Where are all the women audiophiles?

[EJ3]

I'm not misunderstanding at all: You're puffing yourself up by saying that other people's calling an ampersand an "and sign" "may just show that the education where they came from is lacking."

Real talk? I couldn't possibly care less about internet forum sentence fragments or what people call a typographical symbol, and your axe-grinding that "K-12 education" is somehow "deficient" because people call "&" something different from what you were taught to call it back when Nixon was president and blue collar workers earned a living wage is as petty and myopic a criticism of public education as I can think of.

Under Nixon, blue collar folks earned a decent wage?
I had my journeyman's plumber license back then (I started my own lawncare business when I was 10, (I grew up in a plumbing, heating and AC business, so had my license by the time I was 14) and had the tri-county Best Businessman of the year award (for a radio show on an AM station) by the time I graduated high school.
If you don't care about fragments, why are you whining about them?
Would you like some cheese with that whine?

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Under Nixon, blue collar folks earned a decent wage?

Yes, that is correct.

Key Economic Data for 1971:

• Median Family Income: $10,290 per year (over 51% of families earned $10,000 or more).
• Average Home Cost: Around $20,000–$25,000.
• New Car Cost: Approximately $3,500–$3,700
• In the 1971–1972 academic year, UCLA tuition and fees for California residents were roughly $660, with total annual expenses including room and board estimated well under $2,000.

 

[Ropeburn]

Yes, that is correct.

Key Economic Data for 1971:

• Median Family Income: $10,290 per year (over 51% of families earned $10,000 or more).
• Average Home Cost: Around $20,000–$25,000.
• New Car Cost: Approximately $3,500–$3,700
• In the 1971–1972 academic year, UCLA tuition and fees for California residents were roughly $660, with total annual expenses including room and board estimated well under $2,000.

Now take you wage and double it, and see what house you can buy...

 

[Mart68]

Now take you wage and double it, and see what house you can buy...

You can still buy houses in my neighbourhood for around two times the median salary. Obviously they need a lot of work doing but they're structurally sound.

 

[EJ3]

Yes, that is correct.

Key Economic Data for 1971:

• Median Family Income: $10,290 per year (over 51% of families earned $10,000 or more).
• Average Home Cost: Around $20,000–$25,000.
• New Car Cost: Approximately $3,500–$3,700
• In the 1971–1972 academic year, UCLA tuition and fees for California residents were roughly $660, with total annual expenses including room and board estimated well under $2,000.

I guess that I did not see it that way.
But I did not start working for others until 1971 (age 14) prior to that, (from age 10 until today) I had/have my lawncare business (1 [me] to 2 person) operation).
My parents owned a Plumbing, Heating & AC Business (E.J. Heins & Son, Inc, est. 1927) but that was industrial contracting, so it was boom (better save some of that money for) bust. So, sometimes more offer of jobs than they could take on & sometimes no offers of jobs.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

I guess that I did not see it that way.

It's an average, not a universal.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

You can still buy houses in my neighbourhood for around two times the median salary. Obviously they need a lot of work doing but they're structurally sound.

There are always exceptions

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Now take you wage and double it, and see what house you can buy...

As of early 2026, the California median single-family home price had surpassed $820,000
As of late 2025, the median household income in California was approximately $95,500

Median house price is about 8.6 times the median household income in the first state I happened to check.

 

[EJ3]

Now take you wage and double it, and see what house you can buy...

We built our own house in 1964 (moved in when I was 8, in 1965 [designed by my parents with an architecture friend and built together with contractor friends]) and moved in in 1965. My father passed away but mother still lives there.
It has (from then) a wired intercom system, central vacuum cleaning system, baseboard boiler driven heat and dual AC system that comes out of the ceilings.
My parents and friends also built were I live now (last photo [about 40 miles away from the house that I grew up in]).

View from the back porch:

H'mm, I guess that we like water.

