MOUNT VERNON — If you — like me — have had to move recently, you know what an unholy nightmare housing is right now in this country.
It’s well-known that I often mock unfounded nostalgia about “the good old days,” but on this point I’ll yield: There was a better time, a time when housing was affordable to people who held down an honest job, which is more than I can say for today.
Was that time in 1916?
Well, look at it this way: The farm advertised on this postcard was 75 acres. It was selling for $15,000. Adjusted for inflation to today’s prices, it would go for over $407,000.
To be honest, I don’t think there’s the slightest chance that a farm that large, with a house and barn, would go for anywhere near that low of a price. I can go to local real estate apps and find rural homes with less than five acres pushing over a half million in price.
For a house, outbuildings, and 75 acres, the current market price would be in the millions.
Good luck to anyone who isn’t either Elon Musk or a lottery winner to ever get a house in the country these days.
The card doesn’t identify the farm location other than to say it adjoins Mount Vernon on the south. Wherever that once was, it is likely today part of the town itself, which has expanded southward in the last century.
The original 75 acres were likely subdivided and sold off to make more lots for further houses. If anyone knows the house or location, let us know.
