If you are looking for a cheap house to buy, I could direct you to my neck of the woods. We looked at dozens of houses I could actually live in for under $100,000 this weekend - dozens. But after driving around in circles with handdrawn maps and meeting realtors and trying to decide who to call next - we stopped, as always, for a beer. It makes total economic sense to live here, to buy a house here, to have another kid here, spend at least another 5 years here. Then AH said glumly, "I'll be almost 40 when we leave". What? That is crazy. We don't WANT to throw down roots here. It would be smart, but mostly money-wise. Maybe because I got a little core-shaken by reading Revolutionary Road this week and was feeling the whole "dreams deferred" theme in my own life - staying here for money seems kind of lame. Do we want to raise our kid here? Not really. Nothing against here, but I'd like her near mountains and rivers and good public libraries and sidewalks and asian food and friends. Okay, I said, yes, we can leave when I graduate. We can move back to the PNW, which was AH's greatest wish, apparently. He was light and happy this weekend after that talk like I guess I haven't seen him in forever - and I didn't even know he was so down until I saw it lift. There are no good houses for $100,000 in the PNW. Will I be renting forever? Will I get a job? Will I find an apartment for the next year that doesn't cost a million dollars (though it is cheap to buy here, like most college towns it is infuriatingly expensive to rent) and is actually livable? I look around and can't believe I might drag my stuff cross-country again in a year and across town in a month.
But it's worth it not to settle. Right?