How Average Income People Afford the High Housing Costs in California
It’s less complicated than you think
How do Californians afford the impossibly high rent in California? Simple. We can’t. Not the way we used to. Housing costs have skyrocketed. Our wages have risen but at a lower rate than housing costs pricing us out of the market.
Hopefully we bought a house when average income people could do that. Back then if you couldn’t afford a house in the city you moved to a house further out of town. Today the prices of shacks in the middle of the desert are out of reach for lower and middle class Californians.
If we don’t own a home we’re living at the same place we’ve been renting for 7 years. If we’re still able to afford rent, it’s likely rent controlled.
Recent changes in zoning laws in my city have permitted homeowners to build ADU’s in their back yards. The rent isn’t any less, but it beats an apartment.
The bottom of the rental market used to be renting a room. There’s a more rooms for rent now than ever before. Yet the prices have almost doubled in the last few years.
When all that fails, hopefully there’s still a room for us at our parents or grandparents house. It used to be looked down upon to live at home after 25. Today it’s assumed…
