Housing Affordability Debate

Users discuss and debate stark regional differences in house prices, contrasting multimillion-dollar homes in high-cost areas like the Bay Area with affordable options under $200k elsewhere, often tying affordability to local incomes and salaries.

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4,581
Comments
20
Years Active
5
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#1001
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Keywords

US VERY IPO OC realtor.com TX DTI MV WA SF house houses homes million home area mortgage sq 1m affordable

Sample Comments

cudgy Jan 13, 2025 View on HN

Pretty cheap considering average house costs $6-7 million.

unpolloloco Nov 18, 2021 View on HN

Still great $$ if you live in a reasonable location. Where you can buy a reasonable house for $200k instead of $2M

ilaksh Jul 2, 2020 View on HN

In some places houses cost less than $150k..

grandalf Dec 9, 2016 View on HN

Is your home worth between $1 and $1.5M ?

pier25 Aug 28, 2019 View on HN

They could have not bought a 1.2M home...

earl May 15, 2009 View on HN

Seriously, you do understand the concept of different costs of living, right? Your astonishment at paying $0.5MM for a house is irrelevant; that's the going rate and probably cheaper than renting in that area.

nxobject Feb 4, 2025 View on HN

Homes there are going for at least 500k now, I think…

tomcam Sep 22, 2024 View on HN

Median income of $30k doesn’t seem congruent with house prices?

cawlin Oct 9, 2022 View on HN

Only if the house is less than 500k

wctawcta May 6, 2022 View on HN

It's wild. Single family houses are being listed at $2M-$3M and going for $1M over asking. And the houses would often be considered fairly modest anywhere else in the country.I imagine a lot of buyers can afford this by selling their existing homes. Or perhaps they socked away a huge nest egg during after an IPO or over the duration of the stock market run up.But new homebuyers would need to earn about $750k+/year for the foreseeable future for this to make financial sense. That