For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 24, 2018

I don’t remember all the details off hand, but I was told it took eight years or so for my parents to own their first home after marriage. My older brother (my only sibling) was born the following year.

Original dialogue:

Panel 3: Twenty-seven thousand dollars

Panel 4: That’s not even a down payment!!

I know they are trying to modernize the comic strip from 1989, but assuming a 10% down payment, then we are talking a $970K house for Phil and Georgia, whose occupations are both as school teachers. $27K might have been a better choice.

We had two kids before we could afford to get into the real estate market. Lucky for us, the market boom had just busted and we could scrape up the minimum down payment. Ten years later, my husband received an inheritance from his grandfather, enough to pay off the mortgage (which we had down to half the original amount by then.) Now it’s our turn to help our eldest. Their down payment is almost double what our first house cost in total! YIKES!

Yep. I inherited my mother’s house with a clear title when I had two babies. My husband and I figured we should buy a larger home as my mother’s ranch home was on the small side with one car carport. After looking, we realized we couldn’t afford to buy a home, new or old. We might be able to buy a small condo which would be smaller than mom’s ranch house. So we stayed at the ranch house until the older graduated and younger was senior in high school when the housing market crashed in 2008, and the prices hit the bottom in 2009. We bought a $400k home for $165k with only 3 percent down. We are still in our new house but I am disappointed we bought it after our sons grew up. However, this is the house where our grandchildren will grow up. One grandson and another on the way.

Renting isn’t much better!

$97,000 is a LITTLE bit more than a downpayment should cost, unless you’re buying $500,000+ homes, which is unlikely for first-time home-buyers in a smaller city/town like where these characters live. So it’s a strange edit.

Though John & Elly originally buying their home for $27,000 sounds like an insane pipe dream. I can’t even imagine… but with inflation, I guess that could happen.

The house next door sold for 150K. Older neighborhood with small yards, woods in back. With a 4% mortgage that is not a big deal. This was 3 years ago. You don’t need to have a mansion for a starter home.

My parents built a 2500 sq ft home in 1961 for $30,000. Sold for over $700,000 in 2005. No renovations or updates, which it sorely needed. Insane.

When my Aunt bought her home in upscale San Marino, it cost $45k. And that was a huge amount then.

That is what central banking does, it prints up money willy-nilly so governments do not have to face the music on debts right away. The excess money is now worth less, like adding water to iced tea. As a result, ordinary people find it harder to make ends meet in budget items such as food shopping and utility bills, and people have to pay more for the same house.

Lynn’s Notes:

My first house cost $27,000. It was a 2-bedroom bungalow with no basement, but it did have a nice sized lot on a ravine with a beautiful view. I’m guessing that same house today would cost well over $800,000.

Realtors in Kansas City love people moving from California. They pay $800,000 for a house that would normally sell for $500,000 and think they are getting a bargain.

Looking for a buyers market? Come to Carthage, Illinois. Three houses for sale on every block! An employer that one hired 1000+ recently left the area.

I remember, back in the mid-80s, going to see a friend’s house that cost $100,000. All I could think of was, “Is that all there is?” The house I lived in as a child in my small town ( 50+ yrs ago) is listed at $90,000, and has much more character and beauty than the friend’s house ever did.

One of those little “stuck in my craw” moments comes, when I recall that back in the early 1980’s that my (then)wife, and I bought a 3 bdrm home in Sedona, Arizona, for $72,000, on a V.A. loan. When I parted company with that EX, she got the house – which was appraised, at that time at over $800,000. And that was 20 years ago !!

Bought a house in 03/1988 for $22,000, with a 30 year mortgage and a really low monthly payment. I was able to pay more on the principal. Five years later, I refinanced to a 15 year loan, with an even lower payment. Paid it off in 06/1999, and lived in it until 04/2010. I now rent it out.

I bought my first house when I was 19 in 1964 (and still live there) for $15,000. 3 bedrooms on a 1 /4 acre lot. Guess I’ll live here until I die.

I wish I could buy a house for $97,000. I bought my one-bedroom condo for $85,000 at the height of the housing market. It’s value dropped about $30,000, so I basically owe what it’s worth at this point. I can’t wait for the day I start renting it.

Just trying to,figure out how one would pronounce “Geo” – since it’s short for,“Georgia”, would it,be pronounced,“Joe”?!

I don’t believe she said that’s what she could afford she said $97,000 is a down-payment and depending on where you look it is. I’m sure they are not looking out of their price range.