HIgh Florida home prices drive out middle class

The St.Petersburg Times reports about the changing world of Pinellas,Florida :

In August 2001, the median price of a single family home in Pinellas was $151,100. In August 2005, the most recent month for which figures are available, that number had jumped to $256,600, a 70 percent increase.

Personal wage growth has been negligible by comparison, climbing just 12 percent, from $31,741 in 2001 to an estimated $35,482 this year. That bump has been offset by increased costs for insurance, health care and transportation.

To purchase a home in Pinellas at today's median price and still fall within state and federal affordability guidelines, a wage earner would have to make about $80,000 a year, or more than twice the county's average income.

The cure for higher prices might be even higher prices to cut demand.