Posted on 03/28/2019 7:19:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You can't go a week without another report of businesses and people leaving California because of the high cost of housing. Today it's the Wall Street Journal's turn, in a story headlined, "California Has the Jobs but Not Enough Homes." The problem -- a self-inflicted problem if there ever was one -- is that the hot economy is creating jobs, but developers can't build enough affordable living space. The WSJ reports that "companies are expanding outside the state or moving outright as an affordable-housing crisis casts a shadow on the booming economy."
More:
For employers, “we’re at a crisis stage,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, an association of executives. Companies are struggling to recruit or promote from within as people turn down offers to come to California, Mr. Lapsley said. And with the types of jobs being taken out of the state, he added, “we’re not growing the strong middle class that we used to.”
Karen Holian, 44 years old, joined the startup Lottery.com when it was founded here in 2015. Though a San Francisco native, Ms. Holian, a marketing manager, was excited when the company last year moved to Austin, Texas, because she could finally plan to buy a home.
“In San Francisco, that never seemed like a possibility,” she said. A mother of two, she is for now renting a four-bedroom house for $2,000 a month, a third of what a comparable place costs in her hometown.
California generally, but San Francisco and the wider Bay Area in particular, have waged a decades-long War on Affordable Housing. There have been several justifications for this, some couched in nice-sounding language, some left unsaid. I'll let you decide which is which:
• To protect the environment
• "City planning"
• To protect the haves from the have-nots
• Opportunities for graft and corruption
• Control, control, control
I might have missed one or two, including "squeeze the middle class out of existence." Because the end result, no matter which justification was used at any given moment, has been the virtual feudalization of California life. If you've made it, if you're in the top 15 or 25 percent of California earners, then you're set. You get to live on some of the world's most beautiful real estate, and enjoy a perfect Mediterranean climate -- but what you really enjoy is all the unofficial legal and economic protections from the riffraff. Your position at the top is secure, as the middle class flees rather than compete, and the proles are kept in a state of permanent dependency.
I'm not exaggerating the extent of dependency in the Once Golden State, whether it's government largess or some kind of housing or transportation benefits from their employer. California, with its impressively high incomes, is home to one in nine Americans yet also to one-third of America's welfare cases. And with companies like Facebook and Google forced to provide living space or transportation to their employees, California seems to be on the verge of bringing back the company town. Tent cities are already a permanent feature, and have been for some time.
There aren't any surprises in today's Wall Street Journal report, just a sad confirmation of what has long been known. I saw the writing on the wall 25 years ago, and left California for Colorado, despite six years of great times with amazing friends. Over the years enough Californians followed me here, permanently altering my new home's once libertarian-leaning politics.
The question is, what are you going to do when they start fleeing to your state?
What the socialists in Cali need to do is build a large number of Stalinisque brick shaped apartment buildings and Cabrini Greens for the “homeless”. Soon they will go the way Cabrini Green did.
Yes, I think it is. But like California, only in places. Highly populated places.
I’m pretty pragmatic about this whole thing. This great experiment was never expected to last forever, but it’s sad to know you will probably be alive when it has it’s own Dr Zhivago moment (without the love triangle), but it looks like we are on the cusp (whenever Trump leaves).
This is why I moved to Kentucky. I’m 65 and just hope it hits here last. One of my daughters moved here a few months ago as well. It is also possible the one in Arizona may find herself here too, depending on the “after Trump”, deep state America we are left with.
It’s why I moved to AL.
I no longer even want to visit there for tech conferences.
I left California in the mid 00’s. At the time, I couldn’t find a job in the South Bay that would pay more than $40,000. I had one offer in Newport Beach for $28,000 (”That’s the most we can offer...”) and I just laughed out loud at the woman on the phone. How is someone supposed to live on that in Newport Beach? Get 12 roommates? And now with being required to pay astronomical prices for your health insurance? California is a good path to destitution. I admire those who purchased property before 2000... I hope they can hang in there and turn that place around, but California Dreamin’ has turned into California Leavin’.
You can move anywhere. Just bring a tent.....
You should also check out Northeast Oklahoma, near the Arkansas border. Muskogee, Tahlequah, Poteau, etc...lots of great outdoors/lakes/hills and within driving distance to Dallas.
You should also check out Northeast Oklahoma, near the Arkansas border. Muskogee, Tahlequah, Poteau, etc...lots of great outdoors/lakes/hills and within driving distance to Dallas.
#11 One of my co-workers lost her home last November in the fire near Calabasas, CA. She moved to Texas this month after getting the insurance money.
I imagine many of the people could work remotely.
It’s the same in Northern Virginia. My daughter pays $1,200 a month for a bedroom in a 3 bedroom apartment. IOW $3,600 a month for a 3 bdrm apt.
Comparison: I was looking at a 2bdrm house in the next county that had a million dollar mountain view. It was just a nice little house in good shape.
It sold for $36,500.
Which is why we need to control our borders. The housing crisis, in the final analysis, is driven by population growth. The native U.S. population, measured as families that have been here at least two generations (i.e., the more-or-less assimilated population) is at or below replacement rate. Population growth is driven almost entirely by immigration, both legal and illegal. We are on pace to double the population every 40-50 years.
Liberals say they like open space and green space. They say they hate urban sprawl, congestion, and pollution. They are concerned about growing pressures on water availability and air quality. Yet they turn around and demand open borders. The stupidity of liberals never fails to amaze me.
“We are looking at Northwest Arkansas. I want to be in driving distance of family in Dallas and hubby wants hills and outdoor activities”
I was thinking similar if Oregon goes any further into the toilet.
The new apartments going up around the Bay Area are so ugly. I call them soviet style housing: very blocky, very dense, and very ugly.
Will do! I think we will fly into Dallas and do a road trip from there.
Lots of areas to check out.
Our favorite spot so far is Chattanooga. It’s just too far from family. Hoping we can he closer to them.
We own a nice home on 5 acres, a large 50’ X 60 ft shop, and a nice pond. Paid 100K for it.
Arrived there (Oceanside) in 1967, lived there for 20 years and loved it. By 1988 we were fed up and did the same.
These mega-corps can build huge “campuses” for business, why not a company town? Add a high-density residential high-rise to the property.
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