Affordability Matters
It’s taken more than 11 years, but San Fernando Valley home prices have finally climbed back to the pre-recession peak recorded in June 1989. Then the median price for existing homes was $245,000; in August Valley homes set a new record when the median price hit $255,000.
For anyone who bought at or near the last peak, the August figures are more cause for relief than celebration. Those buyers no doubt expected a better return after 11 years for what is for most people the largest investment they will make. They likely did not expect to see the economy wracked first by cuts in defense spending and then by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Following that one-two punch, Valley home prices bottomed out in November 1995 at $155,000.
As for new homeowners who bought on the upswing--well, the whopping 20.3% increase over the median price from just one year ago is definitely good news.
But it’s bad news for those Valley residents who have not yet bought a home and want to--and who now will have to scrape together even more money for a down payment. And it’s bad news for renters who, as demand outstrips the housing supply, will likely see their costs go up as well.
And because we all share the same Valley, bad news for one portion affects us all.
Existing homeowners, flush from the market upswing, might want to trade up to a larger house in a better neighborhood--but won’t be able to if high home prices shut out entry-level buyers.
And if the workers who are fueling today’s economic boom can’t afford to live here, today’s boom could collapse as quickly as the last one did.
Acknowledging these ways the less and the more fortunate are joined does not mean those who have done well (or have at least broken even) in the housing market shouldn’t appreciate their good fortune. But it does serve as a reminder to keep in mind the less fortunate, and not just for humanitarian reasons.
Of course, the humanitarian reasons are compelling. No one should have to live crowded together in garages and backyard campers, like many families do in the northeast Valley. And certainly no one should have to live in the filthy and unsafe conditions detailed in a Times story last week about the dilapidated Sundown Trailer Park in Pacoima.
It should not be solely up to the poor--who are, after all, among the most disenfranchised--to make the case for affordable housing.
Longtime homeowners need to urge city councilors and other government officials to keep affordability in mind, whether in pressing developers to include units at below-market rates or in enforcing building codes in already-built apartments. Anyone with a house they’re hoping to sell, anyone who wants to live in a Valley still accessible to shopkeepers and, for that matter, schoolteachers, anyone who values a diverse community has to make the case too.
