(I posted this before -- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36961000">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36961000</a>)<p>I grew in upper middle class southern California. I work in tech for the last 7 years.
My parents house went from $500K when they bought in 1995 to +$3M today. If my math is right, that would mean the all-in payment (principal, interest, taxes) would be around $20,000/month at today's rate. Assume you do not want to spend more than 1/3 of your income on housing, your household would need to make $720,000/year.<p>Nominally, I make a lot more than my parents did at their peak, but in real terms, I can't afford a home in the neighborhood I grew up in.<p>Anecdotally, the only people I know that can afford to live in my old neighborhood are young people who get help from their parents or people who bought way before covid and rolled up their existing equity into their new home purchases. Among the upper middle class people I know, no one can afford that area or they are not interested bc they think the cost is not worth it.<p>What's going to happen to the firefighters, cops, and teachers in that area?