American Housing Options

Maybe you're living with roommates, in your relatives' basement, or on your own out of your car. Maybe you're caring for your baby, or your parent, or just your mental health. Wherever you are now, does it suit your current needs? For this post, I will detail realistic housing lifestyle choices and what situation they best serve. You are not stuck. You are empowered, and you have options. :)

1. Livine with Roommates/renting a room out of a house. This arrangement works best if you are single, childfree, and are tolerant of other people's lazy cleaning habits. It works best in shorter timeframes, like a semester of college, or your first couple of years working at a company. I argue this is better than living with relatives because strangers are less likely to tell you what to do with your life, and you can just stick to yourself and handle business until you are ready for your next step with more independence. Depending on location, you can get a room for as cheap as $500 a month, or as expensive as $1,000 a month, and probably even more, I just wouldn't recommend paying that much for this lifestyle, since you already have to share common areas with other people and that alone is a sacrifice.

2. Living out of your car. If you have a car, it might be in your best interest to leverage it as a temporary or permanent housing option. Yes, this lifestyle can and does work for some people indefinitely, as opposed to renting a room with roommates. Depending on local laws, you may be able to get a P.O. Box and use that as your legal address on your Driver's License. This lifestyle is as cheap or as expensive as your unique circumstances allow for, however, this is arguably the cheapest option that gives you complete independence, hence why some people do this with the "rest of my life" mindset. You can definitely have a pet with you such as a dog or a cat, I just don't recommend this lifestyle for parents, or if you're caring for your parents.

3. RV Living. This arrangement is flexible and therefore suits almost every type of person: parents with kids, couple without kids, working professionals, travelling enthusiasts, or it can be stationary. The RV options out there also vary from ridiculously affordable to "flexing on em" as well. A good RV without any repairs will be around $20,000, and you can get into a loan for one, depending on your credit, for as low as $500 down. The loans are treated like a car loan by the banks, however they offer different loan terms than car loan payments, so for you, the consumer, it's more like a tiny house payment because it's 10 years or longer as opposed to the standard car loan of 5 years. The main catch is that you absolutely must have a minimalist lifestyle, you must be willing to be fully responsible for repairs, and you must be a creative problem-solver.

4. Apartments. Ideal if you're getting paid too much money and you don't like being responsible. Owning a house can be cheaper than living in an apartment. What are you doing? Who lied to you? *This does not refer to government subsidized apartments or other income-based options. <3

5. Government subsidized housing. Some programs will house you for free, and this is ideal for single parents needing to give their kids stability, maybe their career isn't solid enough to do the RV option or get into a house. There is a need to look, make phone calls, apply, etc. It's a lot of tedious paperwork and leg work. It's ideal to only use this for as long as you need it and then move on to either land or homeownership once your career is better; as you're growing, other young/needy people are entering the market so get what you need and then "pass the torch" with gratitude that you're able to move on and free up resources for someone else who is where you used to be.

6. Home Ownership. This can range from buying a piece of land and setting up RVs on it, to a tiny home, to a mobile home, to a traditional turn-key house. This is ideal for people with a lot of kids, or if you're caring for your parents, and if your career is "unshakeable" solid, like "multiple streams of income" solid. This option comes with the most responsibility and tedious conversations with HOA about what flowers you can have in your front lawn, so it can be a bit stupid. Another ideal situation is investment property to be a landlord, however, I don't recommend doing that because it creates competition between bored investors who don't know what to do with their excess money and humble working-class people. I think investment properties should be in its own category and price point so normal people don't end up competing with them, but I digress. Word of the wise: do NOT buy a mobile home and then rent a lot in a mobile home park. You can buy land to put it on, but do NOT under any circumstances, get into a mobile home and then rent the lot for it. And if you're in that situation now, start brainstorming how to move.

7. More niche options that might be what you need, just do your own research and trust your intuition: For physically able: Military.

   For direct help out of high school: Job Corps.

   For the impoverished but studious: FAFSA to go to university and use their housing, but they shut down during winter and summer breaks so it's annoying if you don't have anywhere to go.

   For adults not fresh out of high school and the military just isn't for them: there are jobs that provide housing, believe it or not. These jobs are typically demanding, but I have a friend who was able to leave her abusive husband because she found a job that housed her. :)

In a country where "traditional" housing might not work or be accessible, I hope this information brought hope and got some gears turning. We are in a new American Dream, and just because the 1950's vision of a working husband providing for a wife and 7 children on one income failed the test of time, doesn't mean America is done dreaming, and it doesn't mean our new dream won't fulfill us.