So, if I can make parking spots show up and rains to stop, what more can my super power do? That’s the question ending my post two weeks ago. Now I know!
Remember Joanna and Xander, the young couple who were sweet hearts in their early teens and reunited 1,5 years ago? A love saga worthy a movie.
This spring Joanna and her little daughter moved in with Xander and his two daughters. They are all the same age and have become siblings. So far so good. But a family of five in a one bedroom apartment, that’s not a walk in the park. So to find something bigger has been crucial.
Which is not an easy task in Umeå. Again, Umeå and Seattle share a lot of the same problems, only on different scales. One is housing. Too many people in need of somewhere to live. Prices rising. Millennials having to leave the city to find something affordable.
The City of Umeå has a large pool of apartments, the City owned company Bostaden is the biggest agent on the rental market in Umeå. It takes years and years though to get one of those apartments. It’s actually common that parents put their young kids in the Bostaden line to give them a chance for their own home when it’s time to leave the nest. Actually a bit like American parents start saving for college for their children at an early age.
Joanna signed up for the Bostaden apartment line five years ago. That’s about the time it takes to be offered anything at all. And of course the offers start at studios and one bedrooms and not in the most popular neighborhoods. So the more years you have in line, the more you have to choose from.
On Monday Joanna was a bit desperate about her family’s housing situation. They all got at each other’s nerves as there is simply no way to get a quiet spot in an apartment that small. The same day she got an offer from Bostaden! A three bedroom in the neighborhood they want to be! Wow! The only thing was, there were six in line before her. So the likelihood she would be the winner was at a minimum.
I could feel Joanna’s despair. Then it struck me! And I said to her: you know what. I will visualize that apartment for you! Like when finding parking on a busy and impossible street I will visualize every one in line before you just vanishing! What I didn’t know though was I only had that day to do the job, Monday evening was the deadline for decision.
Tuesday morning it was a very cheery Joanna opening my front door: Maria, Maria, I can’t believe it’s true, I got the apartment!!!
What?! Yes, it was true. The six in line before her had all declined the offer and the apartment was her’s!!!
October 1 Joanna, Xander and their three little daughters will move in to an apartment big enough for them in the neighborhood of their preference. They have had a look at it already and they just loved everything about it. It’s like a dream, Joanna says.
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