A place for residents of Marin County, CA and others to express their views regarding the real estate bubble and in particular the Marin real estate market
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Affordability, Then and Now
There are some serious discussions going on in some of the comment sections. That's great! Here is the article that accompanies the above picture and is something that is also serious.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
This graph is humorous, but it illustrates something I have repeatedly mentioned and been flamed for on here - that the middle class, especially the young middle class and children of residents, has been priced out of Marin. It's not just Marin, it's most of the Bay Area - the "inner ring" nearest to the bay, where most of the jobs are. (Marin just has the most egregiously overpriced real estate and the most aggressively NIMBY population.) Defenders of the status quo like to say "Well, that's just the magic of the free market - the Invisible Hand doing it's work." (Yes, "magic" and "invisible" - cripes, what's next, money fairies and investment portfolio trees?) There is nothing rational about a bubble, and the housing market in the Bay Area is not being governed by anything like rational economic principles. It's busted, you see. Outdated zoning regulations, draconian tax laws, growth control in the guise of "saving the environment" - there's something wrong when people can't live close to their jobs. In the long run, they'll just move elsewhere. Eventually it'll be those who stay behind who will suffer. Like, for example, the aging population of Marin, which eventually isn't going to have anyone left to take care of them in their dotage. Guess they're still too busy at this point riding Harley-Davidsons and trying to stay "rebellious" like they were in the 60s. Enjoy it while it lasts, grandma and granddad. Marin is so expensive, young doctors can't even afford to set up practices here. Doctors! Something Marin's going to need a lot of in years to come.
5 comments:
This graph is humorous, but it illustrates something I have repeatedly mentioned and been flamed for on here - that the middle class, especially the young middle class and children of residents, has been priced out of Marin. It's not just Marin, it's most of the Bay Area - the "inner ring" nearest to the bay, where most of the jobs are. (Marin just has the most egregiously overpriced real estate and the most aggressively NIMBY population.) Defenders of the status quo like to say "Well, that's just the magic of the free market - the Invisible Hand doing it's work." (Yes, "magic" and "invisible" - cripes, what's next, money fairies and investment portfolio trees?) There is nothing rational about a bubble, and the housing market in the Bay Area is not being governed by anything like rational economic principles. It's busted, you see. Outdated zoning regulations, draconian tax laws, growth control in the guise of "saving the environment" - there's something wrong when people can't live close to their jobs. In the long run, they'll just move elsewhere. Eventually it'll be those who stay behind who will suffer. Like, for example, the aging population of Marin, which eventually isn't going to have anyone left to take care of them in their dotage. Guess they're still too busy at this point riding Harley-Davidsons and trying to stay "rebellious" like they were in the 60s. Enjoy it while it lasts, grandma and granddad. Marin is so expensive, young doctors can't even afford to set up practices here. Doctors! Something Marin's going to need a lot of in years to come.
Yes, like you say, it's not just Marin. Which is exactly what makes all the Marin intangibles arguments so vacuous.
That's right.
It is all our fault... those of us not born here in Marin.
Anonymous said...
That's right.
It is all our fault... those of us not born here in Marin.
That's funny...I don't see where on this thread anyone has blamed outsiders.
I'm not sure I understand why that graph says "Affordable to out-of-staters"
Is that a joke?
If anything, it is even less affordable to out-of-staters.
-Burbed.com editor
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