The building industry is selling more new homes, but their focus is on the higher-end markets, and not much is happening for the middle class.
KPBS found a guy to whine about it on camera; but it’s a free market, and rich people are winning. It’s not going to change – what can government do?
Hat tip to daytrip for sending this in!
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/aug/08/housing-crisis-squeezes-middle-class/
Homeowners in San Diego County may not feel it, but a housing crisis is underway in the region, and the middle class is especially hard squeezed.
Longtime Escondido resident Guy Chandler faced a situation that may be all too familiar to many San Diego families. He described what happened at a recent San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
“Probably the worst day of my life was in June 2015,” Chandler said. “My daughter, Jenelle, 37 years old, came to me and told me, ‘Dad, sit down. There’s something you’re not going to like. We have to move out of San Diego County.’”
Chandler’s daughter told him she was planning to take her family and move to another state because she couldn’t find a house in San Diego where she could afford to raise her kids.
“The next two days a lot of hand-wringing and crying went on,” Chandler said.
He now communicates with his grandchildren on the web via FaceTime.
“What’s my point?” he asked the board. “My point is, droves of young families are leaving the state of California because they can’t afford to live here.”
It happened to me–no, not in NSDC, but in Santa Barbara County. It was a dream of my late husband and I to get our kids through college without student debt. I couldn’t do that and also buy a house. It wasn’t just buying the house, but the insane property taxes.
I finally made the decision in late 2010 when I saw the headline in the Santa Barbara News-Press newspaper: “County Pensions to Hit $1 Billion”…
“I finally made the decision in late 2010 when I saw the headline in the Santa Barbara News-Press newspaper: “County Pensions to Hit $1 Billion”…”
That’s why now, when I see bank robberies on the news, I feel sorry for the bank robber. The poor guy probably wasn’t on a county pension.
Hell, any of us would probably do the same thing in his position.
“That’s why now, when I see bank robberies on the news, I feel sorry for the bank robber. The poor guy probably wasn’t on a county pension.”
I feel sorry for bank robbers who get 20 years in prison for stealing maybe 2-3k. When Short Sale agents steal 100k+ daily through fraud and even if they get caught it’s a fine not jail time.
Of course moving has been the trend in American History, it is just that Ca was until recently the final destination, now the shoe is on the other foot, and Ca is loosing folks. But of course today families living in 2 distant location is far less of a problem than a while ago. Start with essentially free telecom domestically including now the equivalent of the picture phone with a tablet and skype, and inexpensive air travel. Compare that with several day turn arounds for mail and expensive long distance telephone calls.
To give an example a group of my ancestors started out in Boston, moved to Ct, then NJ, then OH, then IA, and my grandfather moved to IN. The my parents moved to MI and finally Tx (where I had moved after college all be it 250 mi away from them).
What perhaps this indicates that the old idea of Ca as the last stop as you ran out of land is no longer the case.
The national income disparity has contributed to the growing gap between the lower and upper class, as more Americans begin to shift into the higher ranges of the upper class and lower ranges of the lower class. Pew’s research has found that while the middle class has been declining, the ranks of the upper class are growing more quickly. Since 1971, the share of senior citizens in the upper class has increased roughly 27 percent, and married couples with no children and black Americans have also realized a large gain during that same time period.
What is upper class? Upper households saw their median income increase 47 percent to $174,600 from 1970 to 2014, while the middle class only experienced a 34 percent increase to $73,400 and the lower class received a 28 percent growth to $24,074. The upper class also now controls 49 percent of the nation’s aggregate income, increasing from 29 percent in 1970. The middle class once held 62 percent of the nation’s income in 1970 but that share has dropped to 43 percent.
Pacific Coast Bankers Bank observed that, “The median net worth of upper class families also doubled from 1983 to 2013 reaching $650,100, the median net worth of the middle class increased 2 percent to $98,100 and the lower class saw their wealth drop 18 percent to $9,500. The middle class used to be the core of America, but recently, more households have struggled due to a combination of stagnant wage growth and increased living expenses. This economic polarization has contributed to a wider gab between the rich and poor, and a dwindling middle class.”
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/pipelinepress/08182016-jumbo-loans.aspx