Legacy Realty Network is advocating for San Diego property rights! It is often easy to get lost focusing on the end result of a journey at the expense of the clarity around the individual steps needed to achieve that result. With this in mind, two members of our team, Stephanie Rivera and Joseph Lerner, have the honor of being accepted to serve on two subcommittees of the local San Diego Board of Realtors Government Affairs.
Participating in these meetings allows our team to join forces with the many people in our county who put in a great deal of time and effort to preserve San Diegans’ property rights and create an environment that allows more people to achieve the goal of homeownership. Stephanie and Joseph both serve as volunteer representatives to help navigate and lobby for private property rights, to help San Diegan homeowners avoid new or additional taxes, advocate for increased housing supply and reduced costs to allow for greater affordability.
The SDAR Government Affairs Committee meeting on January 6, 2022 began with the following statement: “If you’re in the real estate business you’re also in the business of politics”.
For the two hours following that statement we became exceptionally familiar with the general practices of government affairs and housing committees, as well as the political environment and regulations around real estate. The goals of affordable housing and the ability to build new housing to meet our city’s demands are not attained simply by the act of construction. The clarity gained around the individual steps of these processes is thwarted by the knowledge that this upcoming year will be presenting roadblocks to the ability to develop the needed properties through a variety of legal restrictions, increased costs and heightened taxes.
One of these roadblocks is California’s commitment to reduce vehicle emissions and greenhouse gases. This has led to the Vehicle Mileage Tax Initiative. While this initiative may at first glance seem more like a commuter issue than a real estate issue, it is impacting how the County and City are defining land use for housing and commercial development. The San Diego City’s Climate Action Plan identifies strategic planning of land use, by placing most of the city’s new housing close to transit, as a significant source of the reduction of citywide greenhouse gas emissions. The City and County are being broken into mobility zones based on proximity to commercial amenities and transportation measures. Residential developments that are furthest away from city centers will face additional development costs and demands. This will affect the ability to develop, which will ultimately result in higher costs passed on to the homeowner. The restrictions created by this plan will hinder the growth of additional housing in San Diego, already at an all-time low, and pass along the increase in costs and prices to the consumer. Compounding the historically low housing inventory is the fact that the average household yearly income required in order to afford the average home price in San Diego is around $200,000.
With these new insights in mind, our team at Legacy Realty Network is dedicated to the preservation of property rights. We are committed to advocating for our community and working within the government laws and regulations to ensure your voice is heard and your opportunity for homeownership is preserved.