Californians Line Up to Buy Homes

By CHELSEA J. CARTER

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) _ For two days, Maria Chrys camped out in front of an Orange County real estate development office for a chance at her dream home.

On Friday, she still had seven days to go before she would even get a chance to bid.

"I've never stood in line for anything in my life. But I want that house and I'm here 24-7 until I get it," said Chrys, 49, who is camping out for a chance at a home in an upscale development where houses begin at about $900,000.

For the past two decades, California hasn't been building enough homes to keep up with its growing population, prompting a housing crunch that has people like Chrys going to such extremes. The price tag is often steep: The median price of a single-family residence reached $267,810 in July, a record according to the California Association of Realtors.

Potential homeowners in the San Francisco Bay area are faced with high-priced bidding wars. In Sacramento, hundreds show up to view floor models of new developments.

But in Orange County, where oceanfront property is at a premium and much of the county is built out, residents have gone as far as camping out to claim lots and showing up by the thousands for "dusty shoes" tours at construction sites.

It's a combination of availability and affordability, say housing specialists.

California's home-building industry has lagged behind the state's population growth for 20 years. Every year it builds about 140,000 new places for people to live. And every year that's 80,000 short, housing officials say.

As a result, the median price of an existing single-family home in Orange County rose 13.9 percent in July compared to July 2000, the realtors association said. That is greater than the state average of 10.6 percent, but lags behind such areas as Santa Barbara County, which saw home prices soar 69 percent in the same period.

The robust demand isn't occurring in every area of the state, but it is quite common in popular areas like Orange County, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist at the California Association of Realtors.

"It's a phenomenon of supply and demand. There just aren't enough new homes in desirable locations to accommodate people," said Phil Yasskin, vice president of sales and marketing for Christopher Homes, the developer of four new upscale subdivisions, collectively known as The Boardwalk, in Huntington Beach.

Chrys, co-owner of a Greek restaurant in Los Angeles, knows all too well the competition to get a house in that development.

Earlier in the week, she camped out for a shot at buying homes starting at $630,000 in the Lighthouse subdivision, a few hundred yards from the beach. She was number 38 on that list. Now she and 130 others are vying for the homes that start at $900,000.

In Mission Viejo, 40 miles south of Huntington Beach, more than 3,000 people showed up last month for a tour of a proposed housing development. There were no models open, only drawings on easels for potential homeowners to examine.

Meanwhile, the parking lot of the Christopher Homes real estate office in Huntington Beach was strewn with lawn chairs, beach umbrellas, pop-up tents and SUVs. The development company brought in portable toilets and provided food to the campers.

"We didn't ask them to do this. We said be here on Friday and we'll take the first in line," Yasskin said.

Real estate economist Al Gobar predicted the lines would only get longer as potential buyers realize the housing shortage is worsening.

"People are finally starting to believe it," he said.

For Chrys, the wait in line involved paying a college student $8 an hour to save her spot in line so she could go home and shower.

"I'm bringing in an RV tomorrow so I can be a little more comfortable," she said.

http://www.newszap.com/display/ap/Business/V4566.itm.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 09, 2001

Answers

California has always been, and clearly is, an expensive place to live. This willingness of people to pay a steep "sunshine premium" sharply reduces the relative (or marginal) impact of the higher electricity prices that the "Y2K+1" caused electrical power crisis will leave as its long-term legacy.

Greedy but shrewd power brokers knew this, and thus knew they could get away with "gouging" accordingly, taking advantage of both the "Y2K+1" technical problem and its extreme popular obscurity.

The problem for those stuck in the "Hotel California" is that California may be an expensive place to live, but it is also a very expensive place to move out of, absent an employer sponsor. And in this faltering economy, prospects for such sponsorship are fading away as fast as the summer sun.

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), September 09, 2001.

This is lunacy, utter folly, sheer madness. Only in California! Yikes! Supply and demand will mean nothing when the excrement hits the fan. Why can't these idiots see this?

-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), September 09, 2001.

Re: For the past two decades, California hasn't been building enough homes to keep up with its growing population, prompting a housing crunch that has people like Chrys going to such extremes.

This is a carryover from Prop 13. Houses no longer provide the property tax revenues they once did, so cities are not that anxious to add population that will require services but won't generate that much revenue. Cities get their revenues from sales taxes, so everybody wants to zone for retail commercial development. I've been reading the same stories from the Southland, Bay Area, and Central Valley. It's easier to build a mall than a subdivision.

Sooner or later, there won't be enough people to shop in all of those malls.

-- Margaret J (mjans01@yahoo.com), September 09, 2001.