Gentrified

originally posted by: wheresthebody

Sorry to hear it, one of the downsides of renting I guess...

I get along great with my parents, we've never even had a real fight, but it's still monstrously depressing to be moving back in with the folks in my late 30s,

Well, at least you have that as an option!

but we are using this as an opportunity to erase our debts and start a new life. To escape this trap.

Erase your debts? Oh, by paying them off while you live rent free with your folks? Excellent plan, I did something similar 35+ years ago after getting over my head in CC debt...

Wish us luck.

Good luck!

The one thing that I hate with the developments where I live is that they are just building neighborhood after neighborhood, but there isn't much to do around here. So we have a butt ton if families moving in with nothing to do, so the kids start making their own fun, and then the cops go all out boomer on them just for skateboarding.

I don't personally have any problem with the kids having their fun, but the real problems start when all these people start moving in and bring their trouble with them. We used to never have as much crime as we do now. We have people shooting each other, abductions/kidnappings, there's even human trafficking now.

So, all the houses around used to be all be in the range of 100k-200k, which included a nice house, and at least a half acre of land, and no HOA Now we have houses, if you can even call them that, that consist of cookie cutter town homes, all stuck together in a row, with a litte backyard, and a little strip of grass in the front all starting at the low 600s/700s. The HOA fees are outrageous.

You used to be able to move out to the sticks and buy a decent plot of land for a low price, but now if you want to do that you have to be prepared to fork over at least a million.

And they STILL haven't built anything to do around here. The local businesses are struggling because the taxes are so damn high, that it's even a wonder that people still try to open up shop.

Most of the jobs around here don't pay well enough for a person to be able to live on their own unless they are in a dual-income relationship.

I'm currently working maintenance at an apartment complex for fun, and I see instances of up to two or three families sharing a one bedroom apartment.

This used to be a farming community, and then it was a factory community, and now it's still a factory community but you barely break even now. Most of the people moving here work government jobs, and/or work upper level type jobs in Nashville. That or they're just trying to make it through MTSU or some other college.

I'm doing well enough on my own, but I really feel for the old families around here.

I've seen wealthy families pretty much become not so wealthy, and I've seen less wealthy families crumble into drug use and alcoholism or oack their things up and go, because they were screwed out of their property.

I don't know what I'm going to doafter I finish with school as far as living situation goes, but I'll probably end up working for the man again and finding a woman who can put up with me just to be able to afford to live somewhere.

a reply to: AutomateThis1

The one thing that I hate with the developments where I live is that they are just building neighborhood after neighborhood, but there isn't much to do around here.

This could be an entire other OP on HOA's.

I read a lot about them and the impact they have on areas. They basically take away money that could be used for common good of a whole area instead of just a neighborhood. Not saying it is right or wrong, but it is happening everywhere. Florida is a perfect example since they seem to have a lot of HOA's.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: AutomateThis1

The one thing that I hate with the developments where I live is that they are just building neighborhood after neighborhood, but there isn't much to do around here.

This could be an entire other OP on HOA's.

I read a lot about them and the impact they have on areas. They basically take away money that could be used for common good of a whole area instead of just a neighborhood. Not saying it is right or wrong, but it is happening everywhere. Florida is a perfect example since they seem to have a lot of HOA's.

HOAs are a necessary evil in planned communities. Unfortunately, some can be a but overbearing but that is entirely on the homeowners. If the homeowners dont like the rules they can change them.

The issue is there are too many people who are self centered and dont know how to be a good neighbor. No one wants to see you working on your car in the driveway or want to live next door to a neighbor who paints his house hot pink. That kind if stuff hurts the values of the entire neighborhood hence why we ha e HOAs.

a reply to: Edumakated

Well the thing that kills me with HOAs the most is that you're basically just forced to pay dues for things you can do yourself. When I lived in Suffolk, VA I had tonoay three different HOA dues. One for maintenance of the neighborhood, one for the park, and one for Spectrum.

I guess I should take some time to make an OO about it. It's rather inconvenient at the moment though because my computer flew out of the window.

I don't want to drift away from the OP, but I do feel itbpertains somewhat tonthe gentrification process.

The last HOA I had to deal with took the communities money and wasted it on mowing the grass every day, installing sprinklers in everyone's backyard even though we were situated right next to a marsh, and for the "communication dues" we were forced into using Spectrum's lowest bandwith package in which they would also try to double charge us. Once in the HOA due, and a second time with a Spectrum bill.

To top it all off the money that wasn't wasted went out of state to some corporate office. So, it's not even like they were really contributing anything to the community at all.

a reply to: AutomateThis1

I was on a HOA board for a very short time. I will never live in another HOA.
The people on the boards have connections and give/get kickbacks from their friends for things like
landscaping etc.
I am a bean counter by profession, and the numbers do not add up. There is always, always always, "missing" money
in HOAs.

I'm at the point in my life where I am more ok with having to look at a neighbor with a broken down car and a goat in their yard than a microgovernment that controls me.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: AutomateThis1

The one thing that I hate with the developments where I live is that they are just building neighborhood after neighborhood, but there isn't much to do around here.

This could be an entire other OP on HOA's.

I read a lot about them and the impact they have on areas. They basically take away money that could be used for common good of a whole area instead of just a neighborhood. Not saying it is right or wrong, but it is happening everywhere. Florida is a perfect example since they seem to have a lot of HOA's.

No one wants to see you working on your car in the driveway or want to live next door to a neighbor who paints his house hot pink.

Not always. It depends on how laid back the area is. There are some funky paint jobs in the Keys, or on any key (island in general) down in FL, as well as on the mainland.

A town I lived in in Florida in the 90's had a bright pink house a few doors down from my best friend's house. And a few doors further up, another neighbor had painted theirs bright purple to be funny.

It wasn't actually a bad neighborhood at all -- that s# was on the other side of town with the mobile homes. The last time I bothered looking up property values around there a few years ago, I was pretty surprised, most of the homes were/are worth at least $300k. Even the pink and purple everyone used to point and laugh at, they're still pink & purple laughingstocks as far as I know, nobody's told me Pinky or the Grape Ape got painted some other color yet. Back when we lived there, houses were worth between $50k and $90k at the most (and you had to have an in-ground pool to push that $90k)