The ‘Sunday Scaries’ have been tossed around as a term that exudes dread before the coming Monday of work-related tasks. I’ve mostly avoided the Sunday scaries by mentally blocking off any tasks for Monday, this allows me the privilege to enjoy my weekends, something I fear is lost because of the corporate rigmarole. Realistically, though, once Friday closes, I don’t think about upcoming projects until I get back into the office on Monday. But, to the topic at hand, and why you clicked on this blog. Let’s talk about how the Sunday Scaries relate to housesitting.
For the most part, housesitting is pleasant, and something Crystal & I very much enjoy. She has a good doctor friend that has asked her to house-sit a couple of times. They’re a great family, two kids, a dog, cute house with a small fenced-in yard in an easy-access neighborhood. The neighborhood is one of those desirable ’15-minute cities’, built before private vehicles were the primary mode of transportation. Because of this, from the house, we can walk to a large park, grocery store, and retail/brewery area in well under 15 minutes. It’s amazing. The layout of the streets is also fantastic (read: confusing and twisty) and discourages travel above 15mph, creating a safe, quiet, and easily walkable neighborhood.
What’s not-so-amazing is the housing cost in this area. The house is nice, but it's nothing that special. Without counting the finished attic, it's a basic 2 bed 1.5 bath ranch-style home between 1000 and 1500sq ft. It has a small fenced-in backyard with a patio and a decorative front yard with a porch. I absolutely love the layout, and it's very much my dream home, completely opposite the house we live in now. 2005-2020 home building and design is miserable, and I’ll happily touch on it in a future blog (link here when written). Knowing all of that, even with the desirable area, I would expect their house to be worth anywhere from $250-350k. It’s on a tiny lot, with a detached 1-car garage, and nothing inside is insanely nice or expensive (no marble or stainless steel anything). But no, in this day and age and ridiculous market, I’d expect their home to go for well over $750k.
It's fucked. But it doesn’t matter what I think.
We take the dogs for walks around the neighborhood every morning and evening, ogling the pretty homes and parks sprinkled throughout. We see families and retired couples hanging out in yards and letting their dogs out, with the ‘We Believe…’ lawn signs posted out front. Typical idyllic nimby’s. But yeah. It sucks seeing this knowing it’s so insanely far out of reach. Crystal & I both have decent jobs, but we are the have-nots and will not be getting into a $3000/month+ mortgage. Not to be cliche, but my parents bought their first house in a similar-ish neighborhood off one $20/hr income for $120,000 in 1992. Adjusted for inflation, their $700 payment for a colonial-style, 3bed 2bath home with a huge basement and large yard would barely get them into a rental duplex where they could share the living space with three other people (hint: my situation).
House-sitting is fun, and it’s nice to get paid to get away from our roommates for a week, but that doesn’t stop the reality of the situation. The housing downies are another way the future crushes us under its expectations. I'm sure Crystal and I will be fine, eventually, because all our age bracket does is bitch about home prices, and I would love to talk about something else someday.
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