Our county is known as “Lily White Livingston.” Brighton and Howell have both been engaging in the act of gentrification. Older homes are being purchased by developers. They are torn down and replaced with new homes, or just turned into businesses (Howell), or in other cases huge apartment complexes/condos (Brighton).
Areas around these two cities are not building homes that are affordable. They are building homes for the White-Collar and Gold-Collar workers. There are some older homes in the area, like my home and the other two homes on our street (as examples). The problem is, we could not get the money that the city says our homes are worth, unless we were to sell it to a developer, or the city decides to claim eminent domain on our properties.
Even if we did sell our property to a developer or the city, we would never be able to afford a home in the area, without taking out a mortgage on the property, and as senior citizens (65 & 70), we don’t want that. Of course, we could go out in the boonies, down some dirt road somewhere, and purchase a home just as old as ours. So, we will stay here, unless forced out. Do you see what I mean?
There are fewer homes available in the older neighborhoods in which to live because their ‘value’ is artificially too high or they have been torn down and replaced by high priced homes/apartments. In other words, there really is little ‘affordable’ housing in the county.
Peggy L Van Sickle
Brighton
