That wasn't the case several years ago. Though it wasn't that common, there _were_ fixer uppers available for 60-70k, when the rest of the starter home market was generally going for 90-100k. A first time home buy could swing a house on that, even at the median income. A typical clerical workers wage or social service worker who make about 22-28k could swing 70k. And the upfront costs were negligible and, often, they barely had to have more than $1000 down -- and plenty of people could swing that through loans from family or from a credit card. ===========================
Why are housing prices so high?
By what process did housing prices ascend to their present level?
Several of my friends have moved to new homes. They're nice enough (a very few are even architectural magazine worthy) but almost none of them appear to be 'worth' the half million and above price tags stamped on them.
I know, as Jordan tells us, there are all sorts of clever girl techniques available to people who can at least handle the down payment and leap other barriers to entry. And that's nice for those folks but still doesn't explain what happened, step by step, from the 1950's till today, to make so many people think asking prices once reserved for only the wealthy have become common for even average housing.
.d.