Comment by chiefalchemist
2 years ago
> Housing affordability is almost always going to be an issue if you can't get a job in the location.
Perhaps. But supply (as in supply and demand) plays a key role as well. The ratio between higher-end and "affordable" seems to keep trending in the wrong direction.
I'm not suggesting everyone should own a home, that's impracticable and economically dangerous. On the otherhand, too much of a resource (e.g., hoysing) controlled by too few hands has serious economic consequences. Perhaps, eventually, sociopolitical consequences.
To put numbers to it, according to Zillow, the average New Orleans home value is $263,349, down 8.3% over the past year and goes to pending in around 53 days. (That's the city at the top of the list.) Obviously there are some large historic homes in Uptown that go for a lot more than that, but that doesn't really line up with the typical "housing in unaffordable" storyline except to the degree that--as is almost certainly the case in New Orleans--the job market is pretty poor in general.