Week 22- Sis

Lisa's blog has touched on the sad housing losses of many and I'm sure all can emphasize with her thoughts. In the past two years I have seen this once complete enclosure end up looking like a picket fence or maybe I should say, "pick it" fence. So where are these fence planks? Were they taken to build a smaller, cost free, one? Did they fuel a fire to warm a home? Someone build a raft to float down the filled rivers? I am totally perplexed by this mystery and also wonder where the handicap sign went that use to be attached to this post. Is it being used to ensure a mooring slot for the missing plank raft now owned by someone with a pegleg? 

Week 22 - Lisa

After much contemplation we decided to start house hunting again.  I will not go into the reasons why but we plan to stay in ATL for a spell.  One thing for sure is apartment living is wearing thin.  Just adding a dog has somehow made the place shrink a bit.  And we keep adding things to our household that are sitting in storage - aggravating.

In the 1.5 years after we stopped searching much about the market has changed.  Homes we looked at in the 200k's are now in the 100k's.  That "should" make me feel happy but I feel sadness and frustration.  My sadness is for the people who have lost these homes.  We drive up and see basketball hoops with cobwebs, old toys, broken fences, empty hot tubs, unattended gardens and you cannot help but wonder about the lives that abandoned these once lovely homes.  You think about whether their life situations are now better, the same or worse?  Then there's the folks selling their homes. The stress and agony we went through trying to walk away with a decent profit; after pouring our heart, souls and cash into improving our property and not get what you want is heartbreaking and I so feel for those in the same situation.  Especially when you walk through homes where you can see the efforts they made to upgrade or just the care they took in maintaining it.

My frustration is that even though the prices have dropped and we were blessed to make a profit on our house sale in California, the reality is I could be unemployed and living here so we have to be able to  afford it even then.  We are looking in neighborhoods that are older, more established; haven't been bitten too badly by foreclosures and look like they might spring back to life when we are ready to move on.  It is exhausting!  Yet still the homes here are unbelievably priced compared to anything we'd find in California.  

So while we most likely will with time find a home to our satisfaction (the market is just too full for it not to happen), it's going to take a lot of sage burning and pray to make me feel ok about how I netted a home here when I lay my head down to sleep at night.  I know I've done nothing wrong but I cannot help feel that I'm benefiting due to the unfortunate circumstances of others.  It's definitely a strange trip we are on.  <sigh>