Los Angeles could be closed to new construction due to fire, earthquake and coastal erosion zones. What will this do to prices of existing homes?

Photo above – The Beverly Hillbillies mansion. Worth $195 million today. It’s unknown what Jed Clampett paid for it in 1962 when he moved from Limestone, Tennessee. However, Jed put most of his $25 million fortune in the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills, so the mansion probably sold for a low 7 figure number.

Okay, last year brushfires destroyed 16,000 homes in Los Angeles County. Governor Newsom’s response was to fast-track permits and approvals to rebuild in the same spots. Does anyone see a problem here?

The fire danger zone in California is now the size of Georgia. That doesn’t include the earthquake zones and the coastal erosion zones. (see link below)

Some people leaving for safer and more affordable states. Some people are still arriving in California. Unfortunately, a high percentage of new arrivals are either migrants or low-income Americans needing assistance from city, county, and state agencies.

When you run short of something, the price goes through the roof. This is true whether you talk about gold, land, or beluga caviar. And the median home price in California – the entire state, not just Los Angeles – is already around $1 million.

I don’t think this is a problem that can be fixed with higher real estate taxes, Or higher fire insurance premiums, or hiking personal income taxes again. And suggestions like a $30 minimum wage for burger flippers and cashiers could make things worse. $30 an hour looks like a windfall to someone in Chattanooga Tennessee or Chihuahua Mexico. The kinfolk said "Jed move away from there . . . Californy is the place you ought to be . . . "

The owners of those existing million-dollar California homes are lobbying local officials to stop construction of low-income apartments adjacent to their picturesque, crime free neighborhoods. But that sort of high rise housing is really the only feasible solution though: tear down a bunch of one and two story buildings and replace them with something 20 stories high, and which blocks the sun or the view of the ocean.

This isn't a recommendation from me. But it's a prediction of how this could play out. If you have a better idea, please share it.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

California Is Running Out of Safe Places to Build Homes Due to Fires, Rising Seas