April 26, 2002

The median home price in

The median home price in California exceeded $300,000 last month. This includes chateaus in Tahoe, McMansions in the inland suburbs, a shack in the redwoods, and whatever habitable space one can scratch out in the Bay Area. Scary stuff. Not coincidentally, the affordability index keeps dropping, with more than 2/3 of the housing buyers earning over $70,000, and first-time buyers have a median income of $60,000 per year. So the average buyer of the average California house needs to be making $60-70K a year, and somehow save $30K for a reasonable down payment. It's all a matter or priorities, I guess. Other people like to complain about the awfully expensive the housing, the shallow culture, terrible traffic, etc., etc. in the Bay Area, but nobody I know seems to want to leave. Hopefully, the rest of the complainers can clear out soon. Posted by mikewang on 03:06 AM