"can afford just 12 percent of the homes for sale in the San Jose metro area." I'd argue that's that wrong number to look at. To me, it's obvious that homes in San Jose are by far the most affordable in the South Bay. Yes, there are plenty of expensive homes in San Jose, but more importantly, most of the "affordable" homes are in San Jose. The "affordable" homes in San Jose are east of CA-87 and away from the hills. San Jose is so large that it also includes the very expensive west San Jose area near Cupertino. However, west San Jose homes don't affect the affordability of other San Jose homes, even though they do affect the average.
Averages are the wrong number (Score:2)
"can afford just 12 percent of the homes for sale in the San Jose metro area." I'd argue that's that wrong number to look at. To me, it's obvious that homes in San Jose are by far the most affordable in the South Bay. Yes, there are plenty of expensive homes in San Jose, but more importantly, most of the "affordable" homes are in San Jose. The "affordable" homes in San Jose are east of CA-87 and away from the hills. San Jose is so large that it also includes the very expensive west San Jose area near Cupertino. However, west San Jose homes don't affect the affordability of other San Jose homes, even though they do affect the average.