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Originally Posted by ozone
So Youssefi was able to shake down the city afterall. A more reputable developer would have been able to get financing. But whatever, at least it's moving forward...finally!
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Wow, where does that hostility come from? This was a redevelopment project, no "shakedown" (the shakedown was one of the other proposals for the 700/800 block that asked for a lot more money.) and the city funds authorized were the public bonds associated with the release of state redevelopment funds. But those funds were less than expected, and the developer was able to get private equity to cover the funding gap.
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I have to ask wburg why he thinks that lack of home ownership is such a huge problem for the central city? Since the current economics does not favor home ownership in the central city I don't see things changing for at least 20 years. Instead we would be wise to treat renters with the same respect we give the property owners. I don't think the high % of renters is such a huge problem. But I think not providing the long-term renting residents the mechanisms in which to improve their community is troubling. Renter's contribution to the economy and social life of the central city is enormous, but largely ignored. We are still rather small-minded in this way. Do I want more home ownership in the central city/midtown? Yes. But we can't expect that to happen if the city kowtows to the out-of-area property owners and absentee landlords and does nothing to encourage residents (renters and owner-occupied alike) to take a vested interest in improving their surroundings. End of rant, thank you and goodnight.
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The lack of home ownership is a huge problem because of the reasons you just mentioned: out-of-area property owners and absentee landlords who do nothing to encourage residents to take a vested interest in improving their surroundings. I'm not exaggerating when I say 90% of central city housing is rental--9 out of 10 housing units are rentals, 1 out of 10 are owners. Compare that to the city as a whole, where 60% of the housing is ownership, or nearby neighborhoods like Land Park and East Sacramento, where 80-90% of the housing is ownership. Some parts of the "grid" have higher percentages than others (Marshall School/New Era is the highest at 25%, the Southside at 20%, Newton Booth around 10%, Midtown proper more like 7%, and Downtown in the central business district and Old Sacramento are less than 1% ownership) but even the highest are still ridiculously low compared to the rest of the city.
Current economics favors home ownership in the central city, which is why the market for central city housing is so red-hot. It's tough to find a "fixer" home in Midtown for less than $300K (most of them have already been "fixed" and command higher prices), the handful of condos start at $200K and run up to a million, and infill homes like Tapestri Square, 2500 R and other small projects are being sold as fast as they can be built with prices ranging from $350K-800K. The problem is
there isn't enough housing for sale to meet the demand. That's due to a lack of supply, not a market that doesn't favor home ownership.
It's a big problem because one of the indicators of the health of a neighborhood is ownership housing. Owners tend to stay longer and, because they are tied to the neighborhood via a significant financial investment, are more personally interested in the fate of the neighborhood. Certainly renters can become interested in civic engagement, if they are policy wonks or just very civic-minded, but it's a lot harder to reach renters and many tend to see their tenancy as temporary. If the neighborhood becomes less livable, they can just move out. Now, a lot of the apartments under construction or recently built were built to condo standards, so some of them could "go condo" in a decade and change the balance somewhat. But it's still a systemic problem primarily driven by the lack of sufficient ownership housing quantity. That means that a Midtown resident in an apartment who wants to buy is less likely to be able to find ownership housing in their own neighborhood--so they move to Curtis Park, East Sacramento, Tahoe Park or Oak Park instead. As a result, those who do want to become more established, those with higher disposable incomes who want to invest in their neighborhood, are likely to do it outside the central city.
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