02-06-2008, 10:29 AM
For many decades the median price of a house was approximately 2.8 times the average income. So, figure someone makes $16 an hour, they would get $33,280 annual before taxes income. Deduct 25% for taxes they then have an annual income of $24,960. Multiply that by 2.8 and the median price of housing that single person would have been buying was $69,888. Then it became common for both adults in a couple to have a job and pay towards the mortgage so couples were able to pay $140K for a house instead of merely $70K. Price of houses went up to where it needed two incomes to pay for them.
Seen any housing in those price brackets lately? Maybe in Oklahoma! With tourist/service jobs, they don't have any really high paying wages so our residents can only afford to buy houses in that sort of price range. It is also why many folks buy a house and then rent out a couple of the rooms to pay the mortgage or have multiple families sharing a house.
Housing is in that price bracket in some areas of the mainland. One person can afford to buy a small house on just one income so a couple who moves to the mainland can afford to have children and afford to have a parent stay home to take care of them.
Other than folks leaving since they can't afford housing, a problem we have with the high cost of housing and the folks that stay is that in order to afford to pay for a place to live, most families have all the adult members out working one or two jobs. There isn't anyone to teach the kids and the kids can't learn the proper sorts of morals or social skills from television and the school system.
We can build inexpensive houses and somehow limit the buyers to residents. Price the houses that one person's income can pay for them so there will be a way for them to afford to have and properly raise children. Or we can provide high paying jobs somehow so folks can afford to pay for the high cost of housing. Or we can just watch all of our college educated children leave for mainland jobs and watch the exodus of folks leaving.
Seen any housing in those price brackets lately? Maybe in Oklahoma! With tourist/service jobs, they don't have any really high paying wages so our residents can only afford to buy houses in that sort of price range. It is also why many folks buy a house and then rent out a couple of the rooms to pay the mortgage or have multiple families sharing a house.
Housing is in that price bracket in some areas of the mainland. One person can afford to buy a small house on just one income so a couple who moves to the mainland can afford to have children and afford to have a parent stay home to take care of them.
Other than folks leaving since they can't afford housing, a problem we have with the high cost of housing and the folks that stay is that in order to afford to pay for a place to live, most families have all the adult members out working one or two jobs. There isn't anyone to teach the kids and the kids can't learn the proper sorts of morals or social skills from television and the school system.
We can build inexpensive houses and somehow limit the buyers to residents. Price the houses that one person's income can pay for them so there will be a way for them to afford to have and properly raise children. Or we can provide high paying jobs somehow so folks can afford to pay for the high cost of housing. Or we can just watch all of our college educated children leave for mainland jobs and watch the exodus of folks leaving.
Kurt Wilson