NOTEWORTHY
Jenny Stuber
University of California Press, 2021
Paradox and contradiction are at the heart of social life and, consequently, of keen interest to sociologists like me. The tensions and contradictions that run through Aspen can be illustrated with a simple question: How is it possible for a town to exist where the median household income is about $73,000, but the median home price is about $4 million?
Conventional wisdom among financial advisors is that a household earning $73,000 per year can reasonably afford a home in the $225,000–$325,000 price range—not the $4 million price tag found in Aspen. The paradoxical relationship between local incomes and the price of real estate is what I call “The Impossible Math of Aspen, Colorado.” Aspen is a place where many residents own homes with values in excess of $10 million, but the majority of the town’s nearly 7,400 residents cannot afford a home even far below the median price.