San Francisco has long struggled to provide enough housing for its residents. Exacerbated by the influx of highly compensated tech workers, housing demand has far outstripped supply, prices have skyrocketed and many who work here have been forced to live elsewhere. Yet even when compared to other fast-growing tech hubs like Austin and Seattle, San Francisco’s housing production lags far behind.

Residential building-permit data from the US census shows that Austin and Seattle have both approved construction for more than three times as many housing units per person as San Francisco since 2015. Experts say the city’s main roadblocks to housing production include opposition from local groups, geographic limitations and complex regulatory processes.

The Chronicle looked at six years worth of building permit data in 15 cities with populations between 600,000 and 1.1 million people and found that San Francisco ranked in the bottom half. At under 2,900 housing units approved per 100,000 residents, San Francisco trailed behind Columbus and just barely surpassed Las Vegas. Whereas San Jose and Detroit approved the least number of residential building permits overall, Austin, Seattle and Denver topped the charts. (The census uses building permit data to measure local housing construction because most permitted housing eventually gets built.)

“San Francisco has a wild imbalance between supply and demand,” said Joseph Gyourko, a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “That is, not enough supply to satisfy the demand and that just builds up price. So, you have really high prices.”

But because the city dragged its feet to build the necessary housing to meet demand, he said, housing prices and rent soared, leaving the city’s middle-class population unable to afford the new cost of living.

Other tech hub cities, faced with similar challenges, have been more consistently aggressive. While San Francisco and Austin both had similar population sizes in 2010, with about 800,000 people, Austin permitted over 133,000 units since 2010, while San Francisco permitted only 37,500. Austin now has over 100,000 more people than San Francisco. Seattle’s population also grew faster than San Francisco’s.

Experts cite a few reasons for Austin’s housing production boom compared to San Francisco, including more room to sprawl, cheaper construction costs and less strict housing regulation. Seattle also had more open space than San Francisco to build on and benefits from a more streamlined building approval process.

UC Davis law Professor and land-use researcher Chris Elmendorf said San Francisco’s housing production rates are comparatively lower than other cities because development is too costly.

“I think it’s fair to say that San Francisco has … the combination of a very cumbersome and unpredictable permitting process, plus, a rather extraordinary array of regulatory requirements and fees,” Elmendorf said.

For example, Elmendorf points out a number of factors that add up: construction costs, regulatory requirements like impact fees, inclusionary zoning, affordable housing mandates and physical requirements such as private open space and greywater treatment systems.

“You put all those things together and there’s actually almost nothing that is economically feasible to develop, even on a vacant site, in most of San Francisco today,” he said.

Swift housing production does not guarantee housing costs won’t rise. Despite Austin punching above its weight in housing production, it wasn’t enough to meet a high demand for housing and home prices shot through the roof. Experts suggest that developers’ incentive to build multifamily luxury developments tailored to high-salaried employees created a gap in housing affordability.

California was already facing a housing shortage by the late 1960s. In response, the California government issued a statewide mandate in 1969 requiring local governments to identify and meet the housing needs of residents.

Known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, the mandate requires local governments to determine how much housing needs to be built to house its projected population according to various demographics, including income. The final assessment is an eight-year plan called the Housing Element.

According to the latest Housing Element, San Francisco is required to build 82,000 new units from 2023 to 2030, which means building over 10,000 units per year starting in 2023. That’s almost triple the city’s recent pace of 3,500 units annually.

San Francisco’s current housing stock can be divided almost equally into three building types: single-family housing, multi-family buildings with over 20 units and buildings ranging from two to nine units.

In recent years, the city has mostly been approving permits for large multifamily buildings, according to the San Francisco Planning Department. Around 89% of all buildings added in 2021 had more than 20 units, which is typical of the last several years in the city. To maximize profit, developers are incentivized to build residential buildings that can house the most tenants.

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City officials say they are taking steps to create opportunities for housing production. Among the ways San Francisco policymakers are promoting new housing is by allowing property owners to make alterations to their existing buildings that create new units. Alterations have contributed to an increasing number of units to the city’s housing stock since 2017.

Accessory Dwelling Units are small units constructed on the property of an existing home that were developed to address growing housing demands in San Francisco. While the creation of ADUs has been increasing since 2017, that still only amounts to a few hundred legal ADUs having been constructed or permitted.

SB9 made it easier for homeowners to split their lots and convert their homes into duplexes, which could potentially lead to four units on properties where there is now only one. However, it’s been six months since the bill has taken effect and the city has received very few applications under this bill.

