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Sedona Jeep School
10-13-2005, 07:36 AM
Anyone think they want to live/work in Sedona? After reading this, I am not sure that I want to live here anymore...

From today's Red Rock News:

Most of workforce can rent but not buy, report states
By Cyndy Hardy
Larson Newspapers
________________

A Sedona worker must earn $63.26 per hour to buy a median priced Sedona house, according to a recent report from the Arizona Department of Housing.

“2004-2005 Arizona’s Hous-ing Market ... at a glance,” an ADH publication, was released at the Governor’s Affordable Housing Forum in Carefree Sept. 13 to 15.

The median price for a home in Sedona is $454,500, the report stated. Sedona’s wage requirements are almost twice as much as in the next highest housing markets in the state, the report indicated.

Workers in Flagstaff must earn $35.07 and Phoenix employees must earn $30.37 per hour to afford to buy homes in those cities.

Pinetop-Lakeside, Payson and Sierra Vista would require $21.42 to $28.53 per hour.

Kingman at 17.38, Yuma at $17.38 and Nogales at $15.34 rounded out the list.

Statewide, a worker must earn an average of $26.67 to buy a home.

Workforce members such as retail sales and restaurant workers cannot afford to buy a house or rent an apartment anywhere in the state, according to the report.

Police officers, firefighters, teachers and nurses can afford to rent an apartment in most areas of Arizona but can’t afford to buy a house in more than half of the communities. Sedona police officers earn an hourly median wage of $17.55, according to the report.

Nurses earn about $17.58, it states.

Teachers earn about $16.02 and firefighters make about $12.20.

However, current data on the Sedona Fire District’s Web site indicates that entry level fire fighters earn $37,108 per year, or about $17.84 per hour.

Retail workers and wait staff earn about $8.68 and $6.58 an hour, respectively, according to the report.
At 19.43 percent, Arizona ranked seventh highest in the nation for housing price appreciation for the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2005.

The average resale price for homes jumped 58.1 percent from 2002 to 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Comparatively, median incomes increased by 27 percent, the ADH report stated.

Low interest rates contributed to Arizona’s strong housing market, according to the report. With rising rates, the market will likely slow down.

Sheila D. Harris is the director of the Arizona Department of Housing, the executive director of the Arizona Housing Commission and the executive director of the Arizona Housing Finance Authority.

“The data contained in this document has been obtained from a myriad of sources, including national and local associations of Realtors, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel-opment, Ari-zona Depart-ment of Eco-nomic Security, Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State Univers-ity, U.S. Cen-sus Bureau, Office of Fed-eral Housing Enterprise Oversight, as well as data produced by the Arizona Department of Housing,” Harris said.

Contact Cyndy Hardy at 282-7795, Ext. 129, or chardy@larsonnewspapers.com.

Scrat
10-13-2005, 08:58 AM
You can thank all the *beep*in Cali and Florida guys that are selling their homes for half a mil to a mil+ and moving here. It's retarded; I am very much disgusted with it. I am going into real estate and the more I learn about how this industry works the angrier I get. It's supply and demand to screw the consumer and big bonus for the developers/banks. The most even realtors get on commission is 3k per house. I mean not unless you get like a million+ dollar home to sell, then you are looking at 6k+. At least I will be able to afford a house in reality vs. doing computers. It just sounds more and more like the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Everyone is outsourcing to third world countries to compete against foreign competitors, but they forget when they lay off hundreds to thousands of employees, who's going to be able to buy their products? In my business class we were discussing about how foreign companies are able to compete so aggressively. Well it was narrowed to 5 main reasons, most of which I've been saying since high school:
Cheapness of materials, which correlates to reason 1
No basic labor rights.
Socialized medicine or lack of medical all together
Companies (Referring to like Toyota) that learn to recoup lost money, such as recycling their waste.
Companies that still use the Communist way of production, produce as much as possible without heeding the costs (not monetary kind)

My 2 cents

Cheers,
Lee

Scrat
10-13-2005, 09:02 AM
Oh and lets not forget the fact that Congress pushed through really fast after we voted it down a few year back to increase their salary, but they can't raise minimun wage so the average person can make a living. *Grumbles, you know, sometimes I think we just need to wipe the slate clean and start over*

Cheers,
Lee

Scrat
10-13-2005, 09:14 AM
Oh I deleted reason 1 by acciedent.
Cheapness of labor

ScoobyDoo
10-13-2005, 09:26 AM
but they can't raise minimun wage so the average person can make a living.
Lee

Do you care to explain how raising minimum wage would HELP the "average person".

