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A Very Different California?

The mid 1950’s was a time of development in California. The small farms and rural communities were fast becoming suburban tracks of the American dream. A family making the median income could afford to buy a brand-new home in a mass-produced suburb on the outskirts of cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The single-family home and suburban dream of 65 years ago became the American housing system. Year after year developments were built with basically similar homes with similar lots sizes surrounded by fences and sidewalks. Yet California has had a housing shortage for decades.

Fast forward to 2021. It is not news that California home prices are some of the highest in the nation. Those same suburban homes today require two times the median income to even think about purchasing. They are no longer on the outskirts as cities and businesses sprawled outward. Since the mid 1970’s, when housing began out-pacing wages, many warned that the housing problems would remain or worsen as long as California persisted as one of the hardest places to build.

The single-family neighborhoods are likely to undergo a change. Senate Bill 9, put into place in September 2021, legalizes duplexes statewide and will allow the extended use of single-family lots. Each county will have their own set of rules and regulations to abide by, but the state is putting on the pressure to allow more living space on existing lots. Hence the double-edged sword; individuals looking to add on to their precious homes to incorporate aging parents, adult children with or without families, or extra income from a rental without a sky-high price tag. And then there are the ever-present developers looking to invest in the single-family home on a large lot and gut the existing home to build as many rental units as legally possible. The homeowners want the ability to do add on to their properties and stay where they are, but they don’t want their neighbors house to be turned into an apartment building. A fine line to walk and a path to a very different California.

A mom living in a home she’s owned for 35 years sees her 30-year-old daughter looking to move to Texas to afford a home of her own. Rather than let that happen, she turns her garage into an A.D.U. (Accessory Dwelling Unit) to provide a home for her daughter to live in and stay close to family. Her disdain for the real estate developer looking to do the same thing to rent out the units for profit is clear. Her fear that the developers will simply out bid the homeowners trying to buy and turn all the homes in her area into rentals gives her cause for concern, as it does for many people. The real estate developer is the enemy, yet they are providing more homes for less money – not unlike what was done 65 years ago in creating the suburbs that are now the topic of what is to come.

 

Ref:  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB9

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/business/economy/california-housing.html?searchResultPosition=1   


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Location: Capitola, CA 95010, USA

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