For $600/month you could probably buy a used mobile home with 1000 sf of space and a used car.
And the answer is no. I have a tent bigger than 100 sf.
I currently live in a place that is a totally redone 1 car freestanding garage.
Its about 250 maybe 300 sq ft, I pay 460/mo including all utilities, high speed internet, and cable TV. Tiny but usable kitchen, bathroom is poorly arranged but it has a huge shower (like 3’x7’). I easily fit here…queen size bed, small table and chairs, couple bookshelves.
Its basically a mother in law apt. I have a vehicle size gate accessing a back alley that I drive in and out of. I park right next to my front door.
Am I the only one who sees these things as a sign of the death of the affluent culture?
Think about it. They’re designing those things for what the guy refers to as ‘baristas making $12 an hour’. If that’s full time work (it likely isn’t) that comes to $24,000 per year. And it’s impossible to find a decent place for that. I, for one, see the American Dream of home ownership flying out the window for most people. Especially in the big cities.
Admittedly, one can do so outside the big cities. But that’ll take a cultural change and those are hard to come by.
I left my house outside of Washington five years ago and bought my current place and it’s much larger and much cheaper. I’m in a small town on the Ohio River way away from everything, though.
Still:
Five bedroom (I added one)
Modern home office (just built)
2 bath
3500 square feet (not counting the Silence of the Lambs basement)
$80,000
Still, there’s a change comin’, folks. Don’t have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.
Back in the 60s, when I was in college, I lived in a sort of “communal” house with a bunch of other students & drop outs. It was a huge old house with lots of quirky rooms and passageways. My room was actually an enclosed porch off the kitchen. It was all windows on two sides, and no heat. I think it was far less than 100 square feet.
Some of my housemates were heavily into drugs, and one night the vice squad showed up and raided the house. The place was so big and confusing that anyone who had drugs had enough time to hide or dispose of them. For some reason the cops overlooked the door to my room. I had no idea what was going on, because I slept through the whole thing.
The death of affluent culture may be a good thing over all … do 2 people really need a 3 floor 2000 sq foot condo? Granted, with a wheelchair, I need a bit more space than most people just for rolling around but currently we live comfortably in 800 sq feet and I am processing some 5000 books into electronic text files and tossing the now dead paperbacks [poor things are disintegrating quickly, cheap mass market 60s and 70s and 80s paperbacks, scanning is about the only way to save the books for reading =(]
Jonathon Chance - I disagree. Those $12 baristas are usually young folks just starting out. No 19-year old needs a house, and most aren’t ready to take care of one. This is transitional housing, between going from mom & dad’s or a dorm to real life. I’ve often thought that rooming houses would be a good thing to go back to. For young people, people who travel a lot for work, and people who just make much money. Although, as others have said, $600/month seems like a lot. I have 14 acres and a 160 year old farmhouse and the principal and interest for my mortgage are $450/mo for a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. Taxes and inurance add another $150/mo.
StG
My home is my castle. Right now I rent a decent sized house - not huge, but definitely nice for two people. I want to spend more time at home (and thus save on gas and drive less and spend less outside).
I have a friend who rents a room out. Communal living room and kitchen, shared bathroom, and not dozens and dozens of other roomers to contend with. He has a yard and a garage and charges $400/mo, I believe. (He may have raised it since he started out.
Kalhoun - I’ve been toying with the idea of making my upstairs a small efficiency apartment and renting it out. I have a large college about 15 miles away, and I’m sure I could find a college student who would like to have a place convenient to school where they could live and keep their horse. But I really don’t know if I could handle someone else’s comings and goings. I’ve lived by myself for the last 20 years or so.
StG
Only if the choices were between the room and homelessness. I once spent a week at the shore. It rained half the week so we basically spent all of time in our hotel room. We were miserable. I have a husband, a daughter and a work at home job so we really need at least five rooms: a sleeping space for me and DH, a bedroom for my daughter (who is an awful sleeper), a quiet home office, a kitchen and a place for my husband and my daughter to play so I can get my work done.
I don’t see it that way. I think it’s more of a recognition of the fact that there are other people who desire to live in the city besides lawyers, investment bankers and people in the entertainment industry who make over $100,000 a year.
Although just casually looking at the Seattle real estate web sites, you can certainly do better than 100 sq ft for $600 a month.
I lived in much smaller than that back at the U of Hawaii, in the little cell the East West Center provided me free of charge for being on-call staff. Couldn’t do it these days, though.
Well that’s definitely an issue, but it would be much easier if you could find someone you know. I’m the type that can live forever with the right person, but finding that right person in a stranger might be difficult. If you make their place self-sufficient enough, you may never have to see the person. Is there a full bath up there?
My first Denver apartment was about that size and I lived there with a dog and a cat.
I did have a kitchen, of sorts. One person could stand in the kitchen. Standing there, you could reach everything. (Really it was more of an alcove, but there was a stove and a small refrigerator.) It was fine because at that point in my life I didn’t cook, but I did need someplace to store my beer an Mountain Dew.
However, when my boyfriend came over with his guitar, and took his guitar out of the case, I had to put something else in the case. People laugh when I say this like it’s a joke. It’s not. If I didn’t do this, he didn’t have room to play the guitar.
The chief drawback was, there was only a single bed, and I was sleeping with a dog and a cat, and occasionally the aforementioned boyfriend.
Oh, and the cost of this apartment was $55/month.
I go past these daily. They are on several bus lines, convenient to downtown and the University of Washington, and there is a large grocery store (with deli) a couple of blocks away. Seattle is expensive and many people get priced out of the center of the city, even for renting, and then have to move to places where the bus service is worse. I pay $600 for my studio, but if I moved out they could probably rent it for more.
Sure, I could move to another city, but I was born here, I like it here, and what I lose in square footage I make up for in other intangible amenities.
Okay, Seattle is expensive, but thankfully it is not THAT bad. I live in a 2 bed/2 bath apartment in a normal neighborhood (Lake City for those who know Seattle) and it’s $850. I’ve lived in three 2-bedroom apartments and one 2-bedroom duplex in the last few years and all were $800-860 or right around there, including w/s/g. None were fancy but all were decent and didn’t have roaches (do we even have roaches around here?).
I considered my life very real those 4 years, thankyouverymuch.