I turned down a street I've never been down before today.

[Droopy]

I used to do that quite often, but not so much now days. Sometimes you can learn some new stuff by going on one those mini-adventures. I learned that the area I live in is a lot more wealthy than I thought it was.

I've posted before that I live just outside the wealthy area of town. All I have to do is turn east out of my condo complex and soon I'll start seeing what I consider mansions. They may not be real mansions like a CEO or a sports star would live in, but when you live in a one bedroom, 500 square foot condo those homes look like mansions. I am, of course, by no means wealthy and even if I were I would probably buy a house that an average, middle class family might live in or possibly stay right where I'm at. But I love to look at those houses and neighborhoods and imagine what it might be like to live there or to have enough money to live there.

Well, on my way to get lunch today I turned down a street that I've never been down. I soon started seeing houses that were even more extravagant than the ones I knew of off to the east of my house. We're talking huge, custom built homes with metal fences running around them and a gate in front of the driveway that you have to enter a code into for the gate to open.

I think the median cost for a house in the area of Ohio that I live in is $120,000. That will get you a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch out in the suburbs around here or maybe a mid-sized, older home in a historic district. I saw one of the more modest houses for sale in the area I drove through today. They had one of those little boxes on the "for sale" sign that have a summary of the house and the sale price. It had 4 bedrooms and 4 baths and was about 4000 square feet. They wanted $430,000 for it.

Somebody told me that the people who live in those homes aren't much different from us working class folks. They live at the edge of their income and have all of the worries that we do. Well, I know how to handle money and I do just fine on my trucker's salary. If I had enough money to afford one of those houses, I probably would not live in one unless I could pay cash for it. That will probably never happen, but it's still nice to dream.

[grasswire]

1. comparison

In the city I live in, there are two houses that are an interesting comparison to what you saw. Two blocks away, there is an old house in a neighborhood of old houses. This one is totally gutted inside. Demolition gutted. There are just supports left inside, and some of the wood that was salvaged by the people who were trying to flip it. Now for sale at $248,000, as is. They gave up. A block away, there's a house that was a dump. Abandoned -- a dangerous dump. It was gutted and renovated and is now on the market for $549,000. It's just a three bedroom older house on a small lot in a mixed neighborhood.

[Droopy]

2. Yeah, even though real estate went up in recent years around here

I know that I still live in one of the cheapest real estate markets in the country. Of course, if you were to look at the median income around here you would probably find doctors here who make as much as skilled trades people on the west or east coasts.

My little condo cost $33,000 and I'm on pace to make $55,000 this year. Technically, I could afford an $80,000 house. But I like to keep things simple and save my money. If I were a family man, I'd have to buy something bigger. But I'm single with no kids.

[libodem]

3. Somehow your intro

sounds poetic. Like a metaphor for life. Maybe California Peggy will come up with something from it, since she is our resident poet.

[Droopy]

4. Thanks. I suppose it could be a metaphor for life.

I guess some of us travel the same roads every day while others strike off in new directions. :)

[datasuspect]

5. and you didn't get pulled over?

that income bracket comprises what would have been the bulk of the middle class from 1946 to the early 70s.

in other words, to get the same buying power as you would then, you need to earn significantly more now.

now it is more or less upper middle class.

[Droopy]

6. Hahaha

Well, I'm white, have a short hair cut, and have a fairly new vehicle with a good exhaust system. They probably thought I was a neighor's kid or something. :)