#HomeOwnership #PropertyValues #GenX #Affordability

Five years ago today, I purchased my home in the foothills of the #coastrange in #Oregon. It's a 2,000 square foot home with 1/3 of an acre, allowing me to do plenty of #gardening, gaining #foodsecurity from whatever I can grow - and getting fresh #eggs from our #chickens.

I'm a farm girl, so it's good to be back in the country.

It wasn't the first time I'd purchased a house (we purchased one in the UK back in 2007 with an interest-only loan, just before the market crashed). In that case, we purchased the home, sat underwater for year after year, and sold it in 2015 for the same kind of price we purchased it for (with most of our profit eaten up by taxes and fees).

Here in the U.S., things were different. First, my wife and I were only able to buy the house because:

1) My late sister left me enough money in her will to clear my student debt and some of our consumer debt and..
2) The company my wife landed a job with when we emigrated was acquired, carrying with it a pretty nice singing bonus that matured just before we purchased our house. That was our down payment.

Were it not for that, we'd never have been in a position to buy.

But now, let's discuss the fact that since purchase, our house value has increased somewhere between 40% and 60% in value, depending on where you get your data.

Today, it would, 100%, be outside of our affordability, despite my wife having a very good job. (I'm going to ignore my income, because #TransportEvolved isn't earning enough these days to allow me to pay myself a salary).

The local town now has starter homes starting at $590,000, with *most* of them starting closer to $750,000. STARTER HOMES...

At the same time, two of my team are paying NEARLY as much a month on renting TINY sub-1,000 square foot apartments as we're paying on our mortage. And, like I said, I had to lose a dear sister to be able to afford this place.

What... The... Actual... Fuck... Are... We... Doing?

We need affordable homes. NOW.