 

[Ropeburn]

We built our own house in 1964 (moved in when I was 8, in 1965 [designed by my parents with an architecture friend and built together with contractor friends]) and moved in in 1965. My father passed away but mother still lives there.
It has (from then) a wired intercom system, central vacuum cleaning system, baseboard boiler driven heat and dual AC system that comes out of the ceilings.
My parents and friends also built were I live now (last photo [about 40 miles away from the house that I grew up in]).
View attachment 517878
View attachment 517879
View from the back porch:
View attachment 517880
View attachment 517884
H'mm, I guess that we like water.

Aw, now isn't that a little paradise? Lovely.

Friends of the family left East Germany in the 80s when I was little, they moved to Utah (they are Mormons, that's how they were allowed to leave), the dad quickly found a good job as a carpenter, and before you knew it, they were able to buy a nice house for 50,000$. A proper brick house no less, built by another German immigrant.

It was astonishing to see how quickly they moved up the social ladder, just by doing good, honest work. Good old times, I guess.

 

[Mart68]

As of early 2026, the California median single-family home price had surpassed $820,000
As of late 2025, the median household income in California was approximately $95,500

Median house price is about 8.6 times the median household income in the first state I happened to check.

Probably better to compare median income to the cheapest available houses as per my post above. There's a lot of expensive houses pushing up the median price, and not so many people on high salaries pushing the median up there.

Houses are more expensive in real terms than they used to be, I agree, but it's not as an extreme an increase as some blunt comparison might show.

I paid almost 4 times my income, back in 1998.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Probably better to compare median income to the cheapest available houses as per my post above. There'se a lot of expensive houses pushing up the median price, and not so many people on high salaries pushing the median up there.

Why is that better and why is it relevant in a comparison to medians in 1971

 

[diablo]

Median house price is about 8.6 times the median household income in the first state I happened to check.

That's very high - suspect it is lower in most states. Though house prices are high in relation to incomes in many countries. New Zealand, Australian and Canada are among the worst.
In the UK the figures I can find mention median income of one person - and around 8 on average. The ratio for household income would be lower of course.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

That's very high - suspect it is lower in most states.

Possibly, but I’d bet none of them are a mere 2X, which was the nationwide ratio in 1971.

 

[Keith_W]

That's very high - suspect it is lower in most states. Though house prices are high in relation to incomes in many countries. New Zealand, Australian and Canada are among the worst.

We should ask ourselves why our homes in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are so expensive when there is so much land. It's obvious why London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo are expensive - there are a lot of people and not much land. But here? It's just incompetence!

 

[Mart68]

Why is that better and why is it relevant in a comparison to medians in 1971

I'm not sure that comparing median income to median house price is a useful comparison in any decade.

I'm suggesting that there are more expensive houses than there are people on high salaries and that skews the comparison. Since there are comparatively cheap houses available, there's no need to pay the median house price.

Added to which you have massive regional variations and neighbourhood variations too. For example, my house about £90K, if it were located up on the hill less than half a mile away, add fifty percent to that price. If it were in Fulham, London, multiply the price by ten.

Hence median comparisons don't reflect reality. Too much of an over-simplification.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

median comparisons don't reflect reality. Too much of an over-simplification.

Maybe, but in response to my data you bring anecdote, so I’m sure you’ll forgive my sustained conviction.

 

[Ropeburn]

Q: Where are all the women audiophiles?

A: They got bored of men's historical housing price discussions and simply listen to music instead.

 

[Mart68]

Maybe, but in response to my data you bring anecdote, so I’m sure you’ll forgive my sustained conviction.

The prices I supplied are data.

My point is your median comparison may be data-based but it is too generalised to be practically useful. Someone on median salary in my area can easily afford to buy a house, put them in London and there's no chance whatsoever.

 

[Mart68]

Q: Where are all the women audiophiles?

A: They got bored of men's historical housing price discussions and simply listen to music instead.

Good for them!