Crash Pad

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers uses a picture prompt and asks for stories between 75-175 words. Click here to read all the stories for this week.

This picture
photo-20160118105818411
Inspired my story:

I moved into this apartment in 2009. It was brand new then. The owners had designed an entire neighborhood with a pool, bike paths, and a nature trail but then the housing market crashed and the building sat empty for months.

Without any cash flow the developers scrambled to rent the available units. The park didn’t get built and neither did the pool or the nature trail. I got the place for half of what they originally wanted. We all did. The amenities were few but it was still a nice place.

The housing market has been steadily improving these last few years. You can tell just by my neighborhood. The nature trail went in and soon after the bike path. Two buildings went up next to mine and were rented at twice what I pay. They are already at 80 percent occupancy and the pool is not even in yet.

My lease is up in June and I expect a large jump in my rent. There is no way I can afford this place any more.

It kind of sucks. I like living here.

Thanks Obama.

24 thoughts on “Crash Pad”

    • It was close to happening here. When the housing bubble was full blown and housing prices inflated three times their worth all property values begun to climb and with them the tax rate. It burst in time but people who lived here their whole lives were feeling the pinch. I felt especially bad for senior citizens on a fixed income, their houses paid for but laden with a tax bill beyond their means.

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  2. The housing market crash sure was a catastrophe! So many people went bankrupt over it and lost their homes. What a mess! Excellent story Dawn. It’s too bad that she is going to lose her home because of the housing market inflation. The housing market inflation has come to my area too. Home prices and rent are way off the charts.

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  3. Really good piece dawn – laughed at the ending thanks – and in my very humble opinion the crashes of 08 and 09 were likely thanks to bush and his shenanigans
    – anyhow – your great piece here reminded me of an NPR episode once where they interviewed some folks living in a building that only had 20% occupancy because of the crash (something like that) and it was rough because there were heating issues and one guy had a cat living in a vacated wall

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  5. Yes, interesting…..I also tend to agree with prior2001. It’s very hard to blame one particular administration. When a president has a cabinet of the opposite party, it’s hard to get much done anyway… In the end, it doesn’t matter how it happened, only that it’s a shame. I couldn’t sell my house when I moved because of the market. The couple living there hope to buy it sometime at a HUGE loss to me! The ‘American Dream’ is more a nightmare now…

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  10. Here in Mountain View, we could rent out 937 sq ft 2 bedroom condo for about $2700. It’s so tempting but…where would we live? Rents are outrageous. They’ve built up the city and many of the new apartments – with the doggie parks – go unrented.

    Ellespeth

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