When my family moved from New York to Virginia in 1980, my parents secured a rental for us to move into so that they could save money to buy a house. The rental cost $300/month for a one story ranch style two bedroom house with a back yard. In three years, they had saved enough money for the downpayment on an $80,000 house, and they qualified for a loan for the rest of the money they needed from the local bank. This house is located about an hour away from Washington DC where they worked for the government earning an average (comfortable) salary. They were able to commute comfortably to work for the length of their careers and retire.
Now, rents in that area are around $1100-$1300 for a ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT, not EVEN a two bedroom house. The same feat that my parents accomplished in 1980 - IS NOT POSSIBLE TODAY. Today they would have to be twice as far away from the city where they worked, and we would be cramped into a two bedroom apt, not even a house- and they would be paying a much higher percentage of their salary towards rent, so much so that saving would be well nigh impossible.
When I moved to the East Village of Manhattan in 1995, I was paying $1300 for a two bedroom on St. Marks Place. Now my old apt is $3,000/month. This is more than double the price in only 13 years. There is really, really something wrong with that- this never, ever should have taken place. I ended up living in a series of run down rentals in the borroughs of NYC that had serious consequences for my health, ultimately causing me to go to the hospital due to the over use of pesticides in the last rental I attempted to live in. This is NOT what I signed up for with moving to Manhattan. High rents and mortgages have had negative consequences on most people I know, ranging anywhere from health problems to social problems - being in relationships with people they would really rather not (please don't try to pretend this does not happen, for we all know that it does), or suffering greatly from lack of privacy from cramped living conditions, too many people in an apt, etc.
So how did things get this way in such a short time? How were landlords and the real estate business/mortgage industry able to skew things so far in their favour, with little or no resistance from ordinary people? There SHOULD have been huge marches in the street, bottle throwing, screaming, sign waving and all the rest. What happened? How is it that we allowed our money to be drained and drained and drained without making a peep?
Now, rents in that area are around $1100-$1300 for a ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT, not EVEN a two bedroom house. The same feat that my parents accomplished in 1980 - IS NOT POSSIBLE TODAY. Today they would have to be twice as far away from the city where they worked, and we would be cramped into a two bedroom apt, not even a house- and they would be paying a much higher percentage of their salary towards rent, so much so that saving would be well nigh impossible.
When I moved to the East Village of Manhattan in 1995, I was paying $1300 for a two bedroom on St. Marks Place. Now my old apt is $3,000/month. This is more than double the price in only 13 years. There is really, really something wrong with that- this never, ever should have taken place. I ended up living in a series of run down rentals in the borroughs of NYC that had serious consequences for my health, ultimately causing me to go to the hospital due to the over use of pesticides in the last rental I attempted to live in. This is NOT what I signed up for with moving to Manhattan. High rents and mortgages have had negative consequences on most people I know, ranging anywhere from health problems to social problems - being in relationships with people they would really rather not (please don't try to pretend this does not happen, for we all know that it does), or suffering greatly from lack of privacy from cramped living conditions, too many people in an apt, etc.
So how did things get this way in such a short time? How were landlords and the real estate business/mortgage industry able to skew things so far in their favour, with little or no resistance from ordinary people? There SHOULD have been huge marches in the street, bottle throwing, screaming, sign waving and all the rest. What happened? How is it that we allowed our money to be drained and drained and drained without making a peep?
Oh- I found out today that a 3 bedroom apt on St. Marks between 1st and A, where i lived in 1995-1996, is now going for $6000/month. These landlords are trying to get $2,000 per person per month. Insane.
ReplyDeleteyes, i dont see why so few people are fighting back.
ReplyDelete