More than just a room of one’s own

Before 1900, women in every state in this country did not have the right to keep their wages or own property. Before 1974 – the year my mother turned 21 – women could not apply for consumer credit. In 2022, the gender pay gap remained a chasm, with women earning 82 cents for every dollar earned by men; In the 20 years since 2002, the wage gap has narrowed by just 2 cents.

These numbers, and the story they represent, stuck in my mind as we prepared the various articles in this issue regarding real estate. It’s a curious term, “real estate”, which seems to imply the existence of a more elusive type of property: the “fake estate” (and therefore the existence of fake real estate agents, fake specialist lawyers, etc.) . In fact, the “real” in “real estate” refers to the place-permanence of the “estate”, which means something like “status” or “stake” (not a domain like, for example, the country estate of a member of state). landed nobility). Meanwhile, the word “real estate agent” (or, depending on who you ask, Realtor®.

No matter the circumstances, most of us share a desire to carve out a little piece of land where we can create a life that is uniquely ours. A place where we can pursue our unusual projects, where we can leave our public persona at the door, where we can just be and be safe.

This desire has become more difficult to achieve for many in my generation (older millennials) and younger, as we face mounting student debt, stagnant wages, and a general sense of precarity and instability. After moving out of my parents’ house to go to college in 2002, I wouldn’t live in a single-family home again for 17 years, when my partner and I purchased our current home. In my 40 years, I have lived in two houses with mortgages, two dormitories, and eight apartments. No one should be that good at packing unless they run a moving company.

In other words, the situation of the owners does not seem certain to me but rather the result of chance, a roll of the dice. I’m not alone in feeling this way, especially in Memphis, where a higher-than-average proportion of residents rent and many people have even more difficulty making ends meet.

Our cover story this month profiles several local organizations working to help people facing housing insecurity. We focus on three groups in particular whose solutions to this very broad problem are, paradoxically, very limited: small housesFor some Memphis residents, new, extremely compact homes provide the foundation for a more stable life. These groups particularly focus on helping marginalized people who would otherwise have a harder time accessing safe, affordable housing. By helping them take the plunge, the organizers open the doors to much more than just new homes.

We also offer an update on the not-so-small residential real estate market, which, according to the experts interviewed, is relatively resilient. I was particularly intrigued to read that the Memphis market is in a better position to not having experienced a sharp rise in prices in recent years – the higher you fly, et cetera.

It seems fitting that the two stories are told side by side. In Memphis, quiet, privileged neighborhoods sit alongside areas that have fallen on hard times. When we first imagined that these two stories would share space in the same issue, we wondered how they would react against each other. Today, the juxtaposition looks perfectly Memphis: struggle and solution, privilege and potential, all coexist – as neighbors do.

We all deserve a place to call home, whether we are rich or poor, male or female, and whether our “house” is 400 or 4,000 square feet. No matter where you find yourself on your journey home, I hope you find information here that will help you find the way.