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Equity and options along with Chinese money are driving the market; salaries pay the taxes and the light bill.
But the municipalities and schools still need workers. And there is going to be immense pressure against taking Police or Teachers up enough to make the area livable.
And that has to drive taxes out of sight...but that is going to be tough in Prop 13 land.
And then people in CA wonder why their taxes are so high.....
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PALO ALTO (CBS SF) — Palo Alto is seeking housing solutions for residents who are not among the region’s super-rich, but who also earn more than the threshold to qualify for affordable housing programs.
The city council has unanimously passed a housing plan that would essentially subsidize new housing for what qualifies as middle-class nowadays, families making from $150,000 to $250,000 a year.
Are you saying a family of four making $150K to $250K a year cannot rent a place and live without support of the government?
I live in a place that 3 years ago if you could find a place to rent, it would be insanely expensive (3 bedrooms would typically cost $4-5k). Even now things are still expensive and yet if you make a middle class income you can barely survive.
And then people in CA wonder why their taxes are so high.....
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PALO ALTO (CBS SF) — Palo Alto is seeking housing solutions for residents who are not among the region’s super-rich, but who also earn more than the threshold to qualify for affordable housing programs.
The city council has unanimously passed a housing plan that would essentially subsidize new housing for what qualifies as middle-class nowadays, families making from $150,000 to $250,000 a year.
That real estate agent makes my skin crawl, especially at the end of the video.
My heart hurts for that lady who has to get up at 5:00 AM every morning and has a 4 hour commute back home at night where she doesn't get home until 8:00 PM. What kind of a life is that?
I am shocked that UC Berkeley is predicting that the exodus from California isn't even halfway over yet. I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was that bad.
But the worst part of the situation is all the homes snapped up by Chinese investors that just sit empty. Meanwhile, people who grew up there are being displaced and forced to leave. There is something seriously, seriously disturbing about that.
"Some of the small two-bedroom, one-bath homes on her block are worth between $1.5 and $2 million – as teardowns. That’s just what the dirt is worth.
“Prices have just gone through the roof, making it unaffordable for middle-class people, your firefighters, your teachers, and, frankly, some of your doctors,” Palo Alto Vice Mayor Greg Scharff said."
Are they unable to move to any place else in the world?
They better at least be able to afford the land... giving away houses at discount prices just drives up the price of them and basically hands out select people free money for no good reason. Let the free market dictate what they can afford. If they can't afford southern CA, they should move. It's a big country.
As someone who works and earns a middle class income it irks me to think that government thinks people are entitled to substantial discounts on real estate because they are "low wage earners" .. it's one thing letting them have subsidized rent, but they shouldn't be able to massively profit from the deal, and should have to give any profits from the home's sale, back to the government.
Exactly, it just raises the prices for everyone else.
I keep seeing people post, "Well, they can just move!" And that's the point. The state needs to subsidize the typical middle class worker (teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, firemen, dog catchers, small business owners) in order to keep them in the area.
It's always amazing to me that people really have no idea how bad things are in the whole Bay Area. A friend who just a few years out of college has already founded and sold a company and was doing well at a startup in NYC (well enough to afford a studio at 25 in the Village) recently took a job at Facebook. Despite getting a huge raise, he's now living in one of those homes you see on TV that has been converted into basically a techie barrack. He pays over $1000 a month to share a bedroom with someone else in a house with 12 people and 3 bathrooms. For him, that experience at Facebook is worth it so he can turn around and leverage those connections a few years down the line back east. Or, like every Silicon Valley dreamer, he hopes to use the connection to the VC boom in SF to start another company. There's nowhere in the country - or the world - like SF for those connections. You just can't make the comparison. You don't find the best and the brightest in the industry in Indianapolis or Omaha.
But that said, for every rising tech star there are 50 people making more average incomes serving coffee, answering phones, delivering office supplies, sorting mail, teaching kids, cutting hair, etc. The state can't demand a salary freeze or put a cap on housing costs, so it props up a growing class of middle-class-anywhere-but-the-Bay-Area so the whole thing doesn't implode.
It's a shame those early tech companies didn't evolve in an area that was already densely populated with more mountains and bays than buildable land. Like other expensive metropolitan areas (NYC, Boston) they are much more limited in where they can build housing, leaving a perpetual shortage.
And then people in CA wonder why their taxes are so high.....
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PALO ALTO (CBS SF) — Palo Alto is seeking housing solutions for residents who are not among the region’s super-rich, but who also earn more than the threshold to qualify for affordable housing programs.
The city council has unanimously passed a housing plan that would essentially subsidize new housing for what qualifies as middle-class nowadays, families making from $150,000 to $250,000 a year.
My heart hurts for that lady who has to get up at 5:00 AM every morning and has a 4 hour commute back home at night where she doesn't get home until 8:00 PM. What kind of a life is that? .
That's not a good life. She should move. There are better options.
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