Tuesday, August 09, 2005

From the clipping files...

Here's a few items of note:

People whose net worth is over $70,000, the median in the United States, are 30 percent less likely than poorer people to feel pain at the end of their lives, according to the Journal of Palliative Medicine.

Teenagers today may be better prepared for retirement than previous generations. According to Kiplinger's magazine, 3 out of 4 teenagers have a part-time job during the school year. More than half are saving for college, and of those who own stock, 32% said they had bought it with their own money.

According to the National Association of Realtors, (their website has lots of interesting data) the housing affordability index dropped sharply in Q2 2005, even as sales of existing homes hit a record level. The median family income level was $56,917, which is supposed to be enough to cover a house costing $251,900, and the median price for homes was $208,500. This is not very comforting to me, as the median income level in my neighborhood is only about $51,000, and yet studio apartments are hard to find for under $250,000... and I also believe that the definition of "affordability" in these studies can be sort of wacky. I don't believe that a home is affordable if I have to live on ramen noodles in order to pay for it!

2 comments:

Jose Anes said...

That is it! I invest for good health! :)


Money and Investing

Anonymous said...

Not comforting at all. Especially reading a story by the AP (on MSN money) that affordable housing is increasingly out of reach.

Sigh.