But seriously. Those housing prices! How do you do it?

[Toni]

The biggest issues with our house are 1) location. I have a love/hate relationship with my town. It's beautiful, it's walkable, it's small enough that people greet me by name at the bank and recognize me at the grocery stores, my neighbors are nice, and there are some cultural things that happen in town that are enjoyable. The downside is that it is geographically far from any larger town, much less a real city, meaning that my options for things such as eating out or shopping are much more limited than I'd like. True even though we've never been big on eating out and I really don't need much and indeed, am getting rid of stuff. I'm far from my best friends and while we make an effort to see each other a couple of times a year or more, we also are all getting older. I don't know how long this will continue. My best friend doesn't feel able to drive the distance (8-9 hrs) by herself anymore. I'm fine driving that but I know that has an expiration date. I don't know what we will do when we don't feel comfortable doing that much driving anymore. It will be a true loss.

2) Biggest issue in terms of practicality: Our house is lovely and is close to the way I want it to be but it is not and never will be a good home for old people. There is no real possibility of first floor living without dramatically disrupting the flow of the main level that I've already dumped tons of money into to make it attractive and functional as most people would use it. Living here has an expiration date and I'm not sure when. For a while, I did a lot of online shopping in the metropolitan area where 3 of the kids live. To get what I want (smaller, up to date, first floor living in a decent neighborhood) would cost 2-3 times what our home is worth. Frankly, most of what I saw was 2-3 times what our home is worth and I'd still want to do at least $100K to make it look/function the way I want it to. So---it's not really affordable. Well, it's really not affordable. I don't need fancy but I do need clean, easy to care for, and classic. I look at a lot of floor plans online as well and nope, I have to make changes there as well. Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces? I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

 

[Tigers!]

Any young'uns looking for a new career: Start a business setting up and updating electronics (such as smart tvs and remotes) and streaming services for old people as well as typical handyman sorts of things that require ladders and power tools.

Even in Australia that is not bad advice.

 

[Tigers!]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

 

[Tigers!]

Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces?

Yes why to both of them.

I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

I will get my wife and daughter to contact you

 

[lostone]

I am dismayed that these house buying corporations are allowed to drive up prices

 

[Tigers!]

Younger people don't alway realize that some of us had interest rates well over 10% back in the early 80s. What seems high now, would have been very low back then.

My sister and I paid interest rates of 17.85% on our house load in 1992 for a few months. If it had exceeded 18% we would have to have stopped building.
My daughter and her fiance cannot imagine interest rates like that.

 

[Toni]

Younger people don't alway realize that some of us had interest rates well over 10% back in the early 80s. What seems high now, would have been very low back then.

My sister and I paid interest rates of 17.85% on our house load in 1992 for a few months. If it had exceeded 18% we would have to have stopped building.
My daughter and her fiance cannot imagine interest rates like that.

It was like that here in the US during the early 80's. We rented during that period. I don't remember what we paid on our first mortgage but it was well under half of that. And then when we moved 30+ years ago, our mortgage was still well under 8% and we refinanced when the rates were even lower. I cannot imagine ever having interest rates as low as the ones our kids have on their mortgages but then, I can't imagine paying what they did for their houses, either.

 

[Toni]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

Dumb American questions: What is a chippy? What is a sparky?

 

[bilby]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

Dumb American questions: What is a chippy? What is a sparky?

A chippy is a carpenter; A sparky is an electrician.

 

[Toni]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

Dumb American questions: What is a chippy? What is a sparky?

A chippy is a carpenter; A sparky is an electrician.

Ah, I was guessing a sparky was an electrician but I would never have gotten carpenter. Last I knew chippy was slang for a promiscuous girl/woman. Or chippy as in fish and chips...

