By Bob Silvestri
October 19, 2024
This is a follow-on to my previous articles on housing affordability challenges.
Priscilla Almodovar, the chief executive of Fannie Mae is noted by Marketwatch to be one of the 50 most influential people in the country. You would think someone of her stature would be able to share some special insight into our housing affordability challenges, other than the tropes and platitudes rampant on social media. But, you would be wrong.
By Amy Kalish
October 9, 2024
A recent Marin County Planning Commission agenda item to finalize the Corcoran v. County of Marin lawsuit, which the county lost, morphed into a much larger exposure of dysfunction between county interests and staff.
On Sept. 23, the commission voted 5-2 to simply follow a court order to remove unlawful language clauses from county documents that had been inserted by staff – over commissioners’ objections – in 2022.
By: Gaetan Lion –
September 30, 2024
There are 10 Propositions on the California November ballot. You can get more information on these Props at the Voter Guide. The probabilistic approach I use to figure out the likelihood of propositions passing may be too deterministic. Thus, one should take the probabilities I generate with a grain of salt. On the other hand, these probabilities may be more informative than the customary polls disclosures.
by Susan Kirsch
September 22,2024
Too much debt
Proposition 5 will introduce a tsunami of long-termdebt.
Prop 5 will reduce the approval threshold for localaffordable housing and public infrastructure bonds from the current two-thirdsvoter requirement to 55%, making it easier for cities, counties and specialdistricts to pass these measures.
Ernesto A Barrera
August 26, 2024
Why is it necessary to destroy single family neighborhoods in order to build more affordable housing?
There is absolutely no formula of housing development and growth that indicates any significant lowering of housing costs if more housing is developed. The poor will never be able to afford a home or apartment under current policies of private sector development since there is no incentive to lower the price of housing 75-percent below market rates.
By SUSAN SHELLEY
August 24, 2024
Proposition 5 makes it easier to raise property taxes.
The November ballot measure gets around Proposition 13’s limitations on property tax increases by making it easier for local governments to pass bonds, a method of borrowing money that is then paid back — with interest — by adding extra charges to property tax bills, sometimes for decades.
