Comments on: What Does Fair Mean? A Closer Look at the Laurel http://blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/01/what_does_fair_mean_a_closer_look_at_the_laurel.html Redfin Bay Area Sweet Digs Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:59:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Alison http://blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/01/what_does_fair_mean_a_closer_look_at_the_laurel.html/comment-page-1#comment-2406 Alison Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:26:56 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/01/what_does_fair_mean_a_closer_look_at_the_laurel.html#comment-2406 Hi Slappy: thanks for your insightful comments. I agree: the point is not about begrudging others who can afford homes in this market and locale. Focusing on income disparity makes sense. For example: what do we as a society value and how do we want to assign worth? Does the fact that I'm a social worker and make under the median annual household income mean that my work is less valuable than say, an investment banker's? (And not to pick on bankers out there, just using this as an example of a high-income career.)And while housing costs ideally should be 1/3 of folks' income, that doesn't hold true for most of us in the Bay Area or other high-cost areas such as New York City, Honolulu, or Seattle. For many people I know, including my partner and I, 50% of income goes to housing. Hi Slappy: thanks for your insightful comments. I agree: the point is not about begrudging others who can afford homes in this market and locale. Focusing on income disparity makes sense. For example: what do we as a society value and how do we want to assign worth? Does the fact that I’m a social worker and make under the median annual household income mean that my work is less valuable than say, an investment banker’s? (And not to pick on bankers out there, just using this as an example of a high-income career.)And while housing costs ideally should be 1/3 of folks’ income, that doesn’t hold true for most of us in the Bay Area or other high-cost areas such as New York City, Honolulu, or Seattle. For many people I know, including my partner and I, 50% of income goes to housing.

]]> By: Slappy http://blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/01/what_does_fair_mean_a_closer_look_at_the_laurel.html/comment-page-1#comment-2401 Slappy Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:48:56 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/01/what_does_fair_mean_a_closer_look_at_the_laurel.html#comment-2401 According to a rate of return calculator I found on cnn: Return on investment: Annualized return: 17.04% Return for the entire period: 382.33% While it saddens me because I don't own a house and never will own a house, should we begrudge those who can afford this type of home? Perhaps instead we should all focus on income disparity and lack of housing stock? Because a simple mortgage calculator shows this to be a $ 3,209.36 a month mortgage payment. If housing costs are supposed to be 1/3 of your income, we're looking at $115k Net or $160k gross in salary. That's approx. double the median annual household income ($62,024 according to wikipedia), so how many people can even afford this price? According to a rate of return calculator I found on cnn:

Return on investment:
Annualized return: 17.04%
Return for the entire period: 382.33%

While it saddens me because I don’t own a house and never will own a house, should we begrudge those who can afford this type of home?

Perhaps instead we should all focus on income disparity and lack of housing stock? Because a simple mortgage calculator shows this to be a $ 3,209.36 a month mortgage payment. If housing costs are supposed to be 1/3 of your income, we’re looking at $115k Net or $160k gross in salary.

That’s approx. double the median annual household income ($62,024 according to wikipedia), so how many people can even afford this price?

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