Photos by Krista Husa

Interior motives: When the home is your own, you're free to self-express.

LINDA BACHRACK

Special to The Jewish News

Call it "Friends" phobia or
"Seinfeld" angst: Young adults in the
Detroit area are scrambling to own a
little place they can call home.

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hose "Friends" seem to • have
very little privacy. With
their openTcloor policy and
occasional .neighbors from
hell, Monica and the gang often
appear to long for a bit, of solitude.
And what about poOr, misunder-
stood Kramer? He's forted to consult
the sup6r for permission to make the
tiniest home improvement, like revers-
ing his peephole! Of course, he per-
sonifies the bane of the apartment
dweller: forever barging into Jerry's
place unannounced, mooching food
and crashing on the couch.
As carefree as apartment living may
seem on TV, the lure of privacy and
ownership has local twenty- and thir-
tysomethings craving a:driveway to
shovel and a patch of grass to mow.

Allyson Cohen knows the feeling. A
financial consultant, she and her hus-
band, Doug, planned on using their
wedding gift checks to make a down-
payment on a house when they mar-
ried two years ago. Some pre-nuptial
debt, however, forced them to put
home ownership on hold.
There are a few advantages to rent-
ing, says Cohen. "When the furnace
broke, we didn't shiver for a couple of
days waiting for someone to come out
and fix it. It was fixed immediately,
and we didn't have to foot the bill."
However, the walls are thin, the
neighbors are screamers and the rent
payment equals a mortgage payment.
The Cohens plan to buy a house this
spring in Farmington Hills.
Marc Rosenblatt was 24 when he
bought his first home. "I hated throw-
ing money away on rent," he says, and
with a 3 percent FHA loan and a