 

[rousseau]

The biggest issues with our house are 1) location. I have a love/hate relationship with my town. It's beautiful, it's walkable, it's small enough that people greet me by name at the bank and recognize me at the grocery stores, my neighbors are nice, and there are some cultural things that happen in town that are enjoyable. The downside is that it is geographically far from any larger town, much less a real city, meaning that my options for things such as eating out or shopping are much more limited than I'd like. True even though we've never been big on eating out and I really don't need much and indeed, am getting rid of stuff. I'm far from my best friends and while we make an effort to see each other a couple of times a year or more, we also are all getting older. I don't know how long this will continue. My best friend doesn't feel able to drive the distance (8-9 hrs) by herself anymore. I'm fine driving that but I know that has an expiration date. I don't know what we will do when we don't feel comfortable doing that much driving anymore. It will be a true loss.

2) Biggest issue in terms of practicality: Our house is lovely and is close to the way I want it to be but it is not and never will be a good home for old people. There is no real possibility of first floor living without dramatically disrupting the flow of the main level that I've already dumped tons of money into to make it attractive and functional as most people would use it. Living here has an expiration date and I'm not sure when. For a while, I did a lot of online shopping in the metropolitan area where 3 of the kids live. To get what I want (smaller, up to date, first floor living in a decent neighborhood) would cost 2-3 times what our home is worth. Frankly, most of what I saw was 2-3 times what our home is worth and I'd still want to do at least $100K to make it look/function the way I want it to. So---it's not really affordable. Well, it's really not affordable. I don't need fancy but I do need clean, easy to care for, and classic. I look at a lot of floor plans online as well and nope, I have to make changes there as well. Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces? I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

My FIL is a very smart man and convinced my wife and her sister to buy our house at the bottom of the market, in the days when our city didn't have much going for it. At the time my wife was about 20. I'm not sure what we're valued at now that interest rates are rising, but about a year ago our house was double what my wife and her sister paid for it.

It's definitely a modest home, but has more than enough space for four people. And what I've realized over the years is that it's construction didn't waste an inch of interior. Every single room in the house is maximally usable. Contrast this to the homes of some of our family members that are quite large and beautiful, but have a lot of empty, unused space. It was also built in a sweet-spot of building code, and the construction is solid. We've toyed with the idea of moving to a more fashionable neighborhood, but aren't keen on buying an old Victorian home. I could be uninformed, but I get the impression that upkeep would be harder.

But it's really our backyard that keeps us here. We live on a crescent, and our home is on one of the bends, so our backyard spans outward in both directions. The very back is completely covered by wild trees, and most of the space is shaded by a 150 year old Maple. If you suspend disbelief and ignore passing cars you can pretend you're in a private park. For being interior to the city, and a 5 minute drive to downtown, you just can't find that.. anywhere. I've heard the argument that if you're choosing between outdoor and indoor space, to go with outdoor. Because all you do inside is sit. And that's what we've gone with.

And by my calculation we'll have an easier time helping our boys out when they're older if we don't sink another 200k into a new mortgage.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

Dumb American questions: What is a chippy? What is a sparky?

A chippy is a carpenter; A sparky is an electrician.

Ah, I was guessing a sparky was an electrician but I would never have gotten carpenter. Last I knew chippy was slang for a promiscuous girl/woman. Or chippy as in fish and chips...

Yeah, I knew sparky but never would have guessed chippy, either.

 

[Toni]

The biggest issues with our house are 1) location. I have a love/hate relationship with my town. It's beautiful, it's walkable, it's small enough that people greet me by name at the bank and recognize me at the grocery stores, my neighbors are nice, and there are some cultural things that happen in town that are enjoyable. The downside is that it is geographically far from any larger town, much less a real city, meaning that my options for things such as eating out or shopping are much more limited than I'd like. True even though we've never been big on eating out and I really don't need much and indeed, am getting rid of stuff. I'm far from my best friends and while we make an effort to see each other a couple of times a year or more, we also are all getting older. I don't know how long this will continue. My best friend doesn't feel able to drive the distance (8-9 hrs) by herself anymore. I'm fine driving that but I know that has an expiration date. I don't know what we will do when we don't feel comfortable doing that much driving anymore. It will be a true loss.

