michael anderson
2023-12-22 22:39:22 UTC
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 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.......