Down Payment Plight

I have enjoyed reading “Hot Property” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Somehow it is like reading fantasy.

It is impossible for the professional technicians in the movie industry to buy a home in your area. It is not that they can’t afford the monthly payments, taxes, insurance and upkeep; it’s that they can’t save for a down payment.

My son has been in your area, working with a small movie-related company, for about five years. He and his wife are now earning about $60,000 a year, but with the rent they must pay for a two-bedroom apartment in L.A. (about $10,000 a year), the expenses of two necessary cars and taxes, they can’t save enough for a down payment; $30,000 to $50,000 seems to be necessary to buy even a modest house or condominium.

Anyone just starting out in the movie industry who is motivated to move to L.A. is usually still paying back college loans, with little or nothing in the bank.

To me, affordable housing means, in the L.A. area, $100,000 to $150,000, with 5% to 10% down for five rooms and 1 1/2 baths (two rooms for bedroom and office space, living/entertaining room, dining room and kitchen, including dining area and room for washer/dryer), and space to park two cars.

Is such a house or condominium currently available in an area of L.A. that is not rundown or in chaos? The gap between the haves and have-nots will continue to widen, with less and less in between unless something can be done for these young people who are the future of the area.

ANNE W. MILLER

Cleveland Heights, Ohio