The government has always been here. So why was the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90s COL here so affordable?
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Anonymous
So Trump (even though he is a New Yorker) basically won because of second tier cities? |
Anonymous
New Yorkers hate him. Because they actually know him, instead of his TV persona. |
Anonymous
| Government programs helped white WW2 vets buy homes and establish themselves, setting the standard for future generations. COL wasn't so affordable for black vets and their families. |
Anonymous
| Defense contracting exploded around here at the same time AOL was rising and drawing in more tech. As the govt outsourced a lot of its work, lots of contractors jumped into education, intl development and so on as well. The inflated rates govt then started paying for contractors brought the whole area up, then downtown developers jumped in and started that whole revitalization and the cycle continued. |
Anonymous
Irrelevant. Black vets also qualified for the government programs. And it has nothing to do with DC becoming more expensive relative to other cities. Because, you know, these white WW2 vets lived all over America in cities and towns and rural areas. Some in areas that later became high cost cities, other in cities that stagnated. So it's an utterly moot point. |
Anonymous
| Because of the double whammy of increased defense jobs and increased OTHER INDUSTRIES. |
Anonymous
| It’s the same with major cities across the US. |
Anonymous
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Defense spending in the 50 and 60s was for tanks, ships, low-tech airplanes. Very different than where most of the money goes now, and many of the big brains associated with helping the government buy and use it's new tech are here.
Also, all of the financial and law firms around Tyson's Corner didn't exist to the same extent. In the 80's, Tyson's was just a mall. Was it just an outpost of K St. in the 90s? I don't know. |
Anonymous
Excellent summary. Federal salaries kept the COLA lower. At this point, the "no contractor left behind" policies combined with expansion of the tech sector hoping to get government contracts, high paying law firms and lobbyists, have all created more high paying positions. |
Anonymous
The economies of the 50s and 60s were also drastically different from today. We had a huge and well-paying industrial base that was huge and well-paying because most of the developed world competition (Europe) had their economies destroyed by WWII and were no competition for the American industrial might, and China slipped into communism and closed off from the world and self-destructed for the next 30 years, and Russia wasn't an economic competitor. That's why American companies could charge high prices for goods, and in turn pay high wages for their workers. Nowadays everyone, including angry liberals, would prefer to buy cheap schlock made by quasi slave labor in third world country and China than higher prices for American made goods .... I wouldn't say second tier cities are doing badly, outside a few examples like Cleveland. Even Pittsburgh is seeing a rebound. It's really heavily industrial smaller cities like Youngstown that suffered badly. Most corporate HQs are not in New York, there's more HQs among Dallas and Houston and Atlanta and the other midtier cities (combined) than in New York, and proportionally more per capita in many midsize cities, and even in New York you often find it's a small head office of a few hundred to a few thousand employees while the rest of the tens of thousands are in back offices in the provincial cities. There has been a distortion of wealth resulting from QE flocking primarily to the top 1% via booming stock markets and tech investment, I suppose. In DC, however, the explosion of contracting spending post 9-11 is what really changed the DC market. |
Anonymous
Second-tier cities have only themselves to blame. Atlanta has been poised for SO LONG to be a preeminent world-class city along the lines of Miami or New York but they keep shooting themselves in the foot. And by they I mean the racist/sexist white governmental class. 1) Threatening to sanction an airline because they wouldn't support the NRA? https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/02/590149921/georgia-lawmakers-punish-delta-air-lines-over-nra-feud Delta is their biggest tax-revenue creator bar none and you're THREATENING them? 2) Losing out on Amazon HQ2 precisely at the same time because corporations don't like state government overreach and threats. 3) Now they're outlawing abortion past six weeks to any Georgia residents and guess what? The film industry which makes 30 movies/tv shows a year in Georgia is trying to pull out. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/hollywood-response-georgia-heartbeat-bill-abortion Make idiot policies, have idiot results. |
Anonymous
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Population growth and supply and demand. MoCo alone has been adding 100,000 residents every decade, as has Fairfax. Where are they supposed to live? Not enough housing = prices go up.
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Anonymous
Ahh, kind of like how Seattle passed an anti-Amazon tax? https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/seattle-unanimously-passes-its-amazon-tax/560411/ (Yes, I know it was later repealed) As for Atlanta, its population growth has been 2-3x the DC area. It's gaining about 1 million residents per decade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_metropolitan_area |
Anonymous
Atlanta's population growth and massive sprawl is turning it into Houston not New York. Adding in so many collective 'cities' into their metro area means their tax revenue base is stagnant and anything along the West/South lines remains low income. Read about the phenomenon of Georgia 'cities' incorporating to keep their tax revenue base to themselves and see just how this is affecting Atlanta revenue prospectives long-term - https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/tale-of-new-cities/555263/ |
Anonymous
Don't forget about traffic jams. Also my very modest childhood home is now worth over 800K. |