Voters and elected officials adopt policies on assurances of beneficial impacts, but they often interact with other decrees to produce what are called “unintended consequences.” Redevelopment has been a classic example for nearly seven decades, and it may be on the verge of another twist. Redevelopment, authorized in the early 1950s, was aimed at encouraging […]
The cost of renting a home or apartment in Los Angeles and Orange counties has skyrocketed 5.8 percent in the last year. The latest rent hike is the highest since 2005 and has increased at the fastest pace in 14 years, according to the Consumer Price Index calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. […]
Sacramento’s push for more rental housing downtown just got a solid boost. A Washington state developer on Wednesday launched construction of the first of an expected 436 apartments in two mid-rise structures at Sacramento Commons, a residential site tucked a few blocks southwest of the state Capitol. The project will contain the most units of […]
Mario Canel met his wife inside the apartment where he’s lived for the last 33 years. Canel, a house painter, was at the Silver Lake complex off of Sunset Boulevard on a job, but he and his customer quickly connected over their shared Guatemalan roots. It wasn’t long before Mario and Sabina married, and her […]
There was a jarring reality check in the Legislature last week for interest groups plotting to change Proposition 13 and raise property taxes on major businesses. The reality is that raising any taxes will be very hard to sell voters. The plotters are led by some powerful public employee unions, including those representing teachers and […]
Bernie Sanders is coming to downtown Sacramento and not just any old spot in the heart of the capital city. Sanders is coming to Cesar Chavez Plaza on Thursday evening. Directly across from City Hall, Chavez Plaza is the home office of homelessness in the urban core of the capital of California. It’s where California […]
Sales of new U.S. homes fell a steep 12.8% in July, but the drop came after revisions to June sales showed the sales highest growth in 12 years. The Commerce Department said Friday that new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000 units. That’s down from a sharply revised upward rate of […]
It’s ironic that the site of a longtime fast food restaurant — where predictable food was served with predictable haste — has become an emblem of City Hall’s incredible slowness and indecision. The McDonald’s that stood at Haight and Stanyan streets for five decades attracted violent crime and open-air drug sales, and it had to […]
If it seems like it takes longer to get around Sacramento than it used to, it’s not just your imagination. The latest urban mobility report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute showed Sacramento-area residents had the 22nd-worst commute delays in the country, losing 59 hours in 2017 stuck in traffic. Since 1982, the amount of […]
In California, Schools & Communities First announced that it would file a new version of an initiative to require commercial and industrial properties, except those zoned as commercial agriculture, to be taxed based on their market value. Currently, Proposition 13 (1978) requires the taxable value of residential, commercial, and industrial properties to be based on […]
Our real estate market has been so good for so long that the recent slowdown in home sales and price dip has caught many sellers and a few agents by surprise. Buyers are always the first to sense when the market is changing. That’s likely because they are constantly on the internet searching for homes […]
Home builders are pulling back from new construction, the opposite of what economists say is needed to ease California’s housing affordability crisis. In the first six months of 2019, builders gained approval for 51,178 new homes in California, nearly 20% fewer than the same period a year earlier. That puts the state on track for […]
U.S. mortgage rates have tumbled to their lowest level in nearly three years, but they are unlikely to provide much of a lift to the sluggish home-sales market. Economists said the rates could provide a modest boost to sales during the final months of this year, though few expect cheaper borrowing costs to reverse the […]
It’s on: California business leaders Monday are kicking off a statewide effort to defend the landmark 1978 property tax measure Prop. 13 from an already-qualified 2020 “split roll” ballot measure that aims to revise it. The California Business Roundtable has launched FightforProp13.org, a campaign that executive director Rob Lapsley tells POLITICO will begin this week […]
Most of us learned the dangers of making political predictions about 31 months ago. But it’s still pretty hard to resist. So with the prospect of a major battle over Proposition 13 looming on next year’s general election ballot, the likely combatants on both sides of the split roll fight are sifting through the results […]