June // 2008 // half butter. half salt.

I’m a first-time home buyer – or looking to buy anyway – in one of the most expensive markets in the country, San Francisco. Housing here was already pretty pricey in 2000, but ballooned out of control in the frenzy of the following years thanks to low interest rates and the availability of cheap money and interest-only loans. Now, it costs double to buy in some neighborhoods than it did when I moved here 8 years ago.

My question is this: How much of this inflated market was caused by real supply and demand issues and how much was built on false premises that opened the floodgates of homeownership to people whom we now know could not afford to buy (because they are foreclosing now)?

What I’m getting at is the problem now really is affordability – not a crashing market. Inventory is still moving here. Prices have come down a tad, but we’re still looking at an income vs. cost of housing ratio that is out of whack. (Here anyway – every market is in a different situation.)

With that in mind, shouldn’t our politicians be focusing on fixing the affordability problem rather than fixing the bad loans with solution plans like this one reported today by the NY Times?

Let’s take a long-term approach over the band-aid fix.

Is there a way we can learn from the mistakes of this housing disaster to keep the costs of living within reach for hard-working families who made levelheaded financial decisions? Can we figure out a way to use the shrapnel from the downturn to create real affordable housing that is not just another contained “projects” area of a city?

I realize it’s idealistic in nature, but love the discussion…

I’ve been reading “What Is the What,” by Dave Eggers, the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys who lost his family in the war and genocide that still plagues Sudan. It’s hard to read this book and not find myself fascinated by the differences that each of us experience in life. As I was watching episodes of Punky Brewster and rockin’ out to my newest Madonna tapes, Achak was walking hundreds of miles to Ethiopia with no idea whether he would ever see his family again, whether he would be alive from day to day and if so, for what?

What’s fascinating is that I struggle with “the what” of my privileged western life — same questions, vastly different circumstances. I believe we all do.

But “what” has changed meaning for me since reading this book. I feel I can see it more clearly now, though I’d struggle to explain it here. The human struggle is eternal and demands respect. It’s the details that make us pay attention, pull us through a narrative that ends with the pure pleasure of drinking a glass of clean water in the company of someone we love.

If you haven’t already, read “What Is the What” and push yourself outside your comfort zone. Eggers’ artful hand at story-telling will show you the situation in a way you probably have not seen.

How does this help people afford homes?

The Art of Story-telling

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