Van Doorn weighs in...

Favorites:

[...]
Prices are hideous. The median cost of a used house in North County is now $620,000. If you have not had this exchange with at least one friend ---- "I don't know who has the money" and "who can afford them?" ---- you are probably dead.
[...]
In a report in Tuesday's paper, the North County Association of Realtors said that in May only 9 percent of our region's residents could afford to buy a home at the $620K median price. That percentage appears to be, at best, alarming; the industry perhaps can sense a future in which no one who works here will live here, commuting instead from Hemet or Milwaukee.
[...]
We learn in the same issue of the North County Times, however, that zero could not have been the right percentage point about a year ago because, writer William Finn Bennett reported, that was when Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham bought a home in Rancho Santa Fe for $2.55 million. Turns out he sold his pad in Del Mar ---- the 1-percent town ---- for $1.675 million, then moved on up. Personally, Observer prefers his representatives fighting for homes for the homeless and reasonable prices for the next level instead of moving from fancy shores to gilded enclaves, but is loath to judge. For sure, there should be no requirement for North County residents to be rich or to be members of Congress to buy a house around here.
[...]

Indeed.