Overpriced, Overwhelmed, Over It! Ep. 4 'Billions Wasted?'

www.nbcbayarea....
A New Streaming Series on the Golden State's Housing Crisis.
The Bay Area’s and California’s housing crisis is crazy. Shacks are selling for millions. Investors are paying all cash for homes that could go to family buyers. And generations of communities are getting priced out. Through a series of steaming reports, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit reveals its year-long investigation into The Golden State’s overpriced housing market that is leaving so many Californians overwhelmed and over it.
Episode 4 'Billions Wasted': Affordable Housing Lost
Renters are shocked they are paying market rate for apartments built with taxpayer-backed loans meant for affordable rentals. The Investigative Unit goes back in time to explain how this all went down and the solutions the federal government is working on to prevent it from happening again.
Learn more about this series at: www.nbcbayarea....
Do you have a housing story or issue you’d like us to investigate next? Email [e-mail].
Stay connected:
Follow us on Twitter: / nbcbayarea
Like us on Facebook: / nbcbayarea
Follow us on Instagram: / nbcbayarea
Follow us on TikTok: / nbcbayarea
Catch up on all the day's news:
www.nbcbayarea.com
Download our mobile app:
On iOS: nbcbay.com/R1BhqYM
On Android: nbcbay.com/rUcA97h
Watch us on OTT:
Add our channel on Roku: bit.ly/3ySK60j
Download our app on Amazon Fire TV: amzn.to/3FmmiEA

[@timcisneros1351]

I'll try to keep this short. My wife and I have rented in the San Francisco Bay Area for 38 years. My dream was always to build my own home. I am a Wood Craftsman and a Blacksmith. The most difficult part was the Regulations, restrictions to building and permit fees. We finally had to start looking outside California. Permit fees alone would have been over $100,000 in California but where we bought an acre and a half of land in the mountains of a neighboring state the permit fee for the house was $400. That along with property taxes that were $350 last YEAR. So long California!

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Thank you for sharing your story here.

[@episdosas9949]

bullsht. you dont have to build your own home to own a home. good bye cheap ash that dont want to pay taxes or build it right.

[@timcisneros1351]

@@CandiceNguyenTV You're welcome. I just shared my IG account. I've documented a lot of our journey there. Not interested in doing a KZbin channel, don't really care what anyone thinks! Ha! I'm on the greatest , most epic adventure of my life. I'm sharing it with family and close friends. The ones who really matter in my life. Saving the world is only a coincidence. Hahaha

[@hoapres]

You should have left earlier. Hope your new location does well for you.

[@timcisneros1351]

@@skellington2000 Good point. I don't expect everyone to be able to do what I'm doing since I have been in the building trades my whole life. I realized a long time ago that the housing prices here were always over-inflated. I remember in the early 90's taking an Econ 101 course at The College of San Mateo. The Econ Professor said to the class that "You should not even consider buying a house here. You are better off renting. They just cost too much." That always stuck in the back of my mind. We couldn't afford to anyway! We raised a family and lived in decent neighborhoods for the schools. That ALWAYS costs more and eliminated our ability to save for a down payment. The home I am building is completely "debt-free" although I am 66 I hope to still have some time left. If not I'm on the greatest adventure of my life.

[@HerAeolianHarp]

This has been a great series.

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Thank you. Hopefully more people watch and engage with it. We are working on more episodes.

[@greenearthblueskies8556]

Yes really eye opening....I appreciate it

[@heyaisdabomb]

@@CandiceNguyenTV As someone whose been in love with San Francisco and the Bay Area in general for the past decade, but can't even begin to afford to buy a house here, thank you for your work. The pressure needs to be put on the problems at hand as nothing changes until it's in the public spotlight, and the politicians are forced to do something.

[@heyaisdabomb]

The one thing I would also recommend looking into is below market housing for first time buyers and some irregularities I saw. When I was surveying the field of buying a few years ago, I came across a subsidized apartment that was $5000 per month in mortgage, but to qualify, you can't make more than 75k per year as a single person, or 85k per year as a couple. That's 6k in income per month pre taxes, which is 4500ish after taxes. So how is one suppose to make payments on a place that's more expensive than the max income to qualify for the program? I saw many places like this where the math doesn't add up.

[@DavidDLee]

Sounds like the bank stiffed you with a high interest rate, or else the mortgage payment would be lower.

[@heyaisdabomb]

@@DavidDLee It's not the banks number, that's just based on Trulias calculations of the monthly payment, which is based on the asking price of the unit. That assumed a 0.9% interest rate at the time. It's even worse now.

[@debralopeznacario6175]

Poor Yolanda! Need to protect

[@RISQUE1963]

Loving this series. The reporter does a great job explaining the issues and going into the streets to highlight the various facets of this issue. I'm saving up to buy a piece of property because after seeing documentaries like this one as well as having to deal with landlords and rising rents myself, I'm "over it"!

