I’m torn between Merlot and Chardonnay—those houses in that new Lennar development behind the Auto Mall. I mean, they both have the Shaker-style wood cabinets with crown molding. All the bathrooms have the elongated comfort seat toilets. And a whole list of other luxury features.
There is one difference—would it be better to get Chardonnay (notes of apple and papaya) with the electronic systems preconfigured for easy DIY set-up with the Activation Guide? Or maybe opt for Merlot (moderate acidity and soft but present tannins) with the benefit of all-configuration done-BEFORE move-in?
Merlot is available for $459,950 (not even half a mill). Chardonnay is less: $444,950.
Alas, when I put in my household income of $74,000 (just under the median for Thurston County) their mortgage calculator just froze up. I couldn’t even qualify for the varietal I’m not familiar with: Hamilton at $439,950.
I wonder if there are any homes for sale in Olympia that wouldn’t cost nearly half our take-home pay. Not houses that are the equivalent of wine. Maybe houses that, if you want to compare them to a drink, would be more like water: basic, essential and made available to anyone in the city. Regular toilet seats, and I could provide my own wi-fi setup. I could afford a house like that.
Otherwise, there’s always the homeless encampment across the street from Wellington Heights.
(With thanks to Southwest neighbor Toby)
How about a mobile home in a mobile home park? You don’t own the land on which it sits, but the home (and the toilet) are yours. Mobile home parks are increasingly the only resort for those of us with incomes that in our youths would have seemed princely, but that in our dotage are barely adequate to keep body and soul together. The country’s “poverty level” is so impossibly low that those of us who have two or three times that amount per year find ourselves challenged to live paycheck to paycheck with little that could be construed as luxury in our budgets. How do families survive whose income is at or below the officially recognized “poverty level”? Whoever sets that level is in desperate need of a reality check! Even the proposed $15/hr minimum wage will not be adequate in most urban areas and many other semi-urban or even some rural parts of this country. Congress needs to try living on what the rest of us deal with!