"basskisser" wrote in message
oups.com...


It is Nirvana. And the high demand for real estate proves it.

Homes in Oakland, CA go for two or three times that. It is a crime
ridden hole, and is rife with homelessness, unemployment, murder, gang
activity, etc. So, to say that real estate prices define Nirvana, is
absurd.
Now, if you go he
http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/details/1247625.html
You'll see that the average price of housing in Naples is $166k, and
the national average is $219k. Using your analogy that Nirvana is
defined by housing costs, you'll see that Naples is much below
average....


Hmmm. My link says that the median home price in Naples is $453,482.
http://www.internest.com/city/naplesfl.asp

Here's another link:
http://www.internest.com/city/naplesfl.asp

" In 2001, Naples appeared as #142 in a list of the US most wealthy towns,
with a median home price of $632,205. Even if you take into consideration
that the data may have come from a skewed source, it's not totally out of
line, if you consider that the US Census Data, notorious for being low,
shows Naples in 2000 with a median price of $416,000 which is almost 4 times
the national median price. "

Now that we've establised that the "median home price" is about 4 times the
national median average, how does the "average home price" compare?

From 2000 census data:
Naples: $185,605
US: $121,000
http://www.homegain.com/local_real_e...FL/naples.html


There's something wrong with the data in that money/cnn article. I suspect
it's from the 1996 census. Of course, the average home price went up 57%
from 1996 to 2003.
http://www.escapehomes.com/cities/Naples.htm


From my own personal experience:
I bought a house in 2001 for $409k and sold it last April for $560k. I
turned around and bought a house on the water for $825k. The prior owner
paid $320k for it in 1997. Down the street, the same house, in the same
square footage, and built the same year as mine just sold for $1.225
million...and they don't have a hot tub and a pool. That's in 8 months.
When I bought my house, there were 43 homes for sale in my
neighborhood...and only 9 of them were under a million. Now, there's 32
homes for sale, and only one of them is under a million...and it's 1500 sq
ft listed at $879k.

Why don't you satisfy your own curiousity, and browse the homes for sale in
Naples.
www.naplesarea.com

Do a search for homes from $2 million to over $20 million. You'll get an
error message saying that you need to refine your search because it returned
more than 250 homes. Do a search for homes priced between $150k and $200k
(you said the average is $166k, right?). What do you come up with? Less
than 40...and all in Lehigh Acres or Golden Gate Estates. Now refine your
search a little. Use the same prices, but limit it to single family homes.
Now make sure you exclude Zone 8 (Lee County) and Zone 7 (Golden Gate
Estates). How many homes do you come up with? Two. One is 1200 ft^2 and
the other is 1000ft^2.

How can there be more than 250 homes over $2million dollars, and only 2
homes under $175k, and the "average price" be $166k? Answer: there can't.
The CNN/Money numbers are wrong.