Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Boy it’s hot! ("How hot is it?")


As I understand it, our fearless leader is out my way in San Diego.  He might be escaping the heat of lil’ Rhodey, but he jumped into a frying pan out here too.  He’ll probably stay coastal, but a little more inland where I live it’ll be hitting 90, and if you go a little further east, it’ll be 95 or so.  And it's humid as all get out.  I have a wedding to attend this afternoon/evening* in one of those inland valleys, and it’s an outdoor occasion to boot.  It’ll cool off a bit, but the humidity is what I can barely tolerate. And SanDog is much more humid than it was when I first came back to the area in the mid-80’s.  If it wasn’t the wedding of the son of a cousin I’m close to (first cousin once removed for those interested in that kind of stuff), I might consider not going.  That’s how much I appreciate air conditioning.  I don’t know how I survived living in Pensacola for two years back in flight school.

In all honesty, I wouldn't back out of a wedding RSVP even if it was hotter than a flight deck in the Arabian Gulf during summer flight ops.  We’re actually all very excited about a family wedding.  As I probably mentioned before in a post or two over the years, I have A LOT or relatives living in the area, 50 or so, and we’re all very close.  While all the cousins (offspring of my mom and her 6 brothers and sisters) are all long married off, their kids- the second cousins once removed, are starting to get into the marriage game, or close to it.    

We were a bigger family once, with all my aunts and uncles having big families, but just two or three kids among my cousins’ families, mine included.  And our offspring are not as hot about getting hitched- with several unmarrieds in their 30s.   I guess I understand that a little.  Life is more complex these days, and definitely more expensive, especially out here on the left coast.  Property is CRAZY expensive, and the market is hotter than it has ever been.  But even though my wife is now in the real-estate game, that’s not even remotely a good thing.  By hot, I only mean that properties go off the market super quick, at far more than asking price, breaking all the norms of home buying.  She’s been a realtor for three years and after a slow start, she’s on a semi-hot streak recently though with a few condos under her belt and a house about to close.     

The problem with this hot market is that it’s pricing out so many so fast.  It’s also tough on realtors like my wife, since their clients are probably not rich executives with full cash offers.  She lost several bids due to a market that is demanding anywhere from $25-$50K over asking, no contingencies (fix this and that please), and is often going to full cash offers, and sometimes sight unseen by the winner bidders.  Prices are also off the charts.  

Realtors Report Home Prices in San Diego County Rose 1.6% in June to $865,000 Median                                                                    Source  

Is California so wonderful that an average home is worth over $850k?  Not if you like water.  


I love several things about my hometown- the weather, nearby family, cool stuff to do every day in a big Navy town, and my job of course, but that's about where the good stuff ends.  Gas is over $4 per gallon, taxes are high (highest state income tax and sales tax in the nation), roads are lousy, homeless flock here, yet we either don't want to or are unable to both enforce laws, or provide drug and mental health treatment to these people to help correct the problem.  What else?  Tradesmen get underbid on jobs by those not here legally, and a laissez faire attitude towards that illegal immigration, to put it mildly.  There’s also massive regulation on businesses, and with prohibitive start up costs.  I could go all day.  The political attitude is frustrating, yet we're trying to take CA back, firing our governor in a couple months if the recall goes through.  Maybe it'll get better, maybe it won't, but I'm happy that I'm an old vet with commissary privileges who bought a house when it was affordable.  

Another one to add to that list of gripes though is a local effort to provide more and more housing in an area that is pretty much locked up.  We have the Pacific Ocean to the west, the desert to the east, Mexico just south, and Camp Pendleton to the north.  There's very little land left.  Yet the demand for housing keeps increasing.  I understand this though, as San Diego is a gem and people really want to live here.  Therefore, the Mayor and City Council feel the need to disrupt what is, and they approved a plan to allow a massive change to single family home neighborhoods.  Last October, the council decimated single-family zoning by incentivizing developers to covert single-family parcels into high-density income properties.  Since there’s little land for new dwellings, the city is allowing not just small accessory dwelling units (ADUs aka Granny Flats) to be built in the back yard of neighborhood homes, but actual apartment buildings crammed in between your house and your neighbor's backyard.    

It's not only feasible, but it's happening already.  With homeowners having their yards developed, or developers buying up homes at generous prices and forcing this on the neighborhoods, neighborhoods are changing dramatically, and not in a good way.


