They never learn, do they? Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that the median price of a Southern California home has gone up to $315,000. Alejandro Lazo, Median Home Price in Southland Climbs as Supply Is Squeezed, L.A. Times, October 14, 2012. And remember that this means that one-half of local homes sell for more than $315,000. And that median figure is based on all of Southern California which includes areas like the Inland Empire, Riverside County and other distressed areas. We can attest to as a Southern Californian, that should you find a home below the median $315,000 in a decent — not upcale — community, you woudn’t want to live in it.
And to make things worse, home prices are trending up again — up 12.5% from last September, because of a reduced inventory of homes available for sale.
So with all due regard to the law of supply and demand, it looks like my fellow Californians haven’t learned their lesson.
Follow up. But then again, as we listened to Robert Thomas’ presentation at the Brigham-Kanner Prize Presentation program at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, we couldn’t help being impressed by this bit of data from the Sandwich Islands. It turns out that the median home price in Hawaii is $673,000 — more than twice the California median. Yikes! See Robert Thomas, Professor Ely, You Magnificent Bastard, I Read Your Book!, October 15, 2012, www.inversecondemnation.com. In case you don’t recognize that line, it comes from the movie Patton which, if you haven’t seen, you should.