Just wanted to add one thing. I zillowed the house i described above and its worth about $220K today. The area, demographics and HH incomes are very comparable if not higher than where i live today but home prices area 1/2 to 1/3 of what they area here. This is just an expensive place to live and the rest of the country isnt like this. Most of the country is very affordable to average folk. This area has become much more desireable over the last couple decades relative to most of the country and housing prices reflect that.
