First, I GUARANTEE that the majority of households in Carmel Valley for instance do NOT make 200K Plus. You guys forget that much of the real estate boom was due to the Ponzi nature of it and being able to move up to higher end due to their equity rising in existing homes.
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how can you guarantee this?
estimated median household income in 92130 is $128k
and this is including folks living in apartments, condos, and SFRs. renters and owners.
So it is very reasonable to assume there are quite a bit of folks making above $200k in 92130.
Now dz is absolutely right, there is a good portion of folks stretching and underwater. but I would only say this is a sizable minority, not an overwhelming majority.