> On Mar 23, 2007, at 10:05 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
>> One thing that really defies my understanding of this country is why on
>> earth even the poorest schmuck insists of individual home ownership
> On 2007-03-23 14:25:36 +0000 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Roediger has an interesting chapter on that issue in his latest whiteness
> book - owning a house was an important part of the whitening process for the
> southern and eastern European immigrants in the early 20th century. It often
> meant a tremendous financial sacrifice, but they didn't care.
I don't understand why everyone is so down on home ownership. There is a housing crisis in Ireland at the minute because of vastly inflated house values. This despite an economy seemingly built entirely on constrcution. Right now, the *cheapest*, smallest house in Dublin will set you back no less than €500,000. It seems to me that owning a house is a desire for stability and security.
I recently interviewed an architect who is proposing larger, more flexible apartments suitable for family life. This is a model of housing that is popular in many European cities such as Paris and Amsterdam. This *might* a step in the right direction but it will never suit everyone, perhaps not even the majority of people. More importantly though, it remains to be seen if the Irish can successfully adopt such developments. Certainly, despite our wealth, we have failed to develop a quality of life equal to that in France or Germany. Amid all of this we have never ending yapping about 'urban sprawl' and an urban-led desire to stop all building of individual single houses in the countryside.
Quite apart from that, given the Irish political class's preference for Anglo-American models of economic development it seems unlikely, to me at least, that Irish developers could be convinced to provide decently sized apartments at anything like a reasonable price.
Jason.
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