Usually I think of it more like #1 - someone who bought a house and then every single maintenance item becomes an ‘emergency’ and they have to reevaluate what else might not get purchased that month because of whatever house thing happened.
However, I did refer to myself as house poor when we bought our house - early/mid 20’s, just had a lot of money going out for various direct house purchase-related things along with indirect things like “Oh we have two bathrooms now, we need to get another shower curtain and rod and rings. Oh, that window gets a LOT of sunlight first thing in the morning, we need a curtain rod and curtains stat. Oh, the fridge that was left in the garage is actually broken so we need to buy a new fridge ASAP, isn’t that fun.” Eventually that faded out and our month to month cashflow was okay again.
Yeah this is my definition too. If you sank all your assets into your house, so you have no emergency fund, and you’re sinking a high percent of your income (above 30% is “rent/mortgage burdened” although honestly I’d cautiously push that up to 50%) and can’t build up a new emergency fund/repair funds.
Although thinking this through, one nuance would be that if you hadn’t bought this house, you’d be fine. If you’d be poor with or without this house then you’re just poor. The house has to be creating the conditions that make you live like you’re poor.
I like this framing a lot, and I think this must be why I have the connotation that it only applies to more affluent people: the house created the conditions that got you here. Smart!
My mom is a Midwesterner, and the older I get, the more I realize most of my idioms come from her. The first time I called someone a “ham” in front of my east coast-raised wife, she had no idea what I meant, which is funny because she truly is a ham.
Hmm, I would have thought that was a widely well-known phrase. While ordering a soft drink is a wild random term generator (pop in Midwest, soda some places, a coke in the south (regardless of flavor / brand))
Calling a water fountain a “bubbler” is specific to like a 50 mile range from my mom’s home town. It’s so interesting.
ETA - calling all soda coke is so weird. I had a friend who did that, but when the next questions is “Do you still like orange coke?” it’s just confusing.
Oh, I have heard that before (I call it a fountain).
“Youse” as in the plural of you is pretty common in Dubuque (Iowa), but not other parts of the state. I have heard it is also used in (parts of) Chicago, and maybe out east (Jersey?). Sounds very 1940’s mafia movie to me.
Everyone’s framing on house poor has been so interesting and makes good sense, thank you for sharing. We have a house but not much furniture yet, and when we were talking about it with someone, her response was “right, you just moved, you’re house poor.” It really didn’t feel like she meant it in the “living outside of your means” way, so I was curious if I’d been thinking about it wrong this whole time.
My husband suggested “temporarily house poor” might better describe your sort of situation. There may be a cash flow issue, but not a fundamental issue.
Honestly, we’re very lucky that the problem is more of a burn rate issue than cash flow issue; we’re trying to be really intentional about furniture and design choices, etc. etc., and it takes forever. At least for me, a non-design minded person who would like to be more so. At this point we might say eff it and buy a few things just to feel a little more settled and get ahead of visitors coming in August. Houses! Too much money and time.
I hear house poor used lightly a lot in the first year or two of owning and sometimes when someone has the year where everything needs replacing at once - everyone understands that is a temporary kind of house poor. It’s not often said in the long-term way because that’s kind of rude, but yeah, there’s a bitten off more than they can chew/poor decision making version too.
Yeah I’ve applied it to myself, the first year we owned our last house. So many things to buy (home repair, landscaping tools, so on), on top of everything else. But I mainly used it humorously as a way of excusing myself from expensive events with friends or family. (No I’m not going to Cancun for your bachelorette party, I’m house poor).
Interesting that I’ve used it that way, but that is NOT what comes to my mind when asked for a definition. I think because i see that more as the flippant derivative, and not the true meaning?
