Gross Family Says They Found a 4-Room Home in Afula Without Giving Up Community
Benjamin and Hania Gross said they began looking for their first home less than two years ago and ran into what they described as the familiar housing reality for many young ultra-Orthodox couples. With about 1.4 million shekels in equity, Benjamin said the same budget would have bought only a tiny, impractical home in places like Bnei Brak or an old fourth-floor apartment without an elevator in Beit Shemesh, while other Haredi centers meant years-long waiting lists for projects that existed only on paper.
They said the turning point came when they heard that Afula was rising as a new Haredi destination. The couple decided to buy in the city’s Mitzpe Afula project, where they received a spacious four-room apartment in a premium standard, including a large kitchen with 10 meters of cabinets, a sukkah balcony for every apartment, and open views toward a 1,000-dunam park nearby.
Hania said what impressed her most when they first visited was not emptiness but a mature community atmosphere. She said she saw young mothers with strollers, children heading to cheder, and yeshiva students leaving kollels, which made the area feel like a classic Haredi neighborhood, only more spacious and affordable. The article says Afula has changed quietly over the past decade, and that by 2026 hundreds of Haredi families are already living there, with synagogues, kindergartens, schools, mikvaot, grocery stores, and shopping centers in place.
Benjamin said the biggest mistake of friends was waiting for prices to fall. He said they delayed and missed the chance to buy earlier, while prices in Afula kept climbing. The couple also said they chose the project because construction is already underway, the developer is Yisodot Tzur, and there is full bank financing, which they said gives them confidence they will move in in 2026 with a private title and no partners. The article says Mitzpe Afula’s second phase is now on sale, and notes that Afula has direct rail service to the center of the country and fast access to Highway 6.
