Slow-growth policies have indeed reduced suburban sprawl, but
there’s little doubt that they have also put upward pressure on
housing prices. So have the increasing costs of building permits,
environmental impact studies and a whole host of other
regulations now required of developers.
The housing market in the region and the rest of the state will
continue to be influenced by trends among the two largest
generations: baby-boomers and millennials. In simplest terms, the
boomers aren’t moving, and the millennials are – out of the state
– driven in part by high home prices in California,
said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the
California Association of Realtors.
In what they called another step to prevent evictions and
homelessness, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted
Tuesday to draft an ordinance that, if passed, will control rents
from rising at mobile home parks.
Three new studies commissioned by Next 10 — a San Francisco think
tank that focuses on quality of life in California — make a
powerful case that extreme housing costs threaten to make much of
the state like Malibu and Santa Barbara, where only the wealthy
can afford to live and most of the workers who support them have
long commutes from cheaper inland areas. The analyses — prepared
by Beacon Economics, a respected Los Angeles-based consultant —
make a powerful case that the focus of state anti-poverty efforts
should be bringing down housing costs.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors moved forward Tuesday
with a plan to establish rent controls at mobile home parks in
unincorporated areas.
The approved motion, written by Supervisors Janice Hahn and
Sheila Kuehl, gives county departments six months to amend the
county code and cap annual rent increases.
Three new studies show that although California has one of the
highest rates of job growth in the country, its cost of housing
and high-wage jobs could push lower earners out of the state as
they seek someplace more affordable.
The fire-ravaged Journey’s End mobile home park will not reopen,
but its owner is seeking to partner with a developer to build an
apartment complex on the north Santa Rosa property, residents
learned this weekend.
The family that owns the 13.5-acre site at Mendocino Avenue and
Fountaingrove Parkway is working with nonprofit Burbank Housing
to explore the feasibility of redeveloping the property into a
mixture of affordable and market-rate apartments, Burbank chief
executive officer Larry Florin said Sunday.
The problem with inclusionary policies and other coercive
approaches to housing, such as rent control ordinances, is that
while they may be politically gratifying, they divert attention
from the real problem of housing in California, which is that we
have way too little of it.
It has been a liberal dream for decades to undo parts or all of
Proposition 13, the seminal California initiative limiting the
property tax rate.
Is that fight finally coming to the ballot box this fall? A
coalition of civil rights and community organizations is expected
to begin collecting signatures later this month for a measure to
tax commercial properties at market value while leaving in place
the Proposition 13 protections for homeowners, a concept known as
“split roll.”
After garnering more than 100,000 signatures within the last
month, the initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing
Act — a 1995 state law that limits the scope of local rent
control ordinances — is likely to appear on November’s ballot.
The Costa-Hawkins Act prohibits cities from establishing rent
control on certain units, including single-family dwellings,
condominiums and housing built after 1995. It also has
a “vacancy decontrol” provision that allows rent to increase
after a tenant moves out.
California’s boom in high-wage jobs, such as those in the tech
sector, has shoved housing prices skyward and threatens to
squeeze low- and middle-income wage earners out of the Golden
State, a report released Wednesday warned.
In the often paycheck to paycheck world of mobile home living,
many homeowners lack proper title and registrations for their
dwellings.
Some may owe thousands of dollars in fines and fees. But the
state has opened up an amnesty program allowing mobile home
owners to register their trailers and waive back taxes.
New data has brought a new urgency to the souring fortunes of
California’s middle class. “Not only are Californians leaving the
state in large numbers, but the people heading for the exits are
disproportionately middle class working
families — the demographic backbone of American
society,” the American Interest recently noted.
Surrounded by legal threats on all sides, Mountain View’s Rental
Housing Committee on Monday backed away from plans to bring the
city’s mobile home residents under the aegis of rent control.
The decision was a reversal of last month’s meeting when rental
committee members acquiesced to the advice of their attorneys to
begin drafting new regulations for mobile homes.
During a marathon meeting Tuesday, the council approved a new
policy to encourage preserving the city’s 59 mobile home parks –
one of San Jose’s last affordable housing options amid soaring
rents — and setting guidelines for closing a park. The policy
also enhanced tenant protections, including giving residents a
fair price for their homes and relocation benefits, and specified
the City Council must approve closures.
