Sorry, but that quote has been on my mind a lot lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, I\u2019ve been approved for a mortgage for a ridiculous amount of money and technically I now own a flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t move in yet, because the bathroom in the primary bathroom is a concrete box with exposed pipes, and there is no kitchen, only a natural gas pipe sticking out of a hole in the wall with yet another pipe and hole in the floor where the sink is supposed to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know when I can move in, because putting in a kitchen and bathroom is going to be both expensive and time-consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have an \u201cinterior designer\u201d, who is a friend of my cousin, and he\u2019s going to draw up some plans and tell me how much everything is going to cost and then I will probably QQ a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019m not QQing over the fact that I technically own a flat now, which my animal brain is interpreting as being that much closer to having my own home, and therefore security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a way, I understand the twisty logic behind \u201cI do not own my home; I have a mortgage\u201d, because yes, if I am not able to make my mortgage payments, then I lose my home.
The flat is part of a condominium, which means hefty built in fees every month, and I will also be in trouble if I can\u2019t make the payments.
Note here: almost all property in cities in Taiwan are part of a condominium setup. It\u2019s just how things are here.
Then there\u2019s property taxes and utilities and all that before we even talk about the day to day survival stuff like food, water, and air conditioning.
And if the housing market bubble collapses, I might be upside-down on my mortgage, which would really suck in terms of choices available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, all that is true.
But still, there is an incredible amount of relief in knowing I have somewhere to retreat to.
If mom\u2019s having another one of her \u201cmust pick a fight, or I can\u2019t settle\u201d phases, I could go camp in the flat, even if I can\u2019t afford to fix it up yet.
If mom and dad have another shouty fight and I am getting a panic attack, I could theoretically up and leave.
If dad is seething in the background and mom is giving everyone the silent treatment\u2026
(y\u2019all might be seeing a pattern here)
There\u2019s no way it can be sold out from under me without my knowledge or permission.
It might be a terrible fight to keep it, but I\u2019d have agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such agency as we have, in our society, where capitalism has us under its boot, yes, but more agency than I\u2019ve had since becoming disabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an incredible amount of privilege here, to have qualified for a loan, to have gotten approved for it (there is a government thing going on where they give out mortgages to first time home owners for a much lower interest rate than usual, with a more generous payback time of 40 years, and three whole years without needing to pay the principal, and they had to throttle back on mortgages approved because of the rush and resulting rise in housing prices and apparently the banks are out of money but I disbelieve), to be at a stage where I have the luxury of worrying over how to make mortgage payments each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also ridiculous privilege in, to be fully clear, I couldn\u2019t have done this without my parents throwing a good chunk of money at the problem.
They paid the down payment, so there\u2019s that.
Then, when the bank told me they couldn\u2019t lend me the full amount required because the government was throttling down on loans, my parents made up the difference necessary to get the deed done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still owe terrifying amounts of money, but now I have a place to stay, for the low low low cost of slightly less than $750 USD per month.
We\u2019ll ignore the costs of bringing the flat up to a livable state\u2026
Plus stuff like\u2026a fridge, or air conditioning, or \u2026y\u2019know, a toilet and stove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if I don\u2019t have enough money, for the years where I only have to pay interest\u2026
The \u201chouse\u201d portion of housing costs goes down to roughly 400 USD per month, excluding property taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know how to make it make sense, but there\u2019s also a sense of relief in vaguely knowing how much money I will need as a baseline for survival.
Inflation, yes, and utility fee hikes, but at least now I have a ballpark range.
There\u2019s a something to work toward, even if it is astronomical, whereas before it felt just as out of reach as going to Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, after moving in with my parents, despite knowing logically that my mother wouldn\u2019t kick me out of the house no matter hard much she didn\u2019t like me at the moment, emotionally, it was still really rough to not have a place to go to in case of emergency.
So whenever things got really bad, it was always \u201cwhat does AirBnB say\u201d and \u201chow much do hotel nights cost\u201d, and somehow in Taiwan both are prohibitive to the extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t explain it.
But although it\u2019s the same money serving sort of the same function, \u201cputting money towards a mortgage\u201d hits massively different than \u201cputting money towards a hotel room for the night, or several nights\u201d.
\u201cBuilding equity\u201d, they say.
But to be honest, in the face of \u201cChina keeps threatening to invade\u201d, and \u201cglobal warming might make Taiwan unlivable\u201d, and the more immediate \u201cI might not be able to keep up with the mortgage on top of everything else\u201d\u2026
\u201cBuilding equity\u201d in Taiwan feels a bit like a fool\u2019s errand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, like the Y2K situation\u2026
It would feel even more foolish to have not tried, just in case the worst doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway.
All this to say.
I am one tiny step closer to having a home of my own.
And I am so incredibly happy over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sorry, but that quote has been on my mind a lot lately. You see, I\u2019ve been approved for a mortgage for a ridiculous amount of money and technically I now own a flat. I can\u2019t move in yet, because the bathroom in the primary bathroom is a concrete box with exposed pipes, and there is… Continue reading