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

I'm disappointed that the series failed to cover the impact on zoning restrictions driving up housing costs. It is a very well researched area but nobody seems to want to talk about it.

[@MrTaco1818]

Leave California then??? I don’t understand why people struggle so hard here and deal with mental health when they can just leave to an affordable state.

[@susanjaneterry1073]

I did it. But it wasn't like just clickin the heels of my red shoes. No regrets. It was worth anything to get out and lead a normal life.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

That's what is happening, people are indeed leaving CA, but because other regions have followed CA's lead by enforcing exclusionary zoning, these problems are just being exported to other states.

[@maryannwaters339]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 NOT quite! Move to: Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, etc.?.Stay in bougie, Limousine Liberal California and keep complaining. No pity party from me.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@maryannwaters339 Ya, no kidding. Buy a house while you're there. Prices only go up.

[@Morales495]

California is my home

[@susanjaneterry1073]

While you're digging, dear, dig up some dirt on Chinese foreign investment. Maybe you'll finally discover where all the houses went.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

The houses aren't empty, we just aren't building enough new housing.

[@alexi2460]

60 minutes had a segment on high rentals in florida, I wa shocked it was Canadian company buying up new homes and jacking up the rents to outrageously high prices.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@alexi2460 we can screw over that Canadian company by flooding the market with new houses, driving down rent. Or, if we continue to restrict new houses, that Canadian company is going to make a killing.

[@susanjaneterry1073]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 They're empty.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@susanjaneterry1073 empty or not, if we flood the market with houses, the canadian company either has to have infinite resources to buy every available house or the price of housing declines. It really isn't complicated.

[@JCC408]

I do know people in SF who abused the rent control and took advantage of their landlords. Here's how it went down: mom and pop occupied a rent control unit for decades and bought homes under their kids' names. Even though they became rich and could pay market rent, they kept staying at the rent control unit until their landlord decided to sell so that they could get rid of the rich mom and pop renters. Rent control does the opposite of helping renters in the long term when people ended up abusing the system and unchecked.

[@Vmglf]

Probably so rare, though. Personally speaking, I'm so glad we have rent control.

[@JCC408]

@@Vmglf You are probably profiting from your landlord's loss de to rent control, so of course you are glad. Your landlord is most likely not as happy as you are.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

If we allowed SF to build adequate new housing, brand new houses wouldn't cost more than 750k each and the need for rent control would be less acute. We need rent control to protect old ladies from soaring rent costs. If we didn't inflate rent costs by restricting housing supply, we wouldn't need rent control quite as desperately as we now do.

[@Vmglf]

@@JCC408 my landlord asks $4100 for one of his 1100 sq ft (not updated) 2br/1bth apt that he's been renting since 1973 lol; like I said, I'm sure what you're saying happens but it's also likely rare.

[@Vmglf]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 100%

[@greenearthblueskies8556]

Please do a story the Mom & Pop side of the housing coin. How some are vilified as greedy. How some lost rental homes during the pandemic. How no one wants to evict, but literally NEEDS the rent to pay bills. How the domino affect of not renting at market rate, affects 1. Affects their ability to pay mortgage & insurance 2. Rising Property taxes 3. Maintenance 4. Etc.

[@jeretso]

I think that was covered in Ep. 1 or 2

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Exactly what we covered in Ep. 2 titled 'Landlord Confessions' kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaKwm4ullMiMiZI Interested in your thoughts on all 4 episodes.

[@heyaisdabomb]

I know not every place in the bay area is like San Francisco, but here, property taxes are based on the price of the house when you bought it, which destroys the hopes of ever owning as a millennial. Even if you can come up with the 350k in income per year you need to afford it, your then talking 30-40k per year in property taxes. That's about more than I pay in rent every year for a 1bd flat, so it's hard to justify buying. If you bought your house 15 years ago like my previous landlord did for 650k (now worth 1.8 mil), she still pays taxes based on the 650k and collects over 8k per month in rent from the entire house, and can live off of it. With taxes today, if you buy property to rent, you have to charge so much in rent because it takes so much just to cover the taxes. Millennials and Gen Z are getting pushed out of buying, and into high cost renting, and unlike what the professional landlords say, we DO want to buy. But it's so unaffordable.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@heyaisdabomb You are paying the zoning tax. And your struggles directly support entire generations that have become fabulously wealthy by restricting the ability of people to build new houses.

[@Charlesinfinite]

It's no secret that a house is unattainable. It's by design. Housing is a commodity in our society not a right. The corporatists aren't stupid. They know that buying all the houses and renting them out makes them money forever! The corporatists want to own everything that you need to survive and then they want to dole it out one little piece at a time for exorbitant cost. Of course we're all broke and a captive audience for all this. We literally have no choice but to give corporatists our money.

