The housing crisis is negatively affecting just about everyone across the country, from owners to renters (rents have gone up steeply) to cities. With declining home prices, property tax revenues ultimately weaken, affecting the City's ability to provide needed services.
Unfortunately, Seaside is a community disproportionately affected by this nationwide crisis. Where most of the Monterey Peninsula has seen price declines in the neighborhood of 20-30%, Seaside has seen declines of about 45%.
Some of the reasons for the magnitude of the impact include poor homebuyer and homeowner education, lax maintenance of properties, and incomplete implementation of Seaside's City infrastructure such as sidewalks and poor maintenance of existing community neighborhood facilities such as parks.
Proposed Solutions:
One of the first areas the City can help is to provide no-cost education to prospective homebuyers and existing homeowners. The City could cooperate with nonprofit financial literacy programs as well as Realtors; lenders; contractors, builders and materials vendors; and City staff such as planners and building officials.
The envisioned programs would focus on topics such as home buying skills and maintenance and improvement skills.
A home buying skills program should necessarily include information not just on how to buy a home, but teach attendees how to budget for home purchase without relying on any short term appreciation potential.
Maintenance and improvement education are just as important, if not more so. Too often we see Seaside homes spruced up for sale only to fall into disrepair quickly after the transaction. Inadequately maintained properties can have a tremendous negative impact on the value of surrounding homes.
Poor upkeep is sometimes related to inadequate funding on the part of the buyer (see home buying education above), but in many cases can also be related to poor knowledge of maintenance procedures or a distrust or lack of knowledge about City standards and processes for improving properties (see planning).
Finally, the City needs to improve infrastructure to give residents the confidence that the City is committed to the best possible environment. Curb, gutter and sidewalk should be implemented in areas where incomplete, as should under-grounding of electrical and communications utilities. Parks must also be maintained to a more attractive standard (both in terms of cleanliness and amenities provided). When implemented, people could take greater advantage of their views and other aspects of their neighborhoods (safe, unimpeded walks, for example) which would directly result in higher home values and improved property tax revenues to the City.
Paid for by Felix For Seaside City Council