Housing Markets Pricing Out Middle Class

[BlueStateBlue]

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050710&cat=frontpage&st=frontpageap20050710_1255&src=abc


There's that wonderful * economy again!

[MercutioATC]

1. Sorry, but there's plenty of affordable housing.

Not in some of the more popular places to live but that kinda makes sense, doesn't it?

I KNOW the job market is tough and people feel the need to take jobs where they can find them but I'm not convinced there's necessarily a problem just because a dental assistant (or whatever) has a problem finding housing in a nice SoCal suburb. Certain locations command higher prices. If you can't afford to live in a given location, is the job really worth it?

I live in a nice west Cleveland suburb. Sure, I live in the "cheap seats" (the average home price is over $250k), but I have the same access to city services that the people living in $750k houses do. City taxes are low, the schools are great...

...but I DO live in Cleveland.

My point is that if people can't afford housing where they are, maybe they should move. If enough people do that, either housing prices will fall or wages will rise in places that are currently prohibitively expensive.

[dweller]

3. yeah, f*ck'em, they should move

there's bound to be a slum somewhere with vacancies.

"As always, America’s economic trends have a global footprint—and this time, it is a crater. Today the top 400 income earners in the U.S. make as much in a year as the entire population of the 20 poorest countries in Africa (over 300 million people). But in America, national leaders and mainstream media tell us that the only way out of our own economic hole is through increasing and endless growth—fueled by the resources of other countries.

A series of reports released in 2003 by the UN and other global economy analysis groups warn that further increases in the imbalance in wealth throughout the world will have catastrophic effects if left unchecked. UN-habitat reports that unless governments work to control the current unprecedented spread in urban growth, a third of the world's population will be slum dwellers within 30 years. Currently, almost one-sixth of the world's population lives in slum-like conditions. The UN warns that unplanned, unsanitary settlements threaten both political and fiscal stability within third world countries, where urban slums are growing faster than expected. The balance of poverty is shifting quickly from rural to urban areas as the world's population moves from the countryside to the city. "


more: http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/1.html

dp

[MercutioATC]

4. That's hardly an appropriate response.

Google the demographics for Westlake, Ohio. It's hardly a slum.

My contention is that home prices tend to be regional (oooh!...that's a provocative position!). Move to a different region and you're essentially in an entirely different economy.

PERHAPS people who can't afford to live in decent neighborhoods and don't want to live in slums, in expensive areas should consider moving to a region where their money will buy them more.

Yes, I realize I'm telling lower-income wage earners "yeah, f*ck'em"... :eyes: ...but it seems like a reasonable solution to me.

[dweller]

5. it's the appropriate response to the attitude expressed

"if people can't afford housing where they are, maybe they should move" . . . what do you believe, they just woke up one day in some area they couldn't afford to live in? Chances are they were born there, or moved there due to some opportunity (job most likely) and can't afford the housing market on their wages.

So, whatever dental assistant follows need in (name your city) to fulfill a position and finds housing prices beyond affordability. Thus, either they should move and said city has no dental assistant(s) or affordable housing should be provided for those wage earners. Since the housing market doesn't seem to favor low wage earners (and we are now including dental assistants in that catagory) perhaps the so-called So-Cal suburbanites can lose their teeth. Win-win for everyone.

okay, that seems reasonable :eyes: to me too.
dp

[BlueStateBlue]

6. How long ago did you buy your house? n/t

[wurzel]

2. If you can't afford a house you are not middle class.

Actually the "middle class" were never "middle class". They were a very affluent working class. When they forgot that. They lost it.