Moe’s Long Term Investment

Moe’s Long Term Investment

Moe Loe (pronounced: MOW LOW) is excited about the journey to become a first-time homebuyer. She’s watched as her siblings have made the move to homeownership and wanted the same for her and her three children.

“I want to have a place to call home,” she says. “Where [my children] don’t have to move.”

As housing costs rise at staggering rates, renters can be put in extremely difficult situations when landlords increase the rent beyond what they can afford. On average, US renters spend just 2.3 years in a location. Milwaukee Habitat homeowners, on the other hand, stay in their homes for an average of 13 years. Moe Loe is investing in this home as an opportunity to create more stability in her family’s life.

She is looking forward to having the ability to personalize the home, something Moe Loe says they can’t do at their current rental.

“I [will be able to] paint, plant a garden,” she says. “When you rent you have to ask the owner to do any of that.”

In addition to the freedom to make their house a home, Moe Loe says the kids are looking forward to having more space. Their current rental doesn’t have a living room, so things can get cramped at times.

“The kids are very happy,” she says. “[When I shared the news that we had been approved] my second child wanted to go and live in the house right away.”

Moe Loe is building a brand new, four bedroom home in Milwaukee’s Harambee neighborhood. The home is one of nine homes that Habitat is building on the same block on North 6^th Street. As part of our affordable homeownership program, buyers help build their home and the homes of their neighbors. It’s a unique experience that often builds community among future neighbors.

“I’m going to learn a lot from this,” Moe Loe says. “I have never done this type of work before.”

Moe Loe sees homeownership as an opportunity to put down roots in the Harambee neighborhood. She expects to be in the home for some time.

“If I have a home, it is going to be a long term investment,” she says. “It’ll be my house.”