I’m writing this in English both because the article is in English and because I want all the English speaking foreigners who keep coming to this sub in order make excuses for how the dictatorship oppresses us, to read this.
(Writing in English because the article is in English.)
I am just posting this without comment as I recognize that people believe what they want to believe, and that what is or isn’t presented will not change anything.
(Writing in English because the article is in English.)
As I write this I just realized that it has now been two weeks from when the US imposed 2-week deadline on the dictatorship during the face to face meeting in Cuba.
This is looking a lot like build up in tension that happened with Venezuela.
I am ONLY writing about this to share history and NOT, in anyway, to imply that people who are new to the area can do this today. I share it because a lot of people who are new to the Miami area have expressed curiosity as to the topic.
Here is how most of the immigrants who arrived with nothing, were eventually able to own homes in the 60’s to 90’s within the city of Miami or within proximity to it.
First, if you had any family or friend that was willing, you moved in to live with them, even if it meant you had seven people living in a rented studio apartment.
Second, everyone in the family that could work got any paying work they could get and all the money earned was put together.
EVERYONE was SUPER FRUGAL. Never eating out (not even Burger King), never going to movies, avoiding paying for anything they didn’t need to, sharing everything that could be shared, you get the idea.
Back then the prices of typical homes in the area was not as meany times more expensive than the typical wage as it is now. However, immigrants in the area were typically earning significantly less (if they lacked legal status it typically meant they were paid well below minimum wage) than the average wage so for them, it was similar to how it is now. In general, the further away from the downtown areas you were the cheaper the housing was so they looked for housing in the cheapest areas they could find even though it was usually quite a distance from where they might work.
Even after all the sacrifices I already wrote about, it would typically take a few years combining everyone’s salaries before they finally saved enough for the down payment. They typically would still end up putting half the money they would earn as a family to pay their mortgage bill.
That is the true formula of how so many immigrants become home owners in Miami back then.