Or you could just call it “American vanity”
“Half the purchases are a proto-wanna-be power couple where they need two incomes to afford these Neo-McMansions. The kid is dropped off at daycare. Wifey gets to work and pursue what’s more important in her life. Hubby works the real job to help keep the lifestyle facade up. The other half is wifey poo is a stay at home mom, but hubby’s income is juuuuust enough to pay for the car PAYMENT, house PAYMENT, and credit card PAYMENT. And bar 5-10% of genuine rich people who can actually afford these houses, 90%+ of these house are afforded by the same material used to build them – plastic.”
But if you have enough voters living in plywood palaces
in debt up to their eyeballs with a big low interest loan
eating them alive, they don’t really have a problem. Banks
and governments on the other hand, have a huge problem. As
Stalin once said “Quantity has a quality all it own.”
And “good school districts” is code for “this is the cost of escaping diversity and vibrancy”.
Indeed. I live in one of these towns. And yet so many of these “progressive” residents have their “Hate Has No Home Here Signs”. If they were really progressive they’d live amongst those they profess to care (look down upon) so much about. Fact is there’s no black families for miles. I’m quite sure they like it that way.
Obama was going to fix that non diversity problem in the suburbs. But they still voted for him.
Actually as a tradesman thinkin’ I am middle class, My wife, son and I built a 3600 sq ft home with a detached 1000 sq ft shop and saved a lot more than 100k.
The only items contracted out were drywall and insulation.
Both those items were done to perfection for less than we could buy the material at retail.
The time was the early 90’s we did own the land had just come off a 19 year stretch working the Mackenzie sawmills, north of Prince George.
Lots of 12 hour days, I was on call at the shipyards local 191, Boilermaker.
My wife worked an hour and a half commute each way at a bank, that kept the lights on and food on the table.
Was it easy ? Hell no! but we did it and looked after my folks at the same time.
Question is how bad do you want to suceed?
We had saved in the years north, rrsp’s, company shares had a nice house up there we bought new in 1975, finished the basement and built a nice shop behind it.
No Mortgage!
I have had people try to tell me we are ‘lucky” bullsh** there is no such thing there is only preparation meeting opportunity.
I am 68 not quite as spry, I help out teaching kids, and some not so kids, how to weld and how to work.
I sold that big house and am now on house number 7 made money on every one I am renoing this one, roll up your sleeves millenials and follow me!
You have nothing to loose but your debt
Mort gage literally mort “death list” even if you die your debt lives on the bank will be satisfied.
Or you could get off your ass and build it yourself and pocket it all. My father and I built a new 1200 foot modern bungalow for less than $30,000. Completely rebuilt a Victorian mansion for less than $200,000 and tripled it’s value. The sad part of today’s modern man is that they are not men anymore. They’re pajama boys who play D&D. My father was a role model to many. He is sadly missed.
You’re my HERO. I have a similar story, here in the belly of the beast of the SF Bay Area. Prices (incl. all materials and labor) are considerably higher than your neck of the woods … so margins are thinner … but sweat equity almost ALWAYS pays-off. And the market value of completed projects is just STUPID (if you hit the right bubble). It currently costs $350.00/sq.ft. MINIMUM for construction in the Bay Area, and there is NO raw land to speak of. So the only alternative is to buy an older (hopefully) home and tear it down (50% of which needs to be “recycled” with “proof” of receipts). It is not easy to “flip this house” … and you can get your head handed to you if your market timing is off … but if you are smart, prudent, and work hard … you can make it.
I agree, the Capt. sounds a little bitter that he is not on the same treadmill of the American Dream as the “pretty people” … but he routinely posts about the JOY he experiences by tooling around the Southwest on his motor-cicle, smoking cigars. So he has simply made a different “life choice”. As an unabashed (small ‘L’) libertarian … I say to each their own.
But I wanted to post the SFBayArea version of the Capt.’s story of “flight to Good School Districts” … which, sorry to say is otherwise known as “white flight” (which also includes; Asians, Hindus, and lots of other colors of hard-working people). Here in the Bay Area, virtually ALL of my liberal friends proudly purchased homes and condos on the “urban” (Bay) side of the Bay Area. They chided me for being such a “typical suburbanite” and bragged about the “diversity”, “culture” … and even “greenness” of living in the “vibrant” densely populated cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley. They mocked suburbia as the repository of Republicans and uptight Christians. However, a 100% predictable change of mind occurred as soon as their newly born children reached Kindergarten age … and they ALL moved to Suburbia. They were OK with the “experimental” racially diverse preschools (until their child had their pants pulled down by a classmate – real story). However, they draw the line at Kindergarten. ALL of them. Every single one. They suddenly realized their children would be going to school with the children of the rabble they “publicly” embraced, but privately disdained. There was NO WAY they would imperil their own children’s future by sending them to school in substandard school districts, with children (ovvvvvv culller) who didn’t quite share the same motivation for educating themselves. Children whose single mom (or two daddies) couldn’t be bothered to “force” their children to learn “the white mans curriculum”. So they ALL move to the Suburbia they HATE. Into the (95%) lillywhite suburbs. Into their “inefficient commute distance” Suburbs. They all sold their ridiculously $ valued SF homes and traded (usually $ downward) for a nice quiet suburban detached home in a QUALITY school district. And WHY is it a “quality” school district ? Is there greater funding? NO. Are the teachers better ? Some, but not all. Is the curriculum different? Uh, yeah … because the parents demand MORE of their children. But the REAL reason the school districts are TOP quality ? Simple. Top quality PARENTS … usually ALWAYS two-parent homes. Sorry Teachers UNIONS … it’s THE PARENTS who determine the educational quality of schools … NOT the teachers, administrators, or UNIONS. My liberal friends KNOW in the depths of their souls … that their children will ONLY thrive if they are educated with “their people” (ovvvvv ANY culler). Sorry, but $$$$$ (of the parents) will ALWAYS determine the quality of the school district. Parents who have “goals”, “expectations” and tangible “LOVE” for their children. Love that will not allow their children to become BUMS … uneducated, un(or under) employed adults. So … the Suburbs continue to be filled with “pretty people”, “white people”, “wealth(ier) people” … (ovvvvv some mixed cullllers).
In a related story … my wife’s Oakland Elementary school principal just announced that their school will now actively enforce the State of California’s LAW that demands any (naturally, biologically-born) boy or girl may choose either the boys or the girls restrooms. My wife is predicting BIG TROUBLE as even her 1st graders routinely engage in adult sexual acts in her classroom. Seems as though her kids can “Google” virtually anything they want … and/or watch their moms and her customers engage in similar activities.
Kenji as soon as possible get your wife outta that sh!thole and into a better environment. That place will soon get worse not better!