Kate and Francisco are Homeowners in Deerfield!

“What is a closing like?” my daughter asked me. Today she and Francisco have their momentous occasion, when they sign the papers to take over a new house from the bank. It’s a seminal moment in every young couple’s life; but it doesn’t seem as common as it once was. Is home ownership going a little out of fashion?

It’s true that no sector of the economy took a harder hit than the home market, and that many people have decided that they no longer feel compelled to save for a house. My sister commented to me that I was lucky to have a daughter who could make enough to get a mortgage. That’s not always the case, especially down in the Princeton New Jersey area where my family lives and the houses are still, even post recession, incredibly expensive.

I remembered back to the two closings I went to, first for a duplex in Greenfield around 1984, then the very liberating closing I had in 1992 when I bought my own house in South Deerfield. You sign a whole lotta papers, the attorney goes through things with a fine-tooth comb, you sign, you sign, they copy, acknowledge, do it again and again and then you shake hands. It’s time to go cross the threshold of your new house, and it’s a pretty darn exciting moment.

Congratulations, Kate and Francisco. You’ll never be the same as when you were renters, you’ll look around the house and you’ll say to yourself….”It’s our house. We bought it. Wow!”
Home sweet home.