Dan wrote: > > http://www.paloaltoonline.com/com_info/by_the_numbers.php > > we see that the median home price in 2006 was 1.4 million. With one of > those fancy 0% down mortgages and 6% interest (that combination won't be > seen again for a while), this results in 84k per year in interest payments. > > The median income in Palo Alto is 90k per year. This leaves 500 per month > for everything else, including real estate taxes. > > By rights, one should not have housing costs of more than 30% of income. > Thus, most folks are priced out of the housing market by more than a factor > of 3. > > That's not sustainable. Something has to give. I realize that many people > can afford their houses because their mortgage and their taxes are tied to > the price when they bought it years ago. But, as we all grow older, it's > our kids who are looking at buying houses. (My eldest is a homeowner now, > with a small affordable house). Eventually, prices will have to come back > to earth.
I'm no statistician, but aren't you comparing apples/oranges here. First of all the median income includes all residents while the median home prices include only homeowners. Second it looks to me that median home prices doesn't include condo prices. Third, you're comparing the 2006 home price with the 2000 median income and finally Palo Alto has a relatively large university and I'm pretty sure that students that live at Stanford are included in the median income figures and _their_ income is probably pretty small. I'm not sure about the last, but I know that in my parent's home town (Santa Cruz) UCSC students vote in the local elections and I would imagine that that makes them residents. Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
