Zehr: Today’s housing costs are shaping Austin’s future workforce

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/news/busine...ture-wo/nSzW3/

Updated: 7:40 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 | Posted: 7:40 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012
ECON AUSTIN
Zehr: Today’s housing costs are shaping Austin’s future workforce

By Dan Zehr
American-Statesman Staff

One of the most consistent economic trends in American history has all but stopped in the past 30 years, and its fade might tell us something about Austin today.

From 1880-1980, the state-to-state differences in per-capita income steadily converged as low-income workers sought jobs in areas of greater prosperity. Their migration tended to spur labor demand and education in less-prosperous areas, leading to a consistent and steady convergence of income.

Across the century, income across the states converged at an average 1.8 percent each year. Take a subset of the states, and the trend held. Select various time periods within that 100 years, and the trend still held.
It’s not holding anymore, according to a working paper published this year by two Harvard University researchers. The greater opportunities are no less enticing, they said, but the rising cost of housing has thrown up barriers for those who seek to live and work in high-income areas.