This is the most beautifully written essay I’ve read in months. Devastating and real. Short of inheriting one, how is anyone who did not buy a home 30 or more years ago ever to find a decent place to live these days?!
And yet owning a house takes so much money and energy that after living as if I did own one once (paying my late husband’s daughter’s mortgage and living in the house) I was so glad to get out of there when it was over and I’d never do it for real. The issue is really that owners are rewarded for owning and renters are punished for not owning. People ask me why I never bought a place and well, hey, SOMEONE has to have a precarious lifestyle, SOMEONE has to take less money than others for the same jobs, SOMEONE has to come from a family that can’t help them with a down payment… but why should that someone be punished? These someones make life great for the ones with all the money and advantages. We can’t all own, we can’t all be rich, and this world should be subsidizing those of us who can’t survive in a world that depends on the existence of people who make much less money than they need — they just keep shuffling them off into worse and worse conditions while the rich get richer. All of you who are in between right now? Don’t get cozy. It’ll be you next.
I'm right with you, Trisha. I've moved so many times I've lost count. I live with my SO now, but I have no ownership in his place. I keep thinking "One day..." but the money fairy doesn't exist. Really well written essay.
Great essay, Trisha. I think a lot of people can relate, but I can't say I've loved any house, just as I've never loved any car. It's easier to move every year than clean your apartment, I think.
This is the most beautifully written essay I’ve read in months. Devastating and real. Short of inheriting one, how is anyone who did not buy a home 30 or more years ago ever to find a decent place to live these days?!
And yet owning a house takes so much money and energy that after living as if I did own one once (paying my late husband’s daughter’s mortgage and living in the house) I was so glad to get out of there when it was over and I’d never do it for real. The issue is really that owners are rewarded for owning and renters are punished for not owning. People ask me why I never bought a place and well, hey, SOMEONE has to have a precarious lifestyle, SOMEONE has to take less money than others for the same jobs, SOMEONE has to come from a family that can’t help them with a down payment… but why should that someone be punished? These someones make life great for the ones with all the money and advantages. We can’t all own, we can’t all be rich, and this world should be subsidizing those of us who can’t survive in a world that depends on the existence of people who make much less money than they need — they just keep shuffling them off into worse and worse conditions while the rich get richer. All of you who are in between right now? Don’t get cozy. It’ll be you next.
I'm right with you, Trisha. I've moved so many times I've lost count. I live with my SO now, but I have no ownership in his place. I keep thinking "One day..." but the money fairy doesn't exist. Really well written essay.
Great essay, Trisha. I think a lot of people can relate, but I can't say I've loved any house, just as I've never loved any car. It's easier to move every year than clean your apartment, I think.
Easier to move till you’re too old to do all that packing and cleaning and unpacking again, only to have to do it a few years later.