Month: December 2017
Keller Williams agents tapped for leadership of Santa Cruz County real estate groups
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20171221/new-scotts-valley-mayor-eyes-affordable-housing-as-key-priority
December 27, 2017, SCOTTS VALLEY >> Two agents with Keller Williams Santa Cruz will head industry organizations in 2018. Maggie Barr of Boulder Creek is serving as president of the Women’s Council of Realtors Santa Cruz, following her installation this month.
Renee Mello of Watsonville will be installed as president of the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors on Jan. 24 at an event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Drive, Aptos. Tickets are $48 at mysccar.org.
Barr has been on the board or chaired a committee at the Women’s Council of Realtors for four years, starting when she became a real estate agent. She is a member of the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission and a board member for the Valley Women’s Club.
Barr said the Women’s Council of Realtors is shifting priorities, holding four large industry events next year on topics such as county regulation changes, real estate investing and the changing tax implications of homeownership.
The events will be open to the general public, and Women’s Council of Realtors members will be encouraged to invite clients and business partners.
The first event will be a luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Dream Inn, with a panel speaking about Santa Cruz County real estate, affordable housing, market trends, short-term rental regulation changes, new residential developments and tax or regulation changes. Cost to attend is $45.
Mello, a broker associate, started in real estate in 1984 and joined Keller Williams in 2008. A certified John Maxwell coach, she said her passion is coaching new agents.
Mello said her priority will be to connect opportunity and responsibility.
Keller Williams Santa Cruz has 110 real estate agents in offices in Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, and the team leader is Elaine Della-Santina.
New Scotts Valley mayor eyes affordable housing as key priority
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20171221/new-scotts-valley-mayor-eyes-affordable-housing-as-key-priority
December 21, 2017, SCOTTS VALLEY >> New Scotts Valley Mayor Jim Reed said he plans to work on affordable housing. Reed, chief of staff for San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, was elected on a 5-0 vote Wednesday night for his new role. A three-term Scotts Valley City Council member and mayor in 2009-2010 and 2013-2014, he said he wants to look at best practices of other cities.
A common scenario is for 15 percent of homes in a development to be sold at a lower price, making them affordable to buyers with less income, but those buyers have to give up appreciation to retain affordability. Reed said he’s interested in “affordability by design,” where homes are smaller and thus have lower asking prices.
As for the long discussed Town Center project, he said the economic development subcommittee has changed the criteria due to the “Amazon effect.” With more people ordering goods online, the demand for more retail is slacking. So the Town Center project will be primarily a housing project, with an affordable component, he said.
He’d like to have senior housing and “lifestyle” commercial — restaurants and bars — to complement “The Hangar” brew pub at Skypark, which developer Corbett Wright and partner Rob Stuart are building on Mount Hermon Road. “It’s the market,” said Councilman Randy Johnson, who served as mayor in 2017, explaining why there’s no rush to build retail stores. “Developers are risk-averse.”
Jack Dilles, elected in 2016, was chosen vice mayor on a 4-1 vote, with Councilwoman Donna Lind nominating Councilwoman Stephany Aguilar. Dilles said he is concerned about five-year financial projections presented by City Manager Jenny Haruyama and the upcoming expiration of the eight-year sales tax voters approved in 2013. A special meeting is planned early in the new year to set city priorities.
City Clerk Tracy Ferrara said a new user-friendly website is coming in April.
Public Works Director Scott Hamby, who worked for the city 32 years, is retiring Dec. 29. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Steve Hammack, a Scotts Valley resident who retired after a career as a parks manager, working for state parks, the city of Santa Cruz and San Jose.
Swenson starts building downtown Santa Cruz housing at key Pacific Avenue location
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20171220/NEWS/171229959
December 20, 2017, SANTA CRUZ >> Builder Swenson celebrated Wednesday afternoon, toasting the start of the $35 million Park Pacific development that in two years will offer 79 rental units, a ground-floor restaurant and fill a key downtown property vacant since the 1989 earthquake.
“Cheers,” said Case Swenson, president of San Jose-based Swenson and son of founder Barry Swenson, raising a glass of
red wine. “It’s been a good year,” said Jesse Nickell III, Swenson senior vice president, raising a glass of white wine. The housing is “very welcomed in our city,” Mayor David Terrazas told 60 people at Wednesday’s groundbreaking. “Barry Swenson is really committed to investing in our town.” Crews last month began moving earth at the building site, which is in downtown Santa Cruz next to Lulu Carpenter’s and Bank of the West, and the project is expected to create up to 300 construction jobs.
Case Swenson briefly mentioned the challenges of the project at 1547 Pacific Ave., once owned by Ron Lau, whose building was demolished after the Loma Prieta earthquake. While the rest of Pacific Garden Mall was rebuilt after the quake, financing woes hampered rebuilding efforts at this location.
Lau was unable to reach agreement on a project, and city officials considered the site an eyesore. In 2005, the city Redevelopment Agency filed suit against Lau to take the property under eminent domain so Bolton Hill could build condos there. Lau got a settlement of $1.7 million and rights to two condos but the seven-story development the council approved in 2006 was not built before the economy crashed, and Santa Cruz County Bank, which had financed the project, foreclosed. The Rodoni family and Clarum Homes were involved before Swenson stepped in. “It’s so hard to get these buildings off the ground,” said Swenson. “It’s a flat-out miracle.” Barry Swenson bought the property in 2015 for $6.25 million, reviving a project that had faced one snag after another.
Case Swenson got emotional as he thanked his father, who had a stroke last year and was unable to attend. “My dad worked on this 15 years ago,” he said. “I wish he could be here.” Case Swenson also thanked Wells Fargo, which is providing financing for Park Pacific, and others who helped the project along the way. Case said the Park Pacific represents the company’s 12th groundbreaking of the year, a sign of how the construction industry is booming over the hill, where much of the development is taking place.
Nickell, who’s been with Swenson for 31 years, said the company has invested $144 million in downtown Santa Cruz, starting with building the St. George Hotel in 1991. Among them, he said, are: Bookshop Santa Cruz, Chocolat, Pacific Wave, Saturn Cafe, Lali’s, Walgreens, Eco Goods, University Town Center, Five Guys, Shogun Sushi, Del Mar Theatre restoration, Sockshop & Shoe Co., Cruzio, Ecology Action, Walnut Commons Cohousing, the NIAC Building and Coast Commercial Bank’s headquarters at 75 River St.
About 60 people attended, including Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Richelle Noroyan, former Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane and many of the Swenson employees working on Five55 Pacific Ave., a 94-unit rental complex due for completion in January, and Aptos Village, 69 residential units with retail and office space, parts of which are to be ready by the end of 2018.
The City Council in September approved Swenson’s request to build 79 units at 1547 Pacific Ave. instead of 63, which helped the company obtain financing. The project will have fewer larger units and more smaller ones: 16 studios, 43 one-bedroom units and 20 two-bedroom units. Studios will have 450 square feet, one-bedroom units 700 square feet and two-bedroom units 1,000 square feet. Parking will be underground.
Construction is expected to take up to 24 months. The complex is to