Today, in some parts of the country, there are few on the market for less than $300,000 similar to the American starter homes of the last 70 years. In Raleigh, North Carolina, there were 17 single-family homes with at least two bedrooms for sale this weekend, and he had six across the subway in Denver. Around Salt Lake City, three.
In Houston, Felecia Ellis drives around on her lunch break from the dentist’s office, looking for such homes in the $200,000 to $250,000 range.
“I’m driving around the neighborhood and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, this is a beautiful house, I know I can afford it,'” Ellis said. Then she pulls out her phone in her first-time homebuyer’s wishful rite, and the answer on her list is often, in fact, that she can’t afford it. is.
“And I’m like, ‘You must be kidding me,'” she said. “‘This house is $425,000.'”
“Flexible, adaptable”
Starter homes have always done a lot of work. It builds equity, creates stability, and provides shelter from landlords and inflation.It was an incubator for small businesses and community institutions Day care center etc.And in its previous form and time, it was more adaptable. Just add a bathroom when indoor plumbing arrived, a second unit to collect rent income, cars became commonplace. Just add a garage when you need it.
Marta Gutmann, Dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture, City University of New York, said: