Where in the U.S. could you buy a house if you work for the minimum wage?

I mean an actual, permanent house with a yard, within a time period of 30 years, if you work 40 hours per week at the prevailing minimum wage in that location?

:(

I live in a mobile home park. I own my own home. I pay $300 for lot rent. The people here who are buying their homes through the park are paying anywhere from $700 a month on up for rent to own. If a person has a decent downpayment, it would be a lot cheaper to buy a house.

If you willing to relocate, you can find them in Pennsylvania, especially Western PA, when my Dad died 6 years ago, we sold his old house for $5,000. Many of those old houses are old coal company houses, I swear those old clapboard houses are easier to fix than my rowhouse, and they are single family dwellings mostly in small towns.

Ever since Youngstown Steel Co. nearby in Ohio went bust, along with the oil industry in Pennsylvania. I used to know some folks in the Beaver Falls area over 20 years ago, and the place was incredibly economically depressed. House prices were about $5,000 back then, too.

Look, these old clapboards are basically small, livingroom, kitchen,
porch with second story 2 small bedrooms and a bathroom, usually a yard, there is usually a fuse box with some wiring, hot and cold running water, there kind of like what used to be call fishing shanties which are selling in St. Michael's Maryland for $145,000 and up. Pennsylvania is an aging state, I know that with my Dad, we were always looking for caregivers, handymen, etc. People who could drive, hang wallpaper, cut the grass, etc. Western Pennsylvania is not Catalina, CA. Although much of it resembles Ireland which is why so many Irish stayed there and worked the mines.

News to me. I suppose they could take out a loan. But I doubt they'd be able to pay it back and the utility bills in a piece of shit old house.

If you could get a 30 year loan on 5000 at 6%, your payment would be about $30 per month. Even someone making minimum wage could handle that.

A $50,000 home payment on these terms would be about $300 per month, which someone on minimum wage could afford, if they can raise a down payment of $5,000, which would be the biggest hurdle.

I am not promoting minimum wage by any means, but while it is very, very difficult to exist on such low pay, it is not impossible. You have to make major sacrifices in your standard of living, and it is not fun.

I fully believe in a living wage, but I don't think that guarantees homeownership. If we had a society where there was appropriate health care and retirement benefits one could work for a living wage, contribute to society and retire safely and all the while renting. I don't see how that is a problem.

in a real pretty setting for 24000,

after that the lot rent is 220 a month.

it really is'nt a bad way to have a garden /yard/ fence without the huge cost of housing around here......blue mounds WI

One can only afford just rent at minimum wage in four counties in the US out of 3,066.
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Only 4 counties enable those earning minimum wage to rent

WASHINGTON (AP) — In only four of the nation's 3,066 counties can someone working full-time and earning federal minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment, an advocacy group on low-income housing reported Monday.

A two-bedroom rental is even more of a burden — the typical worker must earn at least $15.37 an hour to pay rent and utilities, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in its annual "Out of Reach" report. That's nearly three times the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

"You get pushed into a situation where some necessities don't get paid for" because more salary must be devoted to housing, said Sheila Crowley, the coalition's executive director. "For people on low-wage fixed incomes, that's a chronic way of life."

About 36 million homes in the United States are rented. Roughly 80 percent of renter homes are located in nearly 1,000 counties in which a family must work more than 80 hours a week — or more than two full-time jobs — at minimum wage to afford the typical two-bedroom apartment, the coalition said.

more: http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/216nd1.htm

I live in a cheap state (Louisiana) with protection from property taxes on low cost homes and even here minimum wage workers would not expect to be able to buy a home. I would say it could not be possible in any state if it is not possible here. I think minimum wage workers would be happy if rents were just kept in line.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

can't even save enough for the security deposit/first month's rent on a dinky apartment. Truly an eye-opening book, I recommend reading it.

for $24,000...it was called a fixer upper..but i love this house which is inside the city limits..and a nice small town..but when i first started looking on line for something to buy in this price rane, i found just tons of places all over the country for about that same price..but u do need to have some idea before u start the search about an area..just looking for fun the other day, i found a 2 bedroom in Tenn with 15 acres..go look, it is fun! My retirement income is less than min wage. just search for real estate offices in you chosen area...and then try to get on the mls listings...also, i think there are still programs for low income families that will provide low interest and no down payment.