It's not just that the city is allowing multiple units, but that they have eliminated both setbacks from your neighbor, and any regulations on parking.  If a home with an ADU is within a half mile of a transit corridor (aka bus line), there's no need for parking.  So if two cars can park in front of a garage with a single home, there's no need to add parking with what could be 17 homes on the lot.  Except everyone in California drives a car, and the public transit system is unreliable, so that just clogs up the neighborhood streets.  Not to get all judgmental, but neighborhoods with rentals and apartments just have a different feel from single-family neighborhoods with high owner occupancy.   There's a lot of congestion, more crime, and they're just not as safe.  Parking has already become a hot topic in multiple neighborhoods, with ADUs in some areas nearly doubling the amount of cars being parked on the street, and not always parked well at that.  These politicians are trying to apply a fix to a problem that isn't actually a fix, nor is it a problem in my opinion.  Sometimes areas are just too expensive, and the market bears what the market bears.  As much as I may not like the skyrocketing costs, (I have no interest in selling) that's something that is caused by a free market.  And our geography isn't conducive to more supply, no matter how many min-apartments the city council wants to force on us. 

So the weather is hot, the market is hot, and these politicians are making me and all of my neighbors hot under the collar.  While the drought has caused the water shortage, politicians have caused all the other ills that this gem of San Diego has been infected with.  I'm not sure what the solution is, other than to move away, or better yet- vote them out, every incumbent, every time.  


*Post written on Sunday 7/18

22 comments:

  1. Those housing changes by the Mayor and City Council are just insane......try reading up on studies done to over-crowding of rats. Temps in the 90s and dew points in the high 60's......NOT good! That's what we're entering today for the next seven days according to the weather guessers here. Good luck on that recall of your Gov Tuna, that's the very least of what needs to happen to more pols these days.

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    1. It's tough to do that here in california, but those special elections which normally have horrible turnout usually have great turnout for conservatives and those who are interested in the recall itself so there's a good chance it will pass. Now who we want to be our governor? I am not sure at all.

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  2. Not insane, just taking the asian model and moving it to California. No new power generation, but a 5 fold increase in power demand per lot in residential areas? How can anyone think this will end well? I have such a poor outlook on the future. Our politicians are so myopic they can't even see as good as Mr. McGoo. And they are shoveling coal in the train without regard to the limitations of the track or the boiler. So the train crashes or blows up. Not much difference to the passengers....

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    1. City council people and the mayor must be getting kickbacks from these developers. They are getting rich, at the expense of neighborhoods. And it's not just power, but water as well.

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  3. Tuna, Excellent post. (I'm glad Sarge was able to fix both your and Bean's computers. Isn't he amazing? ;-) )

    Regarding your last sentence, please refer to Juvat's Voting Rubric on the sidebar.

    From the point of view of someone who's on the receiving end of the California Skyrocketing housing prices, Texas doesn't have income tax (yet), but we do have property tax. That tax is computed based on the selling price of "comparables". So when a person from out west who just sold his 1200 sq ft bungalow in SF for 1.5M comes here and sees a 32 acre property with house on the market for 400K, they've been known to say, they can't pay any less than 1.5M. Guess what? The seller says Ok. And comparables in the area are now taxed at 1.5M. Course nothing's changed for the people that own those comparables, their salary hasn't increased, just their taxes (Yes there is a freeze in tax value at 65 but that goes away when Mrs J and I get our reward and leave the property to the kids. Don't get me started on the changes to inheritance taxes that are being considered.)

    So. Vote the crooks out. If they can't steal enough to get by in one term, they're incompetent and should be voted out. If they can, they're criminals and should be voted out and in (the "in" is by a jury of their peers) and sentenced to the maximum allowed with no possibility for parole. Betraying the trust of the Citizens should be a capital offence.

    But that's just juvat...being kind.

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    1. I know your rubric very well, which is where I got the inspiration. That's horrible about the property taxes out your way. As much as California is problematic, they are a progressive income tax state, and property taxes are only reassessed every 5 or 10 years I believe. We also have prop 13 which keeps them from climbing too quickly and pricing out the people that live there already with current salaries and such.

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  4. Packing them in in SD! I was unaware.... thanks.

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    1. And I found out that some of our state legislators including one from down here is trying to get the same law passed around the state.

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  5. Some of the older areas that are already very dense have a serious lack of green space. There needs to be some focus on increasing green spaces in some proportion too housing density increases. But I'm in the county now so I don't really get to say anything about it anymore.

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    1. There's barely any green space in Southern California as it is. They just don't care.

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  6. Wow, you've become Florida with the heat and the humidity! Ouch.

    As to water, too bad the idiots out there haven't built nuke plants and desalination plants powered by the nuke plants. All that coastal water right there to be desalted and the need to draw from water sources hundreds of miles away would be minimized. But nothing like forethought and planning.

    As to those... those... closets they are planning on building, I live in an approximately 600 sqft apartment and that's a tight squeeze. Crazy. They (your city's 'betters') want NYC stupidity in a California price. No solution except mass firings (and, yeah, of the kinetic kind) will solve that problem.

    And, what, no houseboats like what Seattle has?

    With apartments that small, gee, just buy some old cruise liners, landlock them and sell the rooms...

    Sorry your paradise is full of snakes and other demons and vermin. It's happening everywhere. Even here in Florida. We'd gladly send the idiots from North Miami and Broward County, who are the worst pack of leftist garbage-heads ever, down to Cuba. Please.

