----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Perelman To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 11:49 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] housing bubble?
A recent article in the Sacramento Bee indicated that 20% of Cal. houses are purchased for investment purchases. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
~ When the Pajaro River levee in Pajaro California gave way in the late 1990s it swamped what is most likely the poorest section of Monterey county.
The authorities went looking for the owners of some of the rental residential housing down by the Pajaro trainyard and I remember that one particularly run down neighborhood, Railroad Avenue (a dirt street.), which looked like something straight out of Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck... slummy little overcrowded railroad shacks and beat trailers with exposed wiring and too many other hazards to count...
Most of the street was(or perhaps still is) owned by a Dentist's investor group up in the SF Bay Area.
Surprise! [Dripping sarcasm implied]
This also describes the situation at many of the Campos(labor camps) in the area. One particular camp, a long-ago converted oceanside motel in ruins out on San Andreas road had a TB outbreak a few years back.
The county spent a fortune "rehabbing" the place for the company that owned it, because they would have problems finding standard housing for all the fieldworkers that show up for the lettuce & strawberry harvests.
I believe Railroad Avenue was rebuilt with F.E.M.A and other federal money.
What's to hate about investing in housing? [Tongue firmly in cheek. //lcm]
Leigh
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