The Anachronism of Real Estate

January 26, 2015

There is a place I go to explore time, to examine the minutes and lay them out, walk up a hill and look down to see what direction they point to or from side to side to determine if I am seeing the future or looking at the past.

Out of the city, out of my sequestered small neighborhood, driving down a two lane road, the back way to other two lane roads, the fog is thick now and it starts raining. I could be in the sky or in the ocean. I feel I am close to the runway. Another hour, I will have finished all the turns and be set to take off.

 The road narrows a bit. There are no other cars. The fog is very, very light, like a portrait filter.  This is the past and the future. This is the country. Small houses or large, with barns or garages  or a tin roof to protect a car or truck. Single mobile homes with scattered yard furnishings, a gas station with flickering lights and space. The branches and bodies and crowns and bareness of old trees catch my breath and spin me away out there beyond the windshield. The world has a light gossamer shield, the world is still and I recall this road.

But it has changed. And I am surprised. This is a country road and there are farms around, and homes of workers who tend the fields and fix the tractors and herd the cows and gather eggs and feed the horses and built the fences and work in the small towns up and down the road and out past the Interstate and now, some are vacant. The old gas station where stone and wood were stacked for sale is vacant, gone. The Great Recession smashed them down and I do not think they will come back because the only thing holding them together were the people. The people and their families and their friends and their communities and their work, their jobs. They are gone and I do not think or feel they will come back. I had not expected to see this. I thought this road, the symbols on this road were basic, were somehow eternal, the heart of country even though it changed, even though the tide came and went, this was the heartland.

And in the city, where I live and work, I feel an imbalance as well. All is not as it seems. Higher priced homes are selling, and the prices increase because demand is there and loans are attainable. Mid-priced homes and entry level, not so much. There is a lot of glitter and the money changers are present. Times are changing fast and we must be careful what we ask for.