michael anderson wrote:
was just thinking about this as I'm about to buy a place in Atlanta

to be closer to family.

I get a chuckle out of how idiots and the media(ok....same thing I

know) report these things like they mean something.

Let's take Atlanta, and not only Atlanta but ITP atlanta(which also

includes places like Brookhaven, Vinings, etc).

I'll read something like "In metro atlanta median(or

sometimes) household income is 89k and single family houses average
almost 355k"

ok, first off it's important to note that income(and housing costs)

are very bi-modal. The people buying the 'average' house aren't
making 89k as a freaking family(not at these interest rates and not
without family money, inheritance, etc). More like 250-300k as a
family(mostly DINKS anyways).

And mean or median housing price is ridiculous in the context it is

often used.

I always remind you guys of this principle: city A can have

average housing costs of 350k and city B could have average housing
costs of 600k, but that *doesn't* mean average housing cost of a reasonable/safe house is more affordable in A than B. If most all of
B's area contains safe/reasonable houses and only 15% of A's does,
then A from a practical standpoint is far more expensive.

You see this a lot in comparisons of urban/larger areas vs a more

remote suburb. The remote suburb 'seems' more expensive; no......it
only seems that way because you're including lots of houses in a war
zone that the intended audience would never consider purchasing.

ITP Atlanta is a good example of that. There are no houses for

this 'average' of whatever it is they report(high 300s I think).

In reality these are the 'livable' areas inside the perimeter of

Atlanta with single family residences: Ansley park, morningside, parts
of midtown but not many houses there anyways, most of
Virginia-Highland, parts of Inman park, parts of Lake Claire, about
70% of druid hills, 30030 Decatur(not the part in a different zip code
that says decatur), most of Vinings and Brookhaven and Chamblee, and
most of Buckhead. I know that doesn't mean much specifically to
people who don't know atlanta, but the point is that MOST of atlanta
that is included in this average figure doesn't contain reasonable
houses anyone that doesn't have a death wish would consider living.

So in reality the average ITP atlanta single family residence

housing price is about 1.2 million. And all of a sudden the
'affordability' picture becomes much more complicated. But does the
idot media report this? no....of course not.

And atlanta is not alone on that....Im sure many urban areas are

like this.

Now when they say something like the average buckhead housing price

is about 700-800k(Im not sure of the exact number), that does mean
something because a much higher percentage(in fact most) of the
housing stock there is fine to live in.

So never ever base where you decide to move based on where these

sorts of numbers say it is affordable to purchase a home, because they
can be very very misleading.

Just my rant for the day lol.......

I think it would be
really easy to just take a look at Zillow to get an idea of what the
reality is in regards to the housing situation in any particular area.


This is a response to the post seen at: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=657709731#657709731

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