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Posted on 08/22/2017 7:23:20 AM PDT by Jagermonster
High housing costs have prompted some in the middle and upper classes to rethink what they value – and be willing to give up the rest.
SEATTLE; AND LOS ANGELES — When Shawna Nelson leaves her office in Seattle’s suburbs, she does what 28-year-olds often do: dines with friends, goes out dancing, or sees a show. Sometimes she hits her swanky gym.
But at the end of the night Ms. Nelson always returns to Dora, the dusty Ford Explorer she calls home. In the back, where a row of seats should be, lies a foam mattress covered with fuzzy animal-print blankets. Nelson keeps a headlamp handy for when she wants to read before bed. Then, once she’s sure she won’t get ticketed or towed, she turns in for the night.
“I still strive to have some sort of routine,” says Nelson, who started living in her car about a year ago. “Would I rather spend $1,200 on an apartment that I’m probably not going to be at very much, or would I rather spend $1,200 a month on traveling?”
For her, it was an easy choice.
She’s not alone. As housing costs soar, US communities have faced ballooning homelessness, declining homeownership, and tensions over gentrification. But the rising expense of homes, when combined with the demographic, cultural, and technological trends of the past decade, has also prompted a more positive phenomenon: smaller, leaner living. This conscious shift, mainly among portions of the middle and upper classes, springs from a desire to live more fully with less.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
I’ve camped outside in single-digit temperatures, so cold weather doesn’t bother me as long as the vehicle starts in the morning!
How does she get mail?
Just look for the plastic gallon milk jug left (with contents)left on the curb in the morning. After all, that what I see on the side of highways from truckers. Not sure about #2 though.
Pretty sure that’s not the type of girl I’d bring home to mom, but hey, that’s me.
I assume she doesn’t get much, and what she does get is sent to either a P.O. box or her place of employment.
Hmmm... notice the toilet paper roll on her left. Nice.
Having said that...at 28? Was getting married and house shopping, and planning for kids, and a full-time white collar professional for a Fortune 100 company. Can't imagine living in my car at that age, and if I had to, my first priority would be to stop. Some people just don't know when to grow up. You're right, it sounds like she's still playing house.
And when someone breaks in, because face it, no matter how noble or "fancy" the article makes it look, she's just living on the street...she'll decry the injustice of it all.
This is almost the modern version of a pioneering spirit that drove people to wander across the plains without settling down anywhere for very long.
I think the "slums and health hazards" threat is minimal -- mainly because I suspect very few people would have any interest in living like this. LOL.
sleeping bag on the street.. next up homeless shelter...I suppose what this woman is doing is next although there is a whole range. Not going to work too well in a smart car. This lady is at least in an SUV. You can keep going up to luxury motor home I guess. Trailer park and maybe houseboat before you get to apartments and detached houses. Camping is somewhere in the mix there too.
Every economic policy over the last 40 years has been designed to lower the wages, per capita GDP, of the so called middle class. It worked.
expensive apartment/condo living in California is fine if you can afford to throw your money away to pay someone elses mortgage. the more affordable apartment living is crap. bad neighbors, bad maintenence, bad landscape, bad pest control, bad management.
Actually there are plenty of affordable places with a good environment. Look at the electoral map of red counties. Most of these counties offer cheaper living and a better way of life than any county marked in blue.
This woman should use the Ford for what it was designed for: driving away from the blue cesspool.
Why don't people realize that there is opportunity everywhere in the USA!
Darn right. I have one tenant (because landlording is an extreme sport). He pays less than 400/month for a single detached 3BR house in a good neighborhood (because it isn't Manhattan or Chicago). I don't need the income, and he causes no headaches, and he keeps the wildlife at bay; so it's all good. But the going rate would be 800 at most.
You want to live where an apartment costs over a thousand, you want it bad enough to live in a car...go for it. Still, even a "desirable location" has tax sales and fixers that are cheaper (and more secure) than your next car.
So, the money that could be used to rent an apartment is instead going for a "swanky gym" membership, eating out, plus "entertainment".
A moderately attractive 28 year old should be able to find some guy who would be happy to let her live in his place and sleep in his bed -- unless she is a complete nut case who nobody would want to live with.
>>>If there are any real estate developers out there reading this, please FreeMail me. I have had some ideas about this for some time, and it might be worth a conversation.<<<
The reason there isn’t a real estate solution is because the powers that be make it so one doesn’t exist. This woman would be happy living in a SRO. Single room occupancy. Imagine a floor of a dozen rooms with a few toilets and showers in a bath on the floor. Double that to two floors, one for men, one for women. You could probably do all that with a footprint of 40’ x 75’. 48 units with a rent of just $400 a month would be a potential gross income of $230K per year.
Now do the math on what it would cost to build said property and you know real estate investors would build that in a heartbeat. But they don’t exist because zoning laws don’t allow such a structure to be built. No, you gotta have a bath and kitchen in each unit. There are also limits on the density, number of units per lot size. All these are done to make such a building I described as illegal. And thus an affordable housing options many would be happy to have over a typical apartment, can not possibly exist.
The problem is government and said restrictions. Not everyone wants to pay the costs of a full fledged apartment. I personally find it asinine that local towns all over discriminate against the poorest of our countrymen in this manner.
Yes. I know people that are living in camp trailers. Cheaper than buying a house and has the amenities. I also know a lot of people who live on boats. Same with the amenities. In communities where a decent 1 bedroom apartment is $1800 per month $700 for living on a boat is cheap.
This gal is just living on the street in the back of her car. It’s a no go and dangerous.
Insurance is much, much lower as well.
That's in red state flyover. Having moved here from the big city, I can also attest that I'd see the opposite if I'd been foolish enough to stay in an urban area.
How stupid. Leave Seattle.
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