We’re not millennials,but student debt, a lack of inherited wealth and the real-estate dealings of the rich effect domestic ownership out of our reachThe holiday season in New York City means invitations from colleagues and friends to parties at their newly renovated brownstones or apartments they’ve just bought in one of any number of rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The invitations are great, and the parties are lovely – but their domestic ownership never fails to ignite a fresh new sense of angst for those of us in our fourth decade of life who still don’t own a domestic and probably never will.
My husband and I do fine – we can (for now) afford to rent an apartment in one of the more appealing Brooklyn neighborhoods,where the average rent rose by 77% between 2000 and 2012. But we tumble into both of the criteria that tend to support domestic ownership out of reach for middle-income New Yorkers: we advance from families who are unable to succor financially in any way, much less with a down payment on a New York City apartment. And also, or my son and I are black,which makes us, at least partially, or a black family. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com