By Jack Flemming

November 18, 2021

Home prices across the country soared during the pandemic, but at the top of the market, California kept its crown as the priciest state in the nation — by far.

A new study from PropertyShark found that California holds 89 of the 127 most expensive ZIP Codes in the country, or roughly 70%. That’s three percentage points more than the lion’s share it held last year.

The report, which measured 2021 residential transactions that closed from Jan. 1 to Oct. 22, also named Los Angeles County as the highest-priced county in the country, with 21 ZIP Codes on the list. The Bay Area’s Santa Clara County ranked second with 15, and San Mateo County ranked third with 10.

For the fifth straight year, the Silicon Valley suburb of Atherton was the tip-top ZIP Code, with a median sales price of $7.475 million. Of the 28 houses currently up for grabs in the ultra-rich enclave, 22 are listed for more than $10 million.

Read more at the LA Times

By Emma Colton at FoxBusiness

October 31, 2021

Sacramento, California, is at the top of the list for the United States’s least affordable new homes markets.

A new study examining household incomes and comparing them with median new home construction mortgages found the California capital tying with Miami, Florida. Eighty percent of households in the Sacramento region, same as Miami, are priced out of new homes, the study from real estate-technology firm, Knock, found.

The median new construction home price in the Sacramento region is $650,000, which means residents need an income of about $128,000 to afford an average down payment of $39,000. The median household income in the area is $76,706, according to the report.

One Sacramento real estate group owner, Kelly Pleasant, said there is a shortage of homes in the area and the market has become less competitive in the last 45 days.

“Instead of maybe 10 offers (per listing), you’re seeing five offers,” Pleasant told The Sacramento Bee. “Instead of $50,000 or $60,000 over, maybe you’re getting it at list price or $20,000 over.”

Read more at FoxBusiness

By Marisa Kendall at The OC Register

September 16, 2021

In one of his first actions after surviving an election seeking to oust him from office, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday essentially abolished single-family zoning in California – and green-lighted a series of bills intended to bolster the state’s housing production.

By signing Senate Bill 9 into law, Newsom opened the door for the development of up to four residential units on single-family lots across California. The move follows a growing push by local governments to allow multi-family dwellings in more residential neighborhoods. Berkeley voted to eliminate single-family zoning by Dec. 2022, and San Jose is set to consider the issue next month.

While opponents fear such a sweeping change will destroy the character of residential neighborhoods, supporters hail it as a necessary way to combat the state’s persistent housing crisis and correct city zoning laws that have contributed to racial segregation.

Read more at The OC Register

By John Myers

June 7, 2021

The events of the last few days raise the question: In eight days, will Californians mistakenly believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is over? After all, Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised a “full reopening” of the state on that date.

In reality, the changes taking place on June 15 are only the beginning of California’s journey back to normality. But the facts have been blurred by imprecise messages, some delivered by Newsom, repeated on social and news media platforms for weeks.

The simmering issue boiled over late last week, leaving the governor’s administration scrambling to explain why the “reopening” will not bring an end to the state’s emergency declaration.

Read more at the LA Times

By Leslie Kaufman and Eugene Reznik

June 3, 2021

There is dry, and then there is desiccated.

As any movie fan knows from the classic film Chinatown, California is an infamously thirsty place. But this year, even by its own standards, the state is shockingly, scarily parched. So far in 2021, the state has received half of its expected precipitation; that makes it the third driest year on record according to California’s Department of Water Resources.

This past week, as temperatures from Sacramento up to the Oregon border topped 100º Fahrenheit, the intense heat evaporated the remaining water at an astonishing pace, creating scenes more reminiscent of Hollywood-manufactured dystopias like Mad Max than the lush paradise Americans are used to envisioning on their West Coast.

At Folsom Lake, the enormous reservoir that supplies both drinking and irrigation water in the middle of the state, surface levels suddenly dropped to 68 feet below what they were at this time last year. By last week, boat slips that once floated were sitting on a dry lake bed with grass sprouting around them.