Raising minimum wage would cause the price of services and goods to rise, thus HURTING the "average Person".
In many cases business owners have to lay off workers and/or raise prices to make up for the higher labor cost
Mi
nimum wage is just that, it's an entry level wage, for entry level work. If that is all a person is capable of doing that is all they should be making.
There should be NO such thing as any minimum wage, the market would determine what a job should pay.

Scrat
10-13-2005, 09:38 AM
Maybe I am just thinking about he old days I studied in high school when people could somewhat make it on minimun wage. And companies did not have a problem paying a little more.

Cheers,
Lee

ScoobyDoo
10-13-2005, 09:44 AM
on the surface, it seems like a good idea, help out the little guy, but when you think it through, the little guy is exactly who suffers the most.
(kinda like a $20 hooker ;) )

jeepsonly
10-13-2005, 10:08 AM
Wow, medium income went up 27 percent between 2002 and 2005? I missed that boat.

Tom Jacobson
10-13-2005, 10:59 AM
Maybe I am just thinking about he old days I studied in high school when people could somewhat make it on minimun wage. And companies did not have a problem paying a little more.

Cheers,
Lee

I'm for from the oldest person on this board, but my "old days" minimum wage checks woulda NEVER allowed me to "make it" back then either. $3/hr flipping burgers in high school. Woo-hoo. Yeah, I was really raking it in. :rolleyes:

It kept gas in the car and allowed me to have some spending money for weekends. But I defintely had to save a while to buy anything "special". Plus was trying to save for college, and ensure I had some money in the bank for things like car repair or new tires.

HUGE THANKS to my folks for buying that first car, paying the insurnace (in turn for good grades and a clean driving record), buying clothes, food, etc.

No way any of that was happening on minimum wage...nor SHOULD it, imho.

Tom

Sedona Jeep School
10-13-2005, 11:27 AM
Wow, medium income went up 27 percent between 2002 and 2005? I missed that boat.
Only if you voted yourself a raise at taxpayer expense...:cool:

Special K
10-13-2005, 11:45 AM
Its seems to also be the case that AZ has weak Unions. The teacher union is a joke, a waste of monthly dues. What is the state of other unions in this state?

I can tell you that public safety unions don't fair much better. Since AZ has no collective bargaining rights in the constitution or state statutes, it's up to each county or local government to decide if they want to meet with public safety unions. Even then, it is often just a begging process.

jeepsonly
10-13-2005, 02:15 PM
First I assume you meant "median"...

Oops (embarassed)...yup. Darn it fingers, please type what I'm thinking!

Scrat
10-13-2005, 02:37 PM
I feel really horrible and I don't feel like rebutting that. I just expressed my opinion, sorry that the text books are a little distorted on the views of the past. About me not being able to "stand and complaind" sorry that I give a BEEP about people other than myself! Just remeber that those "statistics" and "experts" are just using certain info to increase the market value and create hype, when there shouldn't be. So how about we get back to the main subject. And not critisizing other people's views.

Cheers,
Lee

azrubyman
10-13-2005, 05:24 PM
The housing bubble will burst soon enough. Always does and always will.
Ken

JamesT
10-13-2005, 07:09 PM
Thanks for the information. I will use it in the upcoming wage negotiation that I have. I wish there were some good sources for the information though.

T.C.'S TOY
10-13-2005, 08:55 PM
YA I KNOW IFIN YOU AIN'T RICH YER WORKIN FOR EM HUH???..........THOM:rolleyes:

Sedona Jeep School
10-13-2005, 09:07 PM
Thanks for the information. I will use it in the upcoming wage negotiation that I have. I wish there were some good sources for the information though.
If you are talking about the article I posted, it is from Sedona's Red Rock News. So, a valid source is "your spirit guide." :D