In the face of ever-growing housing costs, the idea of
controlling rents through government mandate can seem appealing,
especially to those most desperate for some relief.
After all, what could be better than the promise of combating
rising housing costs by passing laws to limit rising housing
costs? It almost sounds magical.
Unfortunately for proponents, reality is not very accommodating
to proponents of rent control.
Rent control policies could actually be making income inequality
worse in gentrifying cities such as San Francisco, a new paper
from Stanford University researchers argues.
The working paper published by the National Bureau of
Economic Research says the laws intended to protect
certain tenants from rent hikes ended up spiking prices
through many other parts of San Francisco. This
follows other studies that have shown similar
consequences for rent control in cities including Los Angeles,
New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The housing crisis in California is spurring another round of
advocacy for rent control.
With rents having reached heights making even one bedroom
apartments unaffordable to many working residents, it seems like
a logical and workable solution.
That is, if you believe government regulation can solve housing
affordability issues and transcend market economics.
Abuses of the California Environmental Quality Act are
aggravating the state’s housing crisis, according to a recent
study by Los Angeles lawyers Holland & Knight.
With more than half of renters and over a third of homeowners
with mortgages in California cost-burdened by housing — spending
more than 30 percent of household incomes on housing — and many
forced to commute long distances to work in order to live in
affordable housing, California’s housing crisis has made life
difficult even for those with well-paying, professional jobs.
California state law bans local governments from imposing rent
control on any new apartment construction. The law — the
Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act — defines new construction as
dwellings with certificates of occupancy issued after Feb. 1,
1995.
Costa-Hawkins also prohibits regulating rents on single-family
dwellings and individually owned condominiums and
townhouses
Moves to repeal this law have appeared on two fronts: one in the
State Assembly, the other as an initiative to place the appeal on
the November 2018 ballot.
Bay Area cities are coming to realize what Ramirez already knows
— parking tickets won’t solve the problem of finding a place to
live. From Oakland to San Jose, officials are struggling to cope
with a growing influx of RV dwellers seeking a safe, permanent
place for the only homes they can afford.
“We’ve never seen it like this,” said Tom Myers, executive
director of Community Services Agency of Mountain View, where the
city averages more than three complaints a day about RV
communities. “We have to be prepared that this will be the new
normal for us. It’s a crisis.”
Proponents of making a dramatic change to California’s landmark
Proposition 13 property tax restrictions took their first step to
getting a measure on the November 2018 statewide ballot Friday.
The change would allow the state to charge higher property tax
rates on commercial and industrial properties, an effort known as
“split roll” because existing tax protections on homes would
remain in place.
Barely a year old, Mountain View’s experiment with rent control
has already faced a withering gauntlet of controversy and legal
scuffles. Now it’s being primed for a dramatic expansion.
On Dec. 4, the city’s Rental Housing Commission is scheduled to
consider expanding the Mountain View’s restrictions covering
apartment rents to encompass the city’s six mobile home parks.
The proposal could bring an estimated 1,100 more homes under the
aegis of the city’s new tenant protections.
More than 500,000 California families find their path to
affordable home ownership through the purchase of a mobile home
or manufactured home, but an estimated one-third lack proper
title and registration – putting each of those homeowners at
risk.
In an effort to encourage all mobile and manufactured homeowners
to secure proper title, the state is offering a limited-time
program that waives many back fees and taxes.
Debate about California’s housing crisis typically revolves
around low-income households. The rule of thumb is that people
shouldn’t spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
But more than 90 percent of California families earning less than
$35,000 per year spend more than 30 percent of their income on
housing.
This isn’t new; that percentage has been stubbornly high for
years. Nor is this an exclusively Californian problem — the
comparable figure for the United States overall is 83 percent.
When you take a right turn off Higuera Street and onto South
Street in San Luis Obispo, you’ll quickly come upon the Village
Mobile Home Park. What used to be dotted with dozens of 1950s
mobile homes and trailers is now being transformed into
energy-efficient manufactured homes, mobile homes, and one tiny
home.
For $1,100 a month, the 190 square foot house, which is
classified as a recreational vehicle, will give a tenant pretty
much everything an apartment could, with the addition of a yard
and two parking spaces. The only catch, it’s much smaller.
On Wednesday evening the Arcata City Council approved of a
redrafted mobile home park rent stabilization ordinance that can
be adopted at the next meeting if no further amendments are
requested.
