California, Housing

The Modesto Bee does a thorough ranking of cities and town in California's Central Valley and how 'smart' their growth is. Oakdale, CA comes out on top, while Gustine is the dunce of the group.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that within the next five years, $5 billion will go to funding 20,000 new affordable homes near public transportation.

This video from KCET takes a look inside one of the formerly fastest-growing parts of the country as it grapples with a flood of foreclosures and abandoned properties.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is planning to propose a $5 billion housing plan for the city that focuses on mixed-income development and locations near transit. Some applaud the move, but others worry it may not be feasible.

Merced California typefies the housing bust: speculation, foreclosures, and the construction of houses nobody can afford to buy.

Technically these are SROs- Single Room Occupancy units, but it's a spanking new building, cafe below, in the vibrant SoMa district, starting at only $279,000. The catch: some units are only 250 sq.ft.

In Fullerton, CA, a dense new mixed-use building is facing criticism from neighbors and residents. 'All of a sudden we get one of these mixed-use buildings, [and] it's like a fort got dropped out of the sky,' says one neighbor.

In the same week that Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Los Angeles announcemed the New Generation Fund, a $100 million program for affordable housing.

Long considered the source of California's fiscal and land use woes, Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978, limits increases in property tax. However, it may prove to be an 'economic stabilizer' during the current housing slump.

San Francisco's rapid loss of low and middle-income residents is taking a toll on the city's social fabric.

Despite the housing downturn, houses in excess of 20,000 square feet are still being built by the very wealthy — with no sign of a slowdown.

A city councilwoman in Galt, south of Sacramento, is cited for violating city code rules on watering. That's despite the fact that the City Council had urged the public to water and care for lawns at foreclosed homes.

In California's Inland Empire, abandoned houses are plentiful- the fallout from the subprime mortgage mess. Bill Fulton reports on what some cites are doing to keep the abandoned houses from dragging down neighborhoods.

An outreach counseling group in Santa Barbara, California, has worked with the city to set up 12 parking lots where people can sleep in their cars at night -- an act that is illegal on city streets.

Hoping to head off a competing ballot measure, Miami-based developer Lennar Corp. has voluntarily agreed to set aside 3,200 of the planned 10,000 homes on San Francisco's Hunters and Candlestick Point for low- and moderate-income families.

A planned New Urbanist development in Northern California wants enable its eventual residents to live within their prescribed ecological footprint.