[@paulk9985]

I watched all four episodes.... I kept looking and listening, but I never did find the demon that forced these people to live in one of the most expensive regions, in one of the most expensive states in the entire USA. I want to drive a Bentley and live in Beverly Hills. I can't... so I drive a Toyota and live in Anacrime (Anaheim). smh smh SMH

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

Houses can be built for 300K and sell for 1.5 million. That spread is the zoning tax and if we allowed housing construction by reducing zoning restrictions, houses would cost 300k. The daemon is not that people want to live here, the daemon is that we artificially restrict housing supply.

[@paulk9985]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Geez, you totally missed the point. You sound as duhmb as those idiots who pay rent. Land value plays a role... always has, always will. Until then, these dorks need to live where they can afford. Like the saying goes: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Until then, you all need to quit whining and lose the bow ties.

[@mittens4kittens435]

It costs a lot of money to move out of an expensive area.

[@bipolarjosh]

I moved here from Alaska, working 70 hours a week in the military I just needed a bed. First rv park I moved to In pacific 2014 was bought bye investors and they pushed everyone out with regulations and price. I had to move to sanleandro to another rv park mom and pop owned. Also bought bye investors, started getting trash, sewage water and power fees and rent increased. I was lucky to get a 24 year lease at 4% yearly rate. I'm amazed the same lot I had in 2016 goes for over 3 times the price now. As soon as my service dog passes I'm moving to Brazil. There is no difference in safety now, I just pay way to much for what I get in return. Literally pay more while the property takes away features like a clean public bathroom. How is it legal to pay more and get less?

[@karld1791]

Permitting and building more apartment supply should make market rate more reasonable. People’s, usually homeowners, resistance to new apartment construction is the traffic from the apartments. Traffic can be moderated by mixed use zoning that allows small shops and offices in residential neighborhoods so people can walk to errands reducing traffic overall.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

Karl gets it. Modest homes cost 300-500k to build and the only reason they cost more than that is because of permitting. End of story.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

Candice, thanks for your excellent reporting. One aspect that you have yet to fully address in this series is the zoning tax. The idea is that by artificially restricting supply, you drive up the cost. Thanks to litigation, we know that the cost to build the millennium tower was 350M and has 419 residential units. So that gives us a cap on how much it should cost to build the fanciest residence in the most expensive location of the most expensive city for a luxury condo, roughly a million per condo. Typically, housing should get less valuable as it gets older. As those units age, they should go down in value as they become older and less desirable. However, that's not what has happened for the last 50 years. Instead, the value of houses has gone up and up. We all know someone who has made more money by paying their mortgage than by working at their jobs. When those millennium tower units sold for 3M-4M (as they did before coronavirus) the difference between their value (4M) and their construction cost (1M) is the "zoning tax". If zoning restrictions were lifted to allow local builders to build housing until the value of houses was close to its replacement costs, those luxury condos would have never been worth such exorbitant prices. Economics is confusing which is why we have gotten ourselves to this crisis. For the last 50 years, we saw rising home prices as an unalloyed good. Only now are we seeing that young adults can't afford to have children. This is part of why SF is the most childless city. If you are a single adult, paying 2k for a studio is bad enough, but if you want to have a wife and two children, you now need at least 2 rooms, and preferably 3. One partner has to not work to take care of the children before the age of 5 or you have to pay SF preschool tuition costs of 2.6k/month/child. It is economically impossible to have children here unless you are in price controlled housing or one partner works for google. The saddest part is that preschool costs so much because the people who work there, and the school itself, must pay the local rent (AKA the zoning tax). The people who work at the preschool buy food at grocery stores staffed by people who pay the zoning tax. The astounding thing is that if we removed density restricting zoning laws, living in SF would only cost marginally more than living in Bakersfield. This is all a long way of saying a simple thing. If you artificially restrict supply via zoning, you drive up prices. As an aside, the further this crisis goes, the more infeasible subsidizing your way into low-income housing becomes. If you are trying to make a space the market values at 4M available to someone at 250K, you have to provide a 3.75M subsidy per space. It sounds ridiculous because it is, and it's literally the economics behind building low income housing in downtown SF. The solution is annoyingly simple. Build more houses. Fortunately, we live in a democracy. Unfortunately, democracies occasionally leave economic policy up to NIMBYs. You need only read these comment to see the amount of disinformation and genuine confusion there exists on this topic. I could write all day refuting each of the misguided comments that abound in this comment section, but I have a job to do. Have to pay my Bernal Heights rent.

