Contest: Your Six-Word Housing Story
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Maybe you spent years looking for the perfect fixer-upper—or maybe you lost it all when the real estate bubble burst. Whether you live in a Park Slope co-op or a split-level ranch, you can probably say something about housing in just six words. Mary Elizabeth Williams, who spent the better part of three years house hunting in New York City, summed it all up with, “Priced out of Brooklyn, discovered Manhattan.”
We’ve got an interview with Williams over at Memoirville, as well as an excerpt from her new book, Gimme Shelter: Ugly Houses, Cruddy Neighborhoods, Fast-Talking Brokers, and Toxic Mortgages: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream. So we’re putting out a call for submissions: what’s your six-word housing story? Hurry up and post your memoirs here. Williams will pick her three favorites, and each winner will receive a copy of Gimme Shelter, with one grand-prize winner also taking home both six-word memoir books.
double-wide refrigerator, sleeps two, rolls
Flat for sale, hoping to stay.
His dream. My nightmare. Haunted house.
Girlfriend has rent control, moved in.
Great home, pre-sprayed by male cat
…but the yard was so beautiful.
Adorably small. Too small? Now his.
Sumps? How’d this happen to me?!
Won houseful of furniture. Lack house.
Looked at four. Picked the first.
Built the Dream; Bills keep coming!
Four More Rooms to keep Clean!
Wished Master room wasn’t above garage!
Loan papers had too many asterisks!
The neighborhood is a Ghost Town!
Mom learns son’s foreclosure from newspaper.
Glad I never inherited that shack.
Sometimes white picket fences need repainting.
No larger than a refrigerator box.
Cheeseless Joad mice, should’ve clued us! .
Cheeseless Joad mice, Housing Market clues
Joad Mice, Our Housing Market clue.
Tarpaper means, Soon repossesed our dreams,
Tarpaper Shack, Love endures, That’s that!
Cheap! Livable Sardine Can, __ Sprung Roof!
Doublewide Refrigerator Mobile Home, Sleers Two
Doublewide Refrigerator Mobile Home, Sleeps Two
Mobile Doublewide Refrigerator Flat,, Two Horsepower
Fixerupper , Livable Sardine Can __ Sprung Roof
Love enduring time tested tarpaper shack
Sold Forida House & Condo 08, Happy
Foreclosure victims now searching for closure.
Hate siding. Love stone, can’t afford.
We decided to flip and flopped.
Left large home, bought beach condo.
Last house on the left, Right?
Moving into 55+. But I’m 37.
[...] week, we asked you for your six-word housing memoirs, and we got a fair number of horror stories. This week, we want you to leave home behind: [...]
Bought her out. Then I remodeled.
Overtaxed Hundredth-Acre Wood.
Two bedrooms. Backyard. Affordable. Queens represent.
Big mortgage, deep debt; prostitution pays
Psychotic neighbors, drunken super, 20% increase.
Would you like fries with that?
Too many neighbors, too little space.
Cinderblock fences multiply faster than dogs.
Borrowed against equity. Can’t breathe underwater.
Waiting for dream house; pondering options.
Oasis in a sea of graffiti.
Lost river view. Found naked neighbors.
Landlord stopped heat, must flee immediately.
From Doorman Luxury To FlopHouse Blues
Tazmanian Devil Landlady Hires Crackhead Handymen
Park Sleeping: A Bench Too Far
Crash Site: Hanging Out, Hooking Up
got dream house, infested with rats
Lost job, apartment. Living with boyfriend.
No bathroom, but lots of tools.
For sale: moneypit near ocean - cheap.
half bathtub, in kitchen, gottabe kidding
Dumping my husband, keeping the dump.
Great house…two miles from parents.
Handyman’s special, but we’re not handymen.
Greenwich village bred, Jersey City overhead!
Home in Jersey, mind in Manhattan.
Three copies of foreclosure notice redundant.
For rent: Toxic ex not included.
Five grand monthly. No heat.
Sweet house just ask the termites
Househunting, layoff, repeat, repeat. Still renting.
A cockroach crawled across my face.
Found him face up. CPR failed.
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Good thing my mortgage is fixed.
[...] than 200 of you left your six words in the comments section of her interview as well as below the initial contest call. We saw themes emerge, such as caring for parents (”Living with Dad. Babysitting the [...]
Six kids, true love, 1910 house.
roaches surrounded claw-footed tub at night
our street is lined with pick-ups
you mow. i bake. we are.