$15-$25,000 homes don't exist out here. The only ones I know of are around Anaconda, Montana; and mining pollution probably plays into the few cheap houses that are available there. I know there are cheap houses in pockets of the country, but it's few and far between.

living in Winnebagos in the restaurant parking lot. Many live in cheap motels.

Book hits the mark.

A 15 years old car with a potted plant in the back seat is sort of a
house with a yard. A jug of water and a washcloth makes for a fine
shower (running water!) and if its cold, the trunk serves as a refrigerator!

A tin can tossed in the ocean is a sort of house at the bottom of the
ocean and that's free! if you can fit in to it... yard even! ;-)

Its not funny, its pathetic. I was once very lucky to get back to
living in a car after being homeless, and between the 2, living in a
car is "having a home". It took me a coupla months of car living to
afford a crappy apartment.... and years later i finally moved outside
the US that i was able to afford a house in a poor rural area of
britain.

And though someone might say the house is small, compared to the
possibilities, it feels so incredibly satisfying to dig in ones own
garden... and let the dogs run in their own place... That anglo
culture is institutionally against this possibility for its middle
classes is just distorted and sadly unfortunate.

Frankly, i've no problem renting, provided the rent is reasonable,
but when it starts to become so expensive, that i forego ever owning
a house by paying rent, then something is amiss.

try to support a family with it? I'm asking because the standard Repub argument is that minimum wage jobs are for entry level workers, or temporary workers, who should be planning to move up, and that no one really makes minimum wage. What are the true figures?

I know of a woman who is 52 years old and makes $21,000 a year.

imagine (but I haven't checked that out)

Houses can be bought for $15,000 with a few square feet of land.

They're not mansions. They're wood frame and bare bones, but they exist; I've seen them quite recently.

You can't buy a $15K home with that.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

on a $15,000 dollar house is $83.76 a month.

and there are down-payment GRANTS available to low-income first time homebuyers.

the notion that everybody who works should be able to buy a house is absolutely ludacris. Heck... I make 4 times minimum wage and cant afford a house (expensive california prices) but there's nothing wrong with renting. Housing prices relative to incomes are high right now... but that won't last forever.

taught.

The problem for renters is that housing is a deductible for some people and not others.

Why the heck isn't part of my rent deductable if my friends can deducted their house payments. It pisses me off.

what i mean is that there is an "intrinsic" value of homes that people who work in the area are able to afford. This intrinsic value cannot be deviated from forever, which will make housing affordable enough for the average workers in the area. Allowing people to deduct the interest payments on their homes serves to artificially increase the price of the homes because it effectively reduces the mortgage payments of the buyer. Thus, the argument that it helps people to "afford" homes is negated. Secondly, interest payment deductions help the rich more becuase they pay higher marginal tax rates than lower income people. Thirdly, it hurts first time homebuyers by driving up the price of homes (slightly) and thus the price of the down-payment required for the loan (the largest roadblock to first-time homebuying).

taught.

is that when the contract comes up for renewal,you can probably expect to get charged more for your rent. Or, maybe the landlord has bigger plans for the lot your rental sits on, and does not renew the contract (as has happened to me twice here in Japan). Or, maybe the landlord dies or sells the property (happened to me once here), and the new owners change too many things, or do not have any interest in maintaining the property, or have a confrontational relationship with their tenants that makes staying there extremely difficult.

