priced out maybe a million to the Bay Area's hot housing market forcing people into bidding wars hours long commutes and tight living situations we look at the struggle faced by both homeowners and renters people lived here and they had their dreams and their dreams are coming true and how your vote comes into play on election day and the signs of a cool-down giving hope to people living and working in the Bay Area well hello and thank you for joining us for this KTVU fox 2 special i'm andre senior and Emiliano Gomez if you live or work in the Bay Area you already know it comes at a cost prices to buy or rent a home here or through the roof and if you choose to commute for more affordable areas the trade-off is time so let's show you what we are talking about here this map uses data shared with us from the real estate website Trulia it shows this year's median home values for all nine bay area counties compared with the median for the entire country and you can see home values for every single Bay Area County have gone up at least five percent from last year Solano County has the lowest home values at 432 thousand dollars and that's still about double the national number yes of housing experts tell us it all comes down to supply and demand the Bay Area's booming tech industry has been a key component in creating thousands of new job opportunities and that's outpacing the number of new homes being built as well as driving up the price of the homes that are available and for anyone looking to buy a home that means a lot of frustration and a lot of money oh yes it does people from Silicon Valley to San Francisco to the suburbs are being forced into bidding wars often over homes that need a lot of work and take a look at this home in the East Bay for example it is a 4-bedroom 2-bathroom ranch style house in a rendom with an asking price of nearly $900,000 the listing says the property comes as this and invites potential buyers to quote we're your contractor and your vision saying the home has great potential and for some those words might be a red flag but for many in the Bay Area it's a signal of an opportunity ktvu's Sarah Zonda nob gives us a tour 1.3 million 1.9 million 2.2 million a quick look at this map around orinda on zillow.com begs the question is it possible to find a home for sale in Orinda for less than a million dollars it is on Robert Road we're just like oh my gosh we have to go see yeah I like right away just because of the price point the listing price $899,000 the way to attract buyers is to put an attractive price on the four-bedroom two-bathroom home sits on a half acre lot it's surrounded by great schools and easy access to the highway sound too good to be true well take a look inside the price here somewhat reflects the fact that it is pretty much in an original state so there's quite a bit to do with a pink toilet and bath tub and plush blue carpet this home was built in the 1950s and hasn't been updated since there's a tremendous amount of demand there's been a lot of interest on this property they were approximately 80 to 100 disclosure packets have been requested so I'm expecting that they'll be more than a handful of offers there's an exposed ceiling a barbecue built into a brick wall in the kitchen and even an abandoned underground shelter in the backyard bringing the ranch-style home into the 21st century is a project broker Ignacio Vega says many wants to take on people appreciate that it's an opportunity a lot to work with again as I said but it's very livable with a minimal amount of work so there's across the board who's interested that interest was obvious at the open house Vega says the listing price did the job it attracted attention and now it's up to potential buyers and will let the market decide where the value is it's a lot of money there so we want to know what do you think about this home is it a steal or just too much work join the conversation using a hashtag KTVU then in a few minutes we will hear from the people who actually attended that open house the housing struggle isn't limited to just those looking to buy a home it's just as tough for people looking to rent as well take a look this map uses data shared with us by apartment list it shows the median rent for a two-bedroom home here in the Bay Area has gone up since last year in all nine Bay area counties housing economist Chris salviati's says we are in the midst of an affordability crisis and while rent growth has slowed that doesn't mean rents will get cheaper any time soon even a friend growth remains at a lower level we're still in the most expensive market in the country and so I don't see any serious signs of rents coming down in the near term and that that's really what a lot of people would need to see to make an affordable market a recent Department list study shows rental prices are climbing the most in areas where tech giants like Google Facebook and Apple are hiring more workers and the effects of that are being felt way beyond Silicon Valley and even in the Bay Area yes instead of living closer to work many people are choosing to be super commuters spending less money on rent and more time traveling to and from work every day so that's a story for one woman named Chrissy this woman here who lives in the Central Valley and works in the East Bay now Kristi reached out to us on Twitter she says she sets aside about 90 minutes to make sure she gets to work on time KTVU Sal Castaneda hopped in the car with her for one of her morning commutes every weekday Christi Ross drives from the two-bedroom apartment she shares with her boyfriend on the east side of the Altamont Pass to her job with the Alameda County Office of Education she has her commute time to the minute early and