Home values in California have skyrocketed since Brown's first term as governor. When he took office in 1975, the median home price in California was $41,600 – 18 percent above the national median. Today the state's median home price is $309,000, 80 percent above the rest of the US.
Also weightier this time around: Brown's inauguration speech. In 1975 he delivered an eight-minute address, composed, he famously said, after going through the inaugural addresses of his 10 most recent predecessors and culling the unkept promises. Brown spoke for twice as long Monday, saying, “At this stage of my life, I did not come here to embrace delay and denial.”