[@hoapres]

The solution is simple. MOVE. While I agree that everyone needs housing and let's assume for argument's sake that it is a social right. Fine. That doesn't give you the right to live anywhere you want. For the cost of housing the homeless in a crappy hotel or apartment building that is at the end of it's live, we can go out and SEND the homeless to CHEAPER parts of the country. That might not sound fair but then life isn't fair.

[@hoapres]

I know a single doctor that is working at the Zuckerberg medical center and he is living in a studio in the Tenderloin for about $1400. Clearly he can afford more than that but he tells me that I am working 70+ hours a week so I only have time to sleep before getting up for work the next day. He is in good physical and mental shape so the tenderloin derelicts don't bother him. This works as you say if you are single but once you are married and have two kids then that isn't going to work. FWIW, His plan is to try to have $500K in cash in a couple of years and kiss CA goodbye.

[@zane8789]

Paying 3k/month for an apartment?? That's 36k a year!!! I bought my house for 40k in February of this year lmao. Over 10 years it's $600/month which includes taxes!!

[@heyaisdabomb]

I think the problem is high costs lead to high taxes. They say you need no less than 250k to think about buying a starter home in SF. At that point, you are taxed 35% by the fed alone. After all of the taxes are add up, it's over 45%. So your left with $112,500. That's $9333 left per month. Now your mortgage on a 1 mil places is around 6k, plus taxes. And there's barely anything left for rising water and electricity bills, food, and transportation. A big part of the problem is taxes in general affect us in the Bay Area more. 80k in South Carolina means you have spending money left over, 80k in San Francisco means your borderline poor. But the Fed taxes both of us the same. And then when someone wants to rent that place out, they now need to charge even more to make up for the high taxes. Housing prices increase every, thus taxes on a new home go up every year, and the dream becomes more unattainable.

[@lokijordan]

Problem? "It's housing being viewed as a commodity, not homes." Nailed it.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

The problem is zoning which has literally made adding enough supply illegal.

[@lokijordan]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 The point is, changing the designation changes the zoning rules.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@lokijordan do you have an example of this?

[@lokijordan]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Commodities, currencies and securities are treated differently from one another. Same with companies and utilities.

[@scallaghan2118]

This is interesting and informative regarding the Bay Area's housing crisis. I'm surprised there are so few comments.

[@karld1791]

There are some really informative YT series on housing on why we don’t want to build enough homes (mostly locals don’t want traffic) like City Beautiful, Not Just Bikes, BritMonkey, Strong Towns, Economics Explained.

[@jeretso]

People are busy working a 2nd job to comment.

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

@@jeretso That's the truth

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

@@karld1791 Agreed. We covered some of that in Ep. 3 'Hidden Housing' kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKiviZRjoKqiiZY

[@cable30]

All this chaos is basically causing some or many just to leave cali anytime cause too much hassles to live here now days.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

All because we refuse to build enough houses for everyone.

[@johnlopez4089]

What a great series. Thank you👍👍

[@Stamatos]

Don't sell to H1-B residents. Put a moratorium on speculator and corporate home investment.

[@MrWaterbugdesign]

Living in San Jose or Monterey??? Is there a more expensive place a person could live? I don't think so. And there's rub...wanting cheap places to live in the most desirable areas. Who's supposed to be entitled to that? There would be a line of cars all the way to Kanas of people from all over the US waiting to get their cheap place.

[@todddanforth8853]

I love the way Candice Nguyen covers these issues!!! She is great!!! 💖💖💖

[@andrenathaniel7180]

Keeping it California maybe investigate how many homes sit unoccupied and vacant.

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Yes, excellent topic to investigate next. Thx.

[@andrenathaniel7180]

@@CandiceNguyenTV thank-you and the team for all your hard work thus far in bringing this information to us, hoping for a change to occur, you are appreciated.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

There are always properties which are unoccupied for a variety of reasons. The largest reasons are that it takes time to sell or remodel a house so it often sits empty for those reasons. This odd fiction of rich people buying properties and sitting on them is a rare event, and in any case, if we allowed local builders to just build enough houses to meat market demands. A modest home in CA costs 300k-500k to build. The only reason house prices have risen above that value is because we use racist zoning laws to keep undesirables out of our neighborhoods by keeping the rents and mortgages high.

