HCD Web News - August 29, 2011

 August 29, 2011TODAY'S NEWS AFFORDABLE HOUSINGSAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: Evicted residents get first dibs at Solana Beach affordable housingBy Jonathan Horn // SOLANA BEACH — Members of 13 households displaced from a Solana Beach mobile-home park nearly 20 years ago will have first dibs at a new affordable housing complex the city is pursuing a block from its exclusive coastal bluffs. Solana Beach is obligated to weigh the applications of people from those households first for the proposed complex, called The Pearl, because of a legal settlement in 1993. There are 28 individuals named in the settlement, last updated in 1999. … The Pearl, a 10-unit complex planned for Sierra Avenue, is the city’s latest effort to make good on the settlement. HOUSING DEVELOPMENTSAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Foster City takes another look at developing key siteBy Aaron Kinney // The City Council is poised to get its first look at two new proposals to develop a vacant property that's essential to the city's cultural and financial future. Two years after the economic crisis doomed the first effort to build a new community on a 15-acre parcel next to City Hall, the city is ready once again to hire a developer to fulfill its vision for senior housing intertwined with shops, restaurants and a public gathering spot. … Councilwoman Pam Frisella said the city has had to scale back its ambitions for the site due to financial constraints imposed by the poor economy. HOUSING MARKETS / REAL ESTATESACRAMENTO BEE: Generation of homeowners stuck in first housesBy Rick Daysog // They're trapped, like so many members of their generation. Steve and Tasha McLaughlin have had two kids since they bought their two-bedroom "Brady Bunch"-style house in South Natomas seven years ago. They need more room, but they can't move: The house they bought for $256,000 is worth just $90,000, and an attempt to sell it failed. "We are literally stuck," said Tasha McLaughlin, 33. "There's no light ahead." The McLaughlins and tens of thousands of others like them in the Sacramento region are unable to take the traditional second step on the American home ownership ladder. MORTGAGE & FORECLOSURE ISSUESSAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Foreclosures made up 31 pct. of home sales in 2QBy Derek Kravitz [8/25/11] // Foreclosures made up roughly one-third of all home sales this spring. While that's a smaller share of sales from the previous quarter, it's six times the percentage of foreclosures in a healthy housing market. Foreclosure sales, which include homes purchased after they received a notice of default or that were repossessed by lenders, accounted for 31 percent of the market in the April-June quarter, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. … SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN: Vacant rental homes: maybe, maybe notBy Josh Dulaney // …They might be handling more of it these days. While not immediately able to provide figures on the amount of similar cases, Charles Carter, acting code enforcement division manager, said the city seems to be increasingly going after the problem. "We've run into it..." Carter said. "It's been an issue to where people see vacant houses and they see an opportunity and they try to rent it out. We've seen this time and time again." He advised property owners to check frequently on their rentals, or at least have a property manager do so on a weekly or monthly basis. … HOMELESSNESSLOS ANGELES TIMES: Turning a revolving door into a gatewayBy Steve Lopez // …Ron Thomas had said that his 37-year-old son, who died violently in July after a run-in with Fullerton police, was in and out of treatment facilities after being diagnosed with schizophrenia 15 years earlier. I hear that all the time — in and out of treatment. Thousands of people who fit that description wander the streets of Southern California. … The supervisors would be better off investigating why, despite having the second-highest population of chronically homeless people in California, Orange County has fallen way behind on its 2009 plan to use available Proposition 63 funds for the construction of 185 supportive housing units by 2012. LOS ANGELES TIMES: After the hospital, a haven for homeless patients to recuperateBy Anna Gorman // A taxi dropped off Kim McAuliffe, clutching a plastic bag of medications, at a Los Angeles motel. She had just been discharged from Garfield Medical Center and had nowhere to go. "The hospital sent you here to rest after you've been sick," Roy Kaufman, a case coordinator, told her as she slumped into a chair. "We're gonna take care of you." Everyone here has been in a hospital, is ill and homeless. Outside, the place looks like a standard motel, with a sign advertising color TV and air conditioning. Inside, nurses help homeless patients … ECONOMY / EMPLOYMENTSACRAMENTO BEE: Sputtering U.S. economy has some hiring hot spotsBy Dale Kasler & Phillip Reese // There really are jobs out there. Just not enough of them. It's true: America's bleak economic landscape includes pockets of prosperity. Factories are expanding in the Sacramento area, the Rust Belt and elsewhere. The tech sector is humming, from Silicon Valley to North Carolina. Las Vegas casinos are hiring again. High energy prices are creating work – in obvious places like Oklahoma and Texas, as well as the hinterlands of North Dakota, an oil-rich state that boasts the nation's lowest unemployment rate. … THE DESERT SUN: The Desert Sun Economic Index: Recession ends for ValleyBy Debra Groszecki // On paper, the Great Recession has finally ended in the Coachella Valley. The newest data says the desert region has generated a sufficient amount of jobs and business activity to start expanding the economy for the first time in nearly four years. But even the economist who puts the numbers together acknowledges it doesn't feel that way and says the recovery could already be fizzling, potentially stumbling back into another recession. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Economy grows slower than expected, stoking fears of another recessionBy Christopher S. Rugaber (AP) // WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy grew at a meager 1 percent annual pace this spring, slower than previously estimated. The downward revision stoked fears that the economy is at risk of another recession. Fewer exports and weaker growth in business stockpiles led the government to lower its growth estimate for the April-June quarter from the initial 1.3 percent rate. The economy expanded only 0.7 percent in the first six months of the year, the Commerce Department said Friday. … MODESTO BEE: Valley economic woes reminiscent of '90sBy Patty Guerra // The Northern San Joaquin Valley has gotten used to hearing dismal economic numbers: 18 percent unemployment, median income of $30,000 or so, average home prices around $130,000. Though it might seem that the economy is in the worse shape ever, people who have a history in the area have seen these numbers before. Take the year 1995. The unemployment rate hovered around 17 percent and you could buy a house for roughly $110,000. Though fewer people were unemployed, those who were working made a lot less: The median income was about $21,000. Then again, drivers were paying about $1.15 for gas, so that money went further. … REDEVELOPMENT / INFILL / REVITALIZATIONSAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Officials face tough decisions on projectsBy Lisa Vorderbrueggen // Contra Costa can afford to keep its redevelopment agency alive, even after it forks over to the state a mandatory $5 million fee some characterize as ransom. Some of the affordable housing, transit village and other projects in the county's five redevelopment regions -- Bay Point, North Richmond, the Contra Costa Centre transit village near the Pleasant Hill BART station, Rodeo and Montalvin Manor -- will be delayed or canceled because of the fee, the county staff has advised. … PETALUMA PRESS DEMOCRAT: Redevelopment fight cuts funding to Petaluma nonprofitsPetaluma nonprofit agencies may lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of funds meant to help the homeless, low-income and senior citizens because the city's 2011-2012 budget still hasn't been approved. The issue has arisen amid the redevelopment battle between state legislators and municipal redevelopment agencies. First, the Legislature passed laws that dissolved city and county redevelopment agencies and instituted a “pay to play” system where local governments could pay a fee to retain their agencies. INFRASTRUCTURE SACRAMENTO BEE: Regs Run Amok: SMUD's 'solar highways' face many regulatory speed bumpsBy Foon Rhee // To the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, "solar highways" are a really bright idea. Like all utilities in California, it's under an edict to ramp up solar and other renewable energy. Putting solar panels along mostly unused roadsides is much better than taking up productive farmland. Placing the arrays close to homes and businesses also reduces the need for expensive transmission lines. The projects could also create some jobs along the way, no small matter when unemployment locally and statewide is stuck above 12 percent. … INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN: Legislature to conduct audit of Caltrans' 710 freeway properties in San Gabriel ValleyBy Beige Luciano-Adams // Adding another wave to a rolling, decades-long debate, the Legislature on Wednesday approved an audit of how Caltrans maintains hundreds of state-owned homes - including historic properties - along the proposed 710 Freeway corridor in Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles. The state bought up nearly 500 homes along the route where it planned to continue the freeway more than 30 years ago, ultimately playing reluctant landlord to often-unhappy tenants while the extension remained chronically stalled. Many critics of the agency's management of those properties …have pushed unsuccessfully for the sale of the homes to private owners. NATIONAL HOUSING NEWSUSA TODAY.COM: Number of short sales on the riseBy Julie Schmit // Short sales — when lenders allow financially strapped borrowers to sell homes for less than their unpaid mortgage — accounted for 12% of home sales nationwide in the second quarter. That's up from 10% in the same period last year, says researcher RealtyTrac. The increases were sharper in some states, including California, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Colorado, the data show. In Colorado, short sales were 17% of all sales in the second quarter, up from 10% a year earlier. In California, they made up 25% of sales, vs. 18%. DEMOGRAPHICS / QUALITY OF LIFESACRAMENTO BEE: Culturally sensitive senior care supports aging Japanese AmericansBy Marisa Agha // ARLETA – Mary Gima greets strangers with a warm smile as she mingles among diners enjoying lunch at Nikkei Senior Gardens. At 89, she moves among newcomers and friends with equal eagerness and cheer. … About 24 percent of the nearly 767,000 Japanese Americans are 65 or older – the largest proportion of seniors of any group, the census survey found. With 20.7 percent of the U.S. population projected to be 65 and older by 2050, experts say the Japanese American community's care-giving and housing challenges are prophetic for a nation that is living longer. CLIMATE CHANGE / GREEN BUILDINGLOS ANGELES TIMES: Energy-efficient homes seem to sell faster, fetch higher pricesBy Kenneth R. Harney // Home energy efficiency and sustainability have been major policy priorities for the Obama administration, but lurking in the background are two consistent questions: Beyond the documentable savings on utility bills, do such steps add to the resale value of a home? And do they make it easier or faster to sell your property? Housing groups and housing officials say that definitive statistical data covering multiple regions of the country are scarce. But some localized research projects in Oregon, Washington and California offer promising hints. … GOVERNMENT SITES: California Dept. of Finance – Governor’s Budget http://www.dof.ca.gov/Budget/Historical_Documents.asp California Dept. of Housing & Community Development - Press Releaseshttp://www.hcd.ca.gov/news/release/ California Dept. of Housing & Community Development – Housing Policy Development Bibliographieshttp://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/biblio.html California Dept. of Housing & Community Development – HCD Web Newshttp://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/news/index.html California Housing Financing Agencyhttp://www.calhfa.ca.gov/ California Tax Credit Allocation Committeehttp://www.treasurer.ca.gov/ctcac/ California Debt Limit Allocation Committeehttp://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cdlac/ HUD Newsroomhttp://www.hud.gov/news/ COVERAGE INFORMATION: California Department of Housing & Community Development WEB NEWS service coverage: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week includes electronic format articles retrieved from newspapers or news services that report housing and community development news in California and some national services. Coverage is for California newspapers that are available electronically via the Internet – and any significant related breaking news. (C) Copyright 2011, California Department of Housing & Community Development, Division of Housing Policy DevelopmentLinks to web sites do not constitute an endorsement from The California Department of Housing and Community Development. These links are provided as an information service only. It is the responsibility of the user to evaluate the content and usefulness of information obtained from these sites. HCD does not provide full text articles – user must access expired articles via newspaper archives online or local public library. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------This email was sent to [email protected] by the California Department of Housing and Community Development
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