
California is booming, but Californians are unhappy - Ozzie_osman
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/business/economy/california-economy-housing-homeless.html
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ilaksh
I grew up in San Diego. I decided to stop commuting long distances several
years ago and have only taken online jobs or worked in my own startups. For me
it has not been easy to maintain a high income like this. But at least I don't
have to deal with SoCal traffic to get to work every day. My current startup
doesn't make any money and I couldn't afford my own apartment in San Diego
anymore and so last year I decided to move across the border to Tijuana.

About 1% of the time the water or electricity doesn't work, but the rest of
the time things are pretty great. Seems like my cost of living is about half
even though I live right on the beach now. There have only been two shootings
in my immediate neighborhood that I know of and those were both parties
involved in drugs. And at least 99% or maybe 95% of the time it doesn't even
smell bad.

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duelingjello
It might be because only a small fraction of mostly out-of-state/-country
transplant knowledge workers are living well. Meanwhile, they price nearly
everyone else out of the real-estate market and drive up costs-of-living. This
leads to janitors and normal people living in their cars because they cannot
afford rent or sky-high gas prices ($3.99/gallon vs. $1.99/gallon elsewhere)
because they don’t receive livable wages. And also, conservatively, several
thousand homeless people living under bridges, along freeway onramp
embankments and so on like a dispersed favela of a third-world country. It’s
embarrassing that people aren’t treated more humanely in such a ridiculously
rich country.

~~~
proverbialbunny
It's supply and demand. During the last decade all new buildings built that
I've seen in the sf/bay area are business parks. When both new houses are not
built, and we're not building up, yet corporations are allowed to build,
you're going to get this kind of inequality.

In Florida, for example, it's common to see new apartment buildings starting
at 10 stories tall. In the bay area, it's rare to see an apartment building
past 3 stories.

There is massive potential to build up, but communities of home owners who
treat their property like an investment are doing everything they can to
prevent new real estate. This selfish behavior may benefit them and eventually
their kids, but it hurts everyone else.

The irony being that the Democratic party is the party of helping the
disadvantaged, yet the selfishness we are experiencing, isn't very in line
with the dnc. California is a liberal state, believing odd balls should be
treated like human beings, expressing creativity for who people are and
embracing that. But, contrary to common belief, California isn't very left
wing and it isn't even strongly in line with the democratic party. States on
the east coast, like New Jersey, are far more left wing than California, but
are less liberal. If you go north to Oregon, it's just as liberal as
California, but is a Republican state.

What Californians need most is to end prop 13, or reduce it to some sort of
capacity. This way we would be like every other state. Most of our problems
would go away if we did that.

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foogazi
> What Californians need most is to end prop 13

How does Prop 13 inhibit new buildings?

Isn’t it an incentive to buy? property taxes on new homes are capped with prop
13

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cameronfraser
From wikipedia:

Proposition 13 alters the balance of the housing market because it provides
disincentives for selling property, in favor of remaining at the current
property and modifying or transferring to family members to avoid a new,
higher property tax assessment.[36][37]

Proposition 13 reduces property tax revenue for municipalities in California.
They are forced to rely more on state funding and therefore may lose autonomy
and control. The amount of taxes available to the municipality in any given
year largely depends on the number of property transfers taking place. Yet
since existing property owners have an incentive to remain in their property
and not sell, there are fewer property transfers under this type of property
tax system.

California also has high rates of migrants from other countries and
states,[38] which has contributed to more demand for housing, and it has low
amounts of moderately priced housing due to the increased property tax
liability after a sale.[citation needed] In effect, because the different tax
treatment makes real estate more valuable to the current owner than to any
potential buyer, selling it makes no economic sense.

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crca
I moved to SoCal from Arizona about 1.5 years ago for a job, and I plan to
leave within the next 6 months. The most striking aspect of living here is the
incongruity between taxes/state spending and the general despair of the
average Californian. Lots of natural beauty here but I can get better quality
of life and keep more of my money somewhere else.

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foogazi
Where are you moving to? Transfer or new job?

~~~
crca
New job, likely back to AZ since my industry is booming there too, and cost of
living is much lower. Also considering WA because family.

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SeekingMeaning
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