2) Biggest issue in terms of practicality: Our house is lovely and is close to the way I want it to be but it is not and never will be a good home for old people. There is no real possibility of first floor living without dramatically disrupting the flow of the main level that I've already dumped tons of money into to make it attractive and functional as most people would use it. Living here has an expiration date and I'm not sure when. For a while, I did a lot of online shopping in the metropolitan area where 3 of the kids live. To get what I want (smaller, up to date, first floor living in a decent neighborhood) would cost 2-3 times what our home is worth. Frankly, most of what I saw was 2-3 times what our home is worth and I'd still want to do at least $100K to make it look/function the way I want it to. So---it's not really affordable. Well, it's really not affordable. I don't need fancy but I do need clean, easy to care for, and classic. I look at a lot of floor plans online as well and nope, I have to make changes there as well. Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces? I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

My FIL is a very smart man and convinced my wife and her sister to buy our house at the bottom of the market, in the days when our city didn't have much going for it. At the time my wife was about 20. I'm not sure what we're valued at now that interest rates are rising, but about a year ago our house was double what my wife and her sister paid for it.

It's definitely a modest home, but has more than enough space for four people. And what I've realized over the years is that it's construction didn't waste an inch of interior. Every single room in the house is maximally usable. Contrast this to the homes of some of our family members that are quite large and beautiful, but have a lot of empty, unused space. It was also built in a sweet-spot of building code, and the construction is solid. We've toyed with the idea of moving to a more fashionable neighborhood, but aren't keen on buying an old Victorian home. I could be uninformed, but I get the impression that upkeep would be harder.

But it's really our backyard that keeps us here. We live on a crescent, and our home is on one of the bends, so our backyard spans outward in both directions. The very back is completely covered by wild trees, and most of the space is shaded by a 150 year old Maple. If you suspend disbelief and ignore passing cars you can pretend you're in a private park. For being interior to the city, and a 5 minute drive to downtown, you just can't find that.. anywhere. I've heard the argument that if you're choosing between outdoor and indoor space, to go with outdoor. Because all you do inside is sit. And that's what we've gone with.

And by my calculation we'll have an easier time helping our boys out when they're older if we don't sink another 200k into a new mortgage.

It’s wise to not buy a Victorian unless it’s already been renovated to modern standards, re-wired, re-plumbed, with good HVAC and a good floor plan. Take it from someone who bought an old Victorian, re-wired, re-plumbed, refinished floors, gutted the vastly outdated poorly laid out kitchen, renovated one bathroom and installed a new one where there was no bathroom before ( expensive!) as well as usual maintenance: re-roofing, new furnace and new hot water heater, repaying the driveway and of course painting this monster. Plus some aesthetic stuff—refinishing floors, restoring woodwork. Or rather: paying people who know what they are doing to do these things. I’m smart enough to know my limits.

I never set out to buy an old Victorian house but there was low inventory when we were moving here for my husband’s job and no realistic rental prospects. It is in a walkable area, walking distance to the kids’ schools when they were young, and walking distance for my husband’s job. It had enough bedrooms and a family room attached to the kitchen. The windows are large and south facing making the living room very pleasantly sunny for much of the day. It’s very well built, though—a storm dropped a huge tree on it and only caused a smallish hole in the roof. A more modern house would have been cleaved in two.

I should tell you that $200K is probably a very minimal budget for renovating a Victorian. I didn’t spend that all at once but over time, probably very near that amount.

 

[Tigers!]

One of my kids made the extremely smart decision to buy a home next door to a plumber who has become his good friend. Lucky dog.

My grandfather always said have enough kids to have in the family, or have your kids marry, for the following professions - Lawyer, doctor, accountant. plumber or chippy or sparky

Dumb American questions: What is a chippy? What is a sparky?

A chippy is a carpenter; A sparky is an electrician.

Ah, I was guessing a sparky was an electrician but I would never have gotten carpenter. Last I knew chippy was slang for a promiscuous girl/woman. Or chippy as in fish and chips...

Good job I didn't say drippy.

