Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Las Vegas Too Expensive For Some

The LV Business Press informs that home prices have slowed in Lav Vegas. "The median price of a local home sold through the local multiple listing system increased slightly, up less than 1 percent from March. Year-over-year price increases are still up significantly, with an annual appreciation of about 18 percent for homes and nearly 44 percent for condos."

That may not be enough for area teachers. "It was a chilling realization for a school district that is accustomed to hiring 1,000 to 2,000 teachers a year."

"'I was astonished that even a modest three-bedroom home for my family would cost me over $200k,' Mark Dorman wrote Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia via e-mail. 'There is simply no way at my age I am going back to living in an apartment, and even leasing a home in your city is a large financial burden on my meager teacher salary.'"

"Pay wasn't so much of an issue a decade ago when median home prices were in the low six figures. Not anymore. Teacher take-home pay has remained relatively flat. Rice is convinced that some creative solutions must be considered. She's met with home builders, asking that they set aside one of every 20 homes in subdivisions at a reduced cost for teachers. 'That went over like a lead balloon,' Rice says."

8 Comments:

At 8:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is probable that the great price discrepancy between various markets gets reduced over time back to the norm. Affordablilty indexes, muiltiples of median home prices to average incomes and comparison of cost of renting versus owning will bring the markets back to rational old school ways of thinking.

 
At 8:59 AM, Blogger Ben Jones said...

John,
That's what has amazed me about the CA market. Some think the affordability gap is sustainable, or can be papered over with easy loans.

 
At 9:11 AM, Blogger desi dude said...

hey,
no problem
CA has come up with 35 year loan with first five years on the state , isnt it ? I believe that is interest only

min salary req for that is 120K. i.e up 120K annual salary one will qualify

 
At 9:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only way things will go back to being "normal" is if these crazy loans are regulated and if mortgage companies require a percentage down for a home. As of now, anyone can get a loan and no cash is ever required.

 
At 11:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only thing that has sustained such a gap between income and housing is DEBT. There is absolutely so other way it could be accomplished. Eventually this debt will collapse on itself and history will have repeated itself 1001 times over. When will people learn?

 
At 12:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Deb... don't know if you're still around here on this board... but isn't the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) trying to end interest only and
no-doc mortgages to sub-prime buyers... for some reason, i think this september is the starting date... does anyone have any info on this?

 
At 1:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

just did a search on OCC and Interest Only loans... can someone translate this for me?

http://www.creditcollectionsworld.com/cgi-bin/readstory.pl?story=20050425CCWN474.xml

 
At 2:18 PM, Blogger Ben Jones said...

Deb, anon,
I read up on OCC. I haven't pursued it because the market is showing us what those in power are allowing. At this point, I am sure no one wants to get the blame for popping the bubble, especially a low rank bureaucrat in some office nobody's heard of. If they ended I/O now, CA would fall into the Pacific, financially. For the record they called for an end to exactly what we are seeing. If anyone sees new developments, please post them. Thx.

 

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