<story><title>California should emulate Tokyo, where housing stayed ahead of population growth</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-14/california-affordable-housing-is-no-mystery-just-build-more</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nimbius</author><text>Here in Los Angeles we have some of the most overvalued real estate in America.  a bungalow in the city can go for millions, and is often torn down and replaced by a gleaming white McMansion because renovation is slower and costlier than filing new papers with the city.  We cant just build more housing because traditional neighborhoods will fight to the death in courts to prevent multi family housing from devaluing their property or worse, competing for their rental income.  The large apartment complexes that do get built are divided between anyone who can affort 10k a month in rent and fees, and &amp;quot;lower income&amp;quot; applicants who pay a fraction of this but are also held to strict terms and conditions.  You wind up with millionaires and single moms living in beachfront Santa Monica communities, while anyone with a regular office job often commutes 40-70 miles in from the valley.  Its often said you dont quit your job in LA, you quit your commute.&lt;p&gt;new apartments built are not priced affordably because banks and investors want their interest back quickly and have promised surrounding neighborhoods they will price accordingly to keep out the riff raff.  in turn, dilapidated apartment complexes from the 60&amp;#x27;s go for about the same rates because these property owners know there is no &amp;quot;better offer&amp;quot; in town.&lt;p&gt;this doesnt even cover the 73,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county we cant seem to find a place for because no beach city wants to house their own unsustainable numbers of homeless, and no desert community is within a radius of health and welfare services required by many transients.&lt;p&gt;Then there are the haters.  people like the Aids Healthcare Foundation who ran a 6 month campaign to defeat city legislation for new affordable housing.  Why? Mike Weinstein doesnt want any development to obstruct the view from his penthouse.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;lanow&amp;#x2F;la-me-ln-aids-foundation-political-spending-20170221-story.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;lanow&amp;#x2F;la-me-ln-aids-foundation-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My husband and I live in LA and love it.  but honestly, its bittersweet.  We will never truly own anything more than a latte here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JBlue42</author><text>&amp;gt;this doesnt even cover the 73,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county we cant seem to find a place for because no beach city wants to house their own unsustainable numbers of homeless, and no desert community is within a radius of health and welfare services required by many transients.&lt;p&gt;Wasn&amp;#x27;t there a pledge to spend over $100 million on this issue last year? Not to mention a new tax w&amp;#x2F; HHH.&lt;p&gt;But yeah, LA is bittersweet. Great weather and lots to do but the lack of a true center, unaffordable housing, and the slow, expensive build out of public transit leaves a lot to be desired.&lt;p&gt;At my age, I don&amp;#x27;t care so much about housing in my current situation (to be honest, given the schools here, I would go elsewhere), I would just like half my income not to go to rent (this is in a rent stabilized building - my recent bout of unemployment would&amp;#x27;ve seen me joining the other flood of folks leaving since it wouldn&amp;#x27;t have covered market rate rent).</text></comment>
<story><title>California should emulate Tokyo, where housing stayed ahead of population growth</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-14/california-affordable-housing-is-no-mystery-just-build-more</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nimbius</author><text>Here in Los Angeles we have some of the most overvalued real estate in America.  a bungalow in the city can go for millions, and is often torn down and replaced by a gleaming white McMansion because renovation is slower and costlier than filing new papers with the city.  We cant just build more housing because traditional neighborhoods will fight to the death in courts to prevent multi family housing from devaluing their property or worse, competing for their rental income.  The large apartment complexes that do get built are divided between anyone who can affort 10k a month in rent and fees, and &amp;quot;lower income&amp;quot; applicants who pay a fraction of this but are also held to strict terms and conditions.  You wind up with millionaires and single moms living in beachfront Santa Monica communities, while anyone with a regular office job often commutes 40-70 miles in from the valley.  Its often said you dont quit your job in LA, you quit your commute.&lt;p&gt;new apartments built are not priced affordably because banks and investors want their interest back quickly and have promised surrounding neighborhoods they will price accordingly to keep out the riff raff.  in turn, dilapidated apartment complexes from the 60&amp;#x27;s go for about the same rates because these property owners know there is no &amp;quot;better offer&amp;quot; in town.&lt;p&gt;this doesnt even cover the 73,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county we cant seem to find a place for because no beach city wants to house their own unsustainable numbers of homeless, and no desert community is within a radius of health and welfare services required by many transients.&lt;p&gt;Then there are the haters.  people like the Aids Healthcare Foundation who ran a 6 month campaign to defeat city legislation for new affordable housing.  Why? Mike Weinstein doesnt want any development to obstruct the view from his penthouse.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;lanow&amp;#x2F;la-me-ln-aids-foundation-political-spending-20170221-story.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;lanow&amp;#x2F;la-me-ln-aids-foundation-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My husband and I live in LA and love it.  but honestly, its bittersweet.  We will never truly own anything more than a latte here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jayd16</author><text>The last paragraph is interesting.  If we get more multi-family homes in LA, that&amp;#x27;s still not something to own.  I guess single family homes could all turn into condominiums, as long as that counts as true ownership.</text></comment>