The county has missed the cause of expensive housing, and their
new burden on home builders will only make the situation worse for
everyone in San Benito County.
Dear Editor:
The county has missed the cause of expensive housing, and their new burden on home builders will only make the situation worse for everyone in San Benito County.
The root cause of high home prices is the lack of supply of houses in San Benito County and everywhere else in California. The reason you have to pay $500,000 for a house that has an intrinsic worth of only $250,000 is that there are not enough houses to go around for the population. If the county would give out a sufficient number of housing permits, then home builders could build a real $500,000 houses for those who want them, and the low income people could buy the $250,000 house that are already there.
Instead, the county and the no-growth people make it impossible to add to the housing supply, by adding fees, costs and restrictions. This new restriction will make the other 70 percent of the houses that get built (if anyone is foolish enough to try in this county) even more expensive. Your statement that builders will figure out a way is very naive. They don’t have a magic wand. They can only either give up or make everything else cost more.
What is with no-growth people? The growth is there whether they want it or not. The state population went from 27 million to 33 million in the last census. The new California residents want a home to live in, roads to get to work on, schools for their children, office buildings and factories to work in, hospitals, etc. etc. You can’t build a fence around San Benito County, and say that it will always be the same for 100 years with 1 percent building caps when the population is growing much faster than 1 percent.
Don’t these people want their children and neighbors to live a good life like they did? These no-growth people are stingy, selfish, unrealistic and driving house prices through the ceiling. They want the world to fit them. It’s the other way around in life.
Low income people will benefit from a bigger housing supply, not a government mandated “tax” on home builders that gets passed onto you and me when we want to buy a house. Does the government tell banks to give free loans to low income people, or does it tell Safeway to give them groceries at a lower price? Why is it OK to pick the pockets of builders? The whole community should bear the burden, not a single group of business people.
Dan Terrell,
San Carlos
