November 29, 2016

Housing Prices Now Back to Bubble Peak

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The Wall Street Journal points out today that housing prices are now as high as they were at the peak of the bubble years:

But that’s OK. It’s been over a decade now and incomes have gone up enough to compensate. We can afford housing at 2006 prices, right? Um…

Well, incomes are a little higher, but not by a lot. On the bright side, at least we have an incoming president who—

Aw crap. We’re so screwed.

UPDATE: As too many people have pointed out in comments and on Twitter, I messed this up, comparing the Case-Shiller index in nominal dollars to household income in real dollars. Sorry! It’s fixed now. In nominal terms, household incomes have gone up about 17 percent since 2006, so houses are still more affordable than they were at the top of the bubble.

But not by a whole lot—and housing prices are continuing to rise. I’d still keep a close eye on this.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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