But the approach can add a layer of complexity to home sales and refinance applications. Interest rates also tend to be higher than for mortgages and home equity loans, from 6.75 to 8.35 percent in the Home Energy Renovation Opportunity, or HERO, program that Elk Grove has authorized.
Sales rose from a year earlier for the fourth straight month to an estimated 46,095 homes despite unusually tight supplies. It marked an increase of 10.8 percent from 41,612 sales in May and 16.8 percent from 39,460 sales a year earlier.
Home sales are up. All-cash and investor purchases are down. And home prices are rising at a more sustainable pace than in the last few years.
The chairman of the state agency that finances affordable housing has announced he will soon leave amid criticism that his development company plans to eliminate several rent-controlled units to make way for million dollar homes.
A new study finds Sacramento area home prices have gotten out-of-reach for people who earn the median income or less. The data from research firm RealtyTrac show it’s cheaper to rent in Sacramento County than to buy.
A study released Wednesday by real-estate tracker Trulia says it would take 18 years for a San Diego household of college-educated young professionals earning the median income to afford a median-priced home in the county.
In a decision that could impact developers across the state, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday to allow Los Angeles and other cities to require that developers provide affordable housing as a condition of getting building permits.
“African Americans appear to be moving once again, but this time primarily to cities, many in the south, the very region they exited in huge numbers during the last century. Increasingly, they, as well as Latino and Asian households seeking a better future, are moving to opportunity cities. Between 2000 and 2013, the African American population of Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Raleigh, Tampa-St. Petersburg and San Antonio all experienced growth of close to 40 percent or higher, well above the average of 27 percent for the 52 metropolitan areas […] For Latinos, now the nation’s largest ethnic minority, nine of the top 13 places are held by cities wholly or partially in the old Confederacy, led by #1 Jacksonville, Florida. Current state projections in Texas indicate that Latinos will outnumber Anglos by 2025. The majority of newcomers to the South, notes a recent Pew study, are classic first-wave immigrants: young, 57 percent foreign born and not well educated; but they see the South as their land of opportunity.”
We found, for all three major minority groups, that the best places were neither the most liberal in their attitudes nor had the most generous welfare programs. Instead they were located primarily in regions that have experienced broad-based economic growth, have low housing costs, and limited regulation. In other words, no matter how much people like Bill de Blasio talk about the commitment to racial and class justice, the realities on the ground turn out to be quite different than he might imagine.
Neither “smart growth” nor public subsidies have solved California’s housing crisis because the solution does not arise from more regulations or wealth transfers. The shortest path to more supply and affordability is to redirect public investment into public works and drain the litigation and regulatory swamps that provide the institutional support for the exclusive enclaves created in coastal California.
The median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in California was $1,350 in March, up 6.5 percent from a year ago. That was 43 percent higher than the national median of $940.
None of this should be surprising. The attractive inner city developments, especially the Pearl District, do not provide for the economic needs or wants of most people, as the population trend data indicates. Few households are drawn to buy less than one-half the space they want at nearly three times the price per square foot they would pay in outer suburbs like Forest Grove, Wilsonville or Hazel Dell.
Based on those cities’ building permit processing history over the last three to five years and estimates from about 20 development companies, Reaser’s group concluded that regulation could represent up to 55.9 percent or $480,746 of the cost of a new $860,000 apartment or condo in Carlsbad.
A new study by the California Housing Partnership found that the state’s lowest-income households spend two-thirds of their income on housing, leaving little money for food, healthcare, transportation and other needs.