LA Area Most Economically Split in US

[villager]

LA Area Most Economically Split in US

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Greater Los Angeles is the most economically segregated region in the country, according to a recent study. The results of the study by demographers at Wayne State University in Detroit were reported Sunday in the Los Angeles Times. They suggested that the rich and poor are mixing less and less in L.A.

The study's authors found that based on 2000 census data more than two-thirds of Los Angeles-area residents live in neighborhoods that are mostly rich or mostly poor. Los Angeles County ``has more billionaires than any other part of the country. It's also the capital of the working poor,'' said Peter Dreier, chairman of the Urban and Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College.

Only 28 percent of the area's neighborhoods are middle class or mixed income, the study said.

In contrast, more than half the neighborhoods in Seattle, Pittsburgh and Nashville are middle class. ``The situation in L.A. is certainly at the extreme of American cities,'' said George Galster, one of the study's authors.

The erosion of middle-income American jobs in the past generation has been well-documented. But the Wayne State study suggests that middle-income neighborhoods are disappearing much more quickly.

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http://www.kfwb.com/pages/60021.php

[slackmaster]

1. This may be true but I'd like to see a little more detail on definitions

Housing prices in much of Los Angeles are inflated way beyond reason.

A family of four living on a $200K income but making payments on an $850K mortgage is not wealthy. They'd barely be making ends meet on an interest-only loan. Add to that high costs incurred by many professional people, e.g. large student loans and medical malpractice insurance, and maybe what used to seem rich lacks some of the benefits it used to have.

Things in the most desirable parts of Orange County are the same. I just thought of a family I know in Laguna Niguel. They have a decent newer cookie-cutter house, only slightly larger than my old dump in San Diego. The man, "Joe", makes about $140K per year as an advertising executive for a large toy manufacturer. That fits with the supposed class of rich people in the entertainment industry mentioned in the article.

Joe is making payments on a $650,000 mortgage, which come to about $3,500 per month. With his expensive car-loving wife not working, and two teenage daughters who are being constantly subjected to peer pressure to have nice clothes, they're making zero contribution to savings. But wait, there's more. Joe just filed for divorce. They're going to have to sell the house at a possible loss. Joe will end up in a small apartment paying alimony and child support. Wife will take custody of teens and end up in a 2-bedroom place far from the beach they love. She'll have to get a job too. IOW they'll all end up owning no property and living a working-class existence in spite of the high dollar amounts involved.

The erosion of middle-income American jobs in the past generation has been well-documented. But the Wayne State study suggests that middle-income neighborhoods are disappearing much more quickly.

I'm sure the middle class is eroding, that is unquestionable but again I question what parameters are being used to define what people are sliding into the poor class and which are being elevated to the wealthy.

[msongs]

2. housing prices reflect supply & demand, reason is irrelevant -

the massive influx of human bodies has to live somewhere. so there are neighborhoods with dozens of people sharing apartments/houses in shifts of 8 or nine hours (one shift goes to work, another shift come back to use the apartment until they leave again), constant arrival of additional people. There is no doubt some speculation going on, as always when prices go up. If 10% of the population left town rents would collapse and property values would probably follow.

You can get a real good deal on a house in North Dakota, 2 floors, full basement, attic, and 40 below zero winters :-)

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[villager]

3. far enough -- still, living here as well

the stratification -- even before it was "documented" -- was always obvious...

And housing prices, are, insane... I'm not even sure how the bubble here keeps going...