The California Association of Realtors is pushing a new proposal:
C.A.R.’s Portability Initiative would allow homeowners 55 years of age or older to transfer some of their Proposition 13 property tax base to a home of any price, located anywhere in the state, any number of times.
This measure is important because seniors, who are often on a fixed income, fear they will not be able to afford a big property tax increase if they sell their existing home and buy another one, discouraging them from ever moving. As a result of this “moving penalty” almost three-quarters of homeowners 55 and older haven’t moved since 2000.
The measure, if approved by voters, will let thousands of seniors, currently “locked into” their homes by low property tax rates purchase a home that will better suit their needs freeing up housing inventory for young families seeking to buy a home. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office almost 43,000 additional transactions will occur annually.
The cost to circulate the initiative for signature gathering is $3 million, with the cost of the subsequent campaign ranging between $30 million and perhaps upward of $50 million, if the initiative is heavily contested. Funding would come from C.A.R. political action committees, reserves, NAR funds and a C.A.R. member assessment.
They conveniently ignore the fact that Prop 60 and 90 have already allowed homeowners 55 years of age and older to transfer their property-tax basis to a lower-priced home in these counties:
Alameda
El Dorado
Los Angeles
Orange
Riverside
San Diego
San Mateo
Santa Clara
Tuolumne
Ventura
So the ‘almost 43,000 additional transactions’ that will occur annually will be by those seniors who want/need a more-expensive home, or those tired of living at the coast who have been dying to move to places like El Centro!
The C.A.R. is also asking each realtor to join in:
The best way to help promote the initiative right now is to sign it, collect 4 additional signatures from family, friends, and clients, and return the petition. Anyone who signs the petition must be a registered voter and reside in the same county as the other signers on that petition. More petitions are available at your local association of REALTORS® office and REALTORS® are encouraged to gather signatures from their clients and while walking their farms.
Access instructions for signature gathering and a helpful script and walking pieceHERE.
Agents don’t have to worry too much about gathering their own signatures, because C.A.R. is assessing us an extra fee to pay for a campaign company.
The City of Solana Beach has made some incredible demands of their oceanfront homeowners, and our great friend and client Larry Salzman is fighting back!
The City of Solana Beach enacted regulations to prohibit beachfront owners from building retention walls or other protective structures to safeguard their homes from erosion unless they agreed to grant public access to their property.
The regulations also require homeowners to grant public access as a condition for a permit to repair damaged staircases that provide beach access from their homes.
A coalition of homeowners challenged the regulations as violating the California Coastal Act and the constitutional prohibition on takings without just compensation. The San Diego County Superior Court invalidated the regulations to the extent they required public access as a condition for protecting existing homes or repairing existing staircases, but refused to invalidate the regulations as applied to future development.
“Coastal homeowners have a right under California law to protect their homes from erosion with a seawall, with some qualifications written into the California Coastal Act. The City of Solana Beach’s land use policies take that right away, undermining both property rights and public safety.”
Last year at this time we were in shock at the thought of what a Trump administration might mean for our real estate market – there was no telling what was going to happen!
It’s not a stretch to say that next year should be easier to predict!
Factors to consider for your 2018 predictions:
Trump will name new leaders of the CFPB and the Fed, and both people should push for easier money. I don’t think we’ll be seeing no-doc mortgages any time soon, but the new regimes could strive for more things like higher production of the low-down-payment Fannie/Freddie loans (not that the lower-end markets need much stimulus!).
Goldman Sachs said yesterday that they expect the Fed to raise rates four times next year. But the recent Fed moves haven’t resulted in a corresponding increase in mortgage rates – so we might get into the mid-4% range, which isn’t the end of the world. The buyers – or sellers – can always buy down the rate if needed.
The tax reform will get watered down and passed when no one is looking, and buyers will forget about it quickly because it’s so hard to calculate the actual impact. Rising rates are much easier to figure.
The overall inventory of homes for sale probably won’t change much. There might be occasional spurts of listings here and there, but there is still no place for seniors to go that’s better than where they are today. We should have the same or slightly more estate sales, but no significant increase, and with the taxation so heavy on long-time owners, they and their families will just wait until they croak.
More affluent people from higher-end markets who are thinking about retiring will see coastal San Diego as a terrific option.
Our recent real estate boom since 2009 has caused sellers and agents to be extremely optimistic. Yesterday an agent complained about getting ‘lowballed’ when she got an offer that was $25,000 under the bottom of their range a week before Thanksgiving. It will take months – or years – before anyone notices, let alone reacts, to a major shift in buyer trends.
We are numb to the news. Mass killings are a regular event, sexual deviants are a dime a dozen, and it’s hard to imagine that Trump could say anything that would be a shock now. The news might be what’s causing buyers to want to hurry up and hunker down!
Expect more of what we’ve had recently – low inventory, and higher prices. But I do think we are way overdue for sales to decline – I already guessed 5% fewer NSDCC sales in 2018, and it could be worse.
Last week: We should see a bit of a surge this week before more people shut it down for the holidays!
We did see a bump in new pendings this week – there were 46 new listings, and 60 new pendings! The week before Thanksgiving and the last week of the year typically have more new pendings than listings – buyers are always looking!
Last week, Facebook announced that U.S. users are able to search for housing rentals on its Marketplace platform. Like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace—which launched in 2016—lets users buy and sell items nearby.
Now, not only can you sell an old couch, but also you can search for apartments and houses based on things like location, price, size, the number of bedrooms, and even if an apartment is animal friendly.
The housing section will include “hundreds of thousands of rentals” that go beyond the individual listings previously posted by users. Facebook has partnered with sources like Apartment List and Zumper to pull in listings. Other people—think brokers, agents, and property managers—can also post properties available for rent. Landlords can add 360-degree photos to each listing so that interested renters can take a virtual tour.
“Marketplace is a popular place for people to look for a home to rent,” said Facebook’s Bowen Pan. “Now that we’re adding listings from Apartment List and Zumper, people can search even more options in the U.S. to find a place to call home. First with vehicles and now with housing rentals, we’re partnering with businesses to bring more ease and convenience for consumers.”
Facebook’s latest announcement is part of a larger plan to keep users in the app longer and to function as a one-stop commerce platform for food, shopping, and even job hunts. Recently, Facebook upgraded Marketplace to include used car ads, and the continued expansion is in direct competition to longtime sites like Craigslist.
Joe Johnston is a long-time friend and a valued member of Klinge Realty since 2005! Here is his tour of his new listing in Carlsbad, priced at $730,000:
