The Absent Uncle: The cost of living

I was having a conversation with a friend a few days ago and we got into talking about the cost of living – or – as it is referred to today – “affordability”.

I harkened back to my folks building a new house on the farm in the summer of 1967.  They took out a loan with the FHA for $14,500! Considering they already had the land and probably had to use some of their own money, they built a new house for less than $20,000!

Again, realizing that I was probably paying less than 20 cents a gallon for gas in my car, I got to thinking about everything that has changed since the summer of 1967.

I rented a cottage a block from the ocean in San Diego for $110 a month in 1973. In 1978 we bought a house in San Diego for $45,000 that recently sold for just short of a million dollars in 2022. 

We rented a house in the Bay Area of California for $1,200 a month – which I thought was outrageous at the time in 1987 – that is on the market currently for $1.2 million! 

We bought property and a home in Kansas, got a fair return and were able to sell the property at a profit when we moved to Texas and had a wonderful home to raise our son for 20-plus years.

We bought a house here in the Houston area in 2018 that is now worth – according to the realtors – 50 percent today more than we paid for it then.

When I assimilated all that information, I realized how fortunate I have been. Goodness knows how some of these transactions could have been disastrous.

So that brings us to today. Just outside of our neighborhood a new development has sprung up. A collection of two-, three- and four-bedroom single-family homes that will forever be for rent. Never to be owned by the occupant.

The reason? The cost of living. And today’s young people can’t afford it. Ultimately, we will all pay for this – some less than others – but we need the young people of today to ascend to the American Dream. Prosper, Settle, Invest, Succeed.

Right now, I don’t see it for them – we need a change.