Deanna’s Personal Housing History

I was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and lived in a house on Bath Avenue for the first two years of my life.  My parents bought that particular house because there was plenty of space for my older brother and I, and it was across the street from my grandmother who was happy to watch us while my parents went to work. After a while my parents decided they wanted to raise their family further away from the city; somewhere quieter and more suburban, so we packed up and moved to Staten Island.

My parents bought a new house on White Oak Lane, a semi-attached 4 bedroom in a development in Woodrow, Staten Island. The house was even more spacious than the one on Bath Ave, because my parents had a new baby girl on the way. My parents picked the development because it was in a good school district and there were plenty of children around for my brother to grow up with. After a couple of years though, it became tougher and tougher for my grandmother to travel from Brooklyn to Staten Island to visit us. Since the housing market was in our favor we decided to move one last time.

We moved to the house we’ve been living in for the past 15 years. A new 4 bedroom, two-family house in Tottenville, Staten Island. It has been perfect for my family; it was slightly above my family’s budget, but since my grandmother was moving with us she helped with the mortgage. There is more than enough space for all of us, with an apartment that my grandmother lived in until she passed.