I'm not gonna hit so much traffic but if I push it past 6:15 then there's a chance I could be late I wrote along with Christy sitting in the very same traffic I talked about every weekday morning that traffic is going to be a little bit slow already let's go right to the Tracy super commute we started the commute at 6 a.m. and hit traffic even before we got to the freeway Christie isn't alone the Metropolitan Transportation Commission says since the dot-com boom in 2000 daily commute congestion has increased about 65% per commuter while the Bay Area's population is up 15% and jobs are up 12% we get more traffic at the Altamont Pass and some places in Livermore before arriving at Christy's work site in Dublin at 7:30 that's an hour and 30 minutes commute Christie says she tried over and over to find an apartment in the Bay Area that she could afford with no luck it's kind of like wings like oh I can't be in frame up okay that's weird and then for Newark or Hayward she says she and her boyfriend have considered just leaving the state altogether to find a more affordable and sustainable lifestyle she says while the morning commute is slow the afternoon commute is far worse and it's common to take two hours to drive 40 miles so like Sal said Kristi is not alone when Sal was looking for super commuters to profile he put a call out on Twitter and he got dozens of replies from drivers who commutes solo and passengers who carpool to people who rely on public transportation to share your story with us using the hashtag KTVU coming up Bay Area families forced to downsize after the break a look at the sacrifices being made by low-income residents who can't or don't want to leave the Bay Area I just think about it I'm like you have to do sacrifices so that everyone's okay perspective here I look at what half a million dollars can get you in San Francisco check out this home we found on real estate website Zillow this is a 303 square foot studio equipped with the Murphy bed and an outdoor patio in the city's South of Market neighborhood it's sold back in September for four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars now compare that with this home which sold for the same price in Vallejo it's a two-story 1,300 square foot house with three bedrooms two and a half bathrooms the listing on Zillow boasts new flooring windows and appliances and a front and backyard and it's sold in mid-october for again that same price as that studio in San Francisco four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars what a difference we'll have more after the break [Music] the bay area has one of the country's largest and least sheltered homeless populations with thousands of people sleeping on the streets a study last year by the nonprofit group Spurs list economic dislocation as the number one factor leading to homelessness in the Bay Area the study notes that while jobs in tech are increasing other industries like manufacturing are seeing a decline leading longtime workers to lose their jobs at a time when housing prices are going up affordable housing advocates say it's a growing problem that needs to be stopped they priced them out and now the original inhabitants of San Jose are living on the streets everywhere and now they're saying I don't know if we just build more new people will come the Spurs study recommends permanent supportive housing and other services such as counseling and employment assistance as a solution to solving the Bay Area's homeless problem on ketv.com we've posted a link to that homeless study so you can read it for yourself just look under web links homelessness is a growing concern for low-income families here in the Bay Area in fact in San Francisco San Mateo and Marin County's the federal government classifies a family of four earning up to one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars as a low-income household and to make ends meet some families are forced to downsize Kaye TVs Ali Rasmus introduces us to one family who moved out of their three-bedroom house and into a one-bedroom apartment they now share with another family this is my mom and I see 15 year old Cindy gives us a tour of her family's home my daddy sleeps on the ground the family of five live in the living room of a five hundred square foot apartment in East Palo Alto stuff right here my dad has a stuff right there graduation and family photos are hung up on the wall next to the families shared dresser toiletries and toothbrushes neatly stored on the counter it's hard because every morning when I get ready for school I have to hurry up really fast I have to get up really early so I can change in the kitchen Cindy and her family used to live in this three-bedroom house in East Palo Alto four years ago they paid $2,900 a month within three years rent rose to 4200 when the red spiked to 6200 in March the cost forced the family to downsize and up there we have our closets with nowhere else to go a family friend took them in that friend and her two teenage kids live in the apartments only bedroom Cindy's family contributes $1,000 a month to offset the costs of eight people living in a one-bedroom one-bath apartment do you ever get waking up someone snoring I dunno and came up a lot and I'm like it's hard to like go back to sleep but like I just think about it I'm like you have to do sacrifices so that everyone's okay Cindy's parents have lived in East Palo Alto for 20 years her older sister and brother were born and raised here in that time her mom marbella says she's never had so much trouble finding a new place to live until now she turned in applications to live in eight different apartment complexes over the past six months and was rejected because of her family's income okay I know