The ongoing strangeness of the American housing market. " From Fort Wayne to Rochester to Salt Lake City, the prices of typical homes across most of the country's vast middle have risen just ahead of inflation ó and more slowly than incomes. The cost of homes in the most expensive cities is now about six times that in the least expensive, up from a ratio of three to one two decades ago."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/06/business/06HOUS.html?th