Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 05:49 PM Mar 2016

High Housing Costs Are Driving Californians Out in Droves

http://la.curbed.com/2016/3/4/11161626/california-housing-costs-migration

Angelenos and San Franciscans know their housing is insanely expensive, but California on the whole has some of the most expensive housing in the US, and that's driving many poor and middle-class Californians out, says a new report from Beacon Economics and released by Next 10, a nonprofit group founded by Bay Area venture capitalist F. Noel Perry (via the San Gabriel Valley Tribune). In the years between 2007 and 2014, "625,000 more people moved out of California to other states than moved into California from other states."

Beacon says that a closer look at who is leaving California—their income, education, jobs—suggests that expensive housing costs are a far more likely explanation for out-migration than, say, the commonly complained-about taxes, which would be more likely to drive out the rich. Housing costs have been blamed for pushing lower-income people out of the state before, and a companion report from Beacon shows how unrealistically expensive the market has come in California; it now has a severe housing shortage and the second lowest homeownership rates in the country.

Who are these migrants? &quot T)he majority of out migration can be attributed to residents who earn less than $30,000," Beacon says, and a huge chunk of those people leaving—192,700 over the seven-year period—are in "lower-skilled, lower-paying" fields, meaning something like food preparation, transportation, or office administration—jobs that are pretty essential to any state....

And that's the kind of problem that this housing-migration relationship can cause. "California has an employment boom with a housing problem," a founding partner with Beacon Economics tells the SGVT. "The state continues to offer great employment opportunities for all kinds of workers, but housing affordability and supply represent a significant problem." And that's obviously become unsustainable.
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Cleita

(75,480 posts)
3. What's even more third world like is, in my area here on the Central Coast, a large percentage of
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 05:54 PM
Mar 2016

homes are not owned by people who work and live here, but out of town, even out of the country wealthy people who either use them as vacation homes, or who rent them to vacationers. Yet we have a huge homeless encampment along one of our creeks to the beach of several thousand people, many who are working poor. Something is certainly not right here.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
4. Who they gonna call to wash their floors, do their laundry, cook their meals, care for their kids?
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 05:55 PM
Mar 2016

None of the po' folks who do that work will be within commuting distance!

The rich will be stuck holding a can opener and a can, and crying!

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
5. Wel, the rich don't really care, they can buy undocumented immigrants on the black market
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 06:16 PM
Mar 2016

The people who will be hurt the most are the ones right out of school and going for that glamour job that will head their resume for the rest of their lives. The glam job requires them to work 14-16 hour days and with no one to cook restaurant food for them or drive the trains to work or provide any daily services at all, they're going to be in a world of hurt, sleep deprived and malnourished.

The real problem is that the rich are buying up housing as investment. That housing sits empty, turning a city into a ghost town of glitzy, unoccupied apartment towers. Those towers were built on what used to be residential areas housing not only marginal workers, but mid to upper level workers.

Cities like Vancouver, London, San Francisco, and even Dubai are going to start to need laws against absentee owners, especially foreign absentee owners, if they want to survive.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
7. They still gotta give them a place to lay their heads. Your immigration status doesn't matter if
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 07:03 PM
Mar 2016

you can't afford to live where services are needed.

Hell, a lot of these new businesses that rely on twenty-something labor have all-day snacks, nap couches, and stuff like that. They might as well just build a dorm and let people live "on campus."

I have a young relative who did a couple of internships (paid, mind you--they have to do that now) in a pair of those sorts of places. He got fat as hell with all the snacks until he started walking to-and-fro instead of taking the T.

What they should do is put a heavy tax surcharge on unoccupied apartments that aren't being offered for rent at a reasonable price. That'll slow the roll a bit. Then take that surcharge and use it to provide affordable housing.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
8. The rich have live in household staff
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 07:07 PM
Mar 2016

Easier to control and nice to have on call 24/7.

What's "affordable rent?" Who gets to define it? Hint: it won't be the people who have to pay it.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
9. I always thought the definition was that the UPPER limit of the rental cost should not exceed
Fri Mar 4, 2016, 07:14 PM
Mar 2016

25 percent of your TAKE HOME salary. Other costs, like electric, heat, and so forth, should not bump the total past 33 percent of that take home salary.

That's pretty much how most agencies that pay a housing allowance/COLA play the numbers.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
12. When they say that they mean that people are overextending themselves if they are spending
Sat Mar 5, 2016, 03:12 PM
Mar 2016

more than a quarter of their income on rent.

Don't kid yourself that its going to get better, it wont, unless they start building more housing - which will effect demand and address the shortage. But the WTO precludes that being done by public entities now so the chance of that changing is slim.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
11. tax on unoccupied apartments would work in some places
Sat Mar 5, 2016, 03:02 PM
Mar 2016

But not in San francisco.. there are very few unoccupied apartments in SF.

 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
13. An obscene number of apartments in SF are being used as AirBnB rentals.
Sat Mar 5, 2016, 03:36 PM
Mar 2016

They put big buck$$$ into defeating a ballot initiative that would have addressed that.

Response to KamaAina (Original post)

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»California»High Housing Costs Are Dr...