Today on caravan, there were a number of nice homes. One of them I really liked was the Reginald Johnson designed home at 1590 Lombardy Road, one of the best streets in Pasadena. Johnson is one of the most significant designers in Southern California. He designed this for his parents. The asking price is $5.45M. At the time it was built in 1927 the average home and lot could be purchased for around $5,000, and this home cost $35,500 total (source: Tim Gregory the Building Biographer). Let’s see how the math works in 2016: this home in 1927 cost 7.1 times the average. Today the average Pasadena home is about $717,000 (Source Zillow), so 7.1 x $717,000 = $5.1M. Well, that shouldn’t be too surprising.