What happens when you give politicians $200 million with no accountability? They blow it. So it was with the money the City of Irvine extracted from developers to create the Great Park. So far, the City has brought in about $250 million, yet only about 15% of the park is developed, and what’s out there doesn’t look like $250 million worth of facilities. Most of the money was simply wasted. Irvine taxpayers paid for a park and all they got to show for it is a balloon, over-hyped and over-priced conceptual plans, and a giant pile of runway rubble. Dream [Read More...]

Since early last fall, I noted increasing affordability relative to rents. It’s now cheaper to own than to rent in many OC markets and most housing markets around the country. However, rental parity is a measure of affordability comparing one method of providing housing versus another. Rental parity does not capture the bigger picture of affordability relative to incomes. As it turns out, all housing is becoming less affordable as both owners and renters alike spend more on housing as a percentage of income than they used to. This is a troubling trend. If people are putting more toward housing, [Read More...]