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This assumes a 17% interest rate over the life of the mortgage with no option to refinance, no?
Yes assuming no refinancing. But considering interest rates were pretty high for a long time you’d probably still be talking $240,000 or so unadjusted dollars or something which is like $480,000 with inflation. Which is well over the actual price of $301,000
But I don’t feel like doing that math
Plus you don’t pay property tax on interest so over 30 years imthat adds up to something but I don’t know what the national average is
Keep in mind that even the superstar cities need people like cops, firefighters, librarians, trash collectors, bus drivers, restaurant staff, store clerks, ... (a long list of people can be inserted here) ... to support the lives of the superstar knowledge workers.
These are the very people being priced out of those cities. And unlike the very poor, who can continue to live in those cities in two ways: on the streets or heavily subsidized, these people have no real means of coming up with the scratch to afford the housing. So off to some distant exurb they go.
That then exacerbates all the problems we urbanophiles say we want to fix: excessive auto travel, urban sprawl, loss of open space, and so on.
One of Philadelphia's unsung strengths is that it still has a sizable middle class living within it. New York still has one too, but it's being pushed out slowly by rising house prices as well. This sounds like you're arguing that if you can't afford the high housing costs, tough, it's your fault. If the problem in Britain is that this approach to housing has at once concentrated all the wealth in one city and at the same time made that city unaffordable for the bulk of the middle class, well, is that really what we should aim for as a society? Yes, you can move to Kansas City and find plenty of affordable houses there, but for the kinds of jobs I'm talking about, the commute would be impossible.
No, you can move to Philadelphia. The people moving into metro Boston are among the most talented on the planet. A small version of the Bay Area. When I stepped away from the high paying Boston tech jobs, I sold my house in one of the fancy inner suburbs and moved. I never felt entitled to stay in a house that was no longer affordable to me. Like i said, this isn’t the UK with one city and the rest of the country with no economic opportunity.
A mature and fully grown, large city can host a wide range of people. A boutique city like SF and increasingly Boston is not as well rounded and can not hold their own with more robust cities with more robust offerings. By no means is it a good thing. It's detrimentally limiting to growth and vibrancy. This is common sense and petty intuitive.
You can disagree with the economist, Me, 2 other posters, and the public in general but it just means you're elitist, not right.
Factoring in inflation a $100,000 in 1979 is a $650,000 house today over the life of the mortgage.
Another question: $650k sticker price, or $650k over the life of a 2021 mortgage? If the former, you’ll need to add the $19.5k you’ll be paying even with a 3% interest rate.
A mature and fully grown, large city can host a wide range of people. A boutique city like SF and increasingly Boston is not as well rounded and can not hold their own with more robust cities with more robust offerings. By no means is it a good thing. It's detrimentally limiting to growth and vibrancy. This is common sense and petty intuitive.
You can disagree with the economist, Me, 2 other posters, and the public in general but it just means you're elitist, not right.
The United States is socioeconomically segregated. Not everybody wins a prize. Deal with it. I had to move to a place of better economic opportunity the moment I graduated from college. I lived in places with a high concentration of high skill people who cluster together. The Bay Area, Seattle, NoVA, Manhattan, Westchester, the economically dominant places in the country. The same is true in most cities. The North Atlanta 'burbs are fancy where much of the rest of the metro is a dump. Dallas is like that. Houston, certainly. LA; affluent people don't live in Compton.
IMO, a "robust city" is full of bright, engaged, educated people who drive the local economy. Big chunks of metro Philly are circling the drain. Ever been to Camden? It makes Springfield MA look like Beverly Hills.
The United States is socioeconomically segregated. Not everybody wins a prize. Deal with it. I had to move to a place of better economic opportunity the moment I graduated from college. I lived in places with a high concentration of high skill people who cluster together. The Bay Area, Seattle, NoVA, Manhattan, Westchester, the economically dominant places in the country. The same is true in most cities. The North Atlanta 'burbs are fancy where much of the rest of the metro is a dump. Dallas is like that. Houston, certainly. LA; affluent people don't live in Compton.
IMO, a "robust city" is full of bright, engaged, educated people who drive the local economy. Big chunks of metro Philly are circling the drain. Ever been to Camden? It makes Springfield MA look like Beverly Hills.
With each post you make, you demonstrate further that my point flew right over your head.
The economy depends on more than just "bright, engaged, educated people." Think for a minute, please: Who make up those "essential workers" that you, me and many others relied on for basic services during this pandemic — and, for that matter, during normal times? Who delivers the packages you order online? Who cooks the food you have shipped to you via DoorDash, or GrubHub, or Uber Eats? Who drives the delivery vehicles for GrubHub, or DoorDash, or Uber Eats? Do you use Uber or Lyft to get from point A to point B at all?
These people are not as mobile as you are. Their jobs are very much place-bound, they can't be performed remotely, and the metropolitan areas they're located in can't function without them. They're not earning the kind of money needed to afford housing in those superstar metros unless they locate in disinvested areas (like Camden) or on the exurban fringe, and in the really unaffordable metros, these may not even be options.
What's your solution for their problem? Let them eat cake?
IMO, a "robust city" is full of bright, engaged, educated people who drive the local economy. Big chunks of metro Philly are circling the drain. Ever been to Camden? It makes Springfield MA look like Beverly Hills.
Where? I want you to name some actually large places that are 'circling the drain'. Don't say the cities of Camden or Chester, two tiny ten square mile cities that bottomed out two generations ago when everyone moved to the suburbs.
Suburu, American Water, and Holtec International all building new HQs in the city of Camden in the last several years is a testament to the fact the city has already reached the bottom and is on the rebound.
Where? I want you to name some actually large places that are 'circling the drain'. Don't say the cities of Camden or Chester, two tiny ten square mile cities that bottomed out two generations ago when everyone moved to the suburbs.
Suburu, American Water, and Holtec International all building new HQs in the city of Camden in the last several years is a testament to the fact the city has already reached the bottom and is on the rebound.
Same. The go to answer is Camden (now improving), then Chester (both small), and that's really it... If we zoom out on the 4 suburban Pennsylvania counties (Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, Bucks), they are overwhelmingly nice counties, arguably the nicest suburban region in the nation, and certainly economically dominant. Geoff is starting to sound ignorant, beyond elitism.
In response to GeoffD he's trolling or very ignorant . Camden is just the opposite of of his statement with a well respected Med. school ,highly rated law school and a new school of nursing . I personally have invested money in rehabbing old housing stock and made money ,Camden is definitely improving .
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