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I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

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Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#161

Post by Gibbon1 »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #98
lbarrow wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

55% is one of the lowest home ownership rates in the country. If high levels of home ownership drive policies that prohibit new construction and drive up prices, how is it that places like Minnesota, with a home ownership rate in the mid-70s, are so cheap to live in?

The problem isn't that 55% is "high" (or not). The problem is that, currently, there is a housing problem that is significantly profitable for 55% of a population. This means that 55% of people have conflicting interests with fixing this problem.

I have friends more invested in housing issues than I am. But they generally agree with my assessment that without fixing transportation issues there is only downsides for homeowners and even renters to new development. It definitely seems like developers don't want to to pay a cent for mass transit. The just want to build lux houses and lofts in some neighborhood and then run away with the money.

I think Scott Wiener is right. Build mass transit and allow developers build housing close in.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#162

Post by [deleted] »

jrmg wrote: post #158
fortran77 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there is. Your property tax still goes up 2% a year if home prices rise. That's more than inflation has been. Rising prices also traps people -- they can't afford to move anywhere unless they go far away. As a CA homeowner (nortgage paid up!) I'd be much happier if house prices were half off what they are.

Yes, if you actually want to stay in California, rising house prices only actually benefit you if you never want to buy a larger house - but the weird tax laws also disincentivize downsizing. If the smaller house costs more than your current house did when you bought it, you’ll see a significant property tax rise. I believe that, to counter this, There are some counties where if you move to a smaller house, you get t…

[deleted]

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#163

Post by exo-pla-net »

autokad wrote: post #101
Schnitz wrote: post #26

> Rather than asking "Who can we blame?" maybe we could start asking "How do we fix it?" Nobody talks about the hard truth: The homeownership rate in California is ~55% and therefore over half of Californians are heavily incentivized to keep the housing crisis going. For existing homeowners this isn't a crisis, it's a free paper money bonanza. Just by living in their houses home "owners" (most are heavily leveraged)…

I don't think housing prices are an issue. one part of the homeless are mentally ill. This is a very hard problem and I don't think anyone has the answers for yet, but its not home prices. Another major group of the homeless is drug addicts. Again, home prices isn't going to change that. I think its very rare someone goes homeless because their rent went up. if they can't afford it, they usually move. I'll get down-v…

Mentally ill people also sometimes live in houses, believe it or not. Some are barely getting by. When housing prices go up, they become homeless. When housing prices drop, some can keep it together well enough to pay rent.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#164

Post by brailsafe »

autokad wrote: post #101
Schnitz wrote: post #26

> Rather than asking "Who can we blame?" maybe we could start asking "How do we fix it?" Nobody talks about the hard truth: The homeownership rate in California is ~55% and therefore over half of Californians are heavily incentivized to keep the housing crisis going. For existing homeowners this isn't a crisis, it's a free paper money bonanza. Just by living in their houses home "owners" (most are heavily leveraged)…

I don't think housing prices are an issue. one part of the homeless are mentally ill. This is a very hard problem and I don't think anyone has the answers for yet, but its not home prices. Another major group of the homeless is drug addicts. Again, home prices isn't going to change that. I think its very rare someone goes homeless because their rent went up. if they can't afford it, they usually move. I'll get down-v…

Where are they gunna move to, and how are homes being $1m not a problem in your mind? Most people will never be able to pay for that, nevermind afford it. Delusional.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#165

Post by DoreenMichele »

holler wrote: post #146
DoreenMichele wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was homeless for nearly six years. I hated it. It wasn't actually anything I wanted. Most people on the street don't want to be there. The research points to housing as the primary root cause.

Directly next to where I live there are multiple people living in the hillside. Each day for the past year+ they park their BMW, Honda Accord, and Toyota Camry on our street, and then walk off into the park, hop a fence, and down to wherever it is their tents are. It's really perplexing to see someone driving a ~2010 clean BMW while choosing to live in the hillside. My determination is that they're simply choosing th…

A 2010 auto is likely paid off. The carrying costs are low.

That doesn't mean they can afford rent. It just means they have some income, but probably not enough to support a middle class lifestyle.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#166

Post by Supermancho »

epistasis wrote: post #45
LurkingPenguin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody talks about the harder truth: even with its exclusionary housing policies, California is increasingly not capable of supporting the population it has. The 2021 fires and worsening drought conditions are just a taste of things to come.

California is extremely capable of supporting its current population, and easily 50% more. The only thing stopping this is proper distribution of land and water. We let wealthy people hoard land and water (Prop 13 and our land rights system), rather than allocating them based on market systems or even more fair systems. We have feudalism baked too deeply into our laws.

> California is extremely capable of supporting its current population, and easily 50% more.

So is the Moon, with enough effort and cost, but that's not the point.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#167

Post by zebnyc »

CheezeIt wrote: post #141
ceh123 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that according to [0], this is one of the lowest rates in the country, which would suggest to me this has less of an effect than you are selling here. [0] https://blog.stewart.com/stewart/2019/11/05/u-s-homeownershi... * I didn’t vet this source much but it apparently pulls from UC Census data.

Unlike other states, California property tax rates don’t increase with market value.

Can you clarify this? Property taxes are what are holding me back from making a bid for a more expensive home. If I buy a home for $1 million, won't I have to pay property taxes based on that price even if it was previously tax assessed at $100k.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#168

Post by jazzyjackson »

bb88 wrote: post #108
jazzyjackson wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what good is your house doubling in value if all the other houses have also doubled in value?

If your house you purchased for $200,000 20 years ago is now worth $1.4M, say, that's $1.2M in profit. You could live in a smaller house worth $1M and still get $400k of profit you didn't have before.

ah, I see the light now

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#169

Post by c0g »

zebnyc wrote: post #167
CheezeIt wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike other states, California property tax rates don’t increase with market value.

Can you clarify this? Property taxes are what are holding me back from making a bid for a more expensive home. If I buy a home for $1 million, won't I have to pay property taxes based on that price even if it was previously tax assessed at $100k.

There’s a cap on increases on the previously assessed value, value is re-assessed when ownership changes (except in certain cases like parents to kids). Look up Prop 13.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#170

Post by michaelmrose »

ransom1538 wrote: post #155
colinmhayes wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol that's nothing. Try 100,000. California is more than 1,000,000 units short of what is being demanded.

^ This! The California population is 39 million. The bay area population is 7.7 million. With the 7,000 new apartments coming online we should see a sharp housing price decrease. Problem solved. lol.

This could be rewritten without any loss of impact.

>^ This! The California population is 39 million. The bay area population is 7.7 million. With the 7,000 new apartments coming online we should see a sharp housing price decrease. Problem solved!

The sarcasm is implied and doesn't need a "lol" which just looks immature.

Insulting the poster decreases the quality of discourse and encourages indecency. It increases the chance that the next person who finds you to be in the wrong will likewise be indecent.

Furthermore it drives away people who despite merely being incorrect in one case may have other useful information to share.

Your manner of speaking is a larger negative than someone merely being wrong and it will end up getting you booted from the site because it violates hacker news rules.

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