The introduction of the ordinance passed with a 4-1 vote, with
Councilman Michael Winkler dissenting.
In an effort to try to keep people from being evicted from their
homes, the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to look into restoring
an expired ordinance that could control rising rents at mobile
home parks.
The motion, authored by supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl
will ask county departments to examine the feasibility of
such an ordinance, which could affect 102 mobile home parks in
unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. A report is due
back in 60 days.
Rent stabilization for mobile home parks may soon return to the
city.
The Vallejo City Council voted 6-0 during its Oct.10 meeting to
hold on first reading an ordinance which would protect those
living in mobile home parks from excessive rent increases.
To make the action final, the council must approve an ordinance
for a final time at a future meeting.Then 30 days after the final
vote, the ordinance becomes active.
Los Angeles County officials say rising rents and low vacancy
rates aren’t limited to rental apartments— the affordability
crisis is now hitting the region’s mobile home parks.
In response, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will consider
initial steps for regulating mobile home plot payments at their
meeting Tuesday. A proposal by Supervisor Janet Hahn would
instruct the county’s planning department to draft a rent control
ordinance for mobile home parks that fall on unincorporated land.
Nearly 21,000 families in the four-county Sacramento region, and
about a half-million across California, live in homes that are
theoretically mobile.
For many, buying a home that’s up on blocks is one of the last
opportunities for single-family homeownership in a state with
some of the highest housing costs in the nation.
“If you can buy outright, it’s an affordable option,” said
Michelle Hutson, who owns her double-wide mobile home in south
Sacramento but rents the land beneath it for less than an
apartment might cost.
The subject of reinstating Vallejo’s accidentally repealed mobile
home rent control ordinance is expected to come up for discussion
at the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday, and it can’t
come soon enough for many park residents.
“It has been brought to our attention that mobile home rents are
continually going up,” said a letter from the Coalition to the
Vallejo Mayor and council. Two local mobile home parks have
reportedly raised rents, and one, “sent out a letter on Sept. 30,
raising their rents a third time this year alone,” it says.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Thursday to prevent
landlords from threatening immigrant tenants with deportation,
measures he said were part of broader efforts by his
administration “to bolster resources and support for the
immigrant community.”
One proposal by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would
bar landlords from disclosing information about immigration
status in order to intimidate, harass or evict tenants without
following proper procedures. It also would allow immigrant
tenants to file civil claims against their landlords if they do.
Owning residential investment property is always a tricky
balancing act. You must offer competitive rents based on the free
market. If you price too high, your customer goes elsewhere, and
if you price too low, you’ll lose money.
Either way, a misstep is costly and dangerous. Even when done
right, the reward is typically smaller than most people would
expect. It’s not a business for the faint of heart.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–People who purchased a
mobilehome or manufactured home but didn’t receive the necessary
title to the property now have a chance to properly register
their homes with the new Fee and Tax Waiver Program – and avoid
paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars in state and local
taxes, fees and penalties.
More than half of California voters say the state’s housing
affordability crisis is so bad that they’ve considered moving,
and 60 percent of the electorate supports rent control, according
to a new statewide poll.
The findings from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies
reflect broad concerns Californians have over the soaring cost of
living. Amid an unprecedented housing shortage, rents have
skyrocketed and tenants have faced mass evictions, especially in
desirable areas.
Despite all the housing-related proposals in Sacramento,
lawmakers have apparently yet to learn that more government
involvement, making housing more expensive and less profitable,
is never going to solve the state’s housing affordability
problems.
Discussions of housing oftentimes tend to focus on single-family
developments or other types of housing for purchase, and neglect
rental properties, which is unfortunate, since rentals make up
nearly half of the housing stock in California.
Half the state’s households struggle to afford the roof over
their heads. Homeownership—once a staple of the California
dream—is at its lowest rate since World War II. Nearly 70 percent
of poor Californians see the majority of their paychecks go
immediately to escalating rents.
The California Energy Commission is bankrolling a plan
to bring renewable energy to a mobile home park near Bakersfield,
California. The money will allow for the installation of
solar panels and a battery storage system. The idea is to make
the technology available to communities that otherwise could not
afford it.
Having checked gas taxes and cap-and-trade off their 2017 agenda,
California political leaders will turn to the state’s housing
crisis after a month-long midsummer vacation.
