Home ownership changes behavior
In our long journey from impetuous barbarity to sober pomposity,
we in the male team go through several stages of growing responsibility, including job, spouse, house, and children, each of which in its way further civilizes us — and in so doing, improves urban neighborhoods, as illustrated by this little Washington Post tale of accidental habitants:
After returning from his job as a writer for the American Civil Liberties Union one evening this spring, William Potter grabbed an iron pry bar and, with a few whacks, demolished the kitchen of his Petworth rowhouse.
For Potter, 25, this act of destruction was just another thing he thought he would never accomplish so early in life. He certainly didn’t think so a year ago, when he was living frugally in a group house in Mount Pleasant and saving for a down payment. Now the first-time homeowner has a second job: rehabbing his house to a livable standard.
Even the prospect of homeownership changes behavior for the better, to the point where it astonishes those who may have despaired for a youth:
Potter said that because of his youth, he struggled during his search to convince family and friends that his desire to buy was serious, though he remained firm and found a real estate agent he trusted. He bought his house, an 82-year-old three-bedroom on
Significantly, savings always precedes borrowing:
Potter used savings and money from a personal injury lawsuit settlement to put 10% down.
Meanwhile, personal household mobility and limited financial resources make these first-time homeowners urban enterprisers:
Still, there is a notable group who, like the “urban pioneers” of the 1970s, seek to take risks on up-and-coming D.C. neighborhoods in the hope that their willingness to buy houses rather than apartments now gives them space to grow as they start families later.
It’s not always easy. For one thing, as prices in the District have soared, gentrification has come under fire from those who say that new, well-off homeowners are displacing long-time, poorer residents. Potter said his neighbors “either see me as increasing the property value — that’s a good thing — or as a gentrifier. [These are, of course, precisely the same thing — Ed.] I don’t know. I don’t really feel like either. I guess I’m both. There’s no way around it.”
It has long been part of the human tradition to use the intergenerational extended family to boost youngsters onto the financial ladder:
Some receive financial help from parents, who give thousands toward down payments and hope that the area’s lucrative real estate market will offer a hefty return. Others take on roommates to help shoulder the burden.
Equally striking is how aspirant homeowners become responsive customers of government incentive programs:
After four years of renting rooms in group houses throughout
Larger configurations offer tenure flexibility and encourage homeowners to become amateur landlords:
To the help pay the bills, he took in two roommates.
Similarly:
When Potter learned that a friend was moving to
Potter hopes to begin work on the kitchen by August. Not coincidentally, that’s about the same time he will plunge into credit card debt for the first time.
The behavioral change is not limited to the purchase decision: new homeowners significantly reprogram household expenditures, directing them into property:
With prices rising, Matthew Even, 28, said that he and his wife, Megha, would no longer be able to afford to buy their W Street rowhouse, between the Shaw and
The couple admit that they wish they had been better prepared when they took out an interest-only loan to purchase their 1,000-square-foot rowhouse two years ago for $305,000. Both work for nonprofit groups; they did not have any money to put down.
Though the couple recently refinanced, they cannot afford to frame the art prints they have collected over the years. Trips to
Ownership teaches savings in the most tangible way possible:
With the house’s electricity in need of an upgrade, and other projects including the installation of a new heat pump looming, the couple say they have learned that they must save for unanticipated costs. They want to remodel the kitchen, but that will have to wait.
“We’ve been trying to save for it, but every time, we come across new expenses and have to start over,” Megha Even said.
They also become amateur renovators:
Being “house poor” is an experience that many young homeowners share. Unable to spend money to pay others to make necessary repairs, some are gaining valuable home improvement skills.
They start thinking into the future:
Until a new stove arrives, though, dinner means anything that can be heated in the toaster oven he has set up in a makeshift kitchenette in his dining room.
Nonetheless, Potter is happy with his decision to buy.
“I can do whatever I want; no one is going to kick me out,” he said. “One of the first things I did, I rode my bike around the house.”
There were no obstacles that day; there still aren’t.
“I can’t afford furniture,” he said.