 

[rousseau]

The biggest issues with our house are 1) location. I have a love/hate relationship with my town. It's beautiful, it's walkable, it's small enough that people greet me by name at the bank and recognize me at the grocery stores, my neighbors are nice, and there are some cultural things that happen in town that are enjoyable. The downside is that it is geographically far from any larger town, much less a real city, meaning that my options for things such as eating out or shopping are much more limited than I'd like. True even though we've never been big on eating out and I really don't need much and indeed, am getting rid of stuff. I'm far from my best friends and while we make an effort to see each other a couple of times a year or more, we also are all getting older. I don't know how long this will continue. My best friend doesn't feel able to drive the distance (8-9 hrs) by herself anymore. I'm fine driving that but I know that has an expiration date. I don't know what we will do when we don't feel comfortable doing that much driving anymore. It will be a true loss.

2) Biggest issue in terms of practicality: Our house is lovely and is close to the way I want it to be but it is not and never will be a good home for old people. There is no real possibility of first floor living without dramatically disrupting the flow of the main level that I've already dumped tons of money into to make it attractive and functional as most people would use it. Living here has an expiration date and I'm not sure when. For a while, I did a lot of online shopping in the metropolitan area where 3 of the kids live. To get what I want (smaller, up to date, first floor living in a decent neighborhood) would cost 2-3 times what our home is worth. Frankly, most of what I saw was 2-3 times what our home is worth and I'd still want to do at least $100K to make it look/function the way I want it to. So---it's not really affordable. Well, it's really not affordable. I don't need fancy but I do need clean, easy to care for, and classic. I look at a lot of floor plans online as well and nope, I have to make changes there as well. Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces? I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

My FIL is a very smart man and convinced my wife and her sister to buy our house at the bottom of the market, in the days when our city didn't have much going for it. At the time my wife was about 20. I'm not sure what we're valued at now that interest rates are rising, but about a year ago our house was double what my wife and her sister paid for it.

It's definitely a modest home, but has more than enough space for four people. And what I've realized over the years is that it's construction didn't waste an inch of interior. Every single room in the house is maximally usable. Contrast this to the homes of some of our family members that are quite large and beautiful, but have a lot of empty, unused space. It was also built in a sweet-spot of building code, and the construction is solid. We've toyed with the idea of moving to a more fashionable neighborhood, but aren't keen on buying an old Victorian home. I could be uninformed, but I get the impression that upkeep would be harder.

But it's really our backyard that keeps us here. We live on a crescent, and our home is on one of the bends, so our backyard spans outward in both directions. The very back is completely covered by wild trees, and most of the space is shaded by a 150 year old Maple. If you suspend disbelief and ignore passing cars you can pretend you're in a private park. For being interior to the city, and a 5 minute drive to downtown, you just can't find that.. anywhere. I've heard the argument that if you're choosing between outdoor and indoor space, to go with outdoor. Because all you do inside is sit. And that's what we've gone with.

And by my calculation we'll have an easier time helping our boys out when they're older if we don't sink another 200k into a new mortgage.

It’s wise to not buy a Victorian unless it’s already been renovated to modern standards, re-wired, re-plumbed, with good HVAC and a good floor plan. Take it from someone who bought an old Victorian, re-wired, re-plumbed, refinished floors, gutted the vastly outdated poorly laid out kitchen, renovated one bathroom and installed a new one where there was no bathroom before ( expensive!) as well as usual maintenance: re-roofing, new furnace and new hot water heater, repaying the driveway and of course painting this monster. Plus some aesthetic stuff—refinishing floors, restoring woodwork. Or rather: paying people who know what they are doing to do these things. I’m smart enough to know my limits.

I never set out to buy an old Victorian house but there was low inventory when we were moving here for my husband’s job and no realistic rental prospects. It is in a walkable area, walking distance to the kids’ schools when they were young, and walking distance for my husband’s job. It had enough bedrooms and a family room attached to the kitchen. The windows are large and south facing making the living room very pleasantly sunny for much of the day. It’s very well built, though—a storm dropped a huge tree on it and only caused a smallish hole in the roof. A more modern house would have been cleaved in two.

I should tell you that $200K is probably a very minimal budget for renovating a Victorian. I didn’t spend that all at once but over time, probably very near that amount.

