Monday, April 17, 2006

Working Class Pushed out of Seattle?

There was an article in the Seattle times local section today, about the working class not being able to afford a house in Seattle. The staff writer from the times, uses a price adjusted based on inflation, to measure the affordability. If inflation is the of price movement, he is correct. But, I think the average income in Seattle is much higher than the adjusted rate for Seattle from 1995 to today. So my question of the article is that the average working class of Seattle has a much higher income, and therefore the affordability is also higher. Net net in my opinion, more people can afford a house in Seattle than what the author writes.

The average house hold income, the average wealth increase of a Seattle resident from 1995 to 2006, is a determining factor ignored. Yes the average home price for Seattle is now over $400k. That is too high for the average working class, if the working class lives below the US poverty line? The average working class of Seattle now is a knowledge working class, which has a higher income.

So Seattle real estate may not be more affordable, I think it is less affordable. But, Seattle is no longer a manufacturing town. Seattle is one of top tier cities in North America. A friend told me a few weeks ago, that there is more wealth in Seattle than any where else in the world. He mentioned that the Gates, Microsoft effect, and their wealth. I think he is right, and therefore, we are blessed to be the richest city in the world. Does this help the average person? People might think not, but ofcourse it does. How can it not, do the Gates, and the investors of Microsoft hire people? The stats show that for every knowledge worker, there are 4 other jobs created. So the resl estate economy is effected by all of the Job growth. I have been saying this for the last 2.5 years on my blogs. It's all about the Jobs!

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.