An energy-efficient trailer of sound construction is an obvious choice for survival with some sense of dignity. The only problem is where to locate it that operation costs are remain low.
Let's see: the minimum wage doesn't pay half of what it did forty years ago; more than 20% of men age 25-54 are out of work; personal, state and federal debt are higher now than at the opening of the Great Depression; ordinary Americans work longer hours, with fewer benefits, higher taxes and greater fixed expenses for
less money than in 1972 (if the growth in income/GDP had been allocated per the post-WW2 social contract of rising production per capita = rising paychecks, median incomes in the US would be $80-100k and not $40k and falling) . . . high medical bills force 47% of bankruptcies and the loss of one income is
likely to remove a family from the middle class . . shall we go on about the probability of losing a fixed abode?
New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying.
The number of Americans who owed more than their homes were worth was virtually nil when the real estate collapse began in mid-2006, but by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.
As Values Slide, More Weigh Walking Away From Mortgages - NYTimes.com
Since the
estimated number of foreclosures this year will likely exceed 2.5-million, yeah, I'd say that there will be people looking for alternative
homes. And not always out of desperation. Being underwater and not walking away is foolish as it will
also be that home prices are unlikely to match pre-crash prices for at least another decade. This won't be much of a choice.
Chest thumping about personal frugality, anecdotal "evidence" of bootstrap prosperity, and the disparagement of those looking for
at least a living wage is about what one expects from Fox News, the dissimulation of an enormous, growing problem. Millions of jobs shipped overseas, outsourcing of ANY job that can be done over the Internet . . hey, we're just getting started on a globalized normative wage.
For those determined to spite their own interests, a house (a building) with energy needs that will only rise; fails to produce an offsetting income; and located outside of walking distance from essential services (say, three miles) is going to be the "death" of even more families hold on middle-class status. And, heaven forbid, should that same neighborhood undergo a natural disaster, those few with adequate insurance (and lawyer) to rebuild will find that, like Seabrook, TX (and other examples), their neighbors did not, and can not.
Not everyone can afford to transition easily. I may not know where to go should troubles mount, but I prefer to have the option
at all in ownership of a long-lasting mobile "home". Trailers are sort of cheap. But setting them up to travel and live may not be. An interim choice, hopefully.
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