During the last week of March, Apple reached a record market
value of $754 billion, Google tweaked a policy to protect its
$22-billion-a-quarter advertising business and Yahoo inched
toward closing a $4.83-billion sale. Meanwhile, Judy Pavlick
drove around her Sunnyvale, Calif., mobile home park collecting
plastic bottles and empty drink cans to save her future.
By: The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial BoardApril 4, 2017
The headlines about California’s housing crisis just keep coming,
and the news is always grim. Last week, Bankrate.com reported the
Golden State was the worst in the nation for first-time
homebuyers, with the lowest percentage of homes available for
sale and mortgage costs nearly double the U.S. average.
Bankrate’s analysis pointed out that high rents compounded
California’s home-affordability problem by making it difficult
for families to save up for down-payments.
Santa Clarita’s community of mobile home park residents and
mobile home park owners gathered for two meetings to weigh in on
changes being made to the city’s municipal code.
Owners of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto and the
Housing Authority of Santa Clara County continue to negotiate
three months after the housing agency submitted a $36
million written offer in December to buy the property.
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By: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARDMarch 15, 2017
Without changes in public attitudes toward homebuilding, it will
be difficult for California to pull itself from its housing
crisis. That’s the takeaway message from a new report from
California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office titled, “Do
Communities Adequately Plan for Housing?”
OAKLAND — A nearly two-year effort to strike a balance
between unincorporated Alameda County mobile home park owners and
renters may be coming to an end soon after county
supervisors lowered the allowed annual rent increases at mobile
home parks, but removed some restrictions on when rents could be
raised.
Measure V was a voter initiative drafted by a group of mobile
home park residents. Blanck said the county reviewed the
initiative and found that it complied with current laws. The
measure only regulates rent increases at mobile home parks with
ten or more spaces in unincorporated areas, of which there are
more than 40 in the county.
By: Jacqueline Lee Published: January 11, 2017 at 10:04 pm
The city of Palo Alto will appeal a judge’s order reversing the
City Council’s decision in 2015 to allow property owners to close
the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park.
The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has
adopted Chapter 31B, Public Swimming Pools, of the California
Building Code (California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Part 2
[California Building Code, chapter 31B]) which provides standards
for the installation, renovation, alteration, addition,
relocation, and replacement of a public swimming pool or its
ancillary facilities, mechanical equipment, and related piping.
Specifically, HCD announced acceptance of the amendments into
Title 24 on June 1, 2022, in INFORMATION BULLETIN 2022-03.
California’s housing affordability challenges remain daunting and
continue to increase, according to a draft report from
the state’s Department of Housing and Community
Development released Tuesday.
By KERRY JACKSON / Contributing writerPublished: Dec. 31, 2016 Updated: 7:58 p.m.
Type “California housing crisis” into a web search engine and the
results come gushing out. Dozens of stories from just the past
year highlight a crunch that’s “way past a problem,” a
“middle-class” disaster, “drowning renters” and “California’s
most pressing challenge.” We’re living through a complete
turnaround from the 1970s boom, when one new housing unit was
built for less than every two newcomers.
By JOHN PHILLIPS / Staff columnistDec. 22, 2016 Updated Dec. 23, 2016 7:59 a.m.
As a lifelong resident of California, I grew up believing
wholeheartedly in the California dream — the idea that one day,
my friends and I would be able to own our slice of paradise right
here in the Golden State. Little did I know that because of the
sky-high cost of housing, the only real estate most of us can
afford are the Styrofoam missions we glued together in the fourth
grade.
By: JACQUELINE LEEPUBLISHED: December 21, 2016 at 6:49 pm | UPDATED: December 22, 2016 at 7:17 am
PALO ALTO — Residents of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in
Palo Alto are celebrating two victories this week.
The mobile home park, which has been in danger of closing for the
past four years, will stay open for now because of a Santa
Clara County Superior Court judge’s decision.
by Sue Dremann / Palo Alto WeeklyUploaded: Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 8:55 pm
Buena Vista Mobile Home Park residents received a hopeful
pre-holiday present from the Housing Authority of the County of
Santa Clara on Tuesday when its board of directors unanimously
agreed to seek acquisition of the mobile-home park during a
closed session meeting.
by Kevin Forestieri / Mountain View VoiceUploaded: Fri, Dec 9, 2016, 3:31 pm
A coalition of elected leaders from all nine Bay Area counties
agreed to an ambitious new vision for regional growth in the
coming decades, calling for a more balanced mix of jobs and
housing that curbs displacement, explosive cost-of-living
increases and long hours stuck in traffic jams.
