• McNasty@sh.itjust.works
    101·
    1 year ago

    I’m solid GenX.

    My grandparents bought a house on a corner lot in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for $6000. Which was about a years salary for Grampa, who worked as a welder. This was in the late 60s.

    ETA: Their mortgage was around $50.00 a month.

    • BigNote@lemm.ee
      452·
      1 year ago

      I’m GenX as well and I will straight up admit that my wife and I got lucky, purchased a house in a “distressed” neighborhood in Portland because it was all we could afford, and now, 20 years later, the neighborhood is fully gentrifying and our house and property is worth way more than what we owe on it.

      I’m conflicted as to how to feel about it. While on the one hand we very innocently bought the place because it was in a shitty neighborhood and was all we could afford, on the other hand I now know that we were what the urban studies people refer to as “bohemian colonizers,” meaning that without knowing it, we were, by moving into the neighborhood as poor artist types, part of a much longer process of gentrification.

      Again, I am of several minds regarding how I feel about the whole thing.

      • garden_boi@feddit.de
        47·
        1 year ago

        be poor

        move to a poor neighbourhood

        I really don’t think that you should feel bad about this personally :)

      • 31337@sh.itjust.works
        27·
        1 year ago

        Meh, gentrification is the result of bad policy, not personal, individual choices (except maybe for people flipping houses and landlords). Neighborhoods, and the people in them, should not stay poor forever. Rent controls, grants for people to start businesses or coops or whatever, allowing mixed-use zoning, and stuff like that can reduce the harmful affects of gentrification.

      • trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world
        21·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, I don’t think you should feel bad. You can’t really individually control processes like this and well… you needed a place to live.

      • kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world
        10·
        1 year ago

        You shouldn’t feel guilty for being lucky. Just pay it forward to your community if you can or care.

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I feel bad because I think the house I sold went to a landlord. At the time it didn’t really occur to me that a cash offer probably implied land lord. I put some blame on my real estate agent for pushing lower cash offers over higher loan offers but it still makes me upset. The HOA in that neighborhood only allower 10% of the homes to be rented out and when we moved in they had a ton of signs saying that. I assumed that would be the case when we were selling.

        It was one of the nicest while still being affordable townhomes in the area.

        It doesn’t keep my up at night or anything but at the same time it’s not like I’m going to be selling my current house soon. It’s an opportunity you only get so often.

      • kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world
        23·
        1 year ago

        It’s disgusting. And even more disgusting at America and Canada’s disregard for the unavailability of owned housing at an even remotely appropriate cost.

    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
      8·
      1 year ago

      Today a the median yearly salary for a welder is a bit less than $40,000.

      For this price you can maybe get a camper, not too big though.