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But one that's under median. Even way under. I mean, I feel humiliated, my house is $200k under 'median'.

What, that's really low on the totem pole.

And yet, this substandard housing is completely survivable ... for the last 16 years. I raised my kid here. Grew sunchokes and tomatoes and satsumas and limes and raised some pretty nifty succulents here. And even appreciate some of my neighbors.

The problem is "US median." Nobody lives in a US where we think of ourselves as between a town in eastern Oregon and Holmsby Hills, or Ozona and Short Hills (NJ). And those high-end digs in areas I'm 1200 miles from really pull up the median.

Mean (not "median&quot for TX is $296,039--that includees mansions in River Oaks and hoity-toity areas of Austin, as well as podunk San Saba and Ozona. For Harris County, TX, home of Houston, the median is $310,000. But still, a decent study out of London years ago said that housing was pro-rated for commute time in an absolutely linear fashion, with commuting expenses on the x-axis, which is a reasonable thing to price into housing pricing. So I don't work downtown where wages are huge so I don't want to pay a commuter premium. For Spring, TX ... My neck of the woods ... median is $263,000. The Woodlands, 20 minutes, north ... $575,000, but it's an secondary city--Houston's sprawly enough that there's a business downtown, a medical downtown an energy downtown ... Woodlands is its own economic center.

Holmsby Hills (in Los Angeles, making Beverly Hills look low rent) and Short Hills aren't in my commuting area. I seldom get up to The Woodlands or down to Royal Oaks.

My house isn't $200k below median. It's just about median. Purchasing parity power rules. What I buy for $100 in Tomball Texas isn't what I can get for $100 in Manhattan or $100 in Marysville, TN or Fredericksburg TX.

The use of medians and averages by country and not locality distort things quite a bit.