If they had bene smart and paid for a $75,000 house they could easily afford more in life instead of barely getting by. They would then owe nothing and then be able to enjoy the fruits of their work a lot more easily. They would have more security too and for the life of me, they do not need a $230,000 dollar house.
My guess is she is trying to buy her way into a better neighborhood for her children.
They live in the DC area; $75,000 wouldn't get you a boarded up crack den.
They need to be renters, and even then they're going to pay at least $1000 a month for something livable.
Maybe where you live it’s different, but a 75K home in the greater Phoenix area would put my family smack in the middle of Gangtown, Little Mexico. No thanks. Sometimes it’s a hard decision for families who want to be in safe neighborhoods but have to find somewhere affordable enough.
Don't know where you live but in DC you CAN'T get anything that you'd want to live in for $75,000. In DC a $230,000 house is still below average.
Because we had sons to protect from growing up around dangerous elements in society, we bought expensive middle class properties that we would not have bought otherwise.
People make choices to offset a set of problems and often they make sacrifices in another aspect of their lives.
This does not mean they are poor as suggested in this article. They were rich enough to have a choice for their family beyond the ghetto. They are making a sacrifice in expendable income to have that life for their family.
No offense, but where in hell do you live where there are even 75k houses on the market? Haiti?
Are there truly safe places to live for $75,000 in your neck of the words? $75,000 would get you a gutted, foreclosed crack-house here, and thugs would drive a family out before the first payment was made.