[quote=AN]But don’t you think Old Town/Mission Hills is an anomaly (along with other Uptown areas) when it comes to cost of living? Here’s an example of Mira Mesa.
This house was sold in 1983 for $96,500. Mortgage rates back then was ~12%. So, monthly payment back then was $794/month. Today, that house just went pending @ $465k and current mortgage rate is ~4.25%. Which puts the monthly payment @ $1830/month. You’re looking at an increase of 2.3x in housing cost for your average middle class family. That doesn’t seem to outrageous to me.[/quote]
Minimum wage earners are not middle class.
Regardless, let’s play with your example and use that to calculate what it would take to come up with the 20% down payment:
20% down payment for $96,500 is $19,300. That takes roughly 5761 man hours to earn at $3.35.
20% down payment for $465000 is $93,000. That takes roughly 11625 man hours to earn at $8.