Inland Empire Housing Affordability Drops Sharply

[VanMorrisonFan]

Interesting article in today’s LA Times about the sharp drop in housing affordability in the Inland Empire. The link is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scag15dec15,1,2477607.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Thee is a hilarious quote from the mayor of Riverside who says that this is a sign that the IE is “coming into its own.” Wow, I’ll bet he’s just counting the days until no one can afford to buy a home in the IE. THEN the area will REALLY have blossomed. Until then we can only hope.

[startingout]

Thanks for posting this article- as a resident of the IE myself, I appreciate seeing data/news on my region (especially since data/news on just the IE seems hard to come by).

I live in Riverside, and believe that my husband and I probably represent your slightly above average first-time home buyer- I only mean “above average” in the sense that at 24 yrs old we have quite a lot less debt than our peers, have a higher household income for our age (~ $85K), excellent credit scores, save as much as we can, and spend prudently.

If the only thing we can afford in the Inland Empire is a dilapidated shack in a neighborhood with the twice the national average crime rate, how are all these other people snapping up $400K houses? Jobs in the IE don’t pay all that well (my husband and I were lucky to have found two of the quasi-exceptions), there’s NO WAY people can afford these homes….yet the market here is still going up!

I think I’m living in a parallel universe…

Just and example of how crazy the IE is: in 1999 my mom bought a house for $92,000. She sold it in 2004 for $245,000. A few months ago, it was listed at $380,000. This house, in reality, isn’t worth more than $150,000.

If this whole bubble debacle hadn’t happened, my husband and I would have been able to buy the equivalent of what is now a $375,000-$400,000 house, for a much, much lower price.

Boils my blood, so it does.

[powayseller]

Riverside is in a huge bubble. The prices there should be half what they are now. Sales are down 24% from last year, and the months supply is higher than ours. The Inland Empire got hurt worse than San Diego in the last downturn, with bigger percentage drops in prices and sales volume.

[bsrsharma]

A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

On a recent evening, a new homeowner lugged two large shopping bags from Home Depot across his front yard, where his young daughter danced a mad jig in her pajamas. Across the street, another group of newcomers — an extended family that had cobbled together enough cash for a down payment — began the long slog of cleaning out the garage.

[bsrsharma]

A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

On a recent evening, a new homeowner lugged two large shopping bags from Home Depot across his front yard, where his young daughter danced a mad jig in her pajamas. Across the street, another group of newcomers — an extended family that had cobbled together enough cash for a down payment — began the long slog of cleaning out the garage.

[bsrsharma]

A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

On a recent evening, a new homeowner lugged two large shopping bags from Home Depot across his front yard, where his young daughter danced a mad jig in her pajamas. Across the street, another group of newcomers — an extended family that had cobbled together enough cash for a down payment — began the long slog of cleaning out the garage.

[bsrsharma]

A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

On a recent evening, a new homeowner lugged two large shopping bags from Home Depot across his front yard, where his young daughter danced a mad jig in her pajamas. Across the street, another group of newcomers — an extended family that had cobbled together enough cash for a down payment — began the long slog of cleaning out the garage.

[bsrsharma]

A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

On a recent evening, a new homeowner lugged two large shopping bags from Home Depot across his front yard, where his young daughter danced a mad jig in her pajamas. Across the street, another group of newcomers — an extended family that had cobbled together enough cash for a down payment — began the long slog of cleaning out the garage.

[AK]

It’s nice to revisit some of these old threads just so we can see how deluded people were for how long.

The NYT article reminds me of my own hypothesis that no neighborhood can survive more than one bubble. In the course of my house-hunting and “neighborhood due diligence” I’ve noticed that tracts built around 1989-1991 haven’t “aged” nearly as well as similar tracts built a few years before or after that time. Same goes, to a lesser extent, for developments built right around 1979.

[AK]

It’s nice to revisit some of these old threads just so we can see how deluded people were for how long.

The NYT article reminds me of my own hypothesis that no neighborhood can survive more than one bubble. In the course of my house-hunting and “neighborhood due diligence” I’ve noticed that tracts built around 1989-1991 haven’t “aged” nearly as well as similar tracts built a few years before or after that time. Same goes, to a lesser extent, for developments built right around 1979.

[AK]

It’s nice to revisit some of these old threads just so we can see how deluded people were for how long.

The NYT article reminds me of my own hypothesis that no neighborhood can survive more than one bubble. In the course of my house-hunting and “neighborhood due diligence” I’ve noticed that tracts built around 1989-1991 haven’t “aged” nearly as well as similar tracts built a few years before or after that time. Same goes, to a lesser extent, for developments built right around 1979.

[AK]

It’s nice to revisit some of these old threads just so we can see how deluded people were for how long.

The NYT article reminds me of my own hypothesis that no neighborhood can survive more than one bubble. In the course of my house-hunting and “neighborhood due diligence” I’ve noticed that tracts built around 1989-1991 haven’t “aged” nearly as well as similar tracts built a few years before or after that time. Same goes, to a lesser extent, for developments built right around 1979.

[AK]

It’s nice to revisit some of these old threads just so we can see how deluded people were for how long.

The NYT article reminds me of my own hypothesis that no neighborhood can survive more than one bubble. In the course of my house-hunting and “neighborhood due diligence” I’ve noticed that tracts built around 1989-1991 haven’t “aged” nearly as well as similar tracts built a few years before or after that time. Same goes, to a lesser extent, for developments built right around 1979.

[briansd1]

I love walks down memory lane. Brings back the nostalgia of yore.

[briansd1]

I love walks down memory lane. Brings back the nostalgia of yore.

[Author]

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