Humble Pie
We've been checking out real estate. Knowing full well that we can't afford to buy a cute, little 3-bedroom home in San Francisco (for the average price of nearly $1 million), we've been looking into different cities.
It seems that wherever we want to live, someone has discovered it first. It's been very daunting. I find myself pouting and thinking that all I want is a smallish, 3-bedroom place with a cute kitchen in which to make blueberry pie for my husband and future children.
We were especially discouraged today, after perusing Redfin, a site that shows real estate listings with photos, as well as price drops. Yes, prices have come down significantly in many areas. Unfortunately, this being our first home, we have no equity on which to rest our lofty home-buying goals. It seems we will be relegated to a crappy, 80s-style 2-bedroom condo in our town of choice. Unless, that is, prices fall by more than $100K by next year.
But, as I was saying, today we had ourselves worked up, until Bryan asked me if we were poor. It's a perfectly valid question, given that we have tried to live as frugally as we can, but still can't seem to save enough for a starter home in any decent area.
When he asked that, I remembered my Peace Corps experience. I said, "No, we're not," and I found an internet tool that proves it.
Global Rich List
I found this tool at The Wall Street Journal website. The article from which I got it is also interesting.
We are in the less-than-1% richest range for global richness. We are richer than more than 99% of the world's population!
So, I feel better about a crappy, 80s-tastic condo than I did earlier today. Sometimes, I forget to be grateful for what I have.
It seems that wherever we want to live, someone has discovered it first. It's been very daunting. I find myself pouting and thinking that all I want is a smallish, 3-bedroom place with a cute kitchen in which to make blueberry pie for my husband and future children.
We were especially discouraged today, after perusing Redfin, a site that shows real estate listings with photos, as well as price drops. Yes, prices have come down significantly in many areas. Unfortunately, this being our first home, we have no equity on which to rest our lofty home-buying goals. It seems we will be relegated to a crappy, 80s-style 2-bedroom condo in our town of choice. Unless, that is, prices fall by more than $100K by next year.
But, as I was saying, today we had ourselves worked up, until Bryan asked me if we were poor. It's a perfectly valid question, given that we have tried to live as frugally as we can, but still can't seem to save enough for a starter home in any decent area.
When he asked that, I remembered my Peace Corps experience. I said, "No, we're not," and I found an internet tool that proves it.
Global Rich List
I found this tool at The Wall Street Journal website. The article from which I got it is also interesting.
We are in the less-than-1% richest range for global richness. We are richer than more than 99% of the world's population!
So, I feel better about a crappy, 80s-tastic condo than I did earlier today. Sometimes, I forget to be grateful for what I have.
posted by Bert at 6:20 PM
2 Comments:
Huh. I checked out our richness, too, and I guess I'll stop complaining next time I have to shop the clearance racks at Target. Interesting stuff!
THANK you. I am telling people this all the time. Now I will have a link to which I can direct them.
What really gets me is my middle-class peers "hating" the rich and complaining about people who have apparently so much more than them. If you realize we are in the upper single digits in percentile, then you realize that the difference between me and the people in my town with the six bedroom house is negligible. The difference in our standards of living does not register. So not worth thinking about.
And chin up! Who gets a place they like much at all for their first home? After all, it's something to build on. And at least you didn't get deep into debt buying something that now is worth less.
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