It’s a balance. ON the one hand, high prices indicate an affluent population lives there. On the other hand, high prices make it difficult for young families to buy a home in such places.
But on another hand, given that the largest single investment for most middle class families is the home they own, people who own homes in areas of high prices are wealthier than the rest of us, at least on paper.
I’ve heard a few stories, of people who have lived in California for years, and sold houses and made a lot of money on the deal. Some were retirees who cashed out, and bought nice homes in other parts of the country for a fraction of the proceeds of their California home sale.
“I’ve heard a few stories, of people who have lived in California for years, and sold houses and made a lot of money on the deal.”
Happened to me and my wife. In 2004, we sold our house in SoCal for four times what we paid for it, just eight years prior. We essentially got back every mortgage payment we’d paid on it, and then some.
Just ask Texas, when a friend moved from Cal. to Texas many Californicators were buying multiple homes in his housing tract, cash on the table(lot of Vietnamese). They simply got WAYYYY more house/amenities for the dollar.
It's one reason why some 'rats think they can turn TX into a blew state...the influx of 'rats(that ruined their state with illegals and debt)taking their bloated Cal. real estate dollars and spreading like locusts to other low-cals.