Sunday, October 30, 2005

What Housing Bubble?

Wired magazine (no online link to this article) for November looks at 55 years of housing information and says,
Sure, buying a two-bedroom house in a city like Boston can cost you a million clams. But concerns that the US housing market is too hot - and the bubble is ready to burst- are what's really inflated. While average home prices have more than doubled since 1950, so have average home sizes. In today's dollars, that means Americans are paying less per square foot now than they did then. Plus, thanks to better financing options and smaller family sizes, a year's salary buys way more house than it used to, and everyon inside it gets more space. That McMansion you.ve been eyeing isn't so overprices after all.


In 55 years:
Housing prices are up 133%
Square footage is up 137%
Household income is up 113%
Heating costs are down 23%

And what energy crisis?

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