Louisville home prices rising faster than wages

[Roland99]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/NEWS01/70114011

Homeownership is climbing further out of reach for the average Louisville-area worker, whose earnings are failing to keep pace with home prices, a new study and federal wage data show.

...

But police officers, firefighters and social workers are among the professions that can’t afford a fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage on a house costing $142,500 — the region’s median home price in 2006.

...

To afford a median-priced house in the Louisville area in 2003, a buyer needed to make at least $41,141, according to the housing policy center. That amount had increased by 6 percent to $43,764 in 2005 and by 19 percent, to $48,816, last year

The median salary for a worker in the metro area was $27,269 in 2003, according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics. It rose by 3.5 percent to $28,226 by 2005, the most recent year for which data is available.

Guess rents will start rising as occupancy rates increase.

And, fwiw, $48,816 is $23.47/hr in a full-time job.

[SKKY]

1. I've often said that Louisville is the best kept secret in the country...

...I guess the cat's out of the proverbial bag.