Now that Eric Johnson is a Republican, he should immediately denounce the Republican Party for the crimes of his city. After all, the mayor is a Republican. And then immediately switch party to the Democrats. Rinse and Repeat.
That seems really low for even a minor celebrity. But I imagine there’s some royalty from the show that will keep coming over the next few years.
I work in tech and between my wife & I, our networth is over $3MM. We’re in our 40s. A big chunk of that is in our house, which we paid much less for and it has appreciated over the last 5 years. This increase in networth due to the house we live in does nothing to improve our day-to-day life, it just makes property taxes higher. I absolutely still need to work to be able to put food on the table. I mean, I can probably afford to not work for a year or so, but if I live until 80+, I still have 40 years of expenses that I need to save up for. so I will need to keep working. There are also some nice things that I want to buy, like a solar panel system, which should help us lower our expenses over the longer term.
Part of high housing cost is due to the investment mindset and housing speculation. However, another part of high housing cost is that other people did put in the work to raise its value. Want to live in a clean, convenient neighborhood? Someone kept the place clean. Many businesses set up shop in the area to make it convenient to buy things and get things done. Certain passionate chef set up a wonderful restaurant so that you can just come by and enjoy good food. Some group of people, leader, or politician put in the political maneuverings that got certain ordinances passed or raised the bonds or taxes to build the public transportation. So over time as people continue to invest time, effort, labor to improve an area, it should be expected that the area becomes more expensive (and desirable).
I believe there are, and will be. Over 20 years ago, I moved to Dallas, TX area for the same reasons - to get away from unaffordable housing in the west and east coast. At the time, I found Dallas to have a good housing price to income ratio.
But in doing so (moving to Dallas), I may have also potentially taken a big (lifetime) pay cut. I graduated from a top ComSci school, but in moving to Dallas, I put myself outside of the market of the emerging FAANG companies in the west coast.
I think now there are still medium size cities where you may find a good balance of cost to value and quality of life. It really depends on your career goals and life goals. There’s always a trade off. I believe right now, the midwest is a good value, if you can stand the winters there :)