March 2004 Median Home Prices in California
This comes from the California Association of Realtors and is broken down by municipality. Unbelievable. Areas that were all middle class suburbs in the post WWII era are now out of sight except for the rich. In LA County, here are some samples. Pasadena: $468,000. Monrovia: $424,000. Gardena: $328,000 (Gardena?)

All of San Diego County rings in at a median of $420,000, and even National City has a median housing price of $327,500! No offense to residents of same, but...National City? It's basically a big shipyard, and historically one of the least desirable places to live in the area.

Every municipality in Orange County is over $300K, and the median county-wide is $478,000.

Perhaps you prefer the SF bay area. Like Marin County? How about a little pied a terre in, oh, say, modestly priced Novato for about $578,750?

How can people afford to live in California? Maybe they can't. The only prices that correspond to middle class salaries are in the desert, 70 miles plus from any urban center: Apple Valley, $170,000; San Bernardino, $157,000, and so on.

But there is a silver lining. As the accompanying press release notes, prices went up 22%, and sales were up 4%, from March 2003 to March 2004. So I guess people figure they will buy an expensive house for an investment, and what the heck, you can't buy anything that's really affordable anyway.