Orange County homes still triple the U.S. cost
Posted in Real Estate News
Even recent dips in Orange County housing prices couldn’t dent the fact that a typical local homebuyer will pay triple what a house costs elsewhere.
Bottom line — by the simplest affordability measure I track — shows you can buy three typical American homes … or one residence in Orange County. And it’s been that way for a year-and-a-half.
Just ponder National Association of Realtor home price data for metropolitan areas in the second quarter. I’ve tabulated this “Orange premium” — my “affordability” index — by dividing the median selling price for Orange County from the Realtors database by the national median buying price.
Since, 1982 — on average — its costs double — eh, 2.4 times to be exact — to buy here compared to that mythical median-price American house. In dollars, that premium costs Orange County house buyers $364,800 per residence in the last quarter! (That’s $536,700 here vs. $171,900 in America — a benchmark that really doesn’t exist as a place to live.) And while our salaries are fatter here, they don’t explain most of the home-price gap. (2009 Census stats put median household income in Orange County at $72,o00 vs. $52,000 nationwide.)
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