WAPO: U.S. Losing its Middle-Class Neighborhoods..

U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods
From 1970 to 2000, Metro Areas Showed Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor Sections

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Page A03

INDIANAPOLIS -- Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.

In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.


Mission Accomplished!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101735.html

Poor districts... 100/square mile.

Rich districts... 0.0001/square mile.

Sherwood Forest, here we come!

the past in my area. The only new homes being built carry pricetags over a million dollars. This, of course, has been one of the factors contributing to the sharp increase in the price of existing homes so that even an old crappy fixer is over $600K. Middle class families have simply been priced out of the market.

Only slightly off topic, but yesterday on the local news there was a story about how the dumpy motels around Disneyland in Anaheim are now home to a permanent underclass of basically homeless "motel families" barely scrapping by and only one weekly "rent" payment away from the street.

Mission accomplished, indeed.

a permanent underclass of people to clean the hotel rooms, serve up food and pick up trash at Disneyland.

We don't have any middle-class housing construction in our area either. If you've owned your home for 10 years or more, you're sitting pretty, if you're just moving into the area, you're screwed. At any rate, the housing market around here (D.C. 'burbs) is way over-inflated, and I don't care what the so-called experts say, it's a bad thing overall.

and a few others drudges like wash and iron head scarfs for the visiting Saudi tourist 'cause they'll be the class who can afford it.

Even the places considered "middle class" are expensive. DC does have a higher-than-normal median income, but it's still crazy how expensive housing is around here.

prices are insane. I live in what once was a very working class neighborhood. Anymore, if you can pick one up for $500,000, it's a bargain.

...we're not quite looking that high (well, not even close to that high), but we have found suitable options here and there. We just have to live with the fact that the kinds of places in our price range will require some updating/minor renovating or be small.

Plus, it's becoming a buyers market. A year or two ago, you couldn't wait very long to put in a bid...but houses are not moving very fast now. Only one house we've looked at has come off the market of the 15 or so we've been through. About half of them have been reduced since we looked at them as well.

:sarcasm:


What? I can't hear you, let me shut the grinder off and put my axe down.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1483062


Japan is still more predominantly middle class than the US< but their government has started copying US trickle-down tax and privatization gimmicks. Koizumi is as Carlyle as a motherfucker.