Dan Walters: A two-tier California is now reality - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee: "The most graphic statistical evidence of California's two-tier economy, however, is found in a new study released by the United Ways of California. It found that 30 percent of California households lack enough income to cover 'bare-bones living expenses.'"
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Fred Pilot sent this along. I am one of the people who talked about a two-tier society, way back in the mid 1980s. But I always figured the top tier would include the people living in private communities. Now it looks as though it isn't that simple--many of the casualties in the current recession are living in CIDs.
2 comments:
Why is there such an elitist attitude about people living in HOAs? HOAs have been mandated for decades - so people haven't had any meaningful choice but to live in HOA burdened housing. HOAs do not serve as a barrier to societal ills. If anything they are often concentrated in HOAs. There are rich, poor, criminal, victims, thieves, burglars, extortionists, etc., etc. living in HOAs.
Housing in HOAs was overpriced because Wall street needed commodity mortgages and HOA housing filled the bill. HOA housing made trading HOA mortgages to investors much easier even though much of the theory behind HOAs was simply false.
The true cost of HOA housing has long been hidden from public view. HOA housing costs more than housing outside of HOAs. In addition to the added hidden burden of assessments there is an entire industry they preys upon HOA residents largely through the creation of false debt. So in addition, to hidden assessments, homeowners are often compelled to pay HOA attorney fees, management company fees, etc. to "go away".
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the "two tier" is disproportionately weighted by HOA housing. The HOA offers owners no upside but guarantees a miserable quality of life, ongoing unnecessary costs, litigation guaranteed to create problems when you try to sell your home, etc.
Perhaps the current economic climate will enable residents in at least some subdivisions to terminate the HOA burdening their properties.
"But I always figured the top tier would include the people living in private communities. Now it looks as though it isn't that simple--many of the casualties in the current recession are living in CIDs."
That might have been the case pre-1970 when CIDs were largely exclusive enclaves. Now they are the private equivalent of local government in large areas of the U.S., exercising jurisdiction over posh upscale "executive home" areas as well as cookie cutter suburbs.
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