Vacant Foreclosed Houses Everywhere But No Place To Stay

The irony of fate is – water water everywhere but not a drop to drink. There are REO properties everywhere but workers around Los Angeles have no place to stay. These are the latest findings of Los Angeles Business Council. The imbalance in housing continues to mock the quality of life in USA.

The lack of housing is cutting down the advantages of economic competition. The workers have to commute from distant places availing of poor public transport facilities. This is affecting quality of work. The trend has been continuing for two decades.

From 1990 till 2007 the county of Lost Angeles reported an increase of 1.4 million residents but only 195,000 housing units had been built. The three cities of Hawthorne, Gardena and Lawndale ranked among the top 10 cities with the highest population growth rate. The foreclosure crisis has not been able to bring down the exorbitant cost of housing. Although sales are low affecting the lower and middle-income group, those wanting affordable accommodation fail to do so. The middle-income section could manage to buy less than 11% of the houses that are in the market. 62% of the tenants in Lawndale and Gardena spend 30% or even more of their monthly earnings in paying rents. In Hawthorne 52% of the householders are paying 30% of their monthly intakes on paying for house mortgages. With housing gobbling up a good slice of the income little is left over for other essentials. Low consumer sales do not bode well for the general economy of the region.

The tragedy is that the foreclosure crisis combining with these other factors is leading to an exodus of the younger generation from this county. From 190 to 2005 the population of the young (25 years to 34 years) dropped by 18.6% in this region.

Foreclosures have led to a slump in building activity. For employers the prime problem is that one house is being built for every 2.71 jobs that are being created. The irony is that the areas where the next round of building activity is expected to take place (Palmdale, Carson and Paramount) are not regions where jobs can be found.

The Business Council suggests that funds be diverted from sales tax kitty to pay for better mass transit projects to enable workers to report to their places of work. Included in the plans are the constructions of a subway and light rail to places with potential for job growth.