We've been griping about increasing housing prices/values in Austin for some time now, and how they've been pricing out middle-income and almost all lower-income housing. Well, this last round to appraisals (and the fact that they aren't insanely out-of-whack; rather, they seem to accurately track what the market is doing in this town) make that a point beyond dispute.
The median house price in Austin is $624,000. Even going with a high ratio of 3X income, it takes around $200k a year income to afford a median house in Austin. 94% of Americans earn LESS than $200k. Our houses are "affordable," at the median, for the top 5%. Consider the houses below the median, and maybe buying ANY house in Austin, outside of a shithole house in the worse pockets of town, is within reach of perhaps 10% of people.
This leads to a cascade of problems. Many employers have employees who earn less than that (not just restaurants and bars, not just public employees like firefighters, cops, and teachers, even professional shops have assistants, staff, etc., who earn well under $200k a year). Where are they going to find those people? How can they pay them a "living wage?" And, as even surrounding communities in Wilco and Hays county are seeing THEIR housing prices shoot up.....where will those employees live?
These are just a couple of the problems that come to mind. There are hundreds of others. Problem-spotting is its own task, solution-brainstorming is another. So, putting this thread here not because I want it to go CR-political, but because that I'm sure SOME of the discussion will end up that direction. Blaming the COA and its policy decisions is surely part of the mix, but these issues are not unique to Austin. Numerous counties in the US have recently entered the ranks of the "unaffordable." It's become a systemic issue. So, putting this here for discussion, both broad and local.