[@andrenathaniel7180]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Thank you for that share, makes me wonder how long a remodel takes since there are over 1k homes vacant in Oakland for example that have had no work done on them in the passed 8 years, I'm removing 2 years for the pandemic. They have not been for sale in a long time so that small sample size only reflects that area and not the entire state which is huge yet to know those numbers may highlight insight. Im not talking about new building at all until we have filled what we already have, so that part I do not value since I'm not a builder looking to build new and capitalize on. Im interested in the 'odd fiction' since my lived experience it is a fact; though you may have seen it differently from a different area and field of expertise I do not have. I'd love to learn.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@andrenathaniel7180 I remodeled a bathroom in a house in SJ in 2019. It took me 6 months to get a permit for a basic bathroom remodel. The house was then prepped for sale and sold - in total it was unoccupied for 9 months. At any rate, if Oakland just allowed the construction of 1k new homes, it wouldn't really matter if there were 1k vacant houses. However, Oakland and NIMBYs don't allow the construction of enough housing.

[@singlefather01]

I don't believe Yolanda's story. My property manager doesn't care if the tenant is on the section 8, as long as the tenants have a good credit history. And we do have a few tenants who are on section 8. But they all have a good credit history. And trust me these properties are in the heart of Silicon Valley, so the rent is not cheap. When I was asked by my friend to let another friend move in, my property manager rejected him because of his bad credit history. I take it this is how the corporations and investors work. They don't care if it is section 8 as long as the money comes in faithfully. I think my property manager is also helping the tenants with section 8 to conform to the rules, so they don't lose the section 8. He is a good man for doing that. But he will never accept bad credit history. And I think that's Yolanda's case. Maybe that's why she needed to apply with the mom and pops landlord, cause they don't do the thorough credit history check. But the mom and pops landlords don't have a team of lawyers to help them. That's when something goes wrong. They are screwed. So you gotta understand their fear is real. And some of the horror story you hear with the section 8... So Yolanda has more stuff to blame herself for not keeping her credit history clean. This is how the mainstream media manipulate the story to make her case look like a sad example by not disclosing the whole issue. No wonder she is no where to be found. Hope she will find a place with her two grand kids. That would be tough. If she keeps looking I am sure she will find someone who is willing to take the section 8 with a bad credit history.

[@keikei3301]

This series is excellent. Give Candice an award! This is journalism we need/want

[@davidwhite5438]

p.s. I still laugh at the $60 Renter's Credit in California when doing my taxes. What a G.D. joke.

[@karld1791]

Please look at single use versus mixed use zoning to mitigate traffic caused by new development which is what inspires resistance to new development by homeowners.

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Thank you for that idea. I will look into it.

[@stevebabiak6997]

Mixed use typically involves a store front or some business located on the property. Multi-family housing is probably more what you intended.

[@karld1791]

@@stevebabiak6997 multifamily is definitely needed to get the units needed. Mixed use puts errands in walking distance reducing driving. When more units get built in a space it’s best to reduce the need to drive. Increased traffic is a big reason homeowners will fight new construction. Reducing driving helps mitigate the traffic complaint.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@karld1791 The other side of the coin is that towns are being forced by the state to allow the construction of new housing (finally). So, it's going to become more of a question going forward in the bay are of "what type of housing will your city be building?" rather than "will your city build any at all?" (traditionally, it won't).

[@dondavidyoung2668]

Section 8 Housing is still not enough to keep up with increasing rents.

[@veev2561]

This veteran woman is far from the only veteran struggling,facing those circumstances. The median income in ca is $95k for those fortunate enough. Still rents are $3-4k in ca on average and places like tn,fl,TN,, are pretty close to that,so nationwide,as the greedy corporations buying up properties are putting people out on the street

[@Vmglf]

I did everything I was supposed to despite growing up very poor: Graduated with a super high GPA, got into a good college, graduated and paid it off 100% by myself, built a career in tech and moved to California, have been working, responsibly saving, investing for years; I got married and had a baby, etc. and still, we are NO WHERE near being able to afford a modest home for our family. Childcare is outrageous, our rent is outrageous (we've been renting for 10 years at this point). We are so passionate about our careers and love SF, but it's hard to feel like you can't make progress in life. We're going to move, even though we don't want to. Btw, my spouse and I work in advanced technology research and engineering roles, and we still feel like failures.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

What you are suffering from is called the zoning tax. Basically, you are the person who is propping up high property values. Somewhere on the other end of the equation is a boomer in a house in SF which is now worth 2M, and all they did was buy it in the early 90s and now they're wealthy regardless of their occupation.

[@djwoosie98]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 ding ding. I hate posts like this that believe you are entitled to things just because you did adult things.

[@hoapres]

MOVE

[@Vmglf]

​@@hoapres ok, cool your jets, lol

[@Vmglf]

​@@djwoosie98 One can always bet on weird, rude internet troll comments

[@bobpop8842]

Great series but why midnight

[@CandiceNguyenTV]

Good question. Since it's digital and now TV, these series can be watched anytime after they're posted. We post it at midnight so they're there right when people wake up, even on the East Coast.