this mean don't hurt her son miss she says she needs to make at least $10,000 a month to qualify the family's income falls short her husband's worked for the same landscaping company for 20 years and makes $17 an hour on the reveal it came down to a choice between do we give our kids a place to live or food to eat the problems not limited to East Palo Alto of course Bay Area wide over the past seven years the cost of rents have outpaced income according to data collected by real estate website Zillow between 2010 and 2017 median incomes in the San Francisco metro area rose 43 percent during that same period the median rent grew more than that Emeryville saw a 74 percent jump East Palo Alto a 67% increase and in Walnut Creek San Rafael San Leandro and Berkeley the median rent grew at least 50% or more Garcia is program director for nuestra Casa a nonprofit community group in San Mateo County he says Cindy and Marvin's living situation is not unique dozens of families yeah they're downsizing or you know you're sharing sharing apartment 35,000 or 45,000 people who work in the service industry like they say like this washer or a cook or a gardener Barbara is reluctant to move out of the bay area it would mean leaving her community and the low pay but steady job her husband's had for two decades where's your look at my mail is what hurts me the most is thinking about how this affects my daughters they're teenagers they need their own space some privacy it's a very complicated thing and I don't try to she says there is some comfort knowing her family is not the only one struggling in East Palo Alto Aly Rasmus KTVU Fox 2 News well for some the solution to the Bay Area housing and homeless problem is going tiny in Oakland for example city officials are working with Laney college and the Westside Missionary Baptist Church on a tiny home community program to provide temporary housing for students in need back in September Oakland City Councilman AB LG and lived in one of those tiny homes for two days and he told us the 10 to 14 foot long homes are small with not much more than a bed kitchen and bathroom but they provide students with a safe place to stay we have students who are couch surfing they're staying at a friend's house a relative's house they're sleeping their cars the answer to homelessness is to build more housing but we know that's really expensive and takes a long time in the meantime we ought to make investments students living in those tiny homes pay $100 a month in rent and work at the Westside Missionary Baptist Church where the homes are located in exchange for a stipend San Jose is also considering its own tiny home program the city's housing department wants to build 80 to 140 square foot sleeping cabins for the homeless but the plan is being met with criticism over what it might cost and where the homes would be located meanwhile in Mountain View some residents are turning to mobile homes in their effort to downsize this summer longtime residents cindy boone gave us a tour of her new two-bedroom two-bathroom home at sunset estates a mobile home park for seniors she moved there after selling her home a mile from Google which she bought in 2003 for four hundred and eighty five thousand dollars that she sold it sold it rather for 1.8 million I fell in love with some of the homes and just made so much sense because they were so much less money I definitely didn't want to go out at the Bay Area I like the bay area I'm gonna stay up here so yeah I feel very fortunate to to be able to do that I think it's probably a wave of the future in places where people can afford the real estate that's underlying these homes so get this Boone says she bought that mobile home for two hundred and forty three thousand dollars remodeled it for another seventy thousand and pays fourteen hundred dollars in rent fourth a lot a traditional home in Mountain View with the same square footage would have cost her about two million dollars Wow back now to orinda and that 50 style home we told you about earlier well you'll remember the 4-bedroom 2-bathroom ranch style house needs some work but for the price there was definitely a lot of interest k2 views Sarah's and UNAM was at the open house to see what potential buyers thought needs to be done on this orinda home is obvious there's there's a lot of deferred maintenance here if you look at the roof and the ground I think the ceiling just when you look at it for me I would just change it right the way this would need to be someone either with a lot of cash or ready to roll their sleeves up so why did all these people show up to the open house a ninety nine is a great price the competitive nature of bear your real estate doesn't discriminate while many weren't by the house the low listing price of $899,000 is why they're here it looks like it has good bones it has a good potential for a flip a beautiful piece of property I think it's only been owned by one family which is kind of cool and certainly a great opportunity the home on Robert Road was put on the market October 8th within days broker Ignacio Vega says upwards of 100 potential buyers requested disclosure packets to get more information the property is surrounded by 1 & 2 million dollar homes so this price is a deal the demand is out there so there you have it and we'd like to know what you think would you put in a bid if so how much would you be willing to pay and what would you do to the home if your offer was accepted we're tracking your answers just use the hashtag KTVU well after the break we will tell you how many offers at home gut before the buyers accept it Plus is the market cooling we'll get some insight from housing experts that make if some prospective homeowners here in the Bay