So D.C. residents not only pay an extraordinary share of the tax burdern, most of them can't afford a house too! So who's living in this town anyway?
More from the Economist:
"A typical family in the District of Columbia could not afford 80% of the properties sold in the city last year. According to the Urban Institute, a think-tank, costs rose across the city, especially in less affluent neighbourhoods, with the average DC home selling for $450,000. Rents have also escalated in recent years because of diminishing vacancies. In the first half of 2005, 2,500 apartments were turned into condominiums, three times as many as in all of 2004. As an example, the report showed how the buying power of typical teachers had dropped in recent years: in 2001, they could afford one in three houses sold, while in 2004 that figure was under one in five."
No comments:
Post a Comment