Today, the White House released their plan to fix housing:
I only skimmed it and I didn’t see the one thing that could really make a difference, which is re-purposing federally-owned real estate for residential use.
Let’s start with MCAS Miramar, which is 23,116 acres in the middle of San Diego that would be ideal for residential development. It’s big enough that you could have something for everybody!
We had our chance once:
In 1954, the Navy offered NAS Miramar to San Diego for $1 and the city considered using the base to relocate its airport. But it was deemed at the time to be too far away from most residents and the offer was declined.
Let’s leave the airport where it is and redevelop Miramar!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Miramar
I have fully read the release and analyzed every word in detail with my two pups. Conclusion: It will only make housing far more expensive. Bank on it.
It’s why we need to take a big swing at a 23,116-acre project. It is the only hope to create somewhat-affordable housing.
I say promise a big water pipe out to California City and solicit bids for min 10 ac sites up to 2000 ac. Include teacher’s unions and Cal State University system.
If the government “is here to help” you can guarantee things are going to get worse.
California City? Sounds like a perfect place for me to clean up:
In 1958, Czech-born Columbia University sociology professor and real estate developer Nathan “Nat” K. Mendelsohn purchased 82,000 acres (33,000 ha) of Mojave Desert land with the aim of making California’s next great city. California City Development Company (CCDC) was aggressively marketing the city by running a “real estate school” to license and train a large salesforce, and a quarter-page Los Angeles Times advertorial described it as a “giant venture” and “inevitable growth”.
Mendelsohn hoped it would one day rival Los Angeles in population, and CCDC had the Smith and Williams architects master plan the community in 1961; Garrett Eckbo also contributed. Mendelsohn built a Central Park with a 26-acre (11 ha) artificial lake. Two golf courses and a four-story Holiday Inn were built next to the park. Ultimately the actions of CCDC caused the town to become known for land speculation through CCDC and successors. Mendelsohn was advertising the city for land speculation by 1962; 175 homes had been built by then. The city has a rich history of promotion, including hiring Erik Estrada to advocate for the city; in the 2000s land was sold through infomercials.
The Italian-American civil engineer Olindo R. Angelillo surveyed the city’s aquifer on behalf of CCDC in 1959, stating it was on top of a “virtual underground lake” of 1 million acre-feet of water per year. This was quickly rebutted by the chief of a US Geological Survey office, a hydraulic engineer at the state’s water department and California’s Association of Engineering Geologists.
The first post office opened in 1960.
California City was incorporated on December 10, 1965, partly to shift municipal infrastructure responsibility to the city, rather than CCDC. It was described as having 158 square miles of land, 5,900 landowners, 817 residents, and 232 homes.
Growth fell well short of his expectations and by the time Mendelsohn sold his shares in CCDC in 1969 to Great Western United Corporation, only 1,300 people had moved in; CCDC was described as having a 1,300-person salesforce at that time, with ads for “real estate salesmen” describing it as “A whole new successful way of selling California real estate!!!”
The Federal Trade Commission also began inspecting the company in 1969, and Ralph Nader’s 25-person California task force (part of “Nader’s Raiders”) published “Power and Land in California” in late 1971. The book accused various individuals and agencies of ineptitude and corruption, as well as focusing on California City, calling it a fraud and “a particularly stark study of government failure.” By that time Mendelsohn had sold over $100 million in land.
By the 1970s over 50,000 lots had been sold and the market dried up. The FTC filed a cease and desist against the company for misleading advertising, with a consent order coming in 1972 from FTC’s Richard Lavine. Charges (which White effectively agreed with in 1971) included the real estate school was primarily geared towards selling land, not providing training; enrollees were required to bring in land prospects; the property was encumbered, not fee simple, advertised improvements (e.g. roads) did not exist; it failed to meet the Truth in Lending Act. In 1974 The New York Times described Great Western City Corporation as “the troubled land development subsidiary” of Great Western United. After taking CCDC to court, the Federal Trade Commission’s Ken Donney reached a settlement in 1977, with over 14,000 landowners receiving partial refunds from a $4 million pool, the largest FTC settlement to date. CCDC was also required to invest $16 million in long-promised infrastructure developments at CCDC’s three cities.
Although areas of California City have not developed as expected, California City has grown from 3,200 people in 1985 to over 14,000 in 2018, clustered around the west end. Cerro Coso Community College closed escrow on 22 acres (8.9 ha) in the heart of California City for a community college to serve Edwards AFB, California City, Mojave, Boron, North Edwards and the entire high desert in the Antelope Valley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_City,_California
How to fix housing: RAISE THE DAMN $250/500k TAX EXCLUSION!!! Should be $500k/$1 million.
I mean geez – how many years has it been. And also adjusted annually for inflation.
The $250/$500k exemption is the same as it was in 1997.
The median home value for San Diego in 1997? $191,818.
Today it is close to $1,000,000.
http://www.laalmanac.com/economy/ec37.php
How about not getting involved in the foreclosure process and backstopping the banks. Let people, institutions and investors fail. Don’t let the banks bundled up REOs and sell them to institutional investors like Blackstone and no more loan mods. We need to purge the stool because it was not fully flushed from 2007-2013 and there are still turds in the bowl.
We need to purge the stool because it was not fully flushed from 2007-2013 and there are still turds in the bowl.
LOL – good one!
What? Responsible government spending that would make US dollars worth something didn’t make the list?