| There is no vantage point like the apartment next | | | | things belong to them. A public park helps, but it is |
| door for keeping track of the neighbors. | | | | not nearly as good as a place of their own. |
| When they come and go; who comes and goes | | | | If you think an apartment is not the best place |
| with them, and at what awful hours, and what | | | | for you to live, perhaps you can find a house to |
| disgraceful things they do. | | | | rent. This also has its advantages and |
| Of course, it is well to remember that when you | | | | disadvantages. You are not tied quite so securely |
| look in a goldfish bowl, the fish also look at you. | | | | to one place. |
| All kidding aside, for families where both the | | | | If you are not too sure how long you will be in a |
| husband and wife have steady, full-time jobs in | | | | place, or are subject to sudden transfers by the |
| business or industry, where they both work so | | | | policy or caprice of your company, or if you are |
| hard that they don't have time or energy enough | | | | the type that takes sudden notions to quit and |
| left to keep up a house, they are surely better | | | | try your luck somewhere else, then you should |
| off in an apartment, as it does save work and | | | | rent, and not try to buy or build a house. |
| responsibility. | | | | Renting also has the advantage of relieving you of |
| If a house is just a place to sleep, a place in which | | | | some of the responsibilities that go with owning a |
| to eat a hurried breakfast, and a starting point | | | | home. When the roof leaks, just call up the |
| from which to rush off to work, a place to return | | | | landlord and ask him to take care of it. If you |
| to after a late show, to tumble into bed, and to | | | | need paint or repairs, let him look after it, and pay |
| get a little sleep before another hurried breakfast, | | | | the bill. |
| then off to the rat race again for another day, | | | | When the tax collector comes around, it is not |
| and a repetition of the same routine, then do not | | | | your problem. You do not need to worry about |
| buy or build a house. | | | | depreciation. If your family outgrows a house, you |
| By all means rent an apartment; it will save you | | | | can move into a larger one without too much |
| work and worry and will fit your needs much | | | | trouble and expense. |
| better. | | | | It is well to remember that money paid out in |
| One way to get luxury living without having to | | | | rent is gone completely. If you had bought the |
| own and service all the features yourself is to | | | | house ten years ago, and had made rent-like |
| buy an apartment in a group where the | | | | payments for ten years, you would have |
| apartments are individually owned, but the | | | | accumulated a considerable equity in the house, |
| swimming pool, tenni3 courts, barbecue, and other | | | | and you would also have benefited from the large |
| recreational facilities are owned cooperatively by | | | | increase in property values during that same |
| the group of people living in the apartments. | | | | period. Buying a house gives you something to sell |
| An individual family might find it too expensive to | | | | when the time comes to move. |
| maintain a swimming pool, for one or two uses a | | | | There is not much point in having a house and |
| week, but it wouldn't cost too much, in either | | | | land, if you do not find pleasure and enjoyment in |
| money or effort for a group of fifty people to | | | | taking care of it. |
| keep up a pool. | | | | If the yard is so large as to be a burden to either |
| Renting a House | | | | the husband or the wife, then they would be |
| But an apartment house is obviously not the place | | | | better off without quite so much. As long as |
| for a family with children. It is a poor emotional | | | | maintaining a house and garden can be fun, all is |
| climate for them, when they must always be | | | | well, but what future is there in having to work |
| quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors, and when | | | | yourself to death in order to live in fine |
| they have little opportunity to get outdoors and | | | | surroundings which you do not have time to |
| run and exercise, and shout as they ought to be | | | | appreciate? |
| able to do. | | | | Enough is enough. There are two extremes to |
| If they must always be afraid of getting in | | | | avoid a spacious house and wide-spreading lawns, |
| someone's hair, how can they grow up normally | | | | or a tiny house and no lawn or garden. Let's not |
| and naturally? Life can be so much more | | | | overdo it either way. |
| interesting for them if they can be in a place | | | | If you would rather buy than rent make sure you |
| where there are trees to climb, pets to love and | | | | use a mortgage calculator to get the best |
| care for, and where they can feel that these | | | | mortgage available. |