My Colleagues ‘Cannot Afford To Buy Houses’: How One New Jersey Teacher Bought His Home

In summer 2026, Rob Goldstein finally closed on a new home in Blackwood, NJ.As a teacher in Camden, NJ, Goldstein had sought a place within commutable distance to work without breaking his budget. Deals on other houses he loved fell through. Competition, he said, was fierce. And he landed his new home only after using an escalation clause—a tactic that worked, but at a major cost. Goldstein has no illusions about his situation and how special financial circumstances got him in the door in the first place. “People that I work with cannot afford to buy houses,” he says. “I make OK money, but the cost of living is just crazy.”A home search that reshaped his lifeGoldstein grew up in the Sheepshead Bay, a relaxed neighborhood along the water in southern Brooklyn, NY, and was well. accustomed to life there.“That’s a vibe that’s very hard to re-create,” he says.But upon getting married and wanting to buy a home, Goldstein and his then-wife couldn’t find anything in their budget. Their home search took them outside of New York—far outside.They ended up settling in Cherry Hill, NJ, using money his then-mother-in-law gifted them after a malpractice settlement for the down payment. The couple...