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seryn[Having just read an article about a woman who was renting with Section 8 assistance a house in a subdivision that went bust.]
I don't remember the book by title anymore. It was a science fiction version of the Manchurian Candidate story. But it starts out with this woman who lives in a subdivision that's been hard hit by foreclosures until most of the homes stand empty and she becomes a baglady.
When I read the book, average house prices hadn't fallen in my lifetime.
Now that house prices have nosedived and all across the country there are subdivisions like that, I'm wondering why it didn't seem obvious that was a potential occurrence.
I don't really want to own a house. I really did for the longest time. It was one of my life goals. But the Supreme Court says anyone can take your home away if they call out the real estate version of "olly olly oxen free", Eminent Domain. They have to give you a "fair price" for it, but fair price doesn't compensate you for the emotional effort you put into the house to make it feel like home nor for the psychological trauma. It would be different if it was significantly cheaper to buy than rent where I live or if houses were built to really high quality standards. But most people who buy brand new homes have tons of repair work they have to do because shoddy workmanship is hidden by temporary cosmetic patches. Older homes have so much upgrading necessary (for heat retention and electrical and other infrastructure) and so much chance of hidden mold or environmental contaminants. When I rent, none of that is my responsibility.
I have some unfortunate neighbors, but it's inexpensive and low-risk.
Then I was thinking about something my father explained to me. My parents moved a lot shuffling from house to house several times. When there were houses that looked equal, one of the things you check is the neighborhood. Now information sheets on houses actually include this information, but one of the items is how many rental homes there are. Because renters do not have financial ties to the community. Renters are often barred from visible improvements to their homes, and owners often have little incentive to do more than basic upkeep. So one could always detect the rental house. It was the smallest house on the block and the grass was always weedier and taller than surrounding houses. It was often painted an unappealing color with high-contrast trim--- because it photographed better back when no one had color pictures in house listings. There were never flowers or shrubbery. The rental house is unkempt and it makes your neighborhood look bad. My father said it was because renters don't take good care of things, but having been a renter, it's also because they're not allowed to change anything, so there's an incentive not to put forth effort that might be punished.
Now I think about what a "proper" house is supposed to be like and how that differs based on ethnic background. Simon shares a similar upbringing but he is not handy and often his favorite housing choices are based on what would be easy to maintain without paying someone. But what if no one in your family has owned a house before? How would you know about gutters or hiring a house painter? How would you know what should be done by a professional? What if your family is from New York and the home you owned there had to withstand snow and had grass that needed mowing all summer but you move to Phoenix? Are you going to choose wisely when everything is alien to you?
Now I think about the casual racism of my childhood, where you knew the children who didn't look like you lived in the houses that were only used for rental properties, and I realize that sometimes when you've just managed to grab the lowest rung of the next ladder, you can't slack off. The people who lived in the rental house around the corner from us, the girls joined scouts and the mother volunteered a few times for trip chaperone, they put hanging pots of flowers out on the front porch, and they were included in the neighborhood garage sale and moved 2 blocks away a year later when a cousin of the people across the street was selling the next level up house and didn't want to deal with months of extra mortgage after he was relocated for work. The other renters, in the same style house, never even waved when waved to as they drove by and were angry that they hadn't been actively included. But none of these were people who looked appreciably different from us. The renters were just not from a popular subset of European blended ancestry.
As a city-dwelling adult, I don't think I would be able to make the first move to make myself welcome in a neighborhood like that. I wouldn't put out potted flowers because here they'd be vandalized. I'm pretty anti-scouting now too and don't have children to bridge a gap that shouldn't exist anyway.
It's really interesting to me that I've slid back so far on the ladders of the American Dream and yet, I am measurably more successful than my parents were. My parents scrabbled and clawed to be able to buy a $75K house in a good neighborhood of a homogeneous town--- so homogeneous that the schools were actually excellent because the schools could honestly expect the parents to apply some pressure at home and that certain things would be covered and handled within the home--- to the point that there often wasn't enough food. My car payment 15 years ago was almost three times what my parents paid on their mortgage. My parents had almost nothing saved when they retired... it was all house. So they moved somewhere cheaper to cash out. I don't know what to say about that other than... my father made sure there weren't any renters in his new neighborhood.