According to Gyourko, the key to improving San Francisco’s housing issues is to focus on creating more affordable housing because these units will supply more of the demand than continuing to build units that some residents cannot afford. He suggests that this take the form of building what’s known as “missing middle” housing like duplexes and triplexes — overall smaller buildings, not just single family houses or luxury high rises.

“That’s the political problem, is when land has become really expensive, developers have to spread the land costs over as big a building base as they can, so they want to build for rich people who will pay really high condo prices or really high rents ,” Gyourko said.

According to Shanti Singh, communications and legislative director for Tenants Together, buying land is a good first step for increasing affordable housing in San Francisco. Singh said the city should develop a land banking strategy that would allow flexibility in deciding what kind of housing gets built on that land later.

Buying “public land will even make current models of subsidized housing cheaper because land costs are a huge issue in San Francisco,” Singh said.

According to Elmendorf, the point remains that it is extremely expensive to build housing in San Francisco, especially when accounting for labor costs, regulatory requirements, fees and permitting delays.

“I think the city recognizes that it has a legal obligation to change a lot of (those challenges) as well,” Elmendorf said.

Adriana Rezal is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: adriana.rezal@sfchronicle.com

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A moving company released some data that showed how more people are moving to San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston than they are to Austin. PODS Moving & Storage analyzed the top 20 cities where people are moving to and from and looked at housing market trends for its report published last weekend.

From January 2021 through March 2022, the Dallas-Fort Worth area ranked second on the list of the cities with the most growth. Houston landed at No. 12 with San Antonio right behind at 13, respectively. Austin was listed at No. 16 out of 20. Sarasota, Florida took first place.

PODS did not include data on the number of people moving to and from the respective cities.

The report also revealed which cities had the highest move-out numbers in the same time frame. California is home to three of the top 10 cities with the highest exodus of residents in 2021 and so far in 2022. In fact, the top two spots on the list are both in California (Los Angeles and the San Francisco area) and, together , sporting a total loss that’s nearly equal to the loss from the eight other cities on the list combined.

No Texas cities were listed on the highest move-out ranking.

According to the report, the cities on the ranking are for major industry employers, from technology to politics. Employers deciding to permanently adopt working remote policies may be one catalyst for the high number of moves out of these cities.

While Austin isn’t leading in the move-in ranking, celebrities are certainly moving to the city. In April, Dirt.com revealed how Oscar-winning movie star Emma Stone purchased a home in Central Austin. Actor James Marsden, known for his role as Scott Summers/Cyclops in the X-Men franchise, also paid around $1.8 million for a five-bedroom, 5,160-square-foot house in the Commons Ford area in Austin.

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LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CIM Group, a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender, and developer, announced today that three properties have achieved the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark for Indoor Air. CIM is committed to incorporating high Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards throughout each property’s life cycle as well as in its business strategies and day-to-day operations.

Properties Verified by UL include 55 Hawthorne, an 11-story, 136,000-square-foot office building in San Francisco, California; LoDo Towers, two 16- and 13-story office towers totaling more than 420,000 square feet in Denver, Colorado; and Eastside Village, a 95,000-square-foot office building in Austin, Texas. By achieving the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark, the properties demonstrate that they all have excellent indoor air quality (IAQ) performance.

To earn the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark, 55 Hawthorne, LoDo Towers, and Eastside Village participated in a thorough evaluation process, which included an audit, on-site inspections and IAQ testing, which included, among other assessments, measurement of total volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, ozone, and a mold and moisture inspection. The program includes an annual reassessment coupled with surveillance at the mid-year point to maintain participation.

“We are proud to receive the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark for Indoor Air for these three properties, an accomplishment that demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing quality indoor environments that benefit the health and wellness of our tenants,” said Bethany Chang, Managing Director, On Site Property Management.

UL, the global safety science leader, developed this program to provide credible, third-party verification that buildings demonstrate IAQ excellence.

“By earning the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark, CIM Group has taken an important step in advancing indoor air quality,” said Sean McCrady, director of UL’s Asset and Sustainability Performance, Real Estate Properties group. “This is a critically important effort as stakeholders from investors to tenants and regulatory bodies prioritize sustainability and wellness in buildings.”

The tiered UL Verified Healthy Building program verifies that an indoor space achieves exceptional indoor environmental performance based on a range of criteria. For more information about the program, visit https://www.UL.com/services/verified-healthy-buildings.

About CIM Group

CIM is a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer. Since 1994, CIM has sought to create value in projects and positively impact the lives of people in communities across the Americas by delivering more than $60 billion of essential real estate and infrastructure projects. CIM’s diverse team of experts applies its broad knowledge and disciplined approach through hands-on management of real assets from due diligence to operations through disposition. CIM strives to make a meaningful difference in the world by executing key environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and enhancing each community in which it invests. For more information, visit www.cimgroup.com.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) – If you’ve seen squirrels recently lying on their stomach, arms and legs spread apart, you are not alone. It’s a seasonal squirrel position called “splooting” that helps critters cool off on a hot day.

An Austin family discovered a squirrel that took it to the next level – over an HVAC system. It pushed the squirrel’s tail right into the air, which they caught on camera.

Why squirrels “splash” in the heat and what we can do to help them

Although the small mammals may look like they are in stealth mode, it turns out that they are just trying to cool off.

“You basically get so much of your body on a cooler surface. If it’s cooler than the outside air, put your body on it and it will cool your temperature, ”Jill Calcote of Moonshine Wildlife Rehabilitation in Cedar Park told KXAN around this time last year when viewers noticed similar language.

For more information on how you can help squirrels “sploot”, see KXAN’s story from last year.

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Posted: Nov 21, 2021 / 2:46 PM CST
/ Updated: 11/21/2021 / 4:30 PM CST

Union Square visitors view damage to the Louis Vuitton store on Sunday, November 21, 2021 after looters raided stores in San Francisco late Saturday night. (Danielle Echeverria / San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) – Approximately 80 people, some of whom were wearing ski masks and wielding crowbars, ransacked a luxury department store in the San Francisco Bay Area, assaulting employees and stealing goods, before escaping in cars waiting outside, police and witnesses said .

Three people were arrested while the majority escaped after the large-scale theft shocked shoppers in Nordstrom at the Broadway Plaza shopping mall in Walnut Creek on Saturday night, police said in a statement on Sunday.

Two employees were attacked and one hit with pepper spray while police described it as a “clearly planned event”.

NBC Bay Area reporter Jodi Hernandez tweeted that she saw the thieves rush into the store in the downtown shopping district about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco.

“About 25 cars have just blocked the road and hurtled into Walnut Creek Nordstrom with goods before they got into cars and raced away,” Hernandez said on Twitter.

Cell phone videos from the crime scene showed masked people pouring out of the store, carrying bags and boxes, jumping into cars, and fleeing from the crime scene.

Brett Barrette, the manager of a nearby PF Chang restaurant, began locking the doors of his house as he watched the chaos unfold.

“We saw probably 50 to 80 people with ski masks, crowbars and a bunch of guns,” Barrette told ABC 7 News.

Walnut Creek police said a gun had been seized from one of the three suspects arrested.

Nordstrom employees called 911 around 9 p.m. when thieves entered the store and started stealing goods, police said.

“Walnut Creek Police investigators are in the process of reviewing the surveillance footage in an attempt to identify other suspects responsible for this audacious act,” the department said in a statement on Sunday.

Nordstrom was open as usual on Sunday.

The incident came the day after a large group of people broke into several high-end stores in Union Square, San Francisco, smashed windows, stole goods, and then ran to serviceable cars, police said.

Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana were all targeted on Friday night, Fox reported 2 News.

San Francisco Police Officer Robert Rueca said in a statement posted on social media that officers responded Friday night to reports of possible looting and vandalism in Union Square shops and arresting several people.

Shops in Union Square, a high-end shopping district popular with tourists, have been attacked for years by well-organized thieves who have sometimes rammed vehicles into shop fronts to smash glass doors and windows and enter the buildings outside of business hours.

In July, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law allowing prosecutors to prosecute those who work with others to steal goods.

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ONEustin, Texas is gripped by the gentrification that destroyed San Francisco, and it feels like my duty as a filmmaker to document it. I think you have to be a stubborn, headstrong, cranky bastard to make films. As a failed comedian who had to find another way to deal with everyday life, filmmaking and photography have kept my sanity, and our latest film explores the changes I am seeing in my local community.

Items found and kept in a shrine in an East Austin newspaper warehouse. Photo: Patrick Otisike Bresnan / The Guardian

I lived in San Francisco in the 90s when Big Tech was incubated, and I believed that the coming democratization of technology would unite us and make the world a better place. The anticipation was incredible. What we didn’t see as 20-year-old punks enjoying themselves in the SF Mission District was the complete inundation of affordable neighborhoods with technicians and real estate developers. Housing had become an act of gladiatorial combat, in which cash was the most powerful weapon.

During the pandemic, Austin appeared to have become the number one city that people moved to on the LinkedIn social work platform. Like San Francisco 20 years ago, people come to Austin to work in the tech industry and bask in the strange pseudo-liberal culture the city is known for. Homes now regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars above asking price. This coincided with the construction of a Google Tower downtown, Facebook ordered 2 square meters of office space, and Tesla relocated its headquarters to Austin.

Bear goes to check out the newspaper at 3 a.m. on Christmas Day. Photo: Patrick Otisike Bresnan / The Guardian

The real human impact of this influx of highly paid and economically mobile workers is being felt in the form of a housing shortage. I’ve had this in mind since 2010 when I did a master’s degree in sustainability in the University of Texas architecture program with a focus on affordable housing. What I found so daunting about architecture school was the focus on sustainability in designing luxury homes and buildings that the majority of people could not afford or achieve. I understand sustainability more as the ability to preserve historical residents than through the design of energy-efficient buildings. By 2014 I had concentrated my energies again on an equally brutal career: filmmaking. I believe that through visual storytelling we can communicate social needs and try to maintain communities on the forefront of gentrification.

Bear sorting newspapers on Christmas Eve. Photo: Patrick Otisike Bresnan / The Guardian

In my new documentary, Happiness is a Journey, which I made with my film partner Ivete Lucas, we try to connect audiences with people who have very little power or ability to withstand the changing cityscape of Austin. The experimental split-screen documentary accompanies warehouse workers through the night as they process newspapers for delivery the night before Christmas. Your warehouse is on one of the most valuable pieces of land in the southern United States, a place with massive redevelopment plans. The physical newspapers they pack and deliver will expire in three years.

Our main protagonist in the film, Eddie “Bear” Lopez, lives less than a mile from the East Austin warehouse in a house he has called home for 60 years. Some of his colleagues have suffered from insomnia, some have been delivering papers since they were young, others are mothers who work the night shift to feed their children, or men who have been in prison looking for a return to work. While most of the people are huddled in their houses trying to sleep in anticipation of Christmas morning, bears and the like crawl to get their papers out of the camp before 3 a.m.

A mother and child at the East Austin newspaper warehouse. Composition: Patrick Otisike Bresnan / The Guardian

What we want to preserve in this film are the daily routines of the invisible working class in a city that will soon be priceless to them. Just as I’ve seen gentrification change the Bay Area, it changes Austin, and this film is an act of sustainability. We need to recognize the vulnerable people who make up our city and put a face to them before it is too late and they are forced to leave.

Happiness is a Journey is out today in the Guardian. Check out more Guardian documentation here. Sign up for the Guardian Documentaries newsletter here to be the first to hear about new releases and exclusive events.

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Tesla will be relocating its headquarters from the Bay Area to Austin, Texas at some point in the near future, and CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to take another blow at San Francisco on his way out.

In response to a Fox News article about a special Tuesday election in Austin to restore law enforcement funding after it was cut last summer, Musk tweeted, “Austin should be his city, not a copycat in San Francisco.”

Austin should be his city, not an imitator of San Francisco

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

Interestingly, after the George Floyd protests last summer, Austin went much further than San Francisco in “police discovery”.

In August 2020, Austin City Council decided to cut $ 150 million from its $ 434 police budget in 2021 – while San Francisco cut $ 80 million over two years. San Francisco has an annual police budget of around $ 700 million, meaning SF saw a 6% annual drop in police funding while Austin saw a whopping 35% drop.

Homicides have increased year over year in both cities, with Austin seeing a much larger increase (71%, according to the Fox News article) than San Francisco (5%, according to the city’s crime dashboard). Because homicides are the least likely to go unreported, some view statistics as the best measure of a city’s rising crime rate.

In response to rising murder rates and a Texas law signed by Governor Greg Abbott punishing cities that cut police budgets, Austin City Council voted in August to bring funding back to pre-summer 2020 levels.

The special elections on Tuesday will take place on a separate voting measure called Proposition A, in which the city would have to employ two police officers per 1,000 residents and provide incentives to hire officials who speak other languages ​​in addition to English.

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While Californian companies like Tesla and Oracle are giving up Silicon Valley in favor of central Texas, Texans more than Californians are driving the rental market.

AUSTIN, Texas – The largest source of potential tenants for Austin’s booming rental market comes from Houston, according to newly released data from Apartment List.

While Californian companies like Tesla and Oracle are giving up Silicon Valley in favor of Central Texas, Californians and people from other states aren’t high on the list.

According to the data, Houstoners accounted for a fifth of all Austin apartment searches from July 1 to September 30, followed by Dallas supporters at 12% and San Antonians at just under 10%.

San Francisco and San Jose accounted for about 2% of Austin apartment searches, while Los Angeles accounted for about the same percentage.

Data from Realtor.com showed that Travis County’s rental prices hit an average of $ 1,695 in September, higher year-over-year growth than any other tech hub including Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle. But the average Austin rental price was still cheaper than the other 10 locations, and well below the $ 3,450 price in San Francisco.

Austin property prices continue to rise as professional transplants choose to buy rather than rent. A report from Texas Realtors for the third quarter showed the average home price to be up to $ 465,000, up nearly 33% year over year.

The apartment list data also showed that Austinites looking to rent elsewhere are looking to San Antonio, with about 30% looking for apartments there, compared with 5% looking to Houston. Dallas residents now make up 14% of searchers in the Houston area, up from 8% last quarter.

After an ISD teacher in Round Rock gave birth to a child around 25 weeks of age, a petition to restore a sick day bank got thousands of signatures

Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives Arrested at Austin Hotel

Alligators reportedly kill dog in the Del Valle neighborhood

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Das erste Mal, als Marc und Layla McGinnis ihr Zuhause in South Austin erblickten, war ein fleckiger FaceTime-Anruf, den sie beim Autofahren auf einer Straße in West Texas entgegennahmen.

Es war im April 2019, und das Ehepaar war auf halbem Weg – sie zogen Sachen von ihrer ehemaligen Mietwohnung in der Nähe von Berkeley, Kalifornien, nach Austin, wo sie hofften, ihr erstes Haus zu kaufen –, als Layla ein Angebot entdeckte, das ihr ins Auge fiel . Sie riefen ihren Immobilienmakler an, der sich beeilte, die Immobilie zu besichtigen und ihnen per Videoanruf eine Tour zu geben.

Die McGinnises schafften es am nächsten Tag nach Austin, besichtigten das Anwesen selbst und machten sofort ihr Angebot: ungefähr 350.000 Dollar. Sie bekamen das Haus, ein Sieg nach einer Wohnungssuche, die Marc als “wahnsinnig und verrückt” bezeichnete.

Heute schätzt er, dass das Anwesen leicht 200.000 US-Dollar mehr kosten könnte, aber die McGinnises haben nicht vor, in absehbarer Zeit zu verkaufen. Sie verließen Kalifornien, weil sie eine Familie gründen wollten, und bekamen im Oktober ihr erstes Kind.

„San Francisco und die Bay Area waren zu der Zeit, als wir über Heirat und Kinder nachdachten, einfach völlig unerschwinglich“, sagte Marc. „Also fingen wir an, über verschiedene Standorte im ganzen Land nachzudenken, die für uns in Bezug auf die Dinge, die wir wollten, sinnvoll waren. Und was immer wieder auftauchte, war Austin.“

Austin scheint heutzutage für viele Kalifornier aufzutreten.

Laut einem Bericht von Texas Realtors, der Daten des Census Bureau analysierte, zogen 2019 mehr als 500.000 Menschen nach Texas, und die meisten von ihnen waren Kalifornier. Austin ist die am schnellsten wachsende Metropolregion in Texas, und dieses Wachstum wird laut der Handelskammer von Austin durch eine steigende Zahl von Kaliforniern unterstützt, die in die Stadt ziehen.

Wieso den? Ein großer Faktor ist die Erschwinglichkeit von Wohnungen, sagte Marvin Jolly, der Vorsitzende der Immobilienmakler von Texas.

Das mag für jeden absurd klingen, der auf die Hitze der Stadt geachtet hat Wohnungsmarkt und schnell gentrifizierende Nachbarschaften. Im September 2021 betrug der durchschnittliche Verkaufspreis für ein Haus in der Metropolregion Austin-Round Rock mit fünf Landkreisen laut dem jüngsten Bericht des Austin Board of Realtors 450.000 US-Dollar. Das ist ein Sprung von 28,5% gegenüber dem durchschnittlichen Verkaufspreis im September 2020 und ein neuer Rekord für den Monat September.

Aber in Los Angeles County lag der durchschnittliche Hausverkaufspreis im September 2021 nach Angaben der California Association of Realtors bei 730.000 US-Dollar. In San Francisco County waren es 1,29 Millionen US-Dollar.

Kalifornier fühlen sich auch von der niedrigeren Einkommenssteuer und den niedrigeren Lebenshaltungskosten angezogen, die Texas ihnen bietet, sagte Jolly. Und im Jahr 2020 hat etwas anderes dazu beigetragen, die Kalifornier nach Austin zu treiben: COVID-19.

Inoffizielle Firmenumzüge nach Texas erhöhen die Nachfrage nach Eigenheimen

„Wir dachten, dass die Pandemie für den Wohnungsmarkt verheerend gewesen sein könnte“, sagte Jolly. “Eigentlich hat die Pandemie den Wohnungsmarkt angeheizt.”

Seit Jahren wird das Wirtschaftswachstum von Austin durch Unternehmensverlagerungen wie dem Softwareriesen Oracle und kürzlich von Elon Musks Tesla angetrieben. Diese Umzüge haben stetig zum Wohnungsrausch beigetragen, sagte Jolly, aber die Pandemie habe eine Art arbeitergetriebener Unternehmensumzug von beispiellosem Ausmaß geschaffen.

“Es ist, als ob eine große, riesige inoffizielle Firmenumsiedlung nach Texas passiert wäre”, sagte Jolly. „Weil wir diese Mitarbeiter haben, die jetzt Remote-Online-Mitarbeiter sind. Und sie haben jetzt die Wahl, von überall aus zu arbeiten, von wo aus sie arbeiten möchten. Und viele dieser Arbeiter haben sich entschieden, wenn sie von überall aus arbeiten können, haben sie sich dafür entschieden, von Texas aus zu arbeiten.“

Das war die Entscheidung von Niraj Jayant und Amanda Negley, einem Ehepaar, das in der Technik bzw. im Betrieb arbeitet. Sie kauften im März 2021 ein Haus in South Austin und zogen Ende Juli aus San Francisco um. Jetzt arbeiten beide von ihrem neuen Zuhause aus.

Mehr:Inmitten der Pandemie gaben ausländische Käufer 634 Millionen US-Dollar für Immobilien in der Umgebung von Austin aus, wie aus einem Bericht hervorgeht

Es ist nicht ihr erstes Mal in Austin. Die beiden lernten sich als Studenten an der University of Texas kennen und zogen nach ihrem Abschluss im Jahr 2016 zusammen nach San Francisco. Obwohl es der richtige Schritt für ihre Karriere war, begannen sie, die Gemeinschaft in Austin zu vermissen, sagte Jayant.

„In San Francisco haben wir uns nie mit unseren Nachbarn unterhalten“, sagte er. „Du freundest dich immer absichtlich nicht mit Leuten in deinem Gebäude an. Und ich denke, wir waren bereit, ein bisschen mehr von diesem Gemeinschaftsgefühl zu haben und uns wie ein Teil einer Nachbarschaft zu fühlen.“

Sie fanden ein Haus im Viertel Westgate, das westlich der Menchaca Road und zwischen dem Ben White Boulevard und der Stassney Lane liegt. Sie zahlten etwa 550.000 US-Dollar – etwa 20 % über dem Angebotspreis.

Das ist typisch für den heutigen Wohnungsmarkt, sagte Jolly.

Jayant und Negley sagten, sie hoffen, Kinder zu bekommen und sie in ihrem neuen Zuhause aufzuziehen. Zurück in San Francisco sei es für das Paar leicht gewesen, diesen Traum aus den Augen zu verlieren, sagte Jayant.

“Niemand hat wirklich Kinder in der Stadt”, sagte er. „Du vergisst tatsächlich. Ich hatte in den Jahren, in denen ich dort war, keine kleinen Kinder oder ähnliches gesehen – es fühlt sich einfach so an, als ob viele Leute in den Zwanzigern und Dreißigern vorübergehend dort sind.“

Ed Choi hatte ein ähnliches Gefühl in Los Angeles, wo er lebte, bevor er 2019 nach Austin zog. Den Umzug machte er aus Liebe: Während einer Arbeitsreise nach Austin traf er sich mit seinem jetzigen Ehemann über eine Dating-App. Das Paar war etwas mehr als ein Jahr auf Distanz, bevor es sich entschied, gemeinsam ein Haus in Austin zu kaufen. Choi sagte, die Wahl zwischen Austin und LA sei „nie wirklich eine Frage“.

„Ich wusste, dass ich ein Leben beginnen wollte“, sagte Choi. „Ich wollte einen Partner haben. Ich wollte ein Haus haben. Ich wollte eine Familie gründen. Und viele dieser Dinge sind in LA wirklich unerreichbar. Die Immobilienpreise sind so unverschämt.“

Choi und sein Ehemann Jordan Suggs erwarben ein Haus im Stadtteil Southwood, das zwischen Menchaca und South First Street südlich von Ben White liegt, für rund 500.000 US-Dollar.

„Es ist lustig, weil wir jetzt darüber reden und sagen: Gott, wenn wir gerade nach einem Haus suchen, können wir uns in keiner der Gegenden, in denen wir leben wollen, etwas leisten“, sagte Choi . genannt. Das Paar hat im September geheiratet und freut sich auf die Kindererziehung in ihrem neuen Zuhause.

Mehr:Die Immobilienpreise in Austin steigen immer noch, aber der Markt zeigt einen „beruhigenden Trend“

Choi vermisst ein paar Dinge an LA – zum Beispiel die Food-Szene. Chois Familie ist Koreaner und er sagte, er habe „noch mein koreanisches Lieblingsrestaurant“ in Austin gefunden. Alles in allem sagte Choi jedoch, dass er Austin liebt und hofft, dass seine Neuankömmlinge mit einer ähnlichen Wertschätzung für die Stadt kommen.

„Ich liebe es, die Geschichte der Leute zu hören, die nach Austin ziehen, weil sie es hier lieben oder die Atmosphäre hier lieben“, sagte Choi. „Wenn der Ort, an den man umzieht, an Wertschätzung fehlt, wird es problematisch. Ich denke, dass einiges davon gerechtfertigt ist, die Rippen, die die Kalifornier von den Austiniten bekommen.“

Austin-Viertel wandeln sich inmitten wohlhabender Neuankömmlinge auf

Kalifornier oder nicht, die Leute, die die Immobilienpreise in Austin in die Höhe treiben, bereiten einigen Austiniten sicherlich Probleme.

Die Stadt gentrifiziert sich schnell, und Langzeitbewohner – insbesondere Schwarze und Latinx-Bewohner – werden zunehmend aus ihrer eigenen Stadt herausgerechnet, sagte Mechele Dickerson, eine UT-Rechtsprofessorin, die Wohnen und die Mittelschicht studiert.

„Viele der bezahlbaren Mietwohnungen werden abgerissen und in einkommensstärkere Wohnungen umgewandelt“, sagte Dickerson. „Und das bedeutet, dass Menschen ausgehen, die überwiegend nicht-weiß sind, und Menschen, die nicht reich sind. Wir werden also zu einer Stadt, die San Francisco sehr ähnlich ist, wo wir eine hochgebildete Stadt mit hohem Einkommen haben, aber nur sehr wenig Mittelschicht.“

Austin ist die teuerste Stadt in Texas. Laut der National Low Income Housing Coalition muss eine Person mindestens 27,58 US-Dollar pro Stunde verdienen, um sich eine Wohnung mit zwei Schlafzimmern in der Gegend bequem leisten zu können. Das ist weit vom texanischen Mindestlohn von 7,25 Dollar entfernt.

Austinites ohne Wohnung unterliegen derzeit dem stadtweiten Campingverbot für Obdachlose, aber es gibt nicht viele bezahlbare Wohnungen, an die sie sich wenden können, sagte Dickerson.

„Wir sind nicht anders als jede andere Stadt, die bei der Planung von bezahlbarem Wohnraum sehr schlechte Arbeit geleistet hat“, sagte sie. „Die Leute tun so, als ob sie schockiert wären, wenn eine Nachbarschaft gentrifiziert wird, was einfach absurd ist. Weil man deutlich sehen kann, wann ein Viertel vor der Gentrifizierung steht, und die Stadtplaner würden es uns wahrscheinlich nicht sagen, aber sie könnten uns wahrscheinlich jetzt sagen, was das nächste Viertel ist, das wahrscheinlich Gentrifizierung macht.“

Der Austin Joe Kirklin, den er als UT-Student kennengelernt hat, wäre für jeden, der in den letzten zehn Jahren in die Stadt gezogen ist, nicht wiederzuerkennen. Kirklin zog nach Austin, nachdem er 1974 seine Highschool in Odessa mit einer Vorliebe für Pink Floyd und Led Zeppelin abgeschlossen hatte. In Austin entdeckte er progressive Country-Stars wie Willie Nelson und Jerry Jeff Walker.

„Das hat mir wirklich die Augen geöffnet“, sagt er. „Und das Tolle daran, die Augen so geöffnet zu haben, ist, dass es auch den Geist öffnet. Es gibt viel mehr Welt da draußen, als du denkst.“

Im Laufe seines Lebens entdeckte Kirklin ein bisschen mehr von dieser Welt. Er hat in Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, Kanada und Kalifornien gelebt, die er von 2000 bis 2020 sein Zuhause nannte. Kirklin und seine Frau lebten die meiste Zeit in einer Stadt namens Paradise, die sie nach dem Brand aufgeben mussten im zerstörerischen Lagerfeuer 2018.

„Wir haben nicht nur unser Haus und unseren Besitz verloren“, sagte er. „Wir haben unsere Stadt verloren“

Kirklin und seine Frau Marilyn hatten immer geplant, sich in Zentraltexas zurückzuziehen, aber das Feuer beschleunigte ihre Pläne. Sie machten den Umzug im März 2020 und sagten, sie hätten „ziemlich einfach“ eine Mietwohnung in Bee Cave gefunden. Das Paar zahlt etwa 2.700 Dollar im Monat, aber ihr Vermieter will die Miete um etwa 20 % erhöhen, um mit dem Markt Schritt zu halten.

„Wenn ich an seiner Stelle wäre, würde ich genau dasselbe tun“, sagte Kirklin. „Sie wollen mieten, was der Markt verlangt. Und im Moment ist es einfach verrückt.“

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Manchmal vermisst Kirklin den Austin, den er in den 1970er Jahren kennengelernt hat. Er erinnert sich, wie der MoPac Boulevard gerade gebaut wurde, als er die Bee Cave Road aus der Stadt nehmen und nichts als Landschaft vorfinden konnte. Jetzt ist alles entwickelt.

“Es verwirrt mich immer noch irgendwie”, sagte er.

Meistens aber brachten ihn die gleichen Dinge, die Kirklin 1974 zum ersten Mal nach Austin brachten, 2020 wieder zurück: die Musik, die Kultur und die Menschen.

„Wirklich, es ist die gleiche Stadt, die sie schon immer war“, sagte Kirklin. „Gleiche Musikszene. Dieselbe Stimmung, auch wenn sie jetzt viel teurer ist als damals. Aber seine Seele ist dieselbe, und das ist trotz aller Veränderungen ermutigend.“

Marc McGinnis vermutet, dass Austins Seele es ist, was Kalifornier wie ihn dazu verleitet, hierher zu ziehen. Seit seinem Roadtrip in die Stadt 2019 mit seiner Frau sagte McGinnis, er habe nicht zurückgeschaut.

“Dies ist ein wirklich großartiger Ort”, sagte McGinnis. „Ich denke, dass die Leute, die Austin aufgebaut haben, wirklich großartige Arbeit geleistet haben, um so viele Kalifornier wie möglich anzuziehen. Es ist deine eigene Schuld, ihr alle.“

The post Californians are transferring to Austin in droves. Here is why they are saying that’s appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Just weeks after announcing his company’s plans to move its headquarters from California to Austin, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that Austin shouldn’t turn into a “San Francisco copycat”.

In response to a Fox News report on the upcoming Police Personnel Bill, Prop A, due for election Tuesday, Musk said “Austin should be his city, not a San Francisco copycat,” the billionaire tweeted.

The report recorded Save Austin Now’s proposal that it would require just over two police officers per 1,000 residents and 40 additional hours of police training per year. It also showcased Austin’s 70.97% increase in murders that year and the city council’s decision to cut and reallocate a portion of the police budget following nationwide protests against police brutality.

Some say the budget cuts and a year-long hiatus in training police cadets are responsible for the rise in crime, especially as a police staff shortage led Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon to announce that the police would not ” Non-emergencies “will respond. Others say Austin’s growth – the city swelled nearly a third from 2010-2020 – is the main culprit due to the pandemic and a nationwide surge in gun violence.

Chacon said the city’s “boomtown” growth is now facing “boomtown” problems.

“The point here is that we really become a big city,” said Chacon in September. “We’re starting to have problems with big cities. Nevertheless, I think that among the big cities we are still one of the safest in the country.”

The Prop A vote comes from Save Austin Now, a self-proclaimed bipartisan group that successfully reintroduced the homeless camping ban in May. Both SAN and an anti-prop-A-PAC raised over $ 1 million ahead of the November 2 elections, but the city saw a relatively low turnout in the early voting.

Austin Musk’s recent transplant left California for a reason – the billionaire was known to grapple with state politicians and regulators, particularly the state’s COVID policies.

In the past, he was more laudable Austin, calling it the nation’s next “boomtown” and a “Little California” on a podcast episode with fellow Californian transplant colleague Joe Rogan.

Musk made a home in Texas after moving last year. Tesla, which hit a market cap of $ 1 trillion for the first time on October 25, announced that it will relocate its headquarters in early October and is currently building a Giga Texas facility in southeast Austin, while Musk’s space company SpaceX is currently prototyping for his spaceship rocket in South Texas. Musk’s current primary residence is believed to be a $ 50,000 tiny house outside of the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

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