Home sales in Los Angeles County have declined for a fourth month in a row, and the number of pending sales has dropped more than 37 percent over August numbers. That’s according to a new report from realtor John Graff, who also notes that pending sales are down a staggering 48.9 percent since September of last year. They’re now down to the lowest level since 2012.
In many regions, the SCS process has led to innovative policymaking to support healthy, equitable, and sustainable patterns of development. Drawing on reviews of adopted SCSs, as well as extensive input from ClimatePlan partners, transportation planners, and others, this report highlights some of the leading practices that have emerged so far. It also offers recommendations that go beyond existing SCSs in areas such as climate adaptation, water, and affordable housing.
The state cannot continue to grow as fast as it has in recent years, said economists who wrote the reports, unless it funnels more people into the workplace. But there aren’t enough homes in the state to accommodate a wave of new workers.
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed steps similar to those contained in the White House toolkit – fast-tracking for certain kinds of housing to fill the most critical needs. But his “by right” plan went nowhere in the Legislature because environmental groups, labor unions and local governments joined forces to kill it.
The Obama administration Monday is calling on cities and counties to rethink their zoning laws, saying that antiquated rules on construction, housing and land use are contributing to high rents and income inequality, and dragging down the U.S. economy as a whole.
New research supports the conclusion that anti-sprawl policy (urban containment policy) is incompatible with housing affordability. Build-zoom.com economist Issi Romem finds that: “Cities that have curbed their expansion have – with limited exception – failed to compensate with densification. As a result they have produced far less housing than they would otherwise, with severe national implications for housing affordability, geographic mobility and access to opportunity, all of which are keenly felt today as we approach the top of housing cycle.”
Even the liberal Chronicle focused on overwhelming opposition to rent control by economists, noting that 81 percent of those surveyed disagreed that rent control has “improved the quantity and quality of affordable rental housing.” The article pointed to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which concluded rent control results “in a decline in the overall quality of a community’s housing stock.”
Environmentalists, urban planners and economists are pushing cities such as New York and San Francisco to build more housing to help combat rapidly rising rents and home prices that are crowding out the middle class. But trying to build upward in order to keep cities accessible to average families may be a losing battle, according to findings to be released Wednesday by BuildZoom, a website for contractors. . . “What you’ll get there is an exacerbation of the problems we already have in expensive cities. The distinction between homeowners and renters will become less and less a stage of life and more and more if your parents can help you. That’s not a future that seems very welcoming to me,” Mr. Romem said.
In California, cities and counties control what is built in their communities. But study after study has pointed to the hurdles local governments put in front of development — such as parking requirements and lengthy environmental reviews — as reasons why homes aren’t built at the rate needed to keep pace with rising prices.
L.A. County needs 500,000 affordable homes and the State of California needs 1,500,000. L.A.’s vacancy rate is the lowest in the nation and 45,000 County residents experience homelessness nightly. The Governor’s plan would allow housing units that match a community’s zoning to be built if they include a certain percentage of affordable housing and ask for no changes that a city department would otherwise need to approve. This proposal mirrors standard land use and development procedure in most cities and states in America. From New York City to urban areas throughout the nation, the Governor’s proposal is the norm. We are an outlier and the Governor’s proposal would fix that.
The refusal of lawmakers to obey their own laws, which they foist upon the rest of the public, is a chief sign of corruption. The repeated exemptions from CEQA for politically connected interests – particularly when it comes to the building that houses most legislators or a new stadium for their hometown basketball team – are evidence of both the inequity of the law and the decadence and hypocrisy of the Legislature. If CEQA cannot be abolished altogether, it should at least be substantially reformed to prevent lawsuit abuses and focus narrowly on legitimate environmental concerns while leaving people free to develop their property without undue hassle and expense.
A growing number of Bay Area residents — besieged by home prices, worsening traffic, high taxes and a generally more expensive cost of living — believe life would be better just about anywhere else but here.
Robert Tillman owns a coin-operated laundromat in San Francisco’s Mission District, a neighborhood at the epicenter of California’s housing crisis. Over the last 2½ years, he’s spent nearly $500,000 on plans to tear down the business to build apartments. But although the city has zoned the property for apartments, Tillman hasn’t gotten very far.
One particularly worrying aspect of this is that low-income and middle-income families might be cutting back spending on food in order to compensate for rising costs in housing and health care.
All of this is an uncomfortable reminder of how difficult it is for low-income and middle-class earners to get by in the Bay Area. The median price for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,590 in San Francisco, $2,290 in San Jose and $2,270 in Oakland, according to the report.