On the June 22, 2015 City Visions, host David Onek and a panel of experts uncover the few pockets of relative affordability left in the Bay Area's often prohibitively expensive housing market.
A "deal" is hard to find: median house prices in San Francisco leapt to a record high in April, rising nearly 26% from a year ago to almost $1.25m. Half of the homes sold were on the market for fewer than two weeks. The statistics are similarly tough in most of the greater Bay Area.
While there is grave concern about housing for the poor, the ecosystem of Bay Area housing is so challenging that middle class residents are also in a bind, between exorbitant rents and the out-of-reach real estate market.
What are the tricks to identifying up-and-coming neighborhoods? What are the best trade-offs to make, especially when your budget is well under a million dollars? And as buyers encroach on neighborhoods with more budget-friendly housing stock, will this further inflame concerns about gentrification and displacement? Or will these few up-and-coming neighborhoods provide middle class Bay Area residents a way to stay here?
Producer: Wendy Holcombe
Guests:
Riaz Taplin, Founder & CEO of Riaz, Inc.
Amie Fishman, Executive Director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH).
Rachel Flynn, Director of Planning and Building for the City of Oakland.
Naomi Glass, Associate Broker for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.