[@slowridefpv9668]

One reason so many investors are in housing is due to the federal reserve keeping interest rates artificially low guaranteeing a lost to your savings when compared to the inflation rate. Add that to cheap money and the average working family is being priced out. #ENDTHEFED

[@ladyramen7655]

Please do a story on why it takes so long to get building permit for an ADU in San Jose. Why are the county workers at the building permit office have no accountability in their jobs. For instance, they lose the building plans or whoever’s in charge of the plan just leaves and leaving the home owner up in the air.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

It take so long to get a building permit because the point of the building department it to enforce regulations that slow down construction. The building department works for the mayor who could easily apply pressure to the city of SJ to allow permits faster, but that would increase the rate of housing production which is politically unpopular.

[@waledada6552]

Excellent reporter and series!

[@poodlescone9700]

With all those tenants rights, who in their right mind would rent to low-income? It makes no financial sense for the risk.

[@ReeLSpirit]

Exactly, they need to make the risk lower, so it makes sense to do it. Otherwise, not going to happen.

[@jeretso]

30 year guaranteed price control. Not surprised owner went market. In new york some units are permanent even death can not stop rent control as unit is given to grandkids. If someone gave me 30 years half priced mortgage I would be protesting too.

[@JCC408]

Exactly

[@stevebabiak6997]

The fact that the government issues housing vouchers to renters to find housing in non-government owned properties is telling - even the government doesn’t want to own the housing for the low income renters.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

Houses that cost 300-500k to build sell regularly above 2 million in San Francisco. The reason prices are high is because SF has made it illegal to add adequate new housing. Trust me, if local builders could build more houses, they would, tenants rights don't factor into the decision and if you think they do, you have clearly never looked into the economics of the situation.

[@sherrryann]

Housing should be $500/month for low & fixed income people, & anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000/month for everyone else (depending on size, quality, etc). Unless you're a millionaire, you shouldn't be spending $3,000/month on rent -esp bc it just basically evaporates into thin air each month, & does absolutely nothing for you but give you permissive use to what really only amounts to extended stay temporary lodging. What's $36K/yr on $1,000,000? Not much. What's $36K/yr on a $72,000/yr salary? Half of your paycheck & livelihood. To have a roof & a door. 🤦

[@Bigrignohio]

Those "taxes" the builders/owners were given were MORE than repaid in the lower rents for decades. All the while you kept voting in programs that increased property taxes massively. YOU voted for the programs so YOU are dealing with the results.

[@julespeace684]

It should be permanent. Sheesh, common sense! Add HOA by these Realtor owned properties. HOA for vacant land is $50.00 a month…for what? I hope you do a story on HOA. Thank You.

[@glennhertel1165]

And it doubles as Emergency Shelter Hurricane, Tornado Earthquake Ect.

[@viethuynh6808]

I was born and raised in San Jose. I graduated from Evergreen Valley College. My father bought a house in South San Jose in 1975. It was only $200,000. My siblings knew growing up that Real Estate will grow thanks to the great school system and colleges in the area. High tech came to the area around 2000 and people like ourselves saw our home prices go up in price.

[@episdosas9949]

its not hard to see that the reason the housing market has problems is because of property owners who love that the value keeps going up and dont want to lose their passive income, build in their neighborhoods or rent to certain people. and local governments support those real estate lobbyists.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

epsis gets it

[@carmentorres1426]

Adult sons live with elderly grandmother in her home. Husband, child, self at a home purchased 8 years ago far from work, difficult commute, longer time at work for the extra $, questionable neighborhood. Managed to re-fi and cash out last year.. keep expenses at minimal. Invest cash out for the future. Here I am 50 and blessed to have my job and home. Working on my health. That's how I'm surviving in the Bay Area.

[@paradise6606]

I owned apartments and tried to keep them affordable, but people kept destroying them. Hud didn't do shit for me other then dump their bad people on me. People need to take pride in where they live like help the landlords out and clean up their own units. Paint the walls, keep the grounds clean and drug free.

[@650CA]

Yolanda chose a cheap career and chose to have children. She made choices that no one made her make. You can’t blame people who offer housing for causing these situations.

[@yvonnefarrell1029]

What that lady said at the beginning was right in tune - I love CA and still have hope but it is a heartbreaking situation. We pray for you and thank you for this series. Where does the money go but the mortgage-interest deduction is a housing subsidy, folks. How come buyers are not considered subsidized housing and treated as badly as are renters? I'm writing in December 2022 having just found this series on here, and now CA is suffering heavy rains.

[@kinan6746]

So the end of rent control...that's the issue? Affordability control? It's the friggin regulations after regulations that they put on. We are not considering homes as homes but commodities? Isn't food commodity? Stop virtue signaling the same shit that has gone on for decades, and bring on some legit economists (not politicians) to discuss the issue in a meaningful way. What is this? A high school project?

