Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
I'm more surprised by the quality of the facades and general cleanliness than the overall price. Assuming they were purchased for <$100,000 in what's seen as a less desirable city nieghbourhood with problems, it's surprising that the household wealth is there to support the upkeep and repairs that come from owning a decently large prewar home.
My sense of what's a normal income/house price ratio is probably skewed though. I guess there's no reason to assume a family in Bagley isn't earning >50% of their home's value every year. The opposite of the "house-rich, income poor" in many distorted markets.
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Exactly. Probably many Bagley households have incomes comparable to their home values. Until 20 years ago, the strong majority of the region's professional class AAs lived in NW Detroit, and it's still probably the biggest regional concentration. Probably lots of lawyers, medical professionals, and managerial positions.
Many AA households have high incomes but low wealth related to white counterparts in the same income range, so don't have the same home budget. The fact that black neighborhoods don't appreciate in value much has been devastating for intergenerational black wealth. A Bagley home may only be worth 150k, but the first black household may have paid 75k for it back in 1970. In contrast I know very modest income white households living in multi-million dollar homes, thanks to home appreciation and intergenerational wealth transfers.