We have math prodigies, music prodigies, language prodigies — and now, meet a fourteen-year-old real estate prodigy. She owns a house, sort of.
ABC has the story of 14-year-old Willow Tufano, who bought half a foreclosed house in Florida with $6,000 she saved from buying and re-selling antiques. Her mom bought the other half, but Willow plans to buy her mom out and own the place outright by the time she turns 18. They're renting the house out to a couple right now — so basically, those people have a 14-year-old landlord.
NPR's take on the story is kind of sobering — noting that Willow's house used to be worth $100,000 and is now worth $12,000, Chana Joffe-Walt writes,
As I was working on this story, I kept thinking that when a 14-year-old kid can buy a house, the market must have hit bottom. I kept saying this to Willow, and she'd sort of vaguely nod.
But it's hard for Willow to see herself as symbolic of anything. To a 14-year-old kid in Florida, the housing collapse is basically the only world she's known. It's the landscape. It's a Craigslist hobby.
Of course, to other 14-year-old kids in Florida, the housing collapse probably feels less like a hobby and more like eviction and poverty. But that's not Willow's fault. Ultimately, her weirdly precocious real-estate venture isn't hurting anybody — except those of us who now feel hopelessly behind on life. Like me, for instance — Willow Tufano has one-half more house than I do, and is less than half my age.
Florida 14-Year-Old Buys Distressed Home [ABC]
This 14-Year-Old Girl Just Bought A House In Florida [NPR]
Image via Mishchenko Mikhail/Shutterstock.com