[lbo-talk] private property and mortgages

[bitch at pulpculture.org]

At 10:39 AM 2/1/2007, Matt wrote:

>I understand why many on this list reject home ownership because of
>the notion of private property ownership, but a lot of working class
>people seem to want to be home owners.

there's nothing about communism that says you can't have a house or clothes 
or guns or cars or stereos. the private property commies object to is the 
private property of a capitalist: the means of production. see? private 
property in the form of personal things is a-ok dandy. there are some folks 
who argue otherwise. Time for a showing of hands! Who here on LBO envisions 
a commie society where we own nothing, where our cars and stereos and 
clothes are collective property we kind of rent or something?

i'm not opposed to home ownership. i'm opposed to the kid getting into 
debt. he has zippo interest in having roomates. he has zippo interest in 
having keggers, in fact. he's a pretty responsible kid who's major vice is 
that, like his grandfather, he's good at gambling. fucking won $1300 this 
weekend. i have access to his bank acct so i keep tabs on the losing, too. :)

like I said, if he does anything, it'd be get married or move in with the 
current gf. she's still in High school for another year and half, though. 
TG for that. He keeps saying, "Mama, this is the one. I could go out with 
this girl for a long time." (when he first met her, it was marry not "go 
out with." HA!)

And you've got to remember: when I was his age, cracker box houses went for 
$35k and stayed $35k for a decade or more. The house I lived in with the ex 
husband, who bought it in 1974 during his first marriage for $25k, was 
worth $35k in 1994. It's not clear to me that we'll never be back in that 
sitch, though Jordan assures me otherwise. They let the genie out of the 
bottle and the entire economy is hinged on it, it seems. Also, he could 
probably only find a very small three bedroom for $245K and he wouldn't 
find it near any universities. He'd find it 1.5-2 hr commuting time away.

For reference sake, in that same area, the ex bought a house in 1998 for 
$105k, 4 br, 3 bath, den, 2 cg, 3/4 acre, older. It'd probably go for $110k 
right now. This is nothing like the doubling and quadrupling that went on 
in this county. The house I'm sitting in sold for $70k in 1997. Today, it 
would sell for $250k for a 2 br 2 ba. In the old days, in order to have 
made any money on it, I would have had to recarpet, upgrade baths, install 
new lawn, etc. I could sell it today, more run down than it was in 1997 for 
triple without putting in one cent of sweat equity. in the old days, you 
only made $ with sweat equity.






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