Seems odd that more people don't seem to spot the logical - economic - problem inherent in this bit of information, from a lead story in today's Seattle Times.
The nut graph, referring to King County: "A typical household would have had to bring in 46 percent more income in 2005 to afford a median house, a huge leap from 2004, according to an annual report released Wednesday."
Put another way. The median income in King County in 2005 was $60,500. Based on usual household economics (the normal rule of thumb that you can reasonably spend up to about 30% of your income on housing), that means the median affordable house would cost $228,100.
But in 2005, as it turns out, the median priced house in King County was tagged at $332,000.
Which would be affordable if the median income were $88,400, but, of course, it isn't - isn't close. How does this compute?
Once again we ask: How are people able to afford so many very high-priced houses? And isn't a housing price correction overdue?