[@andr3wloo]

Do one for Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

It will just be the same story across the US - restrictive zoning laws are being used to cap supply and prop up housing prices.

[@bhalps]

If you are in subsidized housing your location is not meant to be set in stone. You don't get the luxury of having full autonomy of your dwelling and your lease terms by definition. Some of the people saying they have to move is inevitable, they could find affordable housing elsewhere but they say they can't because the dwelling is their home.... but in reality, it's just a unit in a building, and they have no ownership rights and in essences should have less right than a renter since they are taking subsidies from the government, coming fromtaxpayerss.

[@Morales495]

When are they talking about the NIMBYS?

[@qake2021]

🙈🙉🙊🙏🙏🙏😒🐒🍌🤞

[@qake2021]

🇺🇸 are run by lawyers 🥳🤡🐒🍌

[@garydavidson6917]

everyone need to buy their own house in CA - if u can't afford to buy then you should move ASAP - California is out of its mind!

[@hermanrogers1325]

They will get used to the rent increases what is affordability

[@piehamcake1]

Higher density building is needed highrise condos

[@dangonzales415]

it's capitalism... shocker

[@arhomadangdut6236]

Indonesia hadir

[@zoethelittleninjasurfer1289]

very easy to solve. Don't let non-US resident purchase properties in CA. International buyers and corporate investors from other countries such as China are driving up the prices.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

This is not true. The US population is growing and if we don't build enough housing to keep up with that growth (which we have failed to do for decades) housing prices will continue to rise (as it has done for decades). According to the California department of Housing and Community Development, SF is 80,000 behind where it needs to be in terms of building enough houses to keep up with demand.

[@zoethelittleninjasurfer1289]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Take a look at Thailand, they manage to keep housing cost down by banning foreign investors and buyers from owning properties. Now, Canada is implementing the same policy. Wake up and do search on foreign investors buying properties to rent or just leaving it unoccupied .

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@zoethelittleninjasurfer1289 Modest homes in SF cost 750k each to build and in the rest of CA, they are 300-500k. If we allowed new home construction, prices for new homes would not exceed that and older homes would go for less. The argument that houses are expensive because of foreign investors is just NIMBYers grasping for any plausible argument. It's just a distraction.

[@mysticaltyger2009]

That's part of it. But the housing issues in California long predate that. California has refused to build enough housing for the last 40 years.

[@tophypes1180]

Thinking outside the box here, what’s the feasibility of implementing a percentage cap of how much a new house value would appreciate

[@fatcat9468]

Politicians are 🤡

[@scottsteiner8931]

Move to a cheaper city….

[@MichaelSmith-em7pv]

Why are the schools not providing training for the students to learn home building skills? Let the students know that they can be a part of building a better future and can use sweat equity to get new homes built, You can pay them back with a place to live and possibly buy. It's not that complicated teach the kids how to build homes!

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

zoning has made adding housing in the bay area illegal. You can have all the trained plumbers in the world and if building a house is illegal, it's still illegal.

[@tarzz25qwe]

50% of income towards rent? Yeah no wonder America is in absolute chaos

[@Randy-pb9bn]

Same here

[@Pat7629]

The real question is why are these people making babies when they can’t afford them? Why are they not taking advantage of government provided lending programs such as FHA where only 3.5% of a down payment is required to purchase a home? ANYONE at any income level can save 3.5%. Most people don’t have the discipline to do it is the problem. It’s more a question of financial irresponsibility and irresponsible life decisions that have these people where they are. We need to be teaching financial education to children starting in first grade. I would advise listening to Dave Ramsay’s show. He had a bus driver call in last week who never made over 50k/year in her life and was retiring with a paid off home and a net worth of $2 million. Where there’s a will there is a way. Instead of feeling sorry for these people and passing laws to basically steal from property owners, we need to teach these people the skills they need to stand on their on 2 feet.

[@dmcebu]

Too many opportunities at school and government jobs out there but lots of people just want to live and dependent on government welfare not including the disabled and elderly.

[@heyaisdabomb]

The problem is housing on average in San Francisco goes up 50k per year. So not only is that 50k more on your mortgage, but 50k more in value you pay taxes on, and that much more income you need which also pushes you into a higher tax bracket. This game was over about 10 years, and millennials have and had NO chance of getting in without help from their parents. You need more than 250k per year in income to buy a house (of which 45% of your income goes to taxes), and really, you need 300k+ to buy a house now.

[@ashleykorn2961]

BECAUSE we now live in a country where abortion is in the way out etc. Yall are so fucking concerned about your fellow Americans being housed why aren't you concerned there are children being SOLD for food in other countries? Or are you just to fucking selfish? Youre probably the person who would take away a persons tent because you didnt like the fucking color or some shit.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

I love this guy - a whole generation is being priced out of the ability to raise children because older generations have pulled the ladder up after them by restricting the addition of housing supply and he says "well they shouldn't be having kids" or, you know, we could just BUILD MORE HOUSES....

