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This article is from WeChat official account: Microstory (ID: xinweigushi), written by Chu Qiao and edited by Cai Yu. The original title is: "Independent Women" who are strong in life: Do you regret buying a house at that time? ", and the title is from Visual China

Article Summary

This article tells the true stories of several independent women who insist on buying a house, including Zhang Meng, who pursued independence due to a preference for sons over daughters, Chu Qing, who gained confidence after buying a house and did not want to get married, and Lu Xiaohong, who fell into a difficult situation after buying a house.

• •    Emphasize the trend and motivation of independent women to purchase houses

• •    Describe the confidence and confidence brought by purchasing a house

• •    Describe the risks and regrets that may arise after purchasing a house

In recent years, the number of female homebuyers, especially single female homebuyers, has shown a significant upward trend.

Data shows that single women are gradually holding up half of the sky in real estate transactions. In the fields of purchasing, renting, and home related activities, the proportion of female consumers has been increasing year by year, becoming an important force in market development.

However, the ups and downs of the real estate market in recent years have also posed significant challenges to some independent homebuyers.

Faced with falling housing prices and shrinking assets, most people bear such pressure on a household basis, and they often need to bear the consequences alone.

The real estate market is declining, and young women who independently purchase houses seem to be the most vulnerable group to change.

The protagonist of this micro story is these young women who pursue independence and independent home buying.

Among them, some have been longing for their true "home" since their teenage years due to the preference for boys over girls in their original families;

Some people are despised by their blind date because they don't have a house under their name. After buying a house, they instantly have confidence and never want to get married again;

Some people are also burdened with debt due to buying a house, living in dire straits and regretting their impulses every day

Here are their true stories.

I don't want to be a "homeless person"

After a month of business trip, when Zhang Meng returned home in the middle of the night, he saw that the lights in the entrance were still on, and his heart felt very at ease.

This light was specially left for her before her business trip, and she didn't want to see a pitch black scene when she came back dusty.

At the age of 29, Zhang Menghua bought this two bedroom apartment located in Yanjiao, Hebei Province, covering an area of over 90 square meters, for a total price of nearly two million yuan.

She could have used this money to make a down payment in Beijing and buy a house of similar size. But she wants to have a home of her own completely, and she is unwilling to bear the mortgage and hand over the ownership of the house to the bank.

After buying the house, Zhang Meng still had some money in his hand, and he bought a car with full payment. He drove to and from work, saving the commute between Yanjiao and Beijing.

On the day he received the property certificate, Zhang Mengte posted a message on his social media to inform the world.

She wants to share her joy, although she knows that those likes may not necessarily be sincere blessings, and even sour, jealous, and contemptuous, but she doesn't care.

Picture | A commercial street near Zhang Meng's house

"I thought my first red book in life was a marriage certificate, but I didn't expect that the two red books I had already obtained were not. The first one was a lawyer's certificate, and the second one was a property certificate. The marriage certificate is still in the air," Zhang Meng said with a smile.

Zhang Meng was born in a rural area of Hunan and has an older brother at home. Since she was sensible, the most common words she heard were from her parents about how to earn money to buy a house for her brother's marriage.

Although she should have the same rights as her brother both legally and by blood, like many families around her who prioritize sons over daughters, the family's savings are reserved for her brother, and her parents who work in Changsha to earn money to buy a house are also given to him. All of this has nothing to do with her.

Zhang Meng expressed his desire to buy a house, but his parents said that if a girl buys any house, she can marry someone who has a house in the future.

She "rebelled" against her parents who said they were biased, but they retorted, "Do you see any house in the village that buys a house for her daughter?"

Not only that, my mother always intentionally or unintentionally mentions the well married girls in her neighbors. Look at who and whose daughter built a house for their parents, how much money they gave to their family, and what things they bought.

Zhang Meng knows that in the perception of his parents, his daughter has always been from another family, but it is natural for him to breastfeed his parents.

Every time when Zhang Meng returned to his hometown after working in Beijing, he felt that his mother always treated him as a guest, not as casual and close as her brother.

"When I was a child, I thought my home would last a lifetime and never change. As I grew up, I realized it wasn't like this. So, I worked hard and earned money to have a place to stay. No matter when I returned, I wouldn't be treated like a guest."

"When girls grow up, they don't have a home anymore." This is a saying that has been praised by many girls.

Although the 21st century has arrived, the practice of favoring sons over daughters is still common in many rural areas of China, including some urban families.

Regardless of whether the family is wealthy or poor, daughters with sons are often treated differently.

