"Our house value should hold but will home buyers be put off by 50-year-old houses?"
Fifty years ago Fordlands was a hive of activity as new houses were built and young families were streaming in to fill them.
Mr Jenkins, now 72, and his new wife Glenys were among those who joined the influx on Ford Rd.
"We bought a fifth of an acre of bare land for 680 - if you looked past our back fence there was farmland from there to Pukehangi," he said.
The couple soon after paid 23,000 for a ready-built pre-fab three bedroom weatherboard house, with tawa flooring and rimu walls and frames.
"It was pretty cheap by today's standards," Mr Jenkins said.
In 53 years of home ownership they had not moved - except for two years working at Matahina.
The couple took advantage of a government scheme to use the family benefit for their first child to fund a deposit.
Nine other children followed - all brought up in the same house.
They were all educated at Sunset Primary but only the couple's eldest - Gary - and two daughters now lived in the suburb.
"We've never really thought of moving away although the money we have spent to promote boxing in the area probably could have been used to give us a deposit on another house elsewhere," Mr Jenkins said.
Fordlands in the 1960s and '70s was teeming with young children.
"People were moving in big time, houses were going up every two to three weeks," he said.
"It was like a rabbit warren, there were large families, and hundreds and hundreds of small kids.
"Now it is the reverse, the kids have grown up and mostly moved away, and there are more adults settled here."
Mr Jenkins has no regrets about remaining - "it's a good neighbourhood, we like it here".
"Fordlands is seen as a rough area, it's good to know it's on its way up.
"We will die here - we won't be moving into some flash retirement home.
"You can stick that."