PDA

View Full Version : 'Liberal' California Wages War on Middle Class and Poor



carbonmarine
11-18-2004, 03:40 PM
'Liberal' California Wages War on Middle Class and Poor
California's high taxes and obsession with elitist political correctness have made the state so expensive that a fourth of residents are thinking about moving to a more reasonable state.
As greedy cities, counties and other governmental bodies restrict property rights and development in the name of environmentalism, housing has become prohibitively overpriced.
Story Continues Below
The young are especially hard hit. A study released today by Public Policy Institute of California found that:
# 60 percent of respondents worry that their children will not be able to buy homes nearby.
# Only one in five who want someday to buy a house think they will be able to.
# Nearly half of respondents under 35 say they are considering leaving.
Instead of being optimistic about life in the former Golden State, the new generation "coming into the owning stages of their lives ... are exactly the people who are talking about moving elsewhere," warned Mark Baldassare, author of the statewide study. "You're talking about your work force. You're talking about your future."
The median price of a house nationwide is $186,600. In California it's $465,000.
Naturally, the most unaffordable areas are those most heavily Democrat. "The survey, the most comprehensive of its kind in years in California, reveals the moving-out sentiment is highest in coastal areas, and many are acting on it. Since 1995, according to the institute, more than 350,000 residents have moved from the coast to the less expensive Central Valley," the Associated Press reported today.
Take a look at the red-blue maps of congressional districts and recent presidential elections to get an idea of how the left-wing elitists of San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin County, Mendocino County and so forth are trying to price out those awful middle-class and poor people so they can sip their $6 frappuccinos and juices with like-minded pseudointellectuals.
In another sign of California's drop-dead attitude toward the middle and lower classes, harsher new emissions regulations will make cars cost up to several thousand dollars more there than elsewhere in America, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
Some of the blame, of course, goes to California's voters. Though he has tried to stop the exodus of jobs to lower-cost states, liberal Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded residents of his deficit-plagued state to burden themselves further with a $6 billion spending spree on unproven research that destroys human embryos, even as hospitals in slums such as Watts are being closed.
Incidentally, the reality of elitist, unaffordable "blue" regions vs. more reasonable "red" regions exists nationwide. Consider: Massachusetts vs. Missouri, Vermont vs. Virginia, southern Maine vs. northern Maine, southeast Florida vs. north Florida, Seattle vs. Spokane, Aspen and Boulder vs. the rest of Colorado, Jackson Hole vs. the rest of Wyoming, Sun Valley vs. the rest of Idaho, northern New Mexico vs. southern New Mexico ....

HighRoller
11-18-2004, 03:49 PM
I have friends and family in Cali and they all agree it's a one way street there now. Nobody from outside the state can afford to buy a house there, and the massive appreciation homeowners have seen only helps them if they move out of state! My sister's house has doubled in value but she still can't afford a bigger house because they've gone up just as much! I have literally been priced out of considering a move back there, which is too bad.
The worst part is that in order to afford housing in Cali, desperate people are getting these interest only and adjustable rate mortgages to get a smaller payment. When the interest rates go up they will all get hammered and many of them will lose their houses. It's no surprise that almost a million more people left Cali last year than moved into it.

Excessive Force
11-18-2004, 03:53 PM
Time to get the f out of dodge!

cigarette1
11-18-2004, 04:21 PM
Everybody leave .... it's too frickin' crowded here anyway :D

Mrs CP 19
11-18-2004, 05:42 PM
This isn't the first time I've heard this. I'll believe it when I see it...Also, someone better tell the developers, they sure aren't slowing down. Jill

Bob Noxious
11-18-2004, 06:12 PM
You gotta be kidding me... That is the most spun, biased assortment of unrelated facts I've seen!
Houses are expensive there because there is no suitable land left and buyers have the means to bid the prices way up. If you live in California and don't like it and want to leave, perhaps, as a parting gesture, you could sell your house for the same price you paid since you can still buy a home in Havasu for about half of your Cal price.
Most of the folks I know down in Havasu that aren't leaving and are neither builders nor realtors are complaining about the out-of-control price increases caused by out-of-towners with the ability to bid the prices way beyond the average means of an essentially minimum-wage town. Arizona doesn't have prop 13 indexing, so taxes go up when prices jump.