Sunday, June 08, 2008

1840 Help me here. Thud or no thud?

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The eFinance Directory list of the most and least affordable housing markets is here. The lists show the area, the median home price, the median household income, and the percentage of people living in that area who can afford to buy a home.

The paragraph after the "least affordable" list caught my eye. It says: "The Los Angeles area tops the list of the least affordable housing markets for the 14th consecutive time. Only 10 percent of the people who earn the median household income of $59,800 can afford a median priced [$412,000] home."

Duh?

Don't they mean only 10% of all the families in that area can afford to buy any house? At all?

There are higher and lower incomes, and higher and lower house prices. The only way anyone with the median income of $59,800 can afford a $412,000 house is to already own a house of the same or near value, and actually find a buyer for it.

There's something wrong with the conclusion in their paragraph, but I'm not sure what.
.

2 comments:

the queen said...

I think perhaps they edited out the "Without going into debt" at the end of the sentence.

~~Silk said...

It is now years later, and I am rereading posts and comments, and all at once like this I am noticing how often people just don't seem to get the point. It's frustrating.