We'd be talking around 200k (minimum) just to upgrade to a more fashionable neighborhood, setting aside upgrades. We're doing ok for ourselves but do have our limits, and mostly set on ensuring a quality life for our boys.

The Victorian neighborhoods here surround the downtown core, Old South, Old East, and Old North. The South and North neighborhoods are populated by mostly very rich people who have the money to renovate, or buy pre-renovated. The South neighborhood is absolutely beautiful and likely where we'd want to go. The downside of these areas is that they tend to be a target for car break-ins, and many of the homes have security systems.

We're a little east of the Old North area, and live on a street with a lot of working class families, pensioners, and student rentals. If not students, most considerably older than us. It's fine, but we haven't made too many friends here. Great location, but we'll definitely have to teach our boys road safety when they're older. There are two major through-ways right by us.

 

[ZiprHead]

Good job I didn't say drippy.

That's the promiscuous woman in her later years.

 

[Toni]

The biggest issues with our house are 1) location. I have a love/hate relationship with my town. It's beautiful, it's walkable, it's small enough that people greet me by name at the bank and recognize me at the grocery stores, my neighbors are nice, and there are some cultural things that happen in town that are enjoyable. The downside is that it is geographically far from any larger town, much less a real city, meaning that my options for things such as eating out or shopping are much more limited than I'd like. True even though we've never been big on eating out and I really don't need much and indeed, am getting rid of stuff. I'm far from my best friends and while we make an effort to see each other a couple of times a year or more, we also are all getting older. I don't know how long this will continue. My best friend doesn't feel able to drive the distance (8-9 hrs) by herself anymore. I'm fine driving that but I know that has an expiration date. I don't know what we will do when we don't feel comfortable doing that much driving anymore. It will be a true loss.

2) Biggest issue in terms of practicality: Our house is lovely and is close to the way I want it to be but it is not and never will be a good home for old people. There is no real possibility of first floor living without dramatically disrupting the flow of the main level that I've already dumped tons of money into to make it attractive and functional as most people would use it. Living here has an expiration date and I'm not sure when. For a while, I did a lot of online shopping in the metropolitan area where 3 of the kids live. To get what I want (smaller, up to date, first floor living in a decent neighborhood) would cost 2-3 times what our home is worth. Frankly, most of what I saw was 2-3 times what our home is worth and I'd still want to do at least $100K to make it look/function the way I want it to. So---it's not really affordable. Well, it's really not affordable. I don't need fancy but I do need clean, easy to care for, and classic. I look at a lot of floor plans online as well and nope, I have to make changes there as well. Why won't people put sinks under windows anymore?? Why are all kitchens open into living spaces? I am certain I am not the only messy cook in the world. Sigh.

My FIL is a very smart man and convinced my wife and her sister to buy our house at the bottom of the market, in the days when our city didn't have much going for it. At the time my wife was about 20. I'm not sure what we're valued at now that interest rates are rising, but about a year ago our house was double what my wife and her sister paid for it.

It's definitely a modest home, but has more than enough space for four people. And what I've realized over the years is that it's construction didn't waste an inch of interior. Every single room in the house is maximally usable. Contrast this to the homes of some of our family members that are quite large and beautiful, but have a lot of empty, unused space. It was also built in a sweet-spot of building code, and the construction is solid. We've toyed with the idea of moving to a more fashionable neighborhood, but aren't keen on buying an old Victorian home. I could be uninformed, but I get the impression that upkeep would be harder.

But it's really our backyard that keeps us here. We live on a crescent, and our home is on one of the bends, so our backyard spans outward in both directions. The very back is completely covered by wild trees, and most of the space is shaded by a 150 year old Maple. If you suspend disbelief and ignore passing cars you can pretend you're in a private park. For being interior to the city, and a 5 minute drive to downtown, you just can't find that.. anywhere. I've heard the argument that if you're choosing between outdoor and indoor space, to go with outdoor. Because all you do inside is sit. And that's what we've gone with.

And by my calculation we'll have an easier time helping our boys out when they're older if we don't sink another 200k into a new mortgage.

