Mortgage rates hit a four-year high late last week, and it’s looking like the years of ultra-low-cost home loans are coming to an end, experts said. “I would say this has been a long time coming,” said Dan Starelli, head of Guild Mortgage in Sacramento. “We’ve had interest rates dropping for decades. I think we […]
We found that these local governments are imposing discretionary review processes on all residential development projects of five or more units within their borders. That means even if these developments comply with the underlying zoning code, they require additional scrutiny from the local government before obtaining a building permit. This triggers CEQA review of these […]
Recently, a prominent periodical hailed last year’s housing legislation as a marvelous thing – that with it will soon come the end of California’s housing crisis. Similar statements have been made in the few months following the Governor’s signature – including by the Governor himself – on the passage of several new “housing” bills. “In […]
Anyone caught wasting water in California may be fined as much as $500 under new rules being considered by the state water board, officials said Monday. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to adopt regulation coming before the board on Feb. 20 that would make it a crime to commit any of seven […]
Homeowners soon will be able to count income they earn from Airbnb Inc. rentals on applications for refinance loans. A new program—expected to be announced on Thursday by Airbnb, mortgage giant Fannie Mae and three big lenders—will allow anyone who has rented out property on Airbnb for a year or longer to count some or […]
Still, the loss of redevelopment has left funding holes that haven’t been filled, particularly for low-income housing. Since redevelopment’s dissolution, the state has approved spending from its cap-and-trade environmental program and implemented a new real estate transaction fee to subsidize the development of low-income housing. Those efforts, however, are generating less money than the $1-billion-a-year […]
A Mission District housing development is once again being delayed over the question of whether the building — constructed in 1924 and now a laundromat — is of historic value. The decision to delay the project for “four to five months” was made at a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday and gives the city time […]
In today’s highly competitive housing market, finding an affordable home can feel increasingly out of reach, especially for singles. A single homebuyer would need to save for nearly 11 years to reach a 20 percent down payment on the typical U.S. home, according to a new Zillow® analysis. However, for married or partnered couples, it […]
A year ago, Portland City Council enacted “Inclusionary Housing” (IH), a new policy requiring any apartment building of 20 units or more to rent a portion of them below market rates—from 30 to 80 percent of the city’s median family income, depending on the option a developer selects. When the city implemented the policy, detractors […]
As housing prices recover from the Great Recession, municipalities across America are considering laws that will raise the cost of homeownership. The Wall Street Journal reports that cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta are requiring developers to set aside some portion of their new units to sell or rent at below-market prices to low-income households. […]
Nearly 43,000 people have filed applications to join a waiting list for subsidized housing in Sacramento, officials said Wednesday. By Tuesday night’s deadline, 42,913 people had entered the lottery for 7,000 slots on the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency’s waiting list for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as Section 8. The SHRA started […]
A costly and potentially bruising campaign is taking shape over rent control in California, with deep-pocketed Los Angeles activist Michael Weinstein bankrolling a proposed November ballot initiative to repeal a state law that sets tight limits on the type of housing covered under local rent control laws.
Real estate listing firm Redfin reported this week that 4,101 more users of its service looked to buy a home in Sacramento than Sacramentans looked to buy homes elsewhere in the last three months of 2017 – the largest potential net inflow of new residents to any region in the United States. The top region […]
In fact, expect to hear more political chatter of all kinds as Californians gear up to select a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and other statewide constitutional officers; new Assembly members (all of them) and state senators (just half); members of Congress including a U.S. senator; and a yet-to-be-determined number of ballot propositions that may claim to remedy the housing crisis, fix healthcare policy and repeal the new gas tax, for starters.
A majority of Californians say affordability is a problem in the state’s public colleges and universities, according to the PPIC Statewide Survey. In addition, three-quarters of residents in the survey agree that the price of college prevents students who are qualified and motivated from going to college. Not surprisingly, state leaders are exploring new strategies to help students and families better cope with college costs. Most current approaches, such as state and institutional financial aid, focus primarily on tuition relief. This makes sense, as tuition more than doubled at California universities from 2006 to 2012—and is on the rise again.