Reply To: How do people afford apartments in Israel?

Thanks for the suggestion lightbrite – just to clarify I currently work full time… not in kollel. Which is part of the crazy thing – I don’t get paid a fortune but it’s also not too shabby a salary (by Israeli standards) and my wife makes over minimum wage and we still can’t finish the month. If I was in kollel I still wouldn’t be financially above water but at least I’d have a lot of learning to show for it, plus discounts on lots of things and probably better protexia for things like getting kids into schools. Slaving away just to pay rent that goes to pay off somebody else’s mortgage while leaving me with little time for my family and to learn kind of takes the whole incentive out of working.

There are two issues here – one is not being in debt, and the other is affording a place of our own. We’re trying to budget and figure out where to cut costs but with high rent, high arnona, high price of food, higher than ever electricity bills and the never ending costs of B”H a few children running around there is only so much to trim.

The second issue is buying a place so that at least every month we’re paying off a mortgage instead of rent and a few decades from now could have something to show for our struggles (as well as not having to worry about moving every few years and finding a new neighborhood, new commute and new schools for the kids). I just feel a little skeptical that I could raise $100-150k necessary for a down payment.

Plus I feel bad taking when there are people in really horrible matzavs that are in need while we are in a tough spot but not starving (at least not yet B”H)