USA Today: Housing out of reach in more markets

Be sure to check out this article in the June 27 USA Today. Buyers are still going to "extremes" to buy a home, in some cases with the mortgage, insurance, and property taxes eating up 70% of gross pay.

Here in California, specifically in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area, the most expensive median-priced home is $563,900, up 179% from Q1 2000. In the San Diego-Carlsbad area, it is $607,300, up 142%. In the Sacramento-Roseville area, it is $376,200, up 183%. In the Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario area, it is $396,200, up 195%. In the San Francisco-Oakland area, it is $720,400, up 72%. (72%? maybe the dot-com bust affected this area more severely than in other places.) And finally, in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area, it is $746,800, though figures for appreciation from Q1 2000 were not made available.

In San Diego, the biotech companies down there don't even bother trying to recruit from outside California anymore, because the prospective employees from out of state inevitably get hit with sticker shock.

According to the article, the affordability crisis has pushed millions to distant suburbs, overwhelming transportation infrastructure. A 1 hour commute from Temecula to San Diego five years ago is now 2 1/2 hours. Real quality of life, huh? Between that and what they are shelling out for gas, is it still worth owning a home?

According to the article, as many as 1 out of 3 Americans fear that rising monthly payments (thanks to those creative mortgages) as well as property taxes and energy costs, will force them to sell their homes and buy less expensive ones. Hmm, aren't some people trying to get out from under their properties now for those very reasons, and finding they cannot?