Things are finally beginning to fall in place around here as far as handling Daddy's affairs are concerned. We finally did get the Death Certificate last week, so we have an appointment Thursday with our niece, the lawyer. Our DD and SIL have been busy already planting flowers and painting and re-doing the front porch up at Daddy's, and hopefully soon the house will really belong to them. They've already talked to the mortgage people, so it's just a matter of getting the legalities taken care of, and the house will be theirs. It's so much fun watching their excitement, and it brings back great memories of our first house, and when we built this one.
I can still remember that wonderful rush when we signed our first mortgage and moved into our first home. We barely qualified for the mortgage back then for a whopping $101.00 a month! Back then they wouldn't take the wife's income into account, because she would probably be quitting to have children. That $101.00 got us a really nice house, too!! Now, I shudder to think what our children must pay for their mortgages.
Used to be, if I wanted a quick idea of how prices have changed with inflation, I could multiply what we paid for something way back when by 5 to get an idea of how expensive it would be now. For instance, for a long time this worked for gasoline, as we paid 29 cents a gallon when we got married in the 60's. That would put it about $1.50 now, if only inflation were involved. Obviously, gas is more than that, but that's the idea anyway. At the rate things are going, I'm going to have to change my estimation to 10 times to come closer to modern prices. After all, Cokes were 10 cents when our children were little!!
Well, I digress. I guess the day will come when DD and SIL will look back on the mortgage they paid for this first home of theirs and be just as amazed at how little it was per month. But right now, it sounds like a fortune, just the way our $101.00 did.
It's so much fun listening to them planning all the improvements and changes they want to make to the house, knowing full well that most of them will stay in the realm of pipe dreams, once the reality of paying for it all hits home. But let them dream ... it's got to be one of the most exciting times of their adult lives, and I'm glad to be able to share even a little bit of their enthusiasm.
2 comments:
I can't remember what our first mortgage was--maybe about $75. Our third one was $161 (1968), and was for 20 years--I don't think there were many 30 year.
Even fairly small mortgages run in the $600 to $700 a month range now, Norma. That's hard for me to comprehend. And now that the housing bubble has burst, there are many sellers who can't get as much as they paid for their house, let alone make a profit!
Post a Comment