Almost the Entire California Coastline, Including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego and San Jose, and New York, NY Is Too Expensive For the Middle Class to Reasonably Afford To Buy a Home.

Harnessing Black economic and consumer power as an agent for social change.

Inglewood and other minority areas in California, including Los Angeles County, should be aware that most of the surrounding areas are too expensive for most people to reasonably afford thereby creating a demand for real property which directly influences desirability and therefore price- supply and demand.  Below is a great background article regarding today’s housing market and Los Angeles’ and therefore Inglewood’s housing market.  Jed Kolko, “Top 10 Least and Most Expensive Housing Markets for Today’s Middle Class”, Forbes online, May 14, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2014/05/14/top-10-least-and-most-expensive-housing-markets-for-todays-middle-class/#5221ee3f63f6.  See also Dan Burrows, “Most Expensive Cities in the United States to Live 2017”, Kiplinger.com, May 2017,  http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real-estate/T006-S001-most-expensive-u-s-cities-to-live-in-2017/index.html.

In sum, the Black areas are more valuable than listed prices or current offers.
Land speculation includes the practice of trying to buy low- “fixer market’ is the p.c. term.  Because these communities provide the actual commodity (property) which is in increased demand due to incredibly high housing prices in the surrounding areas, the housing prices should increase.  Even the most expensive “Black” areas are half that of other areas, i.e., Santa Monica or Manhattan Beach.

In addition these communities contain homes that are not fixer-uppers. The price should reflect that as well.  Other factors that should increase desirability and therefore price include weather, community safety, an educated resident workface, proximity to urban cores and proximity to metro lines. E.g., Good Schools, Affordable Homes, Finding the Suburban Sweet Spot,” New York Times, March 3, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/30/upshot/good-schools-affordable-homes-suburban-sweet-spots.html.  Black communities are not receiving the benefit of these factors in property valuation during relocation.

With regards to the supporting data for the current housing prices/indexes, a hard look should be given toward the Census.  The Census gives a very distorted economic picture of some minority zip codes.  Unfortunately this distorted economic picture is used to determine an area’s economic strength and land use policies.  The Census is up for review next year in 2017 before Congress.

(I originally posted a version of  this comment on my Google plus page in June 2016)