Below is the majority of an article written by Chris Trafecanty of Lighthouse Loans:
A full fledged housing crisis has gripped California, marked by a severe lack of affordable homes and apartments for middle-class families. The median cost of a home here is now a staggering $500, 000 – twice the national cost.
For California, this crisis is a price of this state’s economic boom. Tax revenue is up and unemployment is down. But the churning economy has run up against 30 years of resistance to the kind of development experts say is urgently needed. California has always been a desirable place to live and over the decades has gone through periodic spasms of high housing costs, but officials say the combination of of a booming economy and the lack of construction of homes and apartments have combined to make this the worst housing crisis here in memory.
Home buyers and the cost of housing is beyond the reach for almost all of this state’s low-income population. Despite having some of the highest wages in the nation, the state also has the highest adjusted poverty rate.
Homes are selling even faster than they did last year, when nearly one in five sold within a week.
Mortgage rates will climb from below 4 percent to 5 percent or higher for a standard 30 year loan. And because of high demand, home prices are expected to keep climbing, pushing the monthly payments 15 to 20 percent higher.
Chris Trafecanty, Lighthouse Home Loans, ctrout@fasterhomeloans.com, May 2018.
