Just a few more then-now cost comparisons.
My mother kept meticulous household records, including this summary of average monthly costs during 1946, several years after they moved into their new house.
Just click to view a larger version.
She listed the major housing costs which I’ve excerpted below, with the current inflation-adjusted value in parentheses. These totaled $1,052.16 per month in 2019 dollars.
You can compare these to your monthly housing costs and draw your own conclusions.
Mortgage $50.00 ($688.09)
Property Tax $9.01 ($123.99)
Lease $15.00 ($206.43)
Electricity $9.42 ( $25.30)
Water $3.11 ( $8.35)
Second, although the figures posted here yesterday accurately reflected the original purchase price of the house, I realize they didn’t provide the whole story of the comparison to values today.
Why? The house was on a lot leased land, which reduced my parents initial investment. But the total shown here yesterday failed to include the eventual cost of buying the fee simple interest in the 11,250 square foot lot.
Initially, the land was owned by the what was then known as the Bishop Estate, which had subdivided areas around the island for leasehold residences.
Then in the early 1980s, Bishop Estate extended an offer to sell the land in fee to existing owners. Lease rents had been rising as older lease periods expired or reached periodic renegotiation dates. Monthly lease rents were quickly becoming prohibitively expensive for many families. It didn’t take much discussion for my parents to decide to take the Bishop Estate offer.
The cost in May 1982 was $77,100. That was the equivalent of $207,112.49 in today’s inflation adjusted dollars.
Added to the original purchase price of the house, the house-land total price, in today’s dollars, was about $297,489.95.
That’s still modest compared to Oahu’s median home price of $789,000 for the 12 month period ending October 31. The median means that half of the homes cost more, and half cost less.
But it’s not as dirt cheap as yesterday’s post would lead you to believe.
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Comparison in Kailua, family probably paid too much for new home in 1961 @ $21,500.00 but when fee purchased much latter for $16,000.00 the total $37,500.00 which defines lease price differences between Castle Estate that was desperate to pay IRS tax liens after death of Mrs Harold K. L. Castles widow, Mrs. Alice Hedemann Castle, who had significant outstanding Death Estate taxes in the early 1980’s vs Bishop Estate who had financial strength of powerful major investment in Goldman Sachs…which cost Kahala residents significantly more. Castle Estate also financed fee purchase at half the going interest rate with 20% down.