I’m sure you accomplished that with smart planning, discipline and hard work, and it is commendable. The difficulty is, not everyone can work for themselves, and not everyone can leave California for the cheaper housing in Texas. You sound like a resourceful single guy? A woman is not going to have that degree of flexibility.
I’m thinking of friends of mine who live in the Frisco bay area. 2 ladies sharing an apartment, both widowed. One is retired with social security and a tiny pension as her only income. The other has a good job at a high-tech company.
Their rent is about $2000 per month for a 900 sq foot, plain apartment in a run-down area. The tough part is the rent goes up 20% per year no matter what, like clockwork. The reason they are in this lower-class area is they had to move out of their nice apartment because they could not keep up with the rent increases. Now in a few years they will be forced to move again. It’s simply impossible to keep up.
What I really don’t understand is how the rents can increase beyond people’s ability to pay, and yet the apartment complexes have waiting lists?!? Who are the people that can afford thousands of dollars each month just for rent?
Your beginning tells it all, renting is bad. I can’t even imagine an older person on a fix income thinking they’ll be able to pay future rents. Sure property taxes are bad but not like rent. I have a wooded property here in Texas that I could easily convert into a million dollar ranch about 40/50 miles north of Houston but only pay now about 400 in property taxes. But once I convert the taxes would be catastrophic. I’d love to convert it to a nice ranch with steel fencing but they’ll tax the hell out of me for the buildings, meaning barns
Section 8 Vouchers can be a couple thousand dollars a month, depending on family size. People take in multiple roommates (very typical in CA - check Craigslist). Also folks with unreported income (drug dealers, identity thieves, scam artists, etc. - use your imagination).
Even though interest rates are low, many people cannot get a mortgage due to FICO issues after losing a job, unexpected health-care expenses, etc. Banks are afraid to loan money because of all the onerous regulations and potential liabilities. Plus, banks still have a lot of REO properties on the books and they are afraid of having even more if the economy goes further South. Banks have even refused to foreclose on many properties for which they are receiving no mortgage payments. If they foreclose, they will have to admit how many REO's they actually have in their portfolios and the Fed can shut them down.
Mexicans will happily live 5 people to a single bedroom.