if you use the phrase "be normal" as if it's something to aspire to, kindly take a long walk off a short plank. or block me. whichever is easier for you.
child of the 80s
i escaped a cult.
all of the content warnings.
all of them.
tag: exerian's tragic backstory
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i don't think it's talked about enough how much homeownership is also often a trap.
let's see. there's the mortgages, the homeowners associations, and the way they like to restrict access to certain amenities based on your zip code. did I miss any of the big ones?
Well, the loan is, not so much the ownership right? Or are you getting at something else?
people are often encouraged to buy at the top of their price range, because they're looking for a specific area (which is, yk, normal)
but that means if the seller lied and there's actually deep mold, or the wiring is knob and tube so insurance won't cover it, or the foundation is slumping / water damage in the basement etc and you didn't do a shitton of research most people don't have the time to, you can be in debt several hundred k more just to make it somewhere you like, want to be living in. especially in pre-1900s cities.
there's so many traps like that that renting generally insulates from, but really hurt the people who were either convinced or needed to buy homes, it's just a shuffling around of the precarity in ways that hide it but are still there, no slack in the system, everything about to burst. especially since these buyers, too, are being exploited by the institutional investors buying all of these up to flip into rentals.
And the occasional inability to sell the thing when your entire life changes and you need to move on. 😬
