Amanda Ogle and her daughter, Amelia Arlene Ogle, play with their two cats, Leeloo (orange) and Kashi (white) in their home after Amanda was done with work. Staff photo by Rich Janzaruk
Editor's note
This is the first installment in a multipart series on the local housing market.
Amanda Ogle and her 7-year-old daughter, Amelia, worry about losing their barely affordable Bloomington apartment.
Ogle is spending nearly 40% of her gross pay on rent, far above what federal standards consider affordable, and yet Ogle likes where she lives. But she worries about her duplex changing ownership, and the new owner jacking up the rent, which would dislodge her into an extremely tight — and costly — housing market.
“It’s just frustrating,” Ogle said.
Lindsey Ann Mazurek, an assistant professor at Indiana University, moved to Bloomington from Oregon last summer, and she and her husband are struggling to find a reasonably priced home here. The couple is renting an apartment in Bloomington but is considering a move to Indianapolis or Louisville, where, Mazurek said, they could buy a much bigger home for the same price.
Mazurek hails from Los Angeles and has lived in Oregon, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. She said she was surprised to find cost of living in Bloomington was as high, or even higher, than in Eugene, Oregon.
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