4 ms·
I wouldn't say Californians love expensive housing. They love the speculative market which draws a good investment on their prior investment. Problem is it inev
by tumbleweeds 6y ago
I wouldn't say Californians love expensive housing. They love the speculative market which draws a good investment on their prior investment. Problem is it inevitably squeezes out all those people who cannot to pay market rate. Not for a house or an apartment. Where do they go? Suburbs nearest are already full, the periphery between aren't too far from being the next redeveloped arras. Some resort to commuting 2-3 hours each way since they can at least buy a cheaper home hours away and not infinitely pay rising rent. They do build "cheaper" houses in the exurbs so that helps some but the vacancies are filled by all others chasing the California lifestyle even if only temporary.
One point to add is that it's pretty expensive to build in California. Even to fix an old house could incur 20-25% more due to retrofitting for earthquakes. Getting land and whatever property isn't cheap on top of doing anything further to it. I'm in the field and started wanting to do affordable housing but the pace at which it all moves is pushing me towards other paths. Say 3-5 years for 1,200 new units to get through various agencies and built on time, most of which are not meant to be affordable units. Can people put their struggles on pause in hopes of being lucky this round? Much as may be said to signal virtue, there is an obvious informal aversion living next to poor people.
What made me laugh was when the City of Los Angeles was building those homeless shelters and still charging city fees. Way of the system, ok, but why would the city need to charge itself permitting fees? I feel there's a huge indifference to put only a facade of trying but at least it produces a few units at an astronomical cost to taxpayers. The are already paying for an annual budget half-owned by the police. Relevant point because a lot of cops and city workers don' live in the city either. They take their income and their future pensions elsewhere and the residents paying for these services get so little of those tremendous salaries reinvested back in their own communities.
Greed will always be here. I don't see it changing either unfortunately.