Haunted House Hunting, Part Two
Jan. 17th, 2022 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingThis person gets it.
I sort of hate myself for saying this, but I think it's time to leave West Philadelphia for the suburbs.
The problem with the suburbs is that the housing market is even crazier out there than it is in the city. Like, you'll look at the seller disclosure document for a small three-bedroom house, and you'll see that they bought the house for $90k in 2010. They're now asking for $350k, and if you don't bid at least 5% above the asking price within the first day of the house going on the market, it's gone.
It's insane, and I don't have the temperament (or the money) to deal with it. Even my husband, who is generally very chill, is affected. But the neighborhood we currently live in is gentrifying and rent is going way up, even if we negotiate the lease. I wish everything didn't cost so much, but what can you do.
This is yet another reason why I wish I hadn't stayed in academia. The way academia works is that maybe five to ten jobs you qualify for open every year, and you don't have a choice who hires you. The chances are that you won't get hired, actually, so you have to go from one-year position to one-year position until you are hired (or you give up). Because you'll generally be moving across one continent or another every nine months, you can't buy a house. And of course that's assuming you have money to buy a house in the first place, which you more than likely don't after living below the poverty line during seven years of grad school. If I had just gotten my PhD and quit academia to become a full-time professional translator back in 2013, then I could be selling a $90k house for $350k right now.
I mean, damn. I didn't even need to be a translator. I should have gone into real estate.
I sort of hate myself for saying this, but I think it's time to leave West Philadelphia for the suburbs.
The problem with the suburbs is that the housing market is even crazier out there than it is in the city. Like, you'll look at the seller disclosure document for a small three-bedroom house, and you'll see that they bought the house for $90k in 2010. They're now asking for $350k, and if you don't bid at least 5% above the asking price within the first day of the house going on the market, it's gone.
It's insane, and I don't have the temperament (or the money) to deal with it. Even my husband, who is generally very chill, is affected. But the neighborhood we currently live in is gentrifying and rent is going way up, even if we negotiate the lease. I wish everything didn't cost so much, but what can you do.
This is yet another reason why I wish I hadn't stayed in academia. The way academia works is that maybe five to ten jobs you qualify for open every year, and you don't have a choice who hires you. The chances are that you won't get hired, actually, so you have to go from one-year position to one-year position until you are hired (or you give up). Because you'll generally be moving across one continent or another every nine months, you can't buy a house. And of course that's assuming you have money to buy a house in the first place, which you more than likely don't after living below the poverty line during seven years of grad school. If I had just gotten my PhD and quit academia to become a full-time professional translator back in 2013, then I could be selling a $90k house for $350k right now.
I mean, damn. I didn't even need to be a translator. I should have gone into real estate.
