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I know you're just passing it along but not much to see there, IMO. Those were heavily marketed townhomes in downtown (i.e. not exactly a surplus of building land available) with quartz countertops, hardwoods, garages, brand name everything, etc.
A home like the average family owns around here would be $800k-1.4 mil in good neighborhoods in L.A. that have pretty much zero yard (homes nearly touching each other). $270 doesn't seem crazy to me at all. Plus there are townhomes around for much less if someone wants to spend under $200k.
I don't think anyone expected that once the downtown area was made to be appealing it would also remain cheap; it's that whole supply and demand concept hard at work.
I can still buy my house for pretty much what I paid for it seven years ago, and I live in a desirable neighborhood in North Raleigh. I don't think the cost of living has budged very much over that same period of time.
the City of Raleigh owns plenty of land, and plenty of fairly well-concentrated land, that they can develop it into more "affordable housing" as they want. Certainly, the number one way it can be done is density. The first article linked is a wonderful opinion piece on a shangri-la method to approach.
"A home like the average family owns around here would be $800k-1.4 mil in good neighborhoods in L.A. that have pretty much zero yard (homes nearly touching each other). $270 doesn't seem crazy to me at all."
Right, I understand. I'm currently in Alexandria near DC. Yesterday, the wife and I just went to an open house for a 1500sqf townhouse near our apartment - $500,000. The tiny single fixer-upper family homes in the area start at about 550k, nicer homes are easily 700k and up. The cheaper suburbs with an hour+ commute SFHs with a yard are about 500k+. You have to get about 1.5hour commute out of town before the houses drop to 350-400k. It's relative. The cost of living is somewhat balanced based on average salaries. There's an extremely high percentage of graduate degrees in the DC area. The other cities in the NE are expensive as well. Raleigh has more middle and working class families and so "affordable housing" is/was a draw to the area.
There's an extremely high percentage of graduate degrees in the DC area. The other cities in the NE are expensive as well. Raleigh has more middle and working class families and so "affordable housing" is/was a draw to the area.
Raleigh is not exactly at the bottom of the barrel in the category of post-graduate degrees.
Take a look at housing cost as a multiple of salaries and you will see that Raleigh is a very reasonable place to purchase a home. Bring your $500,000 budget here and buy a home that would run 3 times that in NoVA.
Raleigh is not exactly at the bottom of the barrel in the category of post-graduate degrees.
Take a look at housing cost as a multiple of salaries and you will see that Raleigh is a very reasonable place to purchase a home. Bring your $500,000 budget here and buy a home that would run 3 times that in NoVA.
I know that the Raleigh/Durham area is one of the most educated areas in the country, but there is still a wide mix of education levels and salaries that moderate the cost of living in the area, so it's not the insanity that the DC metro is (and other big cities like SF, NYC)
Raleigh/Durham is very fairly priced I think and there are plenty of choices. One can choose to live in pricey 5 points or Lochmere in Cary or Wakefield. But one could also choose to live in Knightdale or Suburban Durham.
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It's relative