I don't remember the book by title anymore. It was a science fiction version of the Manchurian Candidate story. But it starts out with this woman who lives in a subdivision that's been hard hit by foreclosures until most of the homes stand empty and she becomes a baglady.
When I read the book, average house prices hadn't fallen in my lifetime.
Now that house prices have nosedived and all across the country there are subdivisions like that, I'm wondering why it didn't seem obvious that was a potential occurrence.
I don't really want to own a house. I really did for the longest time. It was one of my life goals. But the Supreme Court says anyone can take your home away if they call out the real estate version of "olly olly oxen free", Eminent Domain. They have to give you a "fair price" for it, but fair price doesn't compensate you for the emotional effort you put into the house to make it feel like home nor for the psychological trauma. It would be different if it was significantly cheaper to buy than rent where I live or if houses were built to really high quality standards. But most people who buy brand new homes have tons of repair work they have to do because shoddy workmanship is hidden by temporary cosmetic patches. Older homes have so much upgrading necessary (for heat retention and electrical and other infrastructure) and so much chance of hidden mold or environmental contaminants. When I rent, none of that is my responsibility.
I have some unfortunate neighbors, but it's inexpensive and low-risk.
Then I was thinking about something my father explained to me. My parents moved a lot shuffling from house to house several times. When there were houses that looked equal, one of the things you check is the neighborhood. Now information sheets on houses actually include this information, but one of the items is how many rental homes there are. Because renters do not have financial ties to the community. Renters are often barred from visible improvements to their homes, and owners often have little incentive to do more than basic upkeep. So one could always detect the rental house. It was the smallest house on the block and the grass was always weedier and taller than surrounding houses. It was often painted an unappealing color with high-contrast trim--- because it photographed better back when no one had color pictures in house listings. There were never flowers or shrubbery. The rental house is unkempt and it makes your neighborhood look bad. My father said it was because renters don't take good care of things, but having been a renter, it's also because they're not allowed to change anything, so there's an incentive not to put forth effort that might be punished.
Now I think about what a "proper" house is supposed to be like and how that differs based on ethnic background. Simon shares a similar upbringing but he is not handy and often his favorite housing choices are based on what would be easy to maintain without paying someone. But what if no one in your family has owned a house before? How would you know about gutters or hiring a house painter? How would you know what should be done by a professional? What if your family is from New York and the home you owned there had to withstand snow and had grass that needed mowing all summer but you move to Phoenix? Are you going to choose wisely when everything is alien to you?
Now I think about the casual racism of my childhood, where you knew the children who didn't look like you lived in the houses that were only used for rental properties, and I realize that sometimes when you've just managed to grab the lowest rung of the next ladder, you can't slack off. The people who lived in the rental house around the corner from us, the girls joined scouts and the mother volunteered a few times for trip chaperone, they put hanging pots of flowers out on the front porch, and they were included in the neighborhood garage sale and moved 2 blocks away a year later when a cousin of the people across the street was selling the next level up house and didn't want to deal with months of extra mortgage after he was relocated for work. The other renters, in the same style house, never even waved when waved to as they drove by and were angry that they hadn't been actively included. But none of these were people who looked appreciably different from us. The renters were just not from a popular subset of European blended ancestry.
As a city-dwelling adult, I don't think I would be able to make the first move to make myself welcome in a neighborhood like that. I wouldn't put out potted flowers because here they'd be vandalized. I'm pretty anti-scouting now too and don't have children to bridge a gap that shouldn't exist anyway.
It's really interesting to me that I've slid back so far on the ladders of the American Dream and yet, I am measurably more successful than my parents were. My parents scrabbled and clawed to be able to buy a $75K house in a good neighborhood of a homogeneous town--- so homogeneous that the schools were actually excellent because the schools could honestly expect the parents to apply some pressure at home and that certain things would be covered and handled within the home--- to the point that there often wasn't enough food. My car payment 15 years ago was almost three times what my parents paid on their mortgage. My parents had almost nothing saved when they retired... it was all house. So they moved somewhere cheaper to cash out. I don't know what to say about that other than... my father made sure there weren't any renters in his new neighborhood.