Just guessing, but I know minimum wage earners who own their house in Southwestern PA.

in California a local real estate "Home Show" was on the television. They showed the newest listed homes for sell, etc. The real estate agent was going on and on about how easy it was for people to qualify for a loan with the agency and so forth. The mortgage broker who was also doing commentary on this particular show corrected her (and I loved that he told the truth) by saying by the end of the year only 30% of all people in California could afford to buy a home and out of the 30%, less than half would qualify for a loan based upon their income and credit. My husband and I just purchased our first home, there was no way that we could have done it on minimum wage. I think its shameful the way that people are railroaded with mortgage costs (including closing costs)and so forth. Its so hard to survive in this economy. The rich keep getting richer.......

where you can get a cheap littlie cabin on a lake, but no jobs,thats why their cheap, .......if ya have a bit of pension it's worth a look around......:dem:

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/lcanal/lctimbmb.htm


The charter granted to Love's company, appropriately dubbed the Modeltown Development Corporation, stands today as one of the most liberal ever granted any private developer. He had the authority to condemn properties and to divert as much water from the upper Niagara River as he saw fit, even to the extent of turning off Niagara Falls!

Armed with his newly won charter, Love quickly lined up backing from financial giants in New York City, Chicago and England. In October of 1893, the first factory on the townsite was opened for business. In May of 1894, work on the canal was begun. Steel companies and other manufacturers lined up for the chance of opening plants along the Love Canal.

Everything was looking extremely good for Love and his project when the country suddenly found itself in the middle of a full-scale economic depression. Money and backing began to slip away from William Love and his Model City.

Louis Tesla delivered the coup-de-grace. Tesla discovered a way to transmit electrical power economically over great distances by means of an alternating current. No longer was it necessary for industry to locate near the source of electrical power. Love's project was dealt a death blow.

His backers deserted him, and the last of the property owned by his corporation was subjected to mortgage foreclosure and sold at public auction in 1910.

The sole surviving monument to William Love and his Model City was a partially dug section of canal in the southeast corner of the City of Niagara Falls. For several decades of the Twentieth Century, this portion of the canal reportedly served as a swimming hole for children living in the LaSalle section of the city.

But in the 1920's the excavation was turned to a new and ominous use. It became a chemical and municipal disposal site for several chemical companies and the City of Niagara Falls. Chemicals of unknown kind and quantity were buried at the site for a 25-30 year period, up until 1953. After 1953, the site was covered with earth.

In the late 1950's homebuilding began directly adjacent to the Love Canal landfill. Over a period of time about 100 homes were built and an elementary school was opened.

Thus were sown the seeds that became the human and environmental disaster we know today as Love Canal.

And Then The Rains Came....

Love Canal is a name which until recently was relegated to the back pages of history along with the unspent dreams of a visionary for whom it is named.

Today, more than three-quarters of a century later, this 16-acre rectangular piece of land, located only a few miles from the world-famous waterfall which each year attracts thousands to the honeymoon mecca of Niagara Falls, has again become the focus of international attention, but not as the centerpiece for a dream city.

Instead the center of attention is an ominous array of chemicals buried within the boundaries of the unfinished canal for more than 25 years - toxic ingredients which are infiltrating scores of nearby homes, posing a serious threat to human health and upsetting the domestic tranquility of hundreds of families living in this middle class community.

Situated only a few blocks from the Niagara River in the residential southeastern section of the highly industrialized but tourist-oriented city, the Love Canal problem began to surface in recent years as chemical odors in the basements of the homes bordering the site became more noticeable. This followed prolonged heavy rains and one of the worst blizzards ever to hit this section of the country.

Thus began a series of events and momentous decisions involving city, county, State and Federal governments to cope with what can only be described as a major human and environmental tragedy without precedent and unparalleled in New York State's history.

Described as an environmental time bomb gone off, Love Canal stands as testimony to the ignorance, lack of vision and proper laws of decades past which allowed the indiscriminate disposal of such toxic materials.

The consequences of these transgressions are mirrored by the planned exodus of 235 families and the public monies and herculean efforts which now must be expended to contain the disaster and restore a degree of normalcy to the lives of those affected.

For those responsible for containing the problem and for government leaders in New York State and throughout the nation, Love Canal represents what may very well be the first of a new and sinister breed of environmental disasters.




en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

East St. Louis yet....?


DownNotOut