Comments on: Affordable Orange County?

By: Mary J. McLaughlin

Mary J. McLaughlin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:52:12 +0000

07/15/08
I question why we were told that our children had to give us $500 a month to qualify for affordable housing. We have just learned that this was illegal. That put us on the 60% level, but qualified for the lower level.
By going on line, I discovered that the OCHA pays the remainder on the Section 8 Vouchers.
Management does not get paid a remainder on the 50% and 60% levels.
Isn’t this fraud?

By: Sylvia Walker

Sylvia Walker — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:04:37 +0000

I agree. Prices are still too high when compared to incomes. And as some economists are saying, this is why housing prices will continue to fall.

By: Mick

Mick — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:15:45 +0000

28% can afford an so-called entry level home? Where are these 28%? They still seem waaaaaaaay too high.

By: Sylvia Walker

Sylvia Walker — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:45:02 +0000

southoctracker,

You make some interesting points. Another subject that I have a lot of interest in and will be looking into more in the near future. I will keep your statements in mind when look into the matter more.

By: Sylvia Walker

Sylvia Walker — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:36:06 +0000

Mary,

I think that this is because median family income and median household income are calculated different and seen as two different numbers.

I was interested in understanding this more myself. So as chance would have it, I had already planned on looking into this and writing a post on it. Thanks for the extra incentive. It should be published on the Sweet Digs blog soon.

By: southoctracker

southoctracker — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:14:12 +0000

I’ve always found this affordability statistic to be interesting…and perhaps a bit misleading, because it leads you to think that the 28% of people who can afford entry-level homes would actually want to buy one (first-time buyers perhaps?). In fact, the 28% who can afford it includes, I would guess, successful professionals well into their careers who either already own a home and aren’t moving, or would want to buy a home well above a starter home and can afford it.

It would be interesting if there were a way to tell what percentage of first-time buyers (or someone entering the OC real estate market for the first time from somewhere else) can afford entry-level homes. That would give a better idea as to the affordability of the area as it impacts the starter-home buyers, which in turn affects move-up buyers.

By: Mary J. McLaughlin

Mary J. McLaughlin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:06:08 +0000

2/24/08

Affordable Housing. Our rent is based on the Median Income in Orange County, CA.
I question why http://www.huduser shows it is $$84,100 and another offiice states that it is $61,,700

We had the same in 2007 $78,700 and $60,600

Why the difference?