In 1997 I sold that condo when I moved to the Sacramento area. Shortly thereafter I bought a townhouse. Two covered parking spots, a pool, 2 bedrooms and a bath upstairs, den and a half-bath downstairs. Not bad.
In 2005 I sold the townhouse and bought my grandparents' house. A garage, a fireplace, living room and family room, 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bath. For a few years I had a hot tub in the backyard.
I had a family Christmas party here in 2005, celebrating my keeping the house in the family. About 8 years later I held a happy hour here after work one day. That was about it as far as I've gone when it comes to hosting parties. Until today.
A month ago I wrote my last mortgage check, the house is now mine. I'm throwing a party this afternoon and about 50 people have RSVP'd to drop by. In 2 hours I'll pick up several trays of Mexican food from a restaurant down the street, mix the few adult beverages I'll provide, and wait for the guests to show up. This is a big deal for me.
So when I read things like this, my first thought is "screw you":
An assistant professor of urban planning at UCLA argues in the far-left magazine The Nation that California is doomed as long as people keep owning homes.When did our universities go off the rails?
“If we want to keep cities safe in the face of climate change, we need to seriously question the ideal of private homeownership,” says Kian Goh, who researches urban ecological design, “spatial politics” and social mobilization “in the context of climate change and global urbanization"...
To prevent catastrophe, Americans must reconsider their ideas about “success, comfort, home, and family,” particularly the single-family homes that followed in the wake of the Homestead Act of 1862 and federally backed mortgage insurance, the professor argues.
These policies benefited white middle-class families and “became synonymous with freedom and self-sufficiency” even though they represented “[e]xpansionist, individualist, and exclusionary patterns of housing.”
Update, 10:15 pm: Many of my family, friends, and friends/coworkers showed up tonight, and the last of the bunch just left. Great way to spend a Saturday evening.
When did they go off the rails?
ReplyDeleteIt was a long, slow process taking decades, one millimeter, one scholar, one administrator at a time, starting with the Frankfurt School's arrival in the USA. The 60s accelerated the process a bit, and it seems that the dissolution of the Soviet Union sped it up a bit more.
Congrats on the mortgage burning!!
ReplyDeleteWhat you're seeing is people realize that sfh's aren't sfh's; they are mostly multifamily housing taxed as a senior citizen's sfh (i.e. 50% reduction here, and Prop 13 low rate for you)...that means schools and local government are starved, and the water/sewer is over capacity outside of big cities. Changing the zoning means some relief and some money from the developer into the town coffers. Remember, can't get more from state income tax if the income is below the table.
lgm, I don't understand.
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ReplyDeleteThis former professor blogger has a take on school corruption:
https://professorconfess.blogspot.com/
Darren, the idea being promoted is land trusts. The trusts build housing on their land, then lease to their preferred population subgroups. The subgroup members build equity and do not have to contribute via taxation to the needs of the community since the trust has an exemption. Other owners who aren't lucky enough to have a tax exemption will pay for those who do...which is the current situation with all the property tax exemptions - in my area its 50% for seniors, farmers, and so on. Like the current exemptions, a land trust further enslaves those who arent the chosen..these people will pay for water/sewer and schools while the chosen do not contribute but do consume. Currently its resulting in tripling up in single family housing, as the tax is so high a young family can't afford to house themselves. Another solution would be to lower the local property tax and tax income...but that can't be done when so many aren't working above the table.
ReplyDeleteNice! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI own a condo in Arizona. I bought it at the trough of the market when I lived there. I fixed it up, paid it off, and when I moved out, I started renting it. Rent now is quite high there and what I collect in rent is double what my mortgage on it used to be.
An acquaintance with a PhD in liberal arts who has never held a real job, lives on friend's couches at 42, and still doesn't work because she doesn't want to work in a cubicle asked me if her friend could stay in my condo while it's not rented. She asked what I rent it for. I told her my price, the fair market value for rent. She told me that was too much and that since her friend is poor, I should rent it to her friend for less. Um, NO!
The nerve of some people.
Congratulations, Darren!
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