want to move back to OC from Phoenix

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Charles

What occupations have wages/salaries are linearly commensurate with cost of living or housing prices?

Aerospace engineers in Southern California make exactly 6.8% more than aerospace engineers in Houston, Colorado, or Alabama. I checked.

I do think it also has a lot to do with your profession. RN's, for example, make 25 percent more, on average, in California than RN's nationwide.

Would that completely cover the huge run up in housing prices in the last few years? No ... but prices are falling rapidly. Granted, I'm out in the sticks but houses that were selling for $350K just a year ago are already down to $200-250K and interest rates are still pretty low so ... obviously housing in at least some areas of California is already becoming much more affordable than before.

This whole run up in prices was a house of cards to begin with. It's now coming out that nearly 50 percent of the recently issued mortgages were approved based on fraudulent applications. With so many people lying about their income (apparently there were websites that issued fake pay check stubs and employment veritifcations) and so many mortgage brokers issuing bad loans to people with bad credit ...

It's obvious that these prices were artificially inflated far beyond any real world marketplace. So .... this is going to be a big crash, IMO and the affordability question may actually become moot at some point.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sheri257

I do think it also has a lot to do with your profession. RN's, for example, make 25 percent more, on average, in California than RN's nationwide.

Would that completely cover the huge run up in housing prices in the last few years? No ... but prices are falling rapidly. Granted, I'm out in the sticks but houses that were selling for $350K just a year ago are already down to $200-250K and interest rates are still pretty low so ... obviously housing in at least some areas of California is already becoming much more affordable than before.

This whole run up in prices was a house of cards to begin with. It's now coming out that nearly 50 percent of the recently issued mortgages were approved based on fraudulent applications. With so many people lying about their income (apparently there were websites that issued fake pay check stubs and employment veritifcations) and so many mortgage brokers issuing bad loans to people with bad credit ...

It's obvious that these prices were artificially inflated far beyond any real world marketplace. So .... this is going to be a big crash, IMO and the affordability question may actually become moot at some point.

I guess that's a fair response especially considering reduction in SoCal home prices. I still don't think SoCal salaries are close to moderately (not cheap) priced regions. The coasts cost big bucks and the salaries at them aren't keeping up (or haven't kept up). Perhaps in time SoCal housing prices will drop to maybe 125% or 150% of Denver, Seattle, Houston, etc. housing prices. Heck, it was only ten years ago that a $920K home was selling for $330K.

It will probably be interesting.