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San Diego Economy: Where’s the Oomph?
Thank you Mr Bauder for your analysis. As professionals in our late 20s, my wife and I are researching buying a home. We have some lingering doubts... I grew up here and watched what happened around Y2K. I remember reading newspaper pieces in the early 2000s saying that less than 10% of San Diegans could afford to buy a home. In spite of this, prices kept going up, up, UP! Home prices in late 2005-early 2006 were the peak of an unsustainable bubble.... Home prices soared; incomes not even close. Today in some areas that used to be relatively inexpensive (eg Mira Mesa) new single-family homes are being built and advertised as STARTING in the mid 600s. We see this and think it's insane. Who are going to buy these homes? We get the impression that builders, buyers, and sellers expect a return to (and to exceed) peak bubble prices. That makes me uneasy. How much of the wealth in SD is from real estate appreciation? How can that realistically continue?— June 6, 2012 12:07 p.m.