[@hoapres]

MOVE Find a single family home in another part of the country

[@craigenputtock]

Here is fundamental rule of modern life that people need to learn: If you don't have money--and a lot of it--DON'T HAVE KIDS!

[@scottm4975]

A big problem is also the financialization of the housing market. Easy loans for people with high credit make it easy to buy for some people but not others. Government guarantees a lot of those loans leading to higher and higher prices.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

loans have been a part of why housing values have gone up but the reason that local builder's don't then go in and build more houses is because we don't allow them to via zoning. The financialization certainly plays a large part in the current prices, but it's more that it allows people to afford the exorbitant prices than it causes them.

[@hoapres]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Houses are sold for ALL CASH in the Bay Area. The days of using mortgages are long gone.

[@HellofromBaguio]

NOT EVERYONE DESERVES TO LIVE IN THE BAY AREA

[@Babu-kr3cr]

Landlords shouldn't discriminate based on income source. If you can cover the rent, that should be good enough. It takes a lot of work to find an apartment. You can screen them online now for price and availability. Then you have to make calls and appointments. I recommend you grab the first decent one you see and offer to put a deposit to hold it. Depending on your situation, you have to grab what you can get. None of these cheap apartments are so great usually. If you are elderly, you have more options with the fifty five and over buildings. Maybe they would make an exception to let in her grandchild.

[@culizocolonense]

In the neighborhood i just moved into. The landlord in front of me it’s going to rent a house. The rent is $1600 monthly. And the requirements are that you have to make 3.5 times the rent, good credit score, no records of eviction in the last 5 years, and no certain felonies.

[@Babu-kr3cr]

@@culizocolonense In NJ, you can't discriminate based on section 8. That is considered a protected class or something like that. Some landlords will still try to, but you could sue them if you wanted or try to report them.

[@culizocolonense]

@@Babu-kr3cr Can’t they just lie and say that someone else sign a contract to rent the house?

[@culizocolonense]

@@Babu-kr3cr And i just read and it says that they’re ideal tenant makes 3.5 times the rent. My mistake.

[@galegrazutis964]

Have you seen what section 8 tenants can do to a property?! And from personal experiences they will never let a kid into a 55 and over. Nobody want a screaming kid!

[@JCC408]

30 years were a long time though...

[@chrishealy2061]

I have an idea Candice. Why not start with you. How many of the homeless can live with you in your beautiful house. ?

[@Swampertchamp]

Vote out all these California politicians! If you're conservative just run as a Democrat.

[@aibochan1764]

California is a wreck

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

As a Californian, you're right, but chances are you live in a location that has taken up restrictive zoning. You'll likely have our problems in 10 years if you don't learn from us and build enough houses.

[@hoapres]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 Maybe we don't want more people in CA. It's crowded enough as it is.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@hoapres "I got mine, screw you"

[@hoapres]

@@kadentstructuraldesign9929 BINGO. You got it. Maybe we don't want to have population densities like the 3rd world.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

@@hoapres OK Boomer

[@jeretso]

Great stories here. Investigate next why rent and home prices are going up as people flee California? We have 4 billion Asians some of which are so rich they are buying properties in the Bay Area. Hong Kong for example is not as fun anymore. Taiwan is in a pickle. South Korea is next to North Korea? Russia is not a good neighbor either.

[@heyaisdabomb]

There's estimates that say more than 1/3rd of houses in San Francisco are owned by foreigners who don't live here and are keeping them vacant. This is one of the big problems. There's tons of housing, it's just sitting empty.

[@matta.5363]

Californians listen to me. LEAVE THE OPPRESSION! GET OUT! There are hundreds of affordable cities and towns all across America, where anyone who is willing to work can still find a starter home and build a quality life for themselves and their children! STOP MESSING AROUND WITH THE CALIFORNIA HOUSING NIGHTMARE! STOP BEING A LANDLORD'S SLAVE. Find a job in another state, pack up the car and the kids and just GO! That's what I did 20 years ago.

[@kadentstructuraldesign9929]

That's what we're doing and largely why your region's housing costs are skyrocketing. Welcome to the unaffordable club.

[@mysticaltyger2009]

Yep, I just took your advice and am in Utah....which now has California-like housing prices. Hopefully, they will be more willing to build new housing than California.

[@adamchancellor9011]

I blame it all on Do nothing lying Biden And Newsom

[@manatee419]

Low pay last for every.

[@Dc-sl3up]

We need Islamic Emirate states of America and go back to God. "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did.