8 minute read

How home purchase boosts consumer spending.

How home purchase

boosts consumer spending

Ahome purchase comes with additional costs to suit the buyer. The information is from the Consumer expenditure survey (CES), Labor statistics bureau. An additional cost is evident with appliances, furnishing and structure modifications. This paper will use information from NAHB’s recent estimates between 2017 and 2019 before the Covid 19 outbreak. The paper will also compare inhome owners of newly built homes, existing homes and non-moving homeowners.

REASONS FOR BUYING HOMES.

Most people that buy a home are, in most cases, parents. People with families prefer to get a good detached home that is spacious and more comfortable compared to a rental apartment that might be squeezed up and not comfortable to use. Home buying process is also common with the wealthier class of people and more qualified personnel. The above-stated group of people are located in most urban centres. Research shows that the home buying process is used to show a difference in the socio-economic class. The lower socio-economic group tends to avoid the home buying process due to incurred extra expenses settling in rental apartments that do not come with additional expenses.

THE COSTS INCURRED AFTER BUYING NEW HOMES.

Repair and modification is the most expensive aspect when one decides to buy a home, whether a newly built one or one that had previously existed. It entails putting up an additional structure that did not exist at the time of purchase. It also means interfering with the structure’s design, such as repainting to a colour that one would want and putting up a driveway that would fit the new owner in the best possible way.

Surprisingly, new home buyers spend around $9,000 for repairs and modifications compared to people living in morgages that are legally theirs. Upon further research, the money is spread across outdoor fixtures like swimming pools, perimeter walls and niches, drive-ins and patios to suit their comfort.

When relocating to a newly bought home, the owner must have roughly $2,800 set aside for furnishing. Furnishing includes items such as carpet, curtains and cushions within the first year of relocation, while non-moving homeowners at this time are known to spend less on furnishes as they don’t need many changes. There is little difference in the appliance where newly built homeowners are known to cash out only around $1,000 to cater for appliances.

COSTS INCURRED AFTER BUYING EXISTING HOMES.

The research was carried out to detail how much is spent on appliance furnishing, property alterations, and repairs between buyers of existing homes and non-moving homeowners. While buyers spend around $4,000 on appliances, the counterpart nonmoving homeowner cashes out about half the price. Home buyers spend $9,200 on property alterations, while repairs by non-moving home buyers spend only $4,830

Non-moving homeowners, in contrast to existing homebuyers of an existing home, spend approximately only $4,200 as the estimated total cost. When one gets a new structure, it is common to remodel, furnish and get appliances that best suit the house and how the buyer wants it to look. Buyers of existing homes spend an averagely of $5,200 to cater for all expenses deemed to come up, putting $1200 in furnishing and spending the rest on other expenses. Often the cost is more than $750 compared to the amount spent by non-moving homeowners.

Also, as predicted earlier, most non-moving homeowners spend $2032 on furnishing and $4282 on modification and repairs. Over the years, has buying ho,e has proved to be an expensive thin bin in the U.S.

THE DIFFERENCE IN COSTS TO NEW HOME BUYERS AND EXISTING HOME BUYERS.

Home buying costs differ with whether the house in question is new or has been used previously. As per the NAHB, buying a new home would incur more costs in the first year of living than buying a previously used house. The average cost of extra expenses of buying a newly built detached house strikes at roughly $18,155 while buying an already used house costs roughly $12,222.Someone with a limited budget would be advised to get a previously existing home where one would save up approximately $6,000 in the long run. However before getting such houses, one is advised to ensure that the house does not have many faults and that the better part of it is in good condition.

CONCLUSION.

According to the NAHB statistics, furnishing, remodification and appliances are not usually catered for by cutting expenditure costs on other items such as transport, food, or entertainment. It further continues by stating that with home buying, several other costs should be considered. It also says that buying a home does not cater to all the home buying expenses. One, to some extent, needs a huge amount used after buying a home to cater for modification, furnishing and appliances as per how the new owner wants the house to look or find more appealing.

We’re Starting Over, Inc.

- a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting and uplifting people experiencing the effects of mass incarceration, systemic racism, housing insecurity, substance addiction, and mental health issues. We believe that people impacted by these issues are the ones closest to the solutions, which is why we are a Black-led and criminal justice-impacted organization engaged in this work. From experience, we’ve learned that housing is critical, but alone, it is not enough to support those exiting prisons or the streets. We not only provide transitional housing, but also include holistic services such as peer support, case management, employment, wellness, and reentry services. We also work to address the root causes of our houseguests’ difficult situations, leading grassroots organizing and policy initiatives in the Inland Empire region and statewide. Established in 2009, we’ve served over 1,400 men, women, and families in Riverside and Los Angeles Counties through the reentry and transition process.

We believe that the past does not define our future. We’re invested in creating safe and equitable opportunities for all members of our community, and especially those with past convictions. Housing opportunities are crucial for our community members and directly affect their ability to thrive.

Starting Over, Inc. is committed to reducing and eliminating the many barriers to life after incarceration. We have a deep commitment to identifying and implementing evidence-based approaches to strong communities and families. We seek to creating program/project solutions where the need exists in our community. We do lots of things at Starting Over, Inc. - but our primary goal is to address the immediate effects and root causes of incarceration, be it through housing, employment, legislation, or community organizing.

To get involved with our initiatives, access our services, or support our work through donations, you can reach us at (951) 898-0862 or office@startingoverinc.org.

We currently operate eight homes in LA and Riverside Counties open to men, women, and children, with options for sober living or harm-reduction housing. All of our services are available to our houseguests, many of whom have been unable to obtain housing after being released due to their conviction histories.

Our Case Management specialists provide support to our guests with obtaining necessary documents/identification and accessing insurance, education, healthcare, clothing, food, & more.

Our houseguests are not alone - our support specialists, having experienced incarceration, addiction, and homelessness themselves - understand our guests' needs and the barriers they face. We’re here to meet our guests wherever they are in their journeys and to support them moving forward through empowerment, support with recovery, referrals, and mentorship.

Mass incarceration affects not just individuals, but families - many of our community members and guests experience family separation at the hands of the child welfare system. The FREE Project is system-impacted led and organizes parents and family members in a non-judgemental space, advising on best practices and dependency court procedures. We recently sponsored and passed a statewide bill that eliminates major barriers to child placement and allows family members with criminal convictions unrelated to caring for children to be considered as placement options allowing for suitable family members with criminal convictions to step up in times of crisis.

Through our Path to SEED program, we connect guests and community members with employment opportunities and provide training & support regarding obtaining and retaining employment, often a major hurdle for formerly incarcerated individuals.

Our free clinics provide relief for expungements, wills/trusts, immigration, and more with the support of local legal organizations.

In the past year, we’ve co-sponsored and/or supported nearly a dozen statewide bills to reduce the scale of mass incarceration and its collateral consequences. We’ve also worked locally to influence Riverside County to reduce criminal history look-back periods from 7 years to 3 years in 2017 and to enable youth coming out of probation to be able to stay with their family members in subsidized housing.

Our Participatory Defense organizing model (based on Silicon Valley De-Bug) empowers family and community members in the courtroom to positively impact their loved one’s outcome and to bring them home. As fiscal sponsor and start-up organization of Riverside All of Us or None (a chapter of a national initiative of formerly incarcerated people, family members, and allies advocating for the rights of the currently and formerly incarcerated people) we ensure that system impacted leadership remains at the center of the fight to keep our community together and address the social problems that incarceration purports to solve. Our community outreach team also disseminates voter registration and public health information regarding COVID-19, and we organize food and clothing relief for community members in need.

This article is from: