Congressman Ken Calvert Itemizes Issues Impacting California

Congressman Ken Calvert Itemizes Issues Impacting California

     Issues facing California intertwine and work together to impact real estate values. U.S. Congressman Ken Calvert attended the The Inland Gateway Association of Realtors (TIGAR) board meeting today and discussed California issues facing us today. Ken is a long time resident of Riverside and 17 year small business owner in the restaurant and real estate industries. These are some of the things that were discussed and we should all be aware of as they impact California real estate market:

1.  Water -  Water issues will be brought up in the next election ballot due to California's present drought situation.  Shasta water levels are very low but the reservoir still needs to be raised by 17 1/2 feet for water storage and hydroelectric generation. This reservoir is the largest man made lake with a capacity to hold over 4.5 million acre feet. This reservoir serves several purposes, not just water supply. It is also used to generate electricity, for navigation, flood control and fish and wildlife conservation. Congressman Calvert suggested that San Luis Reservoir be expanded to hold more water.  Click here to see the condition of reservoirs throughout the state. Another source of water to Southern California comes from the Colorado River, but due to last year's lack of snow fall, there is not as much coming from that sourch this year as in the past. The desalination plant in San Diego should come on line in 2016 and should help out with their water supply as well as 15 others from Los Angeles to San Francisco. 

      Due to the recent drought, central California is experiencing 50% unemployment rate  as farms do not have enough water to grow crops. Almond trees are being taken out due to their high consumption of water that is no longer available. I can predict higher prices for almonds in the near future. The drought in California is at an alarming level of concern.

2.  Interest rate increases should not be a major concern for the real estate business. The fact that rates are at an all time low, a slight increase will not cause a decline home prices or affect the market as it did during the 2006-2008 time period. Ken is calling for traditional lending to be more readily available.  Perhaps to combat the lack of lending due to recent restricted regulations by major banks more private lenders or institutions should be a more common option.

3. The rate of home price increase has leveled off in California overall which is healthy sign since home values were rising too rapidly.  With the slow down of increase in home prices, the rise in the affordability index will also be slowing down as well, allowing income an opportunity to catch up.

4.  Over 25 billion dollars is spent on services for illegal aliens such as health and education.  Present immigration law should be enforced to solve these problems.  There is no need to spend more tax dollars to solve this major crises.  All is needed is the enforcement of immigration laws that are already on the books. If we did this, no new immigration reform would be needed and certainly there would be no need for president Obama to illegally sign into law immigration reform as an executive order in the next 2 weeks.

5.  High student loans is a big road block preventing millennium's from buying a house. The cost of education is too high today and has exceeded the rate of inflation.  Recent talented graduates are coming into the work force with huge debts that prevents them from reaching their American dream of home ownership. Something should be done to help this generation that is entering the workforce with debts as great and sometimes greater than the cost of a home.

6.  Gas taxes will go up $1 per gallon at the first of the year in California due to  cap and trade laws Arnold Swartzenegger signed when he was in office. Some legislation proposes a tax on mileage that a vehicle is driven rather than a gas tax. If this ideology is received then the  concern is still how to make sure tax dollars are being used wisely and not wasted in projects such as the high speed rail in Northern California. There is no clear solution, but the raise in gas prices is a certainty if nothing at all is done.

7.  Cyber-security is a national security issue.  Russian and Chinese hackers are becoming extremely dangerous due to their hacking capabilities. One trillion dollars of private property has already been stolen by the Chinese.  If we are to protect the property and privacy of online propriety information, our online security must be strong and improved upon daily in order to combat cyber-hackers.

Congressman Ken Calvert Itemizes Issues Impacting California