Interesting article on housing prices

Interesting article on housing prices

I thought this one was excellent and I wanted to share it with those who are interested.

<A HREF="http://www.kitco.com/ind/Nystrom/may062005.html" target="_new"> Housing Bubble? </A>

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And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
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You know what's sick?

I was living at the uni a couple years ago, in married housing. Inflation was at an all-time low. Rent was cheap, $365 a month including all utilities (even cable). But then came the anual raise in fees: They said heating cost went up 8% and maintenance by 4%, so they would be raising it 12%!!! I was like "wait, HEATING is only around 15% of the TOTAL operating expense. Maintanence is an even smaller portion! What's next, are they going to say "Administrative cost 4%, electricity 3%, snow removal 5%, and add another 12% to the total bill, for an increase of 24%????

I tried to explain this to the tenants: YOU AREN'T PAYING $365 a month for HEAT, so they can't raise the entire bill by 8% simply because the HEAT cost 8% more...nobody listened.

And in a couple years, rent was $450 a month...then $485 a month a few months later...

And the worst part? Local apartment owners base their rental fees not on fair market value, but on what the school charges, so everything went sky high everywhere.

They have nearly doubled housing capacity in 5 years here, with the population increasing only 5%, I'm just waiting for the moment all these projects are finished and they can't fill anything to even half capacity!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

No, it's not. 1 town over you can BUY a 4-bedroom house for $560 a month. Minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. People here make less money, spend less money, and things cost much less than in California or New York.

Renting a tiny 2 bedroom house (and I do mean tiny) in this town cost $800 a month. Renting a small 2-bedroom apartment cost $600 a month. 1 beds aren't much cheaper.

Dirt cheap is relative to the actual wage people earn. The top wage in this town for hourly workers is $14.75/hr. Average wage is around $6 an hour. Secretaries make up to $8 an hour. For a town that pays the same crappy wages as surrounding communities, it's completely outragious to pay such a high housing premium.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>