The median price of a house in our town is $825,000, and firstyear teacher

[senseandsensibility]

makes $36,000! So said the President of the Teacher's union at the protest against gropinator yesterday. Sound just a little lopsided?

Oh, but teachers are overpaid "special interests". They're living high off the taxpayers. And the people groper scrounges for money from are decent hardworking citizens with no hidden agenda.

Sorry, groper, judging by the honks of support we got during the march, no one's buying it. They're not even buying it in this somewhat conservative (by Californian standards) and affluent community. :grr:

[Enraged_Ape]

1. Jesus Hernandez Christ, where are you, Santa Cruz?

I heard it was bad out there, but Good Lord...

[senseandsensibility]

4. Very close

The protest was in a small town called Morgan Hill, about twenty miles from San Jose. I don't live there, although I live nearby. It was the closest protest to me, and I try to go to every protest I can. Can you believe it? A person earning 36,000 qualifies for about a 150,000 loan, and that's stretching it. Teachers are not living it up at taxpayers' expense.

[aeolian]

2. $825,000?!?!?!

:wow:

[maveric]

6. Damn!! I thought San Diego was bad!

Have you considered a modular/manufactured home?

[senseandsensibility]

11. Sadly, that is the only option

I say sadly because in our area, if you don't own the land the modular home or moblie home is on, you don't really have security. Not only are the rental fees out of this world, but the landowner is under constant pressure to sell to developers. In the San Francisco Bay area, there really are no affordable housing options left.

[maveric]

12. The housing market in CA is due for a crash soon. What happens when

no one will be able to qualify for financing for a house? The prices will have to come down. Wouldnt they?

[nonconformist]

13. One of the creeds of real estate is

"a home is only worth what someone will pay for it"

The bubble will have to burst very soon. How an average person can afford a home upwards of a million is beyond me.

[maveric]

15. "Multi-Family" home purchases are on the rise.

More incomes to qualify for an outlandish mortgage.
Many Filipinos that I work with are doing this.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. I highly doubt it will "Crash". Stabilize, maybe.

But having lived a whole helluva lot of places, there are damn good reasons why Northern California- particularly these days- is a VERY attractive place to live. It may not keep going up, it may even go down a bit, but it's not going to "crash"... because there is always going to be a surplus of people who want to live here.

Unfortunate, if you're trying to buy a house now, but true. If you're gonna wait for the $700,000 homes to go down to $150,000, I fear you're going to be waiting a REALLY long time.

[maveric]

20. If wages dont go up and home prices do.....

Will only the wealthy be able to buy?

[Warren DeMontague]

21. That's kind of where we're at. I'm all for better wages, particularly for

teachers.

(I also think the minimum wage should be a liveable wage.)

I think if we cut our military budget by, say, 70% and stopped blowing 20 Billion a year on the Drug War (along with the concomitant spending on incarcerating non-violent offenders) we could put some serious money into education, which really should be our top priority in the 21st century.

But, as long as supply and demand are in effect, highly desirable places to live are going to be expensive- particularly in that real estate is a finite commodity.

[ultraist]

24. I agree, there is NOT a national bubble

In certain areas, such as SF, there is NO bubble. SF has outrageous prop values and they have been steadily increasing over the years. SF will NOT crash or burst.

[ultraist]

3. SF?

The median price in my area is around 200k. 200k for a 1800 sq ft, 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath with a decent yard.

[countingbluecars]

5. The median house price in my county

is now $600,000. First year teacher salary is near $40,000

[marzipanni]

7. Oink!

and heaven, if there is one, is a gated community?:eyes:

[medeak]

8. AWESOME MARCH!

kudos to all you nurses, teachers and state workers!

[senseandsensibility]

25. Thanks!

We have a lot of fun, and get nothing but positive responses!:woohoo:

[MSgt213]

9. Yea $36,000 is a lot of public funds. After taxes those teachers are

really making out.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Teacher's with 15 years experience in our county

make under $30k.
Pretty sad.

[MuseRider]

14. $825,000.00?

That is stunning. I live in a HUGE house, very nice but not new and we paid $250,00.00. Here in my part of Kansas for that kind of money you could live in the most exclusive areas in a 10,000 square foot house, brand new with all the newest stuff.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Yeah, but you have to live in Kansas, with all that entails.

No offense, but I'd sooner live in a box under an overpass than have my kids be taught that Evolution is a "questionable theory".

[MuseRider]

22. I get you

but it is really nice here, seriously. Neither of my kids were educated with the idea that it is questionable and they were in school the first time we went down this path.

No offense taken really, you have to be used to fighting this sort of thing all the time to be able to take it and work with it. It can be done.

[Warren DeMontague]

27. Really, I wish I had that kind of constitution.

It's pretty liberal around here and I still feel like there's too much of a yahoo, Yee-Haw! truck n' hummer drivin' contingent. I really don't know if I could deal with living in a predominantly red county-- or state. At least around here things like open homophobia are generally frowned upon, by most people.

Beyond that, I grew up in Chicago. If I never hear the words "wind chill" again, it will be way too soon. :D

[gollygee]

16. I don't know if you could even find a house that expensive here.

Wow!

[Nikia]

23. There are a couple here in this area that are mansions

You know, the type of mansion that the uber rich person lives in that you see in movies. The median home price is probably close to $100,000-$120,000.

[lonestarnot]

19. ewww yer tooo rich for my blood!

[SW FL Dem]

26. You must be outside SF

My brother used to live in Danville and Alamo. Pretty pricey up there!