Housing crash unlikely, experts says
Brittney Dales, 28, has been living with her parents in San Bernardino to save up for a down payment on a home. The legal assistant thought it would take her three or four years to have enough, but “that slowly dissipated” as home prices rose.
In 2019, when she first started looking, “some of the houses that I did walkthroughs on were just above my price range,” Dales said. “Then a year later they were $100,000 over what they were a year before, if not more. So, it was like those aren’t even remotely near my price range.”
Dales said she either needs to double her salary or prices would have to drop by at least $200,000 before she could afford to buy.
“So, like, roomie, marriage, any of those options obviously make that more feasible,” Dales said. “But right now it’s just kind of a waiting game.”
Many said a recent rent hike spurred them to consider buying.
“The rent has been raised here once last year and I hear it’s going to be raised again,” Daniel Arreola, 46, said of the twobedroom house he rents in San Dimas for $1,920 a month. “I’m seeing a pattern here. So that’s what inspired me to go look into buying a home.”
He hasn’t gotten far in his home search, however. He can only afford a payment of about $2,500 per month, which “doesn’t get me anything here,” the social
Melissa Spolar has two dreams: To start a coffee house church and to own a home.
But to afford a home, the part-time pastor will have to move out of state or go in on a house with her brother and sister-inlaw.
“In Southern California, when you’re single and a middle-income earner, it’s a bit of a pipe dream to own a home,” said Spolar, 29, of Pasadena. “We are talking about pitching in all three of our incomes to buy a fixer-upper . ... So, three incomes in order to be able to own a home around here.”
Although Spolar’s parents had middle-income jobs — her mom as a teacher, her father in construction — they still managed to raise six kids and own a big house in a decent area.
“It’s crazy to think that most of us cannot afford a home,” Spolar said.
Lakewood resident Wesley Wilson, 35, got so frustrated with the Southern California market, he bought a two-bedroom town house in Las Vegas last January.
It cost him $258,000, versus $720,000 for a median-priced condominium in L.A. County.
“I started obviously (looking) in Southern California, in the greater Long Beach area. And I even looked in the desert, Palm Springs-type areas,” the software engineer said. “I could probably find something that I could buy, but I would also