My father, pretty fresh out of Viet Nam and only a couple years in the Chicago Fire Department was able to get a mortgage for a cute house on the outskirts of town.

Unfortunately for me, now that it is time to pry my aging mom from the property it has been largely unimproved and we'll be lucky to get 300k for it. That's still twice what they paid for it, ultimately.

I could have taken it over like my dad did his mother's house, but there's no way I'm rotting out where I grew up. I like culture too much.

Edit: It was probably 50k when they signed the mortgage, but ended up paying for it 3+times. She's lived there almost 50 years and still doesn't own it.