United States | News & Politics

But crime is actually on a downward trend:

In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period.

If income inequality is, in fact, a driver for crime, there must be an explanation for what's pushing crime down.

That's certainly possible, but I think a simpler and more likely explanation is that we're getting more exposed to media, and media sells the rare events harder than the common ones, because that's what attracts eyeballs.

Median household income and house cost in Austin, for example, is ~$70k and ~$650k, respectively.

Yeah, and that totally sucks, but you're also probably not going to buy the median house for your first home. Here's one in Austin for $325k, which is still expensive, but half the price you quoted. I didn't do a ton of research here (literally 30s search for 3+ beds, 1.5+ baths), but it seems like a decent starter home.

The bigger issue is interest rates, because a $650k house is way more affordable at 3% than 7%. If we assume that $325k house is available and we put 5% down, that house would cost:

• $17k down
• $2,607.77/month @ 7% interest

On a $70k salary, that's ~45% of really income, which is pretty high for a housing expense (ideally housing is more like 30%). But it's not unapproachable.

I'm not going to do a full budget breakdown, but hopefully my point is that if you look for a way, you can probably find a way. It's probably not going to with if you're making minimum wage, but if you're at the median income, it's a possibility, especially if rates come down a bit.