    edit - millennials are defined as those born between 1980 and 1996. That means some of them are 40 years old. And about half of the members of this forum are in their 30's, more than a few the low 30's.
     
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  11. ewomack

    ewomack 魚の下着

    Designating an age group as "millennials" and reducing them down to certain behaviors or beliefs has its conveniences, and some of these generalizations may hold true, but they can also mislead. Very likely many so-called "millennials" do collect things, the question is whether they collect in greater or lesser numbers than other generations. I'm not sure if anyone knows the answer to this question exactly. After all, it's pretty difficult to survey every single millennial, so a lot of the information about these groups, out of necessity, comes from sampling or other techniques and these smaller data samples get extrapolated to a larger population, probably with significant margins of error.

    It would be interesting to know similar statistics from the previous four or five decades. Did young people in 1970 collect as much as the same age group today? How about the 1960s? Have young people ever had enough income to collect to any significant degree? I don't know, but it would be interesting to see if there is any consistency in this claim over time. When I was in my 20s, I didn't know a single person who could afford expensive antiques or rare collectibles of any kind. Still, some of them collected things, but things that fit with their budgets or lifestyles. Collecting, especially serious collecting, really seems to be an activity of the aged and moneyed. It kind of has to be due to the generally low incomes of the young, which seem even lower than previous generations from what I'm reading and hearing. Is there any way to tell if people will start collecting at some point in their lives? Probably not. Does it really matter in the long run? Probably not.

    This article about milennials and collecting concludes with "It is the belief of some in the antique community that our children no longer have an interest in collecting. The way I see it, as with so many other things, they do it, they just don’t do it the way we did!"
     
  12. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Kripes, group living is a free for all. Ya can't trust them to not raid the 'fridge'. How ya gonna stop them from raiding your valuables? Ya wanna keep what ya 'kill'? Live alone.
     
  13. Derek2200

    Derek2200 Well-Known Member

    If one’s collection budget say 10 pct of income certainly less will be spent on collecting in an expensive area like LA vs Houston.

    it’s all a function of disposable income and ones priorities / travel, entertainment, dating vs coins / currency.
     
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