Girls who grow up in such families are usually more independent and strong because they have been burdened with unequal treatment since childhood. Because they knew that their family had no support or a way out, they could only polish themselves into "steel" and cope with the hardships of life alone.

Many of Zhang Meng's young children are not as lucky as her, able to go out of the mountains to study and stay in the big city to work.

The girls who used to jump rubber bands and play hide and seek with her, even if they got married, went from one village to another. After marriage, they can go back at any time, but not "home", but "back to their parents' house".

Picture | Yanjiao Street near Zhang Meng's Home

Although the house bought in Yanjiao is no longer worth the price at that time, Zhang Meng has no regrets at all:

"I'm not buying fixed assets, nor have I ever expected them to appreciate. I want to buy myself a home. No matter how the market fluctuates, in my heart, home is priceless."

"If a woman buys a house, it doesn't matter if she doesn't find a partner."

Compared to Zhang Meng's conviction, Chuqing's initial purchase of a house had a bit of a sense of anger.

As she was about to turn three, she was forced to start blind dates under the pressure of her parents and friends. The first blind date is from Beijing, who is 10 years older than her and has an average appearance. She has a stable job with a monthly salary of less than 10000 yuan.

After meeting, the man was very satisfied with her and wanted to continue dating. But Chuqing felt that regardless of age, appearance, or personality, the other person did not match him, simply put, there was no feeling.

But the introducer felt that she was too arrogant: "She's from Beijing, with a Beijing household registration and two houses. You're almost 30 years old, no house, no car, no household registration. If they don't mind you, that's good."

The words of the introducer are harsh and realistic. Unlike free love, blind dates not only look at face, but also at wealth and social status. The height, weight, education, work, income, and other indicators of both men and women should be weighed on a balance.

Returning to the rental room, Chuqing searched for all her bank cards and checked each one's balance. After graduating from university, she came to Beijing from her hometown of Heilongjiang and worked in the advertising industry for nearly ten years. Although I haven't made much money, it's still possible to buy a small apartment with savings and provident fund loans.

When she had the idea of buying a house, she didn't say anything, neither informed her parents nor greeted her friends around her.

At the suggestion of the intermediary, she spent a month looking at small apartment units in various urban areas of Beijing with a unit price of less than 50000 yuan and a total price of no more than 5 million yuan. Finally, she targeted Chaoyang and quickly closed the deal.

It wasn't until the moment she received the keys to the house that she called her parents and said, "Dad, Mom, I bought a house."

Picture | Scenery below Chuqing's house

Surprisingly, as soon as she moved into her new home, her license plate, which had been shaken for several years, also came down. So she ran to the 4S store again and bought a commuter car.

"After buying a house, I feel confident all of a sudden. With a house and a car, when we go on a blind date, it seems like my value has suddenly increased. The introducer's description of me to the man has also changed: this girl is not simple. She graduated from a key university with a master's degree and owns a house and a car in Beijing. Her monthly salary is tens of thousands!"

The quality of blind dates has also skyrocketed due to the increase in their value. But after seeing various strange things, Chuqing no longer wanted to go on blind dates or even get married:

"The older I get, the less I want to make do. If I can't meet someone who is in love, it's better to live on my own. I have my own car, house, and savings. Why do I have to partner with someone to lower my quality of life?" said Chu Qing.

Picture | Scenery below Chuqing's house

Coincidentally. On the Internet, many single girls shared their happiness after becoming homeowners.

Many people say that after buying a house, they feel stronger, have confidence in their words, and have a straight back. I am also more cautious about marriage.

Someone said, "After buying a house, I feel that getting married and finding a partner is not very interesting. I have both material and spiritual resources, and I don't want marriage to cause trouble for me."

Some people also say, "Buying a house is buying insurance. If you get married, your significant other may betray you, but a house won't."

Some people say, "I don't even want to get married after buying a house. This kind of happiness can only be felt after I have a house. What loneliness and solitude are they? After making a dessert, they disappear completely. There's no time to be alone. Lying down and scrolling through my phone every day makes me very happy."

Having their own house not only brings these young girls a sense of material security, but also makes them more confident and determined spiritually.

Of course, this does not mean that they stand on the opposite side of marriage, but rather have more confidence in choosing marriage and their significant other, without having to compromise or accommodate themselves.

Chuqing remembered that after her best friend and her husband had an argument, she ran to her house and cried bitterly. The man said a very heartwarming sentence to her best friend, "Get out!" because the house was bought by him and was his premarital property.

