New Suburbia Living - homeownership
As someone who recently purchased a home in the land of surburbia in Greenville, SC and is currently living the "American Dream," I found this topic particularly interesting. The house marketing right now is completely a sellers market in Greenville, and, although it was not difficult to find a number of homes that we liked, it was difficult to decide quick enough to purchase a home. (For example, a couple of houses we were interested sold less than an hour after being on the market--which is crazy!) You pretty much have to be ready to make an offer immediately and some people obviously didn't even look at the homes before making an offer they just made an offer to be in certain neighborhoods.
One of the biggest decisions when buying a home is obviously location. Luke and I, along with many other "millennials," would have preferred to have a house that is much closer to the downtown area where we could have walked to work/stores/etc; however, because this is now the "popular" thing to do it has become very expensive to buy anything that is that close to the downtown area. (Although we probably could have rented an apartment for the same, if not more, as our mortgage, but we also really wanted a backyard to host parties and, of course, entertain our dog.)
As the trends keep shifting to people wanting to be closer to things again, I am hopefully (possibly naively so) that now perhaps public transportation will be taken more seriously because the idea of "city-living" is becoming more popular with the upper-class. Since, the upper class may be more likely to take public transportation maybe tax money can start to fund projects that will help transportation downtown and, hopefully, eventually make it out to the suburban places that can't afford to live DT but still want to travel less in cars.
On a side note, the topic of "Alienation," in my experience, has been BS. Growing up, my friends and I were always outside ruling the roads of the neighborhoods, and we were always having block parties with neighbors. There is a certain comradery to living in a neighborhood where you are outdoors taking care of your lawn and visiting with neighbors. Even now, Luke and I walk the dog twice a day and frequently see new people that we never would have without living in the neighborhood. There is something also empowering about home ownership that I am proud of my home and my yard; from buying little pieces of decor to mowing the grass to looking outside the kitchen window while washing dishes, there is a certain pride related to the maintenance of our home: Honestly, I think that the "alienation" of technology is proving to be more of an issue than the alienation of the suburban experience. With teens sitting indoors on their computers and self phones and sitting at dinner tables not paying attention to real life conversation I fear for the future of the public. Perhaps we need more neighborhood and suburban living where parents can feel safe letting their children run around the neighborhood so they can be outdoors and not sitting looking at screens all day. With that I will get off my soap box and bid you a good day. :)
One of the biggest decisions when buying a home is obviously location. Luke and I, along with many other "millennials," would have preferred to have a house that is much closer to the downtown area where we could have walked to work/stores/etc; however, because this is now the "popular" thing to do it has become very expensive to buy anything that is that close to the downtown area. (Although we probably could have rented an apartment for the same, if not more, as our mortgage, but we also really wanted a backyard to host parties and, of course, entertain our dog.)
As the trends keep shifting to people wanting to be closer to things again, I am hopefully (possibly naively so) that now perhaps public transportation will be taken more seriously because the idea of "city-living" is becoming more popular with the upper-class. Since, the upper class may be more likely to take public transportation maybe tax money can start to fund projects that will help transportation downtown and, hopefully, eventually make it out to the suburban places that can't afford to live DT but still want to travel less in cars.
On a side note, the topic of "Alienation," in my experience, has been BS. Growing up, my friends and I were always outside ruling the roads of the neighborhoods, and we were always having block parties with neighbors. There is a certain comradery to living in a neighborhood where you are outdoors taking care of your lawn and visiting with neighbors. Even now, Luke and I walk the dog twice a day and frequently see new people that we never would have without living in the neighborhood. There is something also empowering about home ownership that I am proud of my home and my yard; from buying little pieces of decor to mowing the grass to looking outside the kitchen window while washing dishes, there is a certain pride related to the maintenance of our home: Honestly, I think that the "alienation" of technology is proving to be more of an issue than the alienation of the suburban experience. With teens sitting indoors on their computers and self phones and sitting at dinner tables not paying attention to real life conversation I fear for the future of the public. Perhaps we need more neighborhood and suburban living where parents can feel safe letting their children run around the neighborhood so they can be outdoors and not sitting looking at screens all day. With that I will get off my soap box and bid you a good day. :)
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