I just attended a breakfast meeting this morning held by The Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County.

Here are some scary statistics:  "It would take close to four waiters, each with a median annual income of $18K, pooling their resources, to afford a single-family home in Snohomish County."

"It would take at least 3.5 house cleaners, each making nearly $20K a year, pooling their resources, to afford a single-family home in Snohomish County."

"It would take at least 2 teachers, each making $34K a year, pooling their resources, to afford a single-family home in Snohomish County."

"It would take at least 1.65 roofers, each making $42K a year, pooling their resources, to afford a single-family home in Snohomish County."

"A police officer making $63,000 a year cannot afford a house in Snohomish County today."

"In fact, it takes an income of nearly $71,000 a year to qualify for a $340,000 mortgage."

With the economic boon upon us, the scarcity of land, lot costs are rising, developing costs are rising, building lot square footages are becoming smaller and the price tag is becoming larger we are a tad upside down on the scale of buyers vs. affordable housing.

The solution, well, no one really spoke to that issue. That really bothered me -- everyone talks of the problems, report it to the press, but there's no resolution. Oh, they suggested that we call our family members that have property to sell and ask them to take less for their land to sell to developers. I think NOT. In this increasing market. However, where does the BUCK START?

We are looking at DINK's purchasing properties (Double Income No Kids) in our future.

The sad issue is our teachers, police officers, health care workers that serve our community cannot afford to live in their communities.

What's your solutions?