California, the land of golden dreams, has become America’s worst housing nightmare.

Recent wildfires have only heightened the stakes for a state that can’t seem to build enough new homes.

The median price for a house now tops $600,000, more than twice the national level. The state has four of the country’s five most expensive residential markets—Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Orange County and San Diego. (Los Angeles is seventh.) The poverty rate, when adjusted for the cost of living, is the worst in the nation. California accounts for 12% of the U.S. population, but a quarter of its homeless population.

How did we get here? Simply put, bad government—from outdated zoning laws to a 40-year-old tax provision that benefits long-time homeowners at the expense of everyone else—has created a severe shortage of houses. While decades in the making, California’s slow-moving disaster has reached a critical point for state officials, businesses and the millions who are straining to live there.

This fall, as President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the situation on his swing through the state to raise money for his reelection, lawmakers in Sacramento passed some of the most sweeping legislation in years to address housing affordability. Google, Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are throwing billions of dollars at the issue. But nobody’s kidding themselves that it’s enough.

“Broadly speaking, there is no solution to the California housing crisis without the construction of millions of new houses,” said David Garcia, policy director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

McKinsey & Co. estimated in 2016 that California needed some 3.5 million more homes by the middle of next decade—a figure that Governor Gavin Newsom made a central part of his administration’s goals. A more recent analysis suggests it may take the state until 2050 to meet the target.

As severe as this sounds, the rest of the country is becoming more—not less—like California. During the longest economic expansion on record, the U.S. has been building far fewer houses than it usually does, pushing prices further out of reach for a vast portion of the population that has barely seen incomes rise.

“California is not alone,” said Chris Herbert, the managing director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “It’s just more extreme.”

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It incorrectly blamed low property taxes and glossed over regulations that increase prices.

Every new home is required to have solar for example.

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It incorrectly blamed low property taxes and glossed over regulations that increase prices.

Every new home is required to have solar for example.

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Yeah, I saw that about the taxes.

It is like they want the amendment repealed.. as if more money will solve the problem.

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Where are all the illegals living?

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It incorrectly blamed low property taxes and glossed over regulations that increase prices.

Every new home is required to have solar for example.

California also has a distinct burden: Proposition 13, a measure approved by voters in 1978 that limits property-tax increases on homes until they’re sold. That’s been a boon for Baby Boomers who’ve lived in their houses for decades and aren’t assessed at anything close to their property’s market value. But it’s especially unfair to their children, who are in effect subsidizing their parents’ generation.

Prop 13 also created a fiscal incentive for many cities to favor new commercial development over residential construction—and heap fees on developers to fund budget gaps.

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It incorrectly blamed low property taxes and glossed over regulations that increase prices.

Every new home is required to have solar for example.

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If there was a book and how you might destroy the worlds fifth largest economy, then dems can surely author it.

It is just not about housing.

The economy
Over regulated
Over taxed
Letting environmentalists call the shots in the name of whatever stupid animal they wish to save this week.
Telling the oil & gas industry to shut down operations because they are bad.
High Speed Rail
Sanctuary status for illegal aliens
Guns are bad
Drugs are good
No one goes to jail
Prisons bad
Inmates voting good
Belief the drought is caused by global warming instead of their own failed water policies.
Failed electrical grid policies starting with Gray Davis (remember Gray outs?) and ending with todays “Public Safety Power Shut off’s”
Plastic straws in paper wrap are bad, but giving out massive quantities of syringes to druggies who throw them down wherever is good.

And this is just the tip of their complete and utter disregard for understanding the theory of unintended consequences.

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It's going to be "musical chairs" for the homeowners eventually as the rate of expatriation goes up. Now Kali folks can STILL sell their nightmare lifestyle/home for enough to relocate with cash leftover. That is predicated on selling your home for twice what it should sell for. Bubbles always burst. WHEN THE MARKET RUNS OUT OF BUYERS FOR OVERPRICED NIGHTMARES somebody IS GONNA WANT A CHAIR real bad.

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A Motherfucking politician from New York talking shit about California's government. Clown World.

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The part that really sucks for me is that there are liberal californians leaving the state, and where ever they go, they turn the place into an LA suburb. If they would just stay here, I would happily leave them to their own devices.

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Because raising property taxes will definitely help with the affordability problem.

To be fair though I'd not blame housing prices for all of their homeless problem.  I'd blame their year round nice weather.

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I live in the Central Valley near Fresno, at least it's not that bad here...yet.

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If it wasn't for foreigners CA would have negative population growth.  Most middle class families that can are leaving metastasizing and unfortunately many of them don't understand why everywhere else is not like CA.

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Section 8 apartments. single guys live 8 or more to a one bedroom apartment. Families share houses. One family in each bedroom, a family in the garage and a family that sleeps in the living room.

One of my coworkers is separated from his wife and lives at the office. Gym membership for showers.

Quoted:
It incorrectly blamed low property taxes and glossed over regulations that increase prices.

Every new home is required to have solar for example.

Quoted:
If there was a book and how you might destroy the worlds fifth largest economy, then dems can surely author it.

It is just not about housing.

The economy
Over regulated
Over taxed
Letting environmentalists call the shots in the name of whatever stupid animal they wish to save this week.
Telling the oil & gas industry to shut down operations because they are bad.
High Speed Rail
Sanctuary status for illegal aliens
Guns are bad
Drugs are good
No one goes to jail
Prisons bad
Inmates voting good
Belief the drought is caused by global warming instead of their own failed water policies.
Failed electrical grid policies starting with Gray Davis (remember Gray outs?) and ending with todays “Public Safety Power Shut off’s”
Plastic straws in paper wrap are bad, but giving out massive quantities of syringes to druggies who throw them down wherever is good.

And this is just the tip of their complete and utter disregard for understanding the theory of unintended consequences.

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I was listening to NPR yesterday & they had a segment on a town that was almost wiped out by the fire. They were speaking of rebuilding homes & such. One woman spoke of ONE home needing something close to TWO DOZEN permits just to be built. WTF??????  

Fuck CA & their politics with rusty rebar. Let them wallow in the fifth they've voted for, IMO.