It’s wise to not buy a Victorian unless it’s already been renovated to modern standards, re-wired, re-plumbed, with good HVAC and a good floor plan. Take it from someone who bought an old Victorian, re-wired, re-plumbed, refinished floors, gutted the vastly outdated poorly laid out kitchen, renovated one bathroom and installed a new one where there was no bathroom before ( expensive!) as well as usual maintenance: re-roofing, new furnace and new hot water heater, repaying the driveway and of course painting this monster. Plus some aesthetic stuff—refinishing floors, restoring woodwork. Or rather: paying people who know what they are doing to do these things. I’m smart enough to know my limits.

I never set out to buy an old Victorian house but there was low inventory when we were moving here for my husband’s job and no realistic rental prospects. It is in a walkable area, walking distance to the kids’ schools when they were young, and walking distance for my husband’s job. It had enough bedrooms and a family room attached to the kitchen. The windows are large and south facing making the living room very pleasantly sunny for much of the day. It’s very well built, though—a storm dropped a huge tree on it and only caused a smallish hole in the roof. A more modern house would have been cleaved in two.

I should tell you that $200K is probably a very minimal budget for renovating a Victorian. I didn’t spend that all at once but over time, probably very near that amount.

We'd be talking around 200k (minimum) just to upgrade to a more fashionable neighborhood, setting aside upgrades. We're doing ok for ourselves but do have our limits, and mostly set on ensuring a quality life for our boys.

The Victorian neighborhoods here surround the downtown core, Old South, Old East, and Old North. The South and North neighborhoods are populated by mostly very rich people who have the money to renovate, or buy pre-renovated. The South neighborhood is absolutely beautiful and likely where we'd want to go. The downside of these areas is that they tend to be a target for car break-ins, and many of the homes have security systems.

We're a little east of the Old North area, and live on a street with a lot of working class families, pensioners, and student rentals. If not students, most considerably older than us. It's fine, but we haven't made too many friends here. Great location, but we'll definitely have to teach our boys road safety when they're older. There are two major through-ways right by us.

Neighborhoods change over time. When we moved in, there were several homes on our block with young families. Most of those families have stayed but the kids, like ours, have moved on. Currently one family with young children on our block which has become quite gray over the years. Next door a couple even older than we are moved in. Almost all our neighbors are older than we are. I would guess over the next 5-10 years, the neighborhood will change over at least a little. I would predict that your neighborhood will likely see the same cycle with some of the older folks moving on and younger families moving in.

I was certain when we moved into this house that a lot of the things I'm hiring done we (or I) would do ourselves/myself. But the kids were small and then there were dogs as well and those projects are labor intensive and very messy. I did one bedroom, stripping very bad paneling, 3 different kinds of wall paper, paint on woodwork, carpet and linoleum tile (all same room). I got a lot done during the few days my husband took the kids to visit grandparents but then the project stalled for a long time as it was difficult to get the time when I didn't have preschoolers underfoot to do things like: strip paint and re-paint. Then I was back in school, or working and well, life. Over the years, I've done some plaster repair as well and hubby and I hung some drywall in the basement. I'm currently painting. I am not as fast as I used to be.

 

[southernhybrid]

If you stay in any house long enough and can afford to keep it updated and well maintained, it's easy to spend at least 100K over the span of 15 or 20 years. We've had to spend over 20K just to keep our pool in good shape. The sad part is that we never use it any longer, but it is beautiful to view. I didn't want a house with a pool, but we loved the house and it was the best, most affordable one when we bought it in 1998. We've had the roof replaced twice, the bathrooms and kitchen remodeled or updated, the outside trim painted numerous times ( the house is brick ) the front stoop redone, the second bathroom updated to some extent, some doors replaced and all of the windows replaced. Mr. Sohy repainted the inside once. It needs it again, but it's not so bad that it bothers us, so that can wait. Oh, I forgot a few things. We had a gas line and gas logs put into the fireplace and the one room that has carpet has had new carpet 3 times. The furnace was replaced once, but oddly enough the A/C is probably forty years old and still works fine. We never use it at night and we rarely put it on lower than 78 degrees, which may be why it's held up so long. Still, I know it will need to be replaced if we try to sell the house or stay here much longer. Each summer, I worry about it dying in the middle of a heatwave. Other than a few days in June, this summer hasn't been very hot, by Georgia standards.