By JEFF COLLINS / STAFF WRITERPublished: Nov. 30, 2016 Updated: Dec. 4, 2016 10:34 p.m.
How can California increase the number of homes that people can
afford?
By giving more money to cities that build sufficient affordable
housing, some said at a recent housing summit in Los Angeles. Or
cutting off funding to those that don’t.
Pending state certification, the passage of Measure V has some
advocates looking to expand its limits on annual mobile home rent
increases to the county’s incorporated cities, while mobile home
park owners have expressed uncertainty and concern.
Initial reports from the Humboldt County Elections Office showed
voters in Humboldt County on Tuesday approved Measure V by a 9
percent margin to enact rent control at mobile home parks in
unincorporated parts of the county, regulating rental increases
for spaces at mobile home parks.
The issue of rent control – long dormant in the Bay Area – was
back on ballots Tuesday as rents continue to rise in an an
increasingly competitive regional housing market.
Affordable housing is one of the most important issues facing
Sonoma County employers, workers, leaders and citizens. With our
great weather, easy access to recreation and other quality
lifestyle amenities, Sonoma County is a highly desirable place to
live and has been for some time, yet it is not an easy place to
afford to live.
A prominent Measure V supporter who had been at the forefront of
the campaign confirmed on Monday that she had sent an email
earlier this year offering to drop out of the movement to
establish rent control at mobile home parks in unincorporated
Humboldt County in exchange for the purchase of a $100,000
double-wide by her park’s owners.
The final SAFE Act regulations appear to exempt seller carry back
loans if the individual is not engaged in the “business” of a
Mortgage Loan Originator. In the appendix, page 146, (b) the
regulations say:
Not Engaged in the Business of a Mortgage Loan
Originator. The following examples illustrate when an
individual generally does not “engage in the business of loan
originator”:
When first asked by the Union whether she had written
an email that smacked of extortion, the former head of the Yes on
Measure V campaign flatly denied doing so, stating, “No! No! No!
I don’t know how else to say that word – wait; nien, nay, non,
nyet.”
This seminar will focus on changes to the Mobilehome Residency
Law (MRL), as well as other changes in state law and regulations,
and how these changes will affect community operations in 2017.
We will also review portions of the MRL. Six units of MCM credit
can be earned upon a passing grade on the exam administered at
the end of the seminar. Seminar hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m. Lunch is included. All details can be found on our website
at www.wma.org. Register now!
In an effort to educate public policymakers on how mobilehome
parks operate and how the misapplication of rent control has
contributed to California’s housing crisis, the Western
Manufactured Housing Communities Association (WMA) has launched a
statewide public education campaign.
In an effort to educate public policymakers on how mobilehome
parks operate and how the misapplication of rent control has
contributed to California’s housing crisis, the Western
Manufactured Housing Communities Association (WMA) has launched a
statewide public education campaign.
Codes and Standards is undergoing a system upgrade and continues
to be offline as of October 25th.
All Codes and Standards Permit offices and Registration and
Titling offices should be contacted directly to ask about their
ability to process paperwork and credit card payments.
By: The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial BoardSeptember 23, 2016, 6:00am
The biggest problem facing California is housing affordability.
Rent and home prices are so high that middle-income and
low-income households alike often struggle to pay for shelter. In
metro Los Angeles, one-fourth of households spends at least
half their income on housing. As understood by Gov. Jerry
Brown and anyone familiar with how free markets work, the best,
most decisive and longest-lasting solution to this problem is to
add housing stock.
To be honest, I had some negative reactions myself when I first
considered Rancho Benicia. I thought about my friends in Moraga,
Walnut Creek, San Francisco and Idaho and felt some misgivings
about what they’d say. Good friends of mine, who had lived near
me in the condo, moved to Rancho Benicia last year. They worked
with an interior designer, and had the entire inside redone in
their style. It’s lovely. They refer to their place as a
“tindominimum.”
Rents in California are 50 percent above the national average.
The cost of a new home is 2.5 times what it is elsewhere in the
U.S. And the chances of being “house poor” are significantly
higher here than in any other state in the country.
