I was raised in a union household, which seemed to be unusual at the time. Love unions personally they helped both my parents and my sibling. Sibling got a new job near the holidays, union job, and the union gave them a huge basket of holiday food which was cool as hell.
Way way way back I learned this lesson. I was young and not making much money so I... briefly... resented my union fees. About six months into the job the union negotiated a 30% pay raise for my classification.
That is maybe the one big plus of our federal government and both major parties being wholly owned by corporations: out of necessity, unions have returned to their take-no-shit ways and no longer assume any good faith on the part of management.
Plus, if you have no other reason to join, there's this babe.
Lives somewhere that has houses that aren't outrageously priced. The national average for housing is insane, but there are still plenty of smaller cities/towns that have cheaper housing. My area averages about $180-300k for decent to relatively nice houses. If they paid a good chunk on their downpayment and bought at low rates, etc.
Originally purchased a house in 2009. By 2015 home prices had increased by 50% when we sold it in 2015. Bought a nicer house for less money in a area with a cheaper cost of living. Used most of the money gained from the sale of the 1st house as a down payment. Refinanced the mortgage when rates were 2.85%.
Current home today is now valued at over $500K. If I had to purchase the home I live in today as a first-time home buyer the mortgage would be around $3,500/month.
All of this price increase is driven by corporate investors and short term rentals due to the years of low interest rates thereby creating an artificial shortage.
Home ownership is the best way for the middle and low income classes to build wealth. Of course the wealthy know this and are actively racing to lock them out of it.
I was paying $600 for my 3 bed 2 bath house. My dumbass sold it but the moral of the story is probably older locked rate and price in a less expensive area.
Your bills are ~$1000 and you make ~$2000? Are you spending $1000 on food and gas? Or are you not counting other bills/savings/taxes? And if her bills are similarly $1000, but she makes ~$4000, of course she can afford to shop some.
I bought a house in 2020, and my mortgage was just a bit over $1k. It was a bottom-of-the-barrel house in a bad part of town, though. I sold it and bought a better house last year, and now my mortgage is nearly double what it was, though the interest rate is a big factor in that - if interest had stayed the same, it'd only be about $1.5k. I'd imagine if you bought am average house with a good interest rate over a decade ago, you probably only have $1k mortgage.