"If this situation happens to me, I can argue back and say 'get out of here!'" Chu Qing said, "Because the house belongs to me, even if the house price drops, I don't regret buying it. It doesn't matter whether I'm losing or not living on my own. I just regret not buying it earlier."

"Those with average strength should not be independent women."

Among the interviewed girls, Lu Xiaohong is the only one who regrets buying a house.

In 2017, despite opposition from her family, she pieced together hundreds of thousands of down payments and bought a two bedroom apartment of over 80 square meters in Xianghe, Hebei, for a total price of over one million yuan.

Compared to the high housing prices in Beijing, although this price is not considered high, for her monthly income of only five or six thousand yuan, the burden is not light.

Lu Xiaohong is from the south and lives in Beijing with her brother and sister. When she first arrived in Beijing, she rented a house with her brother and sister. Later, her brother and sister got married and had their own house, so she had to share it with someone else.

In her earlier life plan, buying a house was not included. But after turning 30, her classmates and friends around her got married and had children one after another, and they all bought houses, while she was still alone, so she put buying a house on the agenda.

She couldn't afford to buy a house in Beijing, and like many young people, she turned her attention to the still hot three counties in the north at that time. Between Yanjiao, Dachang, and Xianghe, she chose Xianghe because it was cheaper.

At that time, Lu Xiaohong's total savings were less than 50000 yuan, and the down payment was over 300000 yuan. The remaining 200000 yuan was borrowed by many talents for 10000 or 20000 yuan.

After buying a house, Lu Xiaohong moved to a four person dormitory at her workplace and symbolically paid several hundred yuan in rent each month. Because she has to repay her mortgage and borrow money from relatives and friends, her monthly disposable income is almost zero.

In order to save expenses, she dared not go shopping or buy new clothes, and ate the cheapest meals in the cafeteria three times a day. Apart from go home for the Spring Festival, she has never left Beijing in recent years. The only time she went out to play was when she went to Qinhuangdao with her college classmates, and returned on the same day.

Once, while working in Xidan, she went to McDonald's during lunchtime and ordered a order of French fries. When she finished her last potato chip dipping in tomato sauce, a female beggar sat across from her and ordered a luxurious set meal, enjoying it with relish.

This female beggar Lu Xiaohong knows her. She just crossed the pedestrian bridge and pretended to be disabled, asking passersby for money.

"At that moment, my mood was extremely low. I knew she was a scammer, but my own life was not as good as that of a beggar, which made me very uncomfortable. Thinking about continuing to live like this for decades to come, I didn't dare to get sick or lose my job, I was a bit scared."

Lu Xiaohong wanted to sell her house, but in the second year after she bought it, the housing prices in Xianghe plummeted. When she bought the house, the unit price was over ten thousand yuan per square meter, but now it's only eight or nine thousand yuan. Even if it's discounted, no one will buy it.

She had no choice but to rent out the house. Because it is a rough house, the monthly rent is only 500 yuan.

To make matters worse, she, who is persistent in searching for marriage online, has encountered a "pig killing plate". The so-called boyfriend who had been together for several months conspired with a loan agent, and after borrowing over 300000 yuan from the bank in her name, the relationship evaporated.

In this way, she not only needs to repay a mortgage of over 3000 yuan per month, but also needs to repay a loan of seven to eight thousand yuan that does not belong to her.

Lu Xiaohong, who impulsively paid the bill, said that apart from a brief moment of joy when she first bought a house, she regrets every day from now on: "The drive to borrow money everywhere and buy a house even if you eat dirt back then is foolish to think about it now."

Lu Xiaohong's experience is not unique. During the frenzy of the real estate market, many people followed the trend of buying houses, but ignored the actual demand and potential risks behind buying houses.

When the tide of windfall profits fades and houses return to their essential residential properties, some people find that the properties they purchase do not bring expected returns, but instead become a heavy burden.

I also support single girls buying their own houses now, but everyone's situation is different and we need to act within our capabilities.

If the budget is limited, be sure to buy something you can afford to live in, to improve your quality of life, rather than becoming a burden. The stability of monthly supply and the continuity of future work must be carefully considered Lu Xiaohong suggests.

(To protect the privacy of interviewees, their names and personal information have been concealed.)

This article is from WeChat official account: Microstory (ID: xinweigushi), the author: Microstory Editorial Department

This content is the author's independent viewpoint and does not represent the Tiger Smell position. Reproduction is not allowed without permission. For authorization matters, please contact us hezuo@huxiu.com

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