sttropezbutlersays
Oh God, I could write a book on this.
I look at it in relation to income, as a reality check. My Dad bought our first house for $6K when he was earning $15K--a carpenter's wage. For me to buy a house in the town we live in now, I'd have to take on a mortgage seven times the amount of my income.
We're moving backwards, in terms of access to The Dream. In almost every way.
When I see numbers like that I always wonder how much would that be in 20's stacked in my living room? Not that I'll know in this lifetime...
alan
Totally insane. Just as bad as Toronto home prices. My little lakeside lair, if placed anywhere within the greater Toronto area would go for 5 times what I paid for it. Shocking!
I suppose this is the same in any metropolitain area. I hear there is a lot of speculation going on in the Las Vegas area too. Reminds be of the story I read about the I.T. professionals in Palo Alto earning $100,000 plus but living in homeless shelters because they couldn't afford housing. Nuts!
That's one of the reasons I live in the little town I do. To move to a large centre such as Vancouver I would be paying at least $250,000 for a house similar to the one I bought here for $77,000. I don't know how someone can afford to live in a big city with housing prices like that.
paul
You could buy a couple of bricks in London for that!
Oh, I know what you mean...
Check out this post that I did back in March about housing costs in Santa Cruz, California.
http://glojos.blogspot.com/2006/
...ions.html#links
By the way... I've decided to continue to rent for now.
scary, huh? i'm a realtor right outside nyc, so i know all about this...and it truly is insane...
supply and demand, folks...supply and demand...
the gap between the haves and the have nots is now a chasm...
peace...
We bought our house 9 years ago for $135,000. Our most recent tax assessment (which is below market value) was $427,000. We could easily get $525,000 for our house.
In 9 years my salary hasn't gone up the 216% that "value" of our house has gone up. And we wonder why we're a debtor nation living on credit?
It's all true. I'm in NYC right now, visiting a college friend. He owns a 450 sq ft studio in the Village and it appraised two years ago for $350K. I'm sure it's close to $500K now.
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