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Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

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Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#191

Post by drwl »

SilasX wrote: post #161
ChuckMcM wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW that is the wrong question. People are opposed to change. So Sunnyvale has been building a number of apartment buildings and condos around. There has been tremendous back pressure for existing residents (not me but I'm a rarity it seems). The root of their concern is that they don't want the neighborhood experience to change from what they know (or knew) to something they don't know. I talked to some folks who h…

What confuses me the most is that, for these "change-hating" residents, this "undesirable neighborhood transition" comes right alongside a standing offer of millions of dollars to move a little further away, due to increased home value. Maybe I haven't passed that critical milestone, but I can't think of a scenario where I'd complain if my neighborhood decay came with such a surge in net worth? (not trying to be sarc…

> 2) ROI isn't the most important thing about a home.

This is what someone replied earlier. For some ROI is the most important thing. For someone who lives in the suburbs I can say that for me it isn't the most important thing.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#192

Post by Hydraulix989 »

xenadu02 wrote: post #113

Very few people bother to vote in non-presidential elections. I keep hammering this point to anyone I meet in the startup scene here in SF. If just 1% of you reading this right now (who live in SF) bothered to vote on a pro-housing basis, we'd immediately turn into a huge voting bloc that could not be ignored. You should shame your coworkers and remind people in slack channels too. A few thousand NIMBYs currently con…

Maybe you could make a website with step-by-step pictorial instructions including what to vote for? It could get a lot of traction.

I'm not lazy, just insanely busy.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#193

Post by beachstartup »

mtviewdave wrote: post #163
beachstartup wrote: post #6

i went to school with a lot of wealthy kids from the bay area. they and their families simply do not want to develop the area any further, in order to keep housing as high as possible and the area exclusive as possible. in private conversation they talk about it openly. personally i don't think it's much more complicated than that.

I grew up in the San Jose and live in Mountain View. I have never heard anyone in the Bay Area express this opinion, nor do I hold it myself. Moreover, I am a homeowner, and have voted pro-housing in every election where it was an issue, and expressed a strong pro-housing opinion in every survey the city has offered.

these kids are from places like woodside and atherton.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#194

Post by hx87 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #158
ryfm wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i mentioned it because i have an anecdotical evidence right now - a friend of mine is fighting with his HOA trying to replace windows in his appartments. The only solution he came up by today is to become a part of HOA committee and then change the rules they have. i have another solution in mind - to stay away from HOA in the first place. i bet they can be soundproof but what i see here is that the builders are tryi…

I suspect that they aren't objecting to the sound proofing itself, but an architectural change of using a different style of windows than the rest of the units.

That's my suspicion too--the most airtight and thus soundproof windows are casements, which are common in continental Europe but less so in Anglophone countries where sash windows dominate, and HOAs (as well as historical preservation committees--the bane of energy efficient retrofits everywhere) often take a dim view of replacing the latter with the former.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#195

Post by hx87 »

ryfm wrote: post #127
hx87 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time imagining HOA/condo rules working against soundproofing--if anything they'd be thrilled about it if you were willing to put in the money, since it improves the value of the property and community. Yeah, renters are out of luck, but too many landowners are too short-sighted to improve their properties and increase rent to capture the additional value. BTW, wooden frames can be very soundproof, as lo…

i mentioned it because i have an anecdotical evidence right now - a friend of mine is fighting with his HOA trying to replace windows in his appartments. The only solution he came up by today is to become a part of HOA committee and then change the rules they have. i have another solution in mind - to stay away from HOA in the first place. i bet they can be soundproof but what i see here is that the builders are tryi…

Once you move in, you can always save up for a year or two, rip out the drywall, put in some insulation and remount the drywall on resilient channels. Windows generally aren't a problem since even the crappiest code-minimum windows are pretty good these days. Floors are a challenge though, unless you can convince downstairs neighbors to put in some insulation or just straight up pay for it yourself.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#196

Post by hx87 »

sokoloff wrote: post #150
hx87 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in an RV, but ~0% of my social life takes place at home. I just sleep there.

Suppose you want to bring a date home and have sex. What's been the typical reaction to the "van down by the river"?

Rent a hotel room?

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#197

Post by hx87 »

shostack wrote: post #175
johan_larson wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really curious to see what happens in the long game as the families who inherit homes that were locked into old tax levels are forced to sell as they can't pass them on to a second generation without the tax rate resetting. That game has already been played. Transfers between generations do not cause reassessment. http://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/faqs/propositions58.htm#1 Congratulations, California voters. You made…

Wow, that's crazy. I knew there was an exclusion of reassessment for initial transfer between parents and children (or grandparents and grandchildren in the event of deceased parents) but I didn't realize it just continued in perpetuity down the generational line. My original understanding was that the home could be transferred without triggering the reset in this manner once, and then subsequent times caused a reset…

Strategic marriages just got a whole lot more attractive in California.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#198

Post by ChuckMcM »

drwl wrote: post #189
ChuckMcM wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple of things at play of course. Apartment ownership pays parcel taxes just like single family home owners. However 1/3 of the budget is tax revenue. Of the taxes, the two big heavy hitters are property tax (16%) and sales tax (9%) of the total revenue[1]. More people, more business transacted, more revenue. As revenue increases, city services can be expanded. Schools on the other hands are basically c…

Fremont isn't the only town/city in SV and not all school districts in SV are crooked. Also, you didn't really address one of the big concerns the parent commented pointed out, that is new dwellings would be a DoS on current infrastructure for most places. It's not like you can get that infrastructure in time for it.

Oddly enough the "Fremont Union High School District"[1] is only high schools in the Sunnyvale/Cupertino area. The town of Fremont has a different school district. That said, I realize that new housing would impact schools, especially if people have kids. So far the number of new families who actually have kids that have been moving in seems to be a relatively small ratio (lots of couples who are both working and don't have kids). Its a good question to ask the city manager though. They probably have a handle on what the numbers look like.

[1] http://www.fuhsd.org/

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#199

Post by codemac »

flubert wrote: post #154
codemac wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who bought their houses 30+ years ago I really feel for. The change the area is experiencing is brutal, and imagine if everyone just kept asking you why you don't sell and move away from the very place you built? It's futile for them to fight things, and honestly it ruins a lot of people's lives that they do. However I completely understand why they would push back on density, most people don't have to dea…

>it ruins a lot of people's lives that they do. Honest question. How does Party A, living in a house that Party B wishes to replace with an apartment, ruin the life for Party C? Or is it B whose life is ruined? Or A's? Or am I misunderstanding you?

Because now Party C can't get affordable housing. Party A blocks Party B (builders/real estate people) from builing more housing which would make things more affordable for Party C.

Re: Silicon Valley's housing crisis, in one sentence

#200

Post by codemac »

hx87 wrote: post #111
codemac wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who bought their houses 30+ years ago I really feel for. The change the area is experiencing is brutal, and imagine if everyone just kept asking you why you don't sell and move away from the very place you built? It's futile for them to fight things, and honestly it ruins a lot of people's lives that they do. However I completely understand why they would push back on density, most people don't have to dea…

> most people don't have to deal with growth at these types of numbers over their lifetime. I used to live in Houston, and my parents still live there, and the growth (in construction, not price) they'd dealt with (and enjoyed) puts anywhere in the SF Bay Area to shame.

That's surprising! I think the big difference between Houston's sprawl and the Bay Area's increase in density is that the style of life your parents lead is probably the same they did before. Do you think that's true?
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