voiceofsandiego.org: Cafesandiego... Everybody Wants to Live Here

San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Lori Weisberg has the story today on the continuing exodus of San Diegans fed up with the high cost of living here.

According to Census Bureau figures, for the fourth year in a row, more people moved away from San Diego than moved to it.

I think I'll print this one out and show it to every Realtor who answers, "Everyone wants to live here. Or, This is San Diego," after I've questioned the absurd sticker price on the house they're trying to sell me.

The article makes a couple of other interesting, if disturbing, points:

1. San Diego is becoming the Los Angeles of 20 years ago thanks to our city's ranking as the eight-biggest loser in the country in domestic migration. Increases in our population are caused primarily by births and immigrants.

2. Some people are just starting to figure out that affordable housing is the problem. Hans Johnson, a research fellow with the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, is quoted as saying, "We're also starting to see that (the shortage of affordable housing) is important not just for lower income households but also for college graduates," he said. No kidding Hans?!

The reason I'm so inflamed about housing prices in San Diego -- aside from the obvious fact that I want to own a home -- is that a society in which only 9.4 percent of the population can afford a median-priced home is not a healthy society. The situation is bad for businesses who struggle to attract workers whose money will stretch much further in places like Dallas or Atlanta. And before you offer up San Diego's mantra -- But then you have to live in Dallas or Atlanta -- consider that people who live there like it well enough and they don't have to do financial gymnastics to own homes there. And if companies can't attract great workers they'll just move to Dallas or Atlanta or someplace like them where their own cost of living is lower.

-- CATHERINE MacRAE HOCKMUTH

Catherine, Your letter states the obvious! How do we fix it?

Posted by Ron Weiss | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 4:50 am

We don't need to fix it. The problem will fix itself. The bidding up of real estate aided by cheap money will see its mirror image soon enough when those loans adjust and become expensive. These are two unfortunate extremes, but that's the price we pay for living in a market that's prone to overheating and that attracts speculation. Keep saving for a downpayment; mortgage companies are going to expect them again when you're ready to buy.

Posted by RGL | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 5:34 am

A refreshing take on San Diego's housing market. It's good to know that the old chestnut just plain isn't true. Affordable housing, decent transit alternatives, stable local government, and that elusive "sense of community" are are just as important to quality of life as the weather forecast.

Posted by Chris Radcliff | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 5:37 am

Am I wrong to kind of like the idea of people moving away? Our roads and freeways aren't getting any wider - less people is good.

Posted by D | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 7:58 am

Catherine, You nailed it. I am a native San Diego and moved to Atlanta last year with my wife and kids. Housing is sooo much cheaper and jobs are easy to get because of all the fortune 500 companies that are located here.

Posted by DC | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 8:12 am

D, if companies can’t get qualified people to move here because they can’t afford live here then eventually the companies will follow the employees out of San Diego, meaning the jobs will leave. RGL, I’m a native and your idea, while mentioned many times over the last 40 years has never worked—so the problem is not going to fix itself, at least not to anyone’s satisfaction.

Posted by Howiek | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 10:09 am

RGL hit the nail on the head. 1) Alan Greenspan artificially kept interest rates WAY TOO LOW, which is what started the housing boom. 2) The exotic sub prime trust deeds/mortgages were a large part of the problem. The last 3-4 years 75-95% of ALL home buyers were not qualified and used these loans to get into a home they could not afford-and we now see the tidal wave of foreclosures coming. 3) the coming correction will drop prices.

Posted by Billy Bob Henry | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 11:30 am

While easy money certainly caused over-inflation in the last few years, housing prices have not been affordable in San Diego since the mid 90's, when my daughter and her husband moved to Kentucky because of housing prices. There are two major reasons why we can't compete with out of state places: the cost of land due to the fact that there isn't much undeveloped land left and the requirement that new development pay all of the infrastructure costs (borne by general taxes in other places and prior to Prop 13 in Calif.) Major job loss=major price cuts.

Posted by Tom Scott | reply to this comment
March 22, 2007 11:57 pm

Tom- Real estate in San Diego has not been unaffordable since the mid 90's. In fact, prior to this last run up, the last run up was 87-90, and then the roof caved in. From 90 through about 98 housing was flat- and very affordable. It has been the years 1999-2006 that have hurt us because of the low interest rates at first (99-2002) and then the lax lending standards/sub prime trust dees/mortgages (2003-2006). This country has NEVER seen the kind of real estate run up we saw the last 6-7 years, because we never saw interest rates this low(last6-7years)

Posted by Billy Bob Henry | reply to this comment
March 23, 2007 9:52 am

Hockmuth should be mandatory reading for every mudseller and victim thereof in San Diego. The absurd artificial land boom is going to ruin this economy as jobs leave when people do and there is no money for infrastructure needs. SD does not use its port; it has paved its agriculture fields, drove away its fishing industry and shot down the aviation industry. What reason is there for this city to exist? Real estate speculation doth not a city make. Time to reinvent this wheel.

Posted by CKG Billings | reply to this comment
March 23, 2007 11:39 pm

My friends in other cities have told me that San Diego should change its motto from "America's Finest City" to "...But We Have Great Weather." They tell me that such is all San Diego has to offer, ultimately. I have considered leaving on several occasions, and the only reason I haven't is that I am in one of the few professions where my standard of living is higher in SD than it would be in any other city.

Posted by Poppa | reply to this comment
March 24, 2007 3:14 am

Would somebody sell Ms Hockmuth a house in an exciting part of the city at a price she wants to pay? She seems to think its her birthright. And she'll move on to something else in her columns. Perhaps the sorry state of the local plant nurseries.

Posted by rrr | reply to this comment
March 24, 2007 12:01 pm

FUnny how the trolls are saying the same things they were a YEAR ago when Ms. Hockmuth wrote about overpriced homes.... At what point do you say "you're right?" You folks feel free to keep on badmouthing the truthsayers while I'm off investing in markets where you can still turn a profit

Posted by one of those college graduates | reply to this comment
November 28, 2007 11:28 am

Everybody Wants to Live Here

Published: Thursday, March 22, 2007 2:32 PM PDT

-- CATHERINE MacRAE HOCKMUTH