    And back to the housing situation. I bet there's some sort of property tax/water tax/electricity tax/other tax gimmick hooked up behind this all. And that there are already plans to funnel all of this new tax windfall into certain politicians' and bureaucrats' pockets.

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    1. Oh, I'm sure increased revenue is part of their devious planning. We do have one desalination plant up in Carlsbad, but our nuke plant closed down several years back.

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  7. (Don McCollor)...For the ultimate future, look for diagrams, pictures, and videos of the Kowloon Walled City in a no man's land between British Hong Kong and Communist China. In 1990, 50,000 residents in 6.4 acres (perhaps the most densely populated place on Earth). Building it was completely unplanned. There were no police, because there was no law (the drug tongs enforced things). The only apartments that saw daylight were on the outside walls...

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  8. Excellent and timely post Tuna.

    Down on the pier it's been hot (mid to high 80s I think) but there's a nice breeze off the water.

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    1. Yeah, the coast is cooler, but still well above normal. I like the evenings though.

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  9. Tuna, the thing that always continues to surprise me about California is the fact it is so expensive in so many areas and yet they continue to elect people that carry not a whit for that at all. It is apparently not painful enough for the masses tonight.


    The dense housing in and around urban neighborhoods happens here in New Home too. Oddly enough, these sorts of things use more resources - water, energy, etc. - yet are somehow "better" all around. Reason number 525 Urban areas are becoming less and less desirable.

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    1. The liberalness infects the voters and the victimization and lying about the right seems to work so well.

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  10. Tuna, I feel your pain having just bought a new-to-me house back in NY state. Prices were not bad in MI, however, I needed to be back in upstate NY for family reasons. The price of renting a 2 bedroom apartment, no garage, just outdoor parking was over $1500 and it was NOT anything fancy at all!! So I rented a room from a couple of friends who I grew up with, paid $500 a month rent, and stashed the rest away until I had saved up a minimal downpayment and then looked at all kinds of houses, but lost out on several due to cash offers, or the place being sold within a couple of hours of listing, or just before being listed. It was NUTS!!! The only way I got the place I now have is the sellers (children of the deceased owners) were also used to moving in a slower pace, plus one of them didn't really want to sell, so had to be taken to court by his siblings to get with the program, or to have a lawyer keep his best interests in mind...and how weird is it to write that line!!! My mortgage is $300 bucks less than what I would have been paying for renting that apartment plus I have a garage, and a big back yard so I have a garden.
    Anyhoo...made an offer, got accepted, eventually got a closing date, was able to book a mover 4 weeks later(!!!) the earliest possible date I could get, moved on one of the hottest, most humid days to hit the great Northeast...thought I was moving to Florida it was so hot...and am slowly unpacking boxes and figuring out where things go.

    Currently, taking a short break from boxes to take my folks to the CT shore, and catch up with family in the New England area. My sisters and their dearly beloveds have flown in from the San Diego area and so we are busy building memories for when Mom and Dad are no longer with us. Cooking meals they don't get in the senior housing place, spending time with sisters and cousins walking on the sandbars, and generally eating too much, getting in a LOT of walking and plenty of naps.

    The weather here had started out very hot and humid 94* and dew points in the mid 70's, but that has relaxed a little to temps in the mid 80's and dew points in the upper 60's to low 70's. No A/C in the cottage, but 2-3 fans in each room. When they are all turned on it sounds like we are standing on a flight line someplace, but the air is moving at least.
    Thank goodness for on-shore breezes early in the morning. But I agree with you, one of the first improvements I have on my list to do is to get central air conditioning. I'm just getting too old to deal well with HHH weather anymore. And to think I used to work haying in weather like this!! Not any more!!!

    Been watching the CA recall with interest, wishing NY had something similar for Gov Cuomo...really hoping that his actions during the Covid mess with nursing home folks has opened peoples eyes that he really needs to go retire, or do anything else except be a politician. Not sure I see any way for my grandkid to not still be paying for Cuomo's stupid financial decisions when he is my age. Balanced budget, fiscal restraint, the difference between needs and wants, and not spending more than the state takes in all seem to be extremely foreign concepts to politicians these days. And the STUPID things they spend all kinds of time and dollars on just floors me!!

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    1. Congrats on the house. With low rates, it's better to buy if you can, often cheaper than renting. A co-worker is spending 4K on rent! I thought Cuomo was done after the harassment reports came to light. Fiscal restraint seems to be a extinct principle.

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  11. fiance lived in PB and when I used to visit her found parking was far harder than parking near here place in Sacramento Heights, SF. There would be 20 students from SDSU, USD, living together in one house in pacific beach with no parking except on the street.

    she was living in a granny flat over the 3 car garage. it was a weirder time for me.

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    1. Yeah, tons of places in PB have minimal parking. And it's one of the top 'hoods for car break-ins. Go figure.

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