Los Altos Below-Market-Housing Update

Los Altos will soon have 17 additional BMR units:

As read in an excellent recent article in the Town Crier by Staff Writer Alicia Castro, Los Altos will soon have 17 additional below-market-rate apartments at the "Colonnade Los Altos" at 4750 El Camino Real (in front of the recently remodeled San Antonio shopping center).  Currently the City has 105 affordable multiple-family BMR units, including 32 rentals and 22 senior units, and 44 second-living units, according to the city's planning services manager, David Kornfield.

 

The requirements for people applying for these below-market units are as follows:

“Very low income” requirement is $37,250 for 1 person to $57,450 for 5 people.  “low income” requirement limits the range from $59,400 for 1 person to $76,400 for 3 people. (based on the County’s median income of $106,300 for a 4-person household).

 

The deadline for preliminary applications was extended to the end of July 2015 in order to allow more eligible applicants to participate.  Preference is given in the selection process to salaried employees of the city, the schools and fire department serving Los Altos residents.  Some preference is also built-in the selection process for Los Altos residents and workers.

More info on this subject in the Town Crier of July 8, 2015.  To submit a preapplication for the lottery process, and for full details on the program, go to: www.leaselosaltos.com/affordable-housing-information  

 

Francis

 Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates

America's Rental Housing

America's Rental Housing.

It is no secret that finding a place to call home in the Bay Area has become a problem, both as a purchase and as a rental.  Rents have gone up very significantly in the past 3 to 4 years, with a steep acceleration as early as mid 2012.  The front page of the San Jose Mercury News today 4/16/14 talks about it and prints: " Region's average asking rent is now $2,043 after three years of double-digit annual growth".

But this is not limited at all to our area. Nationwide, there is a similar problem, as studied and explained in the Rental Housing Report of the Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (Dec. of 2013). In many ways, the situation has to give us pause.

• Half of US renters pay more than 30% of their income on rent,
• 19% of  all renters 10 years ago were paying more than ½ their income on rent; they represent 27% now.
• 31 % of Americans were renting in 2004, they are 35% in 2012.
• Between 2000 and 2013, median rents nationally (adjusted for inflation) increased by 6%, while the median income of renters dropped by 13%. 
• The shortfall in the number of units affordable to extremely low-income renters in the U.S. (those earning no more than 30 percent of the area median) more than doubled from 1.9 million in 2001 to 4.9 million in 2011.

Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies Article.
If you want a copy of the SJ Merc. article let me know.

Francis
Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates

non-profit organization worth noting: Partners for New Generations.