Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
From vote_watcher, continuing our debate about who’s rich and who’s not:
Okay, I have to take issue with your definition of rich. I’m with Edgy Mama on this on – the fact is that the average home price in Asheville is somewhere around $230,000, which is close to what a lot of the homes on Kimberly and the surrounding area sell for. The notable exception being the strip referred to above as Mansion Row.
My response:
OK, let me stop you right there. The average price is one thing, but it’s not the best way to get a picture of what’s happening in Ashvegas. The median price of a home in Ashvegas is about $166,000, according to recent stats I’ve seen, median being the middle point of the range, not an average of everything. The median value is what you need to be looking at to get a more accurate view of the local market:
Back to vote_watcher:
I get tired of hearing that folks who have figured out how to afford an average or even slightly above average home in Asheville are rich (with connotations of elitist). In the end all it does is mask the real issue which is that average jobs here pay crap. We need to work on fixing the wage issue, not drawing a divide around people who have managed to graduate to a salary above the $36,000 average for Asheville.
The disconnect between salaries and housing prices here stinks. Good for the folks who figure out how to make it work. I wouldn’t want to live across from the golf course either (too fond of checking the mail in my night shirt), but let’s get a little perspective.
My turn again:
Thanks for making my point, exactly. Jobs here do pay shit. Employers know that people want to live in Ashvegas for the great quality of life. Stories abound about people abandoning high-paying jobs across the country to move here, jobless, and live. They take whatever they get.
If the jobs around here pay nothing, that tells me the people who can afford a house that costs a quarter of a million dollars are rich. You have to be able to afford it. Some professionals do have high-paying jobs in town – lawyers, bankers, doctors. They’re rich. They’ve always been rich.
You’re the one who needs perspective here. The folks who “have figured out how to make it work” have figured it out by making a killing in the stock market (i.e. letting their money make more money, an option the working class doesn’t have), tapping into their family trust fund or otherwise hauling a load of cash to the mountains and spending it.
vote_watcher:
On the yard signs, I like the Mumpower houses where it looks like the owner thinks that putting 20 signs in their one yard will somehow counterbalance the fact that they’re the only yard in view with signs.
Rio, thanks for your comments!
I must say I’m finding myself agreeing with vote watcher here, Ash. There certainly are both “rich” and “poor” people here, as there are everywhere. However, most of the Ashevillians I know are working middle class folk. Yes, we often are paid less than we would be in a bigger market (sorry, Rio) but we’re here for the quality of life, so we make it happen. We are working to pay off mortgages, to save $ for our kids’ colleges, for the priviledge of occasionally buying organic produce. I know you basically agree, but this post comes off as a bit black or white–and that’s not a pun!
one problem with fixing the wage issue: employers in north carolina can get away with paying their employees shit *because north carolina allows them to*.
that’s what attracted companies to nc in the first place – tax incentives. that and the fact that nc is a right-to-work state with very little (if any) union influence. if we start monkeying around with the “wage issue”, plants will start closing their doors and moving their operations to mexico, dominican republic or china faster than you can say “general electric”, “pillowtex” or “dupont”. there has to be a balance somewhere.
the disconnect between salaries and housing costs is not exclusive to asheville by any means. i heard recently that the house that i grew up in – a modest, three-bedroom cookie-cutter tract home in “the o.c.” that was purchased for $24K in 1972 – recently sold for $350K. $350K!!!! the house had “photowall” wallpaper and shag carpet in the living room, for christ’s sake!!!
around here you can get a comparable home in a comparable neighborhood (without the photowall or shag carpeting) for about $120K, which really isn’t that unreasonable in this market, but still out of reach for most people. (really, though; with our work situations the way they are, the last thing we need is to get stuck with a 25-year mortgage after our jobs end up elsewhere.)
in the meantime, jobs are plentiful in the mountains, if you don’t mind getting two or three of them. and i guarantee you that at least one of those jobs is going to involve serving shitty food with ranch dressing on the side to tourists from florida…
And here you make my point: “The folks who ‘have figured out how to make it work’ have figured it out by making a killing in the stock market (i.e. letting their money make more money, an option the working class doesn’t have), tapping into their family trust fund or otherwise hauling a load of cash to the mountains and spending it.”
You assume that anyone who has money NOW was born with it or had some nice little windfall, that they are categorically not working class and never have been. What about the small business owners who start with a shoe string and a good idea? What about the increasing number of people who move here and keep their jobs elsewhere because those jobs actually pay a livable wage? Or those who pool their modest resources with others to make investments in rental property? What about us working grunts who have been at it for a long time and have managed to progress a little? You’re not leaving room for any of that. You’re not leaving room for middle class that bridges that huge gray space between the tight end of working class and rich. The distinction you draw says either you live paycheck to paycheck and can’t possiblly save or invest, or you came from privilege. Sorry, I don’t buy it.
Speaking from a strictly middle class perspective, my family and I had to leave my beloved (and hometown) Asheville for a job that could support us in a fairly simple lifestyle. If there were any way either my husband or I could find a job that would have supported us in a basic way, we would have stayed – but the jobs just were not there. And our house was not fancy – our bedroom was a finished attic with no door! I really do hope there is some way to make it possible for the average middle class family to stay there.