From: mianderson79@gmail.com   
      
   was just thinking about this as I'm about to buy a place in Atlanta to be   
   closer to family.    
      
   I get a chuckle out of how idiots and the media(ok....same thing I know)   
   report these things like they mean something.   
      
   Let's take Atlanta, and not only Atlanta but ITP atlanta(which also includes   
   places like Brookhaven, Vinings, etc).   
      
   I'll read something like "In metro atlanta median(or sometimes) household   
   income is 89k and single family houses average almost 355k"   
      
   ok, first off it's important to note that income(and housing costs) are very   
   bi-modal.  The people buying the 'average' house aren't making 89k as a   
   freaking family(not at these interest rates and not without family money,   
   inheritance, etc).  More like    
   250-300k as a family(mostly DINKS anyways).   
      
   And mean or median housing price is ridiculous in the context it is often   
   used.    
      
   I always remind you guys of this principle:  city A can have average housing   
   costs of 350k and city B could have average housing costs of 600k, but that   
   *doesn't* mean average housing cost of a reasonable/safe house is more   
   affordable in A than B.  If    
   most all of B's area contains safe/reasonable houses and only 15% of A's does,   
   then A from a practical standpoint is far more expensive.     
      
   You see this a lot in comparisons of urban/larger areas vs a more remote   
   suburb.  The remote suburb 'seems' more expensive; no......it only seems that   
   way because you're including lots of houses in a war zone that the intended   
   audience would never    
   consider purchasing.     
      
   ITP Atlanta is a good example of that.  There are no houses for this 'average'   
   of whatever it is they report(high 300s I think).     
      
   In reality these are the 'livable' areas inside the perimeter of Atlanta with   
   single family residences: Ansley park, morningside, parts of midtown but not   
   many houses there anyways, most of Virginia-Highland, parts of Inman park,   
   parts of Lake Claire,    
   about 70% of druid hills, 30030 Decatur(not the part in a different zip code   
   that says decatur), most of Vinings and Brookhaven and Chamblee, and most of   
   Buckhead.   I know that doesn't mean much specifically to people who don't   
   know atlanta, but the    
   point is that MOST of atlanta that is included in this average figure doesn't   
   contain reasonable houses anyone that doesn't have a death wish would consider   
   living.   
      
   So in reality the average ITP atlanta single family residence housing price is   
   about 1.2 million.  And all of a sudden the 'affordability' picture becomes   
   much more complicated.  But does the idot media report this?  no....of course   
   not.     
      
   And atlanta is not alone on that....Im sure many urban areas are like this.   
      
   Now when they say something like the average buckhead housing price is about   
   700-800k(Im not sure of the exact number), that does mean something because a   
   much higher percentage(in fact most) of the housing stock there is fine to   
   live in.     
      
   So never ever base where you decide to move based on where these sorts of   
   numbers say it is affordable to purchase a home, because they can be very very   
   misleading.     
      
   Just my rant for the day lol.......   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)