When it comes to buying a home or renting an apartment, the Los Angeles-Orange County area is the most expensive market among the nation’s 100 biggest metropolises, according to a report released Thursday by the real-estate website Zillow.
Southern California home sales plunged in July and show little signs of rebounding. And that, economists say, could stunt the region’s economic growth..
But today, after decades of expanding property ownership, the middle orders—what might be seen as the inheritors of Jefferson’s yeoman class—now appear in a secular retreat. Homeownership, which peaked in 2002 at nearly 70 percent, has dropped, according to the U.S. Census, to 65 percent in 2013, the lowest in almost two decade. Although some of this may be seen as a correction for the abuses of the housing bubble, rising costs, stagnant incomes and a drop off of younger first time buyers suggest that ownership may continue to fall in years ahead.
States with high and low homeless rates are all over the country. The highest rates of homelessness among states are in Hawaii (465 per 100,000), followed by New York (399) and California (367).
“California’s most inexpensive markets are on par with the most expensive metro areas in places like Texas, while California’s most expensive markets are quickly approaching median prices of $1 million,” wrote study co-author Jordan Levine. “That is well beyond the reach of the average Californian.”
That is pushing growing numbers of workers — especially middle-income workers — to leave California for places where they may be better able to buy a house, Levine says.
A new analysis of federal data by the Atlantic CityLab and Arizona State University found that workers in the San Jose metro area bring home real average wages — or the money left over after factoring in costs of living — of $75,288 per year. That compares to $64,321 in Stamford, Connecticut, $60,562 in San Francisco and wages in the $55,000-range in affluent sections of Maryland, North Carolina and Texas.
Experts say the high numbers point to forces that continue to push people out of the city, including pricey housing and poor impressions of the public schools. Workers who make more money are much more likely to live in Los Angeles than those with lower incomes, the analysis shows. Nearly 48% of the highest-paid employees live in the city, compared with 20% of the lowest-paid.
That’s according to the results of a new poll released today showing that 79 percent of residents believe the region is facing dire straits regarding home prices. And more than 7 of 10 people surveyed said the region’s traffic congestion is a catastrophe.
One of the core barriers to economic prosperity in California is the price of housing. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Policies designed to stifle the ability to develop land are based on flawed premises. These policies prevail because they are backed by environmentalists, and, most importantly, because they have played into the agenda of crony capitalists, Wall Street financiers, and public sector unions. But while the elites have benefit, ordinary working families have been condemned to pay extreme prices in mortgages, property taxes, or rents, to live in confined, unhealthy, ultra high-density neighborhoods. . . Earlier this month an economist writing for the American Enterprise Institute, Mark J. Perry, published a chart proving that over the past four years, more new homes were built in one city, Houston Texas, than in the entire state of California.
Economists, real-estate agents and many home builders expected first-time and entry-level buyers to begin returning to the market this year, jump-starting the sputtering housing recovery. So far, that hasn’t happened.
There is little doubt that the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) is well meaning in his effort. But well meaning is not the same as effective—and this bill, unfortunately, will not be remotely successful in dealing with the state’s affordable housing problem. It’s a shame California lawmakers can’t or won’t support meaningful reforms—primarily altering the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—instead of offering more band-aids.
An analysis released this week by real estate site Trulia defines “middle class” in the San Jose metro area as a household earning $94,077 annually — more than double the median income in Miami and $10,000 higher than the San Francisco metro area.
California renters must earn more than triple the minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment, underscoring a housing shortage throughout the state, a new report said.
Faced with a dearth of developable land, home builders across Southern California are cramming more houses into less space. Many are dispensing with the single-family homes that have defined the region’s development for half a century (Exhibit A: “The Brady Bunch”). In their place they are building somewhat smaller structures in the form of townhouses or pairs of homes that share one wall.
Home resales hit a near one-year low in November and new filings for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, putting a wrinkle in an otherwise brightening economic picture.