affordable housing rules

Jim@lemm.ee to 196@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 385 points –
i.imgur.com
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You think those homes in the frozen north are selling for less than $200,000?

I wish...

Actually, the car that's being towed is the affordable home, not the houses in the background. There is even a subreddit about this, r/priusdwellers (idk if there's a comparable community on lemmy).

No snow, not hot, nothing rural, not conservative? You've just cut out more than 99% of the country. There's barely any snow on that road. That means basically nothing north of, like, Oklahoma.

"Nothing is affordable in the .5% of the country I deem worthy of living in!"

as someone in that country, 0% of it is worthy of living in

I like it pretty well here, we have all things that are good.

Assuming you have employable skills, get a work visa and go live in a country that is "worthy" of you then. Life is short.

I agree life is short, but also you cannot expect me and thousands of other people to just drop everything to follow the vague goal of "get a work visa". Not only does that require a ton of planning (picking a country, finding a job, interviewing, being on waitlists, finding a place to stay, etc), but you have to be financially stable too. What am I supposed to do about my lease that isn't up for several months? What about my pets? My car? My bank accounts? How would I get my medications on whatever new health insurance I'd be on (since every country has different laws for what is over-the-counter VS prescription)? I'd have to leave behind all my friends and family. I'd possibly have to learn a new language, and convert all my money into a new currency. I'd definitely have to learn new labor laws. When my work visa expires would I want to stay in the new country or move back? If I'm staying then I'd have to get citizenship, which is a whole can of worms in itself. The whole "get a work visa" advice sounds awfully similar to the "just get a better job" advice you hear countless times, as if that too isn't insanely difficult unless you Know A Guy and have connections. I would love to work abroad and such, but myself and many others just do not have the energy or financial means to do so, so we're stuck here.

Sorry to hear that. It sounds like that's what the person I was responding plans to do, but I feel for you about feeling stuck. I hope your situation improves.

The snow pic admittedly isn't that bad, but most places aren't as chronically hot as the other pics imply. Many people would have to be straight up suicidal to try and live around such open bigots. I don't have a choice; I have to live away from that shit for my own safety. The worst part is that I hate cities. The extremism from the right has literally ruined rural living for people like me.

Also, if being a treasonous bigot is considered simply "conservative," then we're in deep shit.

They're hyperbolic images. "Winter" is too cold, a heat wave in Arizona is too hot, the house that treason built is too conservative, the house that is falling down with no visible community around it is too rural.

My point is simply that if one's criteria is "can't be: hot, cold, conservative, or rural," you're discounting the overwhelming majority of the country. If you'd like to debate the finer, literal details of each individual photograph, that's fine. I was responding to what they seem to connote rather than strictly what they denote.

Honestly, we need to teach ourselves and our children that owning a house isn’t all that great and dandy since we’ll just be torturing ourselves about not having one. Just go with having to pay a landlord and/or a studio apartment, just whatever to get everyone to live with the times.

And? It's a big country

Good job.

You're full of great arguments. But I don't think any of them top "you got preferences? That's stupid"

No, I said something more like "if you make your preferences so limited that you discount 99.5% of your possibilities, you're going to find yourself with very few options." Which is, more or less, a truism.

Sorry I hurt you.

The more common viewpoint which actually deserves criticism is "I was born here and that makes it the best place so I would never travel or live anywhere else. I prefer exactly one 200 mile radius, forever".

This viewpoint is very common in the "99.5%" of the world I'm "missing out on"

? Yes, I suppose that would deserve criticism. There are innumerable common viewpoints about all kinds of things that probably deserve criticism, but I don't think we have the space or time to litigate them all here...again, this is a comment thread responding to the original post...

I have all of the preferences you criticize and that leaves me with... Several options.. that I actually would want to live in. And shockingly , my preferences don't absolutely dictate where I live because I understand nothing is perfect. It's a big country and world. Let people have preferences without being weird about it

You realize this is a comment thread that is responding to the OP's "starter pack" image, right? The entire premise of the image is: I have extremely bounded preferences, but it's unfair I can't buy a house for 200K based on those preferences.

Did you buy the home you currently own in a location that satisfied these preferences for 200K or less? Or are you just responding to my response and not the image to which I was responding?

I have no problem with people having exceptionally limiting preferences, but it seems silly to then complain about the lack (or cost) of those very limited options.

That's like a few inches!? As a Canadian, there's no where that doesn't get that. I live in the mildest city in the country, and we get more than that most years.

Around here 2 inches will shut down every business and school in the state and cause huge pileups regularly at intersections and on highways. It's not always about the amount of snow but about how prepared the community is to handle it. Plus when warmer climates do get winter weather it can be worse on the roads than colder locations because the snow will often partially melt then refreeze as a smooth slab of ice.

I think that's actually what this meme is intending. All of these are indicative of the US south.

Top left looks sick

I love driving in the snow but most people where I live suck at it. We have so many accidents each winter

Here in Germany you get a garage for 200k. If you're lucky. Small houses you can live in start at half a million! They press you into paying till you're old, and they're doing it for decades. I worked hard and creatively to never get caught in this, I'm in my mind 40s now and slowly I could buy or build a house. But now my children are adults and we don't really need one. So what, let's waste the money. Creatively ;)

Our family recently purchased a house with two floors for 100k. Its in RLP and pretty close to a city. So it is still possible to find acceptable prices, but you really gotta look.

Minneapolis will definitely get snow, but there isn’t towing in that depth of snow. That’s child’s play.

It’s a truly lovely place to live though. Yeah winters are a chore, but we go hard in summer. And there’s some excellent camping within less than an hour’s drive.

Twin Cities for $200k? Fuckin where?

Alright I forgot about that one. But I think the East Side of Saint Paul and North Minneapolis both have some cheap housing. Not great neighborhoods, but they’re on the up.

Ain't nothing like the sound of the leaves, when the breeze penetrates these southside trees.

Leanin' up against one, watchin the vibe, forgettin' all about the stress, thanking god I'm alive.