Home Sweet Home, Not!
By
Gerry Niskern
Do you know a young couple or family new to this country who would like to buy a home, a simple starter home?
Buying a starter home in 2022 is almost impossible. Thinkng back and comparing the ease of buying our first home in 1954 to the herculean task for first time buyers in today’s world is shocking; and it is so unfair.
Back when “the dinasours” ruled the earth, as our grandkids like to say, we bought our first, brand new, three bedroom, two bath home for nothing down, and $375 closing costs! We had one child and another on the way. The wage owner’s monthly salary had to be $300 a month or higher. Ken asked his boss to fudge on the numbers on the application, but he refused. Instead he raised him up to $300!
I know, in today’s world, those numbers are laughable. Our new home cost $4,500 and our payments were $45 per month, in cluding taxes. Our builder, in Phoenix, also built a grade school for the sub-division and a community swimming pool. It was a modest Public pool, but a welcome addition to the area.
While we waited for our new home to be completed, Ken worked many side jobs to save up for our appliances which did not come with the house; while I sewed pleated draw drapes for the windows.
We were the first ones to have grass and with a ton of effort, Ken dug up and replanted two mature orange trees in our front yard, from a orchard closing down.
He fenced the back yard and soon added a ranch style porch across the front. Then we paved the carport and driveway.
Our little house came with dark brown tile throughout. Ken covered it with new carpet as jobs permitted. When we moved in we had a card table and chairs in the kitchen, a hand-me-down couch and two lawn chairs in the living room, our brand new box springs and mattress in the master bedroom and our toddlers crib in her room.
How’s that for a “starter home”? It wasn’t easy, but it was exciting and fun too. Millions of young people would like the same chance to own a home today, but the opportunity is not there.
As recently as the l990’s modest three bedroom houses were selling for $99,000 to $l25,000. Our grandson bought their first home for $89,000 in 1994, but no one’s building those today. The economics of the housing market and all the local rules have squeezed out starter homes. Communities passed laws that ensured builders couldn’t construct smaller, more affordable homes. Also the cost of land, building materials and government fees are to blame.
Communities need to allow the building of more starter homes. The supply has been slashed by more than half over the last five years. There is construction for the rich and the poor, but nothing in between.
Cheaper older starter homes are nearly as hard to find. Families who desperately need them are edged out by investors who buy them to rent them out. Sooner or later the laws and regulations on corporations owning huge amounts of small hommes will have to change.
Sadly, those starter homes are now occupied by renters who cannot afford to buy them.