San Francisco Bay Area real estate market has been boosted by the tech industry boom and now the region is experiencing a housing crisis. This is what the new bills of a San Mateo County lawmaker want to address through compelling developers to set a portion of new projects for affordable housing and allowing senior citizens to keep more tax money upon selling their homes.
As reported by San Francisco Examiner, Assemblyman Kevin Mullin of D-South San Francisco authored Assembly Bill 2502 which seeks to grant the cities again the authority of requiring new developers of including affordable units in new development projects. They used to have such power which was overturned in a court case in 2009. By having that mandate to developers, housing supply shortage can be solved and the 36 percent of households in Peninsula who could afford to own a home in 2014 would increase, perhaps to somewhere close to the national average of 74 percent.
On one hand, Assembly Bill 2668, which is authored by Mullin as well, seeks to enable senior citizens to keep most of their Prop. 13 tax savings once they sell their old homes. San Francisco Examiner also reported that this will serve as an incentive for the seniors to free up large homes and increase housing stock. Young families also get to benefit as the seniors downsize, giving them a chance to move into a bigger one as their families grow.
According to The Daily Journal, a report from the San Mateo County Association of Realtors showed that the median home prices in the county stood at $1.2 million in February. It is a slight decline from last July's media price of $1.3 million and prices remain sky high. Good homes sell as soon as they are listed in the market, and some homes sometimes receive a bid even before they are listed.