Folsom is hardly alone in its extremity. The long-lasting lack of precipitation is taxing reservoirs state-wide. On April 21, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in two northern counties, Mendocino and Sonoma, where water levels had reached record lows. On May 10, Newsom extended the emergency declaration to encompass 41 of the state’s counties, which are home to roughly 30% of the state’s population.

And still the water supply shrinks. Nicasio Reservoir outside of San Francisco has been reduced to a cracked dried mud flat, while green algae grows at the edges of the San Luis Reservoir, just south of San Jose.

Read more at Bloomberg

By Hannah Wiley at the Sacramento Bee

November 6, 2020

California’s state Capitol is home to some of the most liberal lawmakers in America.

This year alone, the Legislature passed laws that require California’s public corporations to appoint more minority or LGBTQ directors to their boards, expand the state’s paid family leave law and initiate a reparations process for Black Californians who are descendants of slaves.

But Election Day issued a reality check to the Democratic supermajority in the Capitol, where Republicans are outnumbered four to one.

Through four ballot initiatives, voters rejected policies on labor, criminal justice and voting that lawmakers passed in recent years, demonstrating a sharp ideological divide between progressives in Sacramento and the general California electorate.

With their votes, said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, Californians sent a clear message to their representatives in the Capitol: “Don’t get too progressive. Focus on what matters to people.”

Read more at the Sacramento Bee

By John Myers at the LA Times

September 11, 2020

SACRAMENTO — Wading into a contentious battle over the legacy of California’s landmark property tax law, Proposition 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed on Friday a November ballot measure that would make commercial property owners subject to billions of dollars in additional taxes each year.

By Mike Roos at the OC Register

August 16, 2020

Southern California is confronting the worst economic crisis in modern times. Across our community, the outlook looks uncertain for millions of families and countless small businesses. Amid conditions not seen since the Great Depression, voters will decide this November the fate of Proposition 15—the largest proposed property tax increase in state history.

Unless rejected by voters, Prop. 15 and the $11.5 billion tax hike it imposes will prove to be another impediment for unemployed workers counting on an economic rebound in the not-too-distant future. Prop. 15 will add another significant burden to small businesses who already face an existential crisis.

Worse still, the tax increase’s cost will be passed along to consumers, as we’ll be forced to pay more for basic necessities like groceries, gasoline, diapers and clothing.

Southern California’s future – and with it the state’s recovery – relies on a strong economy that creates jobs for workers and allows small businesses to confidently re-open and engage in commerce. Prop 15’s massive tax increases would significantly undermine these goals.

Read more at the OC Register

By Cyrus Farivar at NBC News

August 19, 2020

OAKLAND, Calif. — Uber and Lyft say that unless a state appeals court decides to intervene Thursday, they will shut down their passenger services across California for at least several months if not more than a year.

The companies say it is practically impossible for them to comply with a San Francisco judge’s order last week that said they had violated a new state law known as AB5 and had misclassified hundreds of thousands of their drivers as contractors rather than employees.

San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman found an “overwhelming likelihood” that Uber and Lyft had misclassified their drivers. He issued a preliminary injunction ordering the companies to halt the practice, which saves the companies millions of dollars a year because they do not have to pay into benefits programs, including unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation.

Read more at NBC News 

By The Editorial Board at The OC Register

June 11, 2020

The California Assessors’ Association has come out in opposition to a recently qualified November ballot initiative that would change Proposition 13 to require the reassessment of many commercial and industrial properties to current market value.

In a letter to state lawmakers, CAA President Don Gaekle, assessor for Stanislaus County, cited the “immense anticipated statewide implementation costs and complexities, as well as the disparate impacts to the various California counties as the reasons the assessors felt “compelled” to oppose the measure that proponents have named The California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act of 2020.

Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone told lawmakers during an informational hearing on June 4 that the California Assessors’ Association completed a comprehensive analysis of the so-called “split roll” initiative with the goal of answering one question: Can assessors implement the initiative?

“Our conclusion is we cannot,” he testified, “It would be impossible — not difficult, but impossible — to administer all of the provisions of the measure as it is written.”

Read more at the OC Register