Tax & Accounting Minute: The tax code was designed to raise money but is also used for social engineering. The 1031 exchange was discussed, along with the profit amount waived when selling a personal home.
News:
The District Assembly was last Saturday. Bob Deering, Chris Deering, and Marsha Vacca all taught. Jim Fritzsche and Charley Rea attended.
A survey went out. Nineteen of us have already responded.
April 10th the Salvation Army major will attend our meeting to provide us with rewards and recognition, and someone will get green hair!
We will have a joint meeting with Carmichael on Tuesday night, April 24th.
April 31st we'll meet jointly with Carmichael at the Oak Plains Masonic Lodge 3010 Becerra to hear our Police Chief Kathy Lester.
Happy Dollars: Bill Watson's then 4-year-old daughter was sick and had to get a shot. She closed her eyes and clicked her heels and said, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
Speaker Today: Dr. Patrick Oberie, an assistant professor of Geography from CSUS spoke about the changes in housing over the years, starting by sharing a FRED graph with the median price nationwide from 1960 to the present, and our California changes since 2016. Another graph showed increasing spending on housing since 2016 including housing, renovations, improvements, and repairs. The general guideline for housing is that rent or the mortgage payment should cost 30% or less of a family's monthly income. For many, including the speaker, it's closer to 40%. The pandemic spiked prices and they haven't come back down. This also happened with the Great Depression. Housing policy was a big part of the Hoover Administration. At that time, 60% of the population were renters, but now 60% of the population are homeowners. The Federal Housing Act of 1934 established the FHA and the 30-year fixed mortgage. This made payments predictable and affordable for many people. In 1937 under the Wagner Steagall Act, public housing was built for the first time. The intent was to get working lower-class families into townhouses. It was not built as housing of "last resort." The law was a compromise, ensuring by establishing income limits that public housing would not compete with private builders. The main fault with this change was that maintenance was not considered, and the housing decayed. In 1973, President Nixon repealed Title 1 of the housing act. By 1999 it became illegal for the federal government to build public housing. With this policy change, public housing became decentralized. Tax code incentives moved away from the New Deal. The states now direct subsidies, provide housing, and ask existing housing to lease to low-income individuals. Alternatives that are sometimes tried include rent control, just-cause evictions, tenant opportunity to purchase when apartments are transformed into condominiums, requiring affordability for new construction, and using land trusts and limited-equity co-ops. Studies have shown that as the median gross rent goes up, the rate of homelessness goes up. This is in contrast to studies that prove no correlation between homelessness and employment or drug use. If you'd like to contact Dr. Oberle, his phone is (916) 278-3881 and his email is patrick.oberle@csus.edu
Raffle:Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate covered almonds won by Allison Hamaker
Attendance (22) Don Brodeur, Bob Deering, Chris Deering, Lewie Donhost, Carroll Dudley, Jim Fritzsche, Betsy Gade, George Gomes, Hanns Haesslein, Dick Hall, Allison Hamaker, Tim Hayes, Jack Kimmel, Bill Loscotoff, Keith McBride, Charley Rea, Amy Ruggles, Jim Shaw, Randy Smith, Bill Watson, Bob Tilley from Point West, and our speaker Dr. Patrick Oberle.
Coming up next week: Genelle Smith of the Wellspring Women's Center
Another graph showed increasing spending on housing since 2016 including housing, renovations, improvements, and repairs. The general guideline for housing is that rent or the mortgage payment should cost 30% or less of a family's monthly income. For many, including the speaker, it's closer to 40%. The pandemic spiked prices and they haven't come back down. This also happened with the Great Depression. Housing policy was a big part of the Hoover Administration. At that time, 60% of the population were renters, but now 60% of the population are homeowners. The Federal Housing Act of 1934 established the FHA and the 30-year fixed mortgage. This made payments predictable and affordable for many people. In 1937 under the Wagner Steagall Act, public housing was built for the first time. The intent was to get working lower-class families into townhouses. It was not built as housing of "last resort." The law was a compromise, ensuring by establishing income limits that public housing would not compete with private builders. The main fault with this change was that maintenance was not considered, and the housing decayed. In 1973, President Nixon repealed Title 1 of the housing act. By 1999 it became illegal for the federal government to build public housing. With this policy change, public housing became decentralized. Tax code incentives moved away from the New Deal. The states now direct subsidies, provide housing, and ask existing housing to lease to low-income individuals. Alternatives that are sometimes tried include rent control, just-cause evictions, tenant opportunity to purchase when apartments are transformed into condominiums, requiring affordability for new construction, and using land trusts and limited-equity co-ops. Studies have shown that as the median gross rent goes up, the rate of homelessness goes up. This is in contrast to studies that prove no correlation between homelessness and employment or drug use. If you'd like to contact Dr. Oberle, his phone is (916) 278-3881 and his email is patrick.oberle@csus.edu.png)
