Sales prices are public information in most places.

E.g. you can easily check sales in [link|http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/mapping/viewer.asp|Los Angeles County]. It only seems to go back a few years, though. I don't know if Long Beach is listed in there or not.

As to how the price can go up so much, well I think it's due to several factors: 1) Most people spending that much have profits from previous houses (they're not first-time buyers); 2) A rising market makes people accept more risk; 3) Easier lending (you don't have to put 20% down anymore; ARMs; negative amortization; "liar loans"; etc.); 4) Multiple incomes (2 people or more working to pay the mortgage payment, versus 1 in the 1970s and earlier); 5) Jobs attract people and they have to live somewhere reasonably close by; 6) Inflation in general - When houses cost $15k [link|http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-043.pdf|in 1963, the median family income was $6200] (54 page .pdf). Using that same scaling of household income ([link|http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html|$44k in 2004]) to housing price, you end up with $106k for a home price. You can get a decent house for that in the midwest, but not in Long Beach, I'll bet. ;-) So inflation isn't the whole answer...

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #285,367 by Another Scott 5/25/07 1:24:03 PM Reply	Sales prices are public information in most places. E.g. you can easily check sales in [link\|http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/mapping/viewer.asp\|Los Angeles County]. It only seems to go back a few years, though. I don't know if Long Beach is listed in there or not. As to how the price can go up so much, well I think it's due to several factors: 1) Most people spending that much have profits from previous houses (they're not first-time buyers); 2) A rising market makes people accept more risk; 3) Easier lending (you don't have to put 20% down anymore; ARMs; negative amortization; "liar loans"; etc.); 4) Multiple incomes (2 people or more working to pay the mortgage payment, versus 1 in the 1970s and earlier); 5) Jobs attract people and they have to live somewhere reasonably close by; 6) Inflation in general - When houses cost $15k [link\|http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-043.pdf\|in 1963, the median family income was $6200] (54 page .pdf). Using that same scaling of household income ([link\|http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html\|$44k in 2004]) to housing price, you end up with $106k for a home price. You can get a decent house for that in the midwest, but not in Long Beach, I'll bet. ;-) So inflation isn't the whole answer... FWIW. Cheers, Scott.
Post #285,369 by bepatient 5/25/07 1:43:19 PM Reply	Father Guido teaches the answer at the [link\|http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/03/guidos-five-minute-university.html\|Five Minute University] Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #285,370 by Another Scott 5/25/07 1:47:45 PM Reply	muy bien. :-)
Post #285,372 by mmoffitt 5/25/07 2:18:50 PM Reply	Thanks for the link. Apparently, judging by the assessed value in 1979, my dad got hosed. It is definitely my old house, though. bcnu, Mikem It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell

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