The nature of American neighborhoods began to take on a new look this week in 1947. That’s when one of the first planned communities built by a real estate developer opened and began receiving its new residents–Levittown, in New York. Named for William and Alfred Levitt, the town ultimately contained more than 17,000 Cape Cod and ranch houses, snapped up by servicemen returning from World War Two and facing an acute housing shortage. The houses in Levittown had 800 square feet of floor space and sold for under $8,000 dollars. Now, Levittown has a population of about 52,000, with a median home value of almost $376,000. That’s over twice the national median home value of $181,000. You can find more statistics on communities across the country by downloading the Census Bureau’s “dwellr” mobile application at <http://www.census.gov/mobile>.
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The ‘American Dream’ of owning a home has become the American Unobtainable. Now days there’s a choice between owning a car to commute to work or buying a home …if one is fortunate enough to have a job to make that choice.
Soul City worked out real well. Any other planned communities in the area?
Soul City was ruined from day 1, due to the developer supposedly pocketing the money. Amazingly enough, he was a black man and supposedly got away with it. I guess whites aren’t the only ones who know people in the right places after all, lol. Good old Floyd McKissick. I’m sure he is still spending that money.
As for Home Ownership becoming the American Unobtainable, I disagree. People aren’t able to buy homes due to credit. Their credit is messed up because they visit the RedBox too much, they visit the Ruby Tuesdays too much, and they pay their bills too little. We live in a world where people care more about the everyday spoils of life, such as fast food and Wal-Mart toys, more than they do about building their credit and saving up for a down payment on a home. So the Unobtainable Americans are renters by choice. Of course, that’s just my humble opinion.
I agree. It is all about choices and personal commitment and common sense, in my opinion.
Following WW II some 5 million men and women had earned the privileges of the GI Bill. They could sustain themselves as they earned a baccalaureate degree or training then enter the work world with little or no debt. They could buy a home with no money down.
In the past 30 years, legislatures, at the behest of campaign money, skillfully and quietly shifted the cost of higher education onto the backs of the individual student through student loans. A student can no longer attain a baccalaureate degree working summer jobs and part-time jobs without barrowing heavily against their future earnings. Transferring the whole cost of higher education to the individual from society has reaped great financial rewards for the 1% class of society and saddled the 99% with long term debt. Today, a student graduating college with straight “As” owes at least $50,000 in student loans almost half the cost of that “starter home”. That same straight “A” student has difficulty obtaining employment sufficient to repay their student loans within a five or ten year span of time, let alone earn and save the down payment for a home.
Yet, I grew up poorer than poor. I lost my dad at an early age and my mom was working as hard as she could as a secretary. My mom did what she could to make sure we had what we needed, but the luxuries of life we only knew about because we saw our friends have it, not because we had it. But I worked hard in school, knowing the importance of my grades and getting a scholarship. I obtained a full scholarship to go to college, based upon my grades. We can, as a society, make excuses all we want to. However, the truth is the truth. The decisions we make, as kids, carve out our ease or difficulties in life. The decisions we make, as adults, also carve out our ease or difficulties in life. I have certainly made my fair share of bad choices in life but I don’t blame society for the consequences. And I have certainly made some great choices in life that I reap the rewards for still to this day. Student loans are a necessary evil. However, each and every student, no matter what race, creed, background, or familial status, has the opportunity to work hard and get scholarships. I am a living example of that.
Mr. Opinionated,
Congratulations to you, your mother and any siblings. You are a shining example of what can happen with the right DNA, the right support, the right guidance, with just the right mix of good fortune and luck. There are few full ride scholarships so you hit the jackpot on that one.
Since this tread is about home loans lets return to the topic. If as you said student loans are a necessary evil, then you should agree with me that is a burden you never had to carry; just one of those random good fortunes of life that came your way.
You, sir, were the one who switched this topic from home loans to student loans. I am very happy to switch the topic back to what we were speaking on before your first post.