Money in the Bank
Tom Sine
January 1, 2000
It's not easy to be under 35 and getting started, even with the benefits of a roaring economy. When my generation was coming out of college in the late 1950s, we seldom paid much over 20 percent of our income on rent or mortgages—but a surprising number in the emerging generation are spending over 50 percent of their income for housing. Often the only housing option that Christian young people are aware of is a suburban single-family house—whether they can afford it or not. Not only does this foreclose many other options, it means they'll be devoting a very large part of their lives to working for a mortgage company. Cohousing doesn't immediately solve these problems, even with its economies of scale. At just over $200,000 per unit, the Temescal Cohousing Project's units are not inexpensive—though they compete very favorably in the San Francisco Bay area's insanely expensive real estate market. With today's mortgage rates, even these thrifty and resourceful young adults will end up paying close to two times the value of their property in interest. But in Mustard Seed vs. McWorld, where I cover a number of other initiatives like the Temescal Cohousing Project, I've proposed another option. What if the established generations of the church—we who have benefited so greatly from the economic expansion of the past 50 years—helped the emerging generation build new cooperative communities like the one in Oakland? Imagine what would happen if Christians with financial resources started an interest-free mortgage fund for young Christians who wanted their lives to make a difference. They could pay off their entire mortgage in as little as 11 years, leaving them with decades of productive life unburdened by housing debt. That kind of ...
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