. Our formal living room rarely gets used, so I call it the dog's room. They enjoy sitting on the back of the sofa when we aren't home, watching for potential burglars. It's often the only neat room in the house because I'm married to a very messy person. Our house was built in the 60s, not quite what I'd call a midcentury ranch but close enough. Midcentury architecture is my favorite.

I am dismayed that these house buying corporations are allowed to drive up prices

I was also very unhappy to see these wealthy corps buying up huge numbers of homes, which due to supply and demand, drove up the prices, making them unaffordable for the average middle class family. A lot of these homes were turned into rentals, raising the rent to unaffordable levels. One of my friend's sister had to move in with her son, when her rent was raised by about 300/month. Her only income is SS and she could no longer afford her rent.

 

[lpetrich]

The Housing Shortage Isn’t Just a Coastal Crisis Anymore - The New York Times

An increasingly national problem has consequences for the quality of American family life, the economy and the future of housing politics.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Washington have long failed to build enough housing to keep up with everyone trying to live there. And for nearly as long, other parts of the country have mostly been able to shrug off the housing shortage as a condition particular to big coastal cities.

But in the years leading up to the pandemic, that condition advanced around the country: Springfield, Mo., stopped having enough housing. And the same with Appleton, Wis., and Naples, Fla.

What once seemed a blue-state coastal problem has increasingly become a national one, with consequences for the quality of life of American families, the health of the national economy and the politics of housing construction.

Today more families in the middle of America who could once count on becoming homeowners can’t be so confident anymore. And communities that long relied on their relatively affordable housing to draw new residents can no longer be so sure of that advantage.

Where are all the people who can't afford buying or renting?

There are not, for instance, 400,000 households’ worth of homeless people on the streets of metro Los Angeles. Rather, many people in need of housing there are doubled up with family or living in makeshift garages. A healthier housing market looks like a place where those people would be able to find and afford a home of their own.

“It looks like the ability to live where you want to work,” said Mike Kingsella, the chief executive of Up For Growth. “It looks like not having to worry about housing instability. It looks like a reasonable chance of eventually buying your own home.”

What to do?

In a new book critiquing zoning, Mr. Gray describes how the federal government encouraged local communities to adopt zoning policies starting in the 1920s. It’s only fair today, he argues, that the federal government help undo zoning rules that have made housing more expensive.

Members of Congress of both parties have increasingly called for such an idea, in which the federal government would give priority for grants to local communities that ease zoning restrictions or build denser housing.

Cities Start to Question an American Ideal: A House With a Yard on Every Lot - The New York Times

Townhomes, duplexes and apartments are effectively banned in many neighborhoods. Now some communities regret it.

Single-family zoning is practically gospel in America, embraced by homeowners and local governments to protect neighborhoods of tidy houses from denser development nearby.

But a number of officials across the country are starting to make seemingly heretical moves. The Oregon legislature this month will consider a law that would end zoning exclusively for single-family homes in most of the state. California lawmakers have drafted a bill that would effectively do the same. In December, the Minneapolis City Council voted to end single-family zoning citywide. The Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Julián Castro have taken up the cause, too.

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Today the effect of single-family zoning is far-reaching: It is illegal on 75 percent of the residential land in many American cities to build anything other than a detached single-family home.

That figure is even higher in many suburbs and newer Sun Belt cities, according to an analysis The Upshot conducted with UrbanFootprint, software that maps and measures the impact of development and policy change on cities.

Efforts to permit higher-density housing often provoke NIMBY opposition, it must be noted. "In Oregon, the joke goes, people hate sprawl and density."

 

[lpetrich]

Building upward instead of outward is more environmentally friendly, it must be noted.

The Soviet bloc has long had that idea - with  Khrushchyovka (named after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev) or "Commie block" apartment buildings -  Urban planning in communist countries - often built from prefabricated concrete panels.

But many capitalist countries also build big apartment buildings. The World's Most Populated Buildings - WorldAtlas