Area some hope also you decide how your vote in this coming election could change the future of housing across California and a look now at what you can buy here in the Bay Area this time we looked for homes in the $700,000 price range check out what we found in palo alto is a 1-bedroom 1-bathroom 727 square foot condo the Zillow listing says it is new carpet a new private patio there as well as a in unit washer/dryer and a share pool and Clubhouse it's sold back in September for seven hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars in Pleasant Hill that money can get you this home and you'd even have $27,000 left over at the four-bedroom three-bathroom 2,000 square foot house with a backyard Villa says this home sold back in May for $700,000 back after the break housing isn't just an issue here in the Bay Area in fact this election voters across California will decide on at least two housing related measures and the one getting the most attention is Proposition 10 which would repeal cost of Hopkins a state law that prevents cities from regulating the rent on homes built after 1995 in short the measure would give individual cities the option to implement rent control again rent control is a very divisive issue among a lot of housing advocates on both sides of the equation one of the challenges of rent control is that it's not currently means-tested people can live in rent-controlled apartments but they may not need it what that ends up doing and there are some studies that back this if that actually encourages a lot of gentrification the legislative analyst office predicts if cities choose to enforce rent control prop 10 would likely reduce state and local revenues it's because rent control would likely lead to a decline in the value of rental properties and over time a decrease in property tax revenue but the Elio adds the amount of loss will depend on how many cities take advantage yeah there is also prop 5 which would allow property tax breaks for Californians 55 and older who move into a new home anywhere in the state the California Association of Realtors introduced this measure and the group claims prop 5 will also make way for young families currently struggling to find housing but critics say prop five walls sort of solving the state's housing shortage and instead reduces property tax revenue which is mostly used to fund public education the Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that prop 5 result of one hundred million dollars a year in property taxes for the first few years and eventually up to 1 billion dollars a year so let's head back to orinda again where we found ourselves the bidding war for that 50 style fixer-upper we showed you on the market for eight hundred and ninety nine thousand dollar money and despite all the work it needs it did not take long for the offers to start coming in here again is KTBC resent enough to give us a look one last look and tell us these sellers accepted an offer within days a house built in the 1950s barely any update since a listing price of $899,000 anywhere else would be crazy but in the Bay Area it's actually a pretty good deal people visiting the open house on Robert Road in Orinda all know the offers will be higher [Music] maybe a million it took just one week on the market for broker Ignacio Vega to get 25 offers the home is now in escrow he can't say exactly how much the winning offer is until the contract closes in mid-november but did say it's well over the asking price the new owners plan to expand and remodel the house and eventually move in 25 offers in one week unbelievable and offer accepted for well over the asking price just incredible people always say don't fall all over the home because you might get out price yeah but there may be some hope for people ahead for people hoping to find a home here in the Bay Area an expert in housing website Trulia tells us the market is cooling with inventory up since april and home prices flowing or even going down depending on where you look but if you're expecting a significant decrease you may not find it there is hope but people definitely need to be patient and realistic about it I think a lot of people are waiting for a big drop especially those that wanna buy a home and we don't see that necessarily happening but we do see that there's gonna be downward pressure on prices because of people moving out so if this trend continues where we see more people moving out of the area we might see those inventory numbers keep going up and prices start to relax a little bit more senior housing economist Cheryl Young says if you're thinking about buying a home it's a personal decision a few factors to consider are of course your finances also if you plan to stay in the Bay Area and the kind of work you're willing to put in if you're considering fixing up a halt yeah you know and when you see a home on the market the price that's listed there it's almost guaranteed you're gonna go over the asking price it's gotta be ready all right that does it for us here on KTVU fox 2 but our coverage continues online hbo.com and RK TV Robo lap who finds more on the stories you saw here plus extended coverage including stats from the experts at video yeah we're also still monitoring your stories across all of our social media platforms we do it all day so tag us on Facebook on Twitter also on instagram using the hashtag KTVU we hope you enjoyed the program thank you for joining us we'll see you next time
California 2020 Election
Primary Voter Pre-Registration Deadline: February 17, 2020
Primary Election: March 3, 2020
General Election: November 3, 2020
If a place is too expensive for service workers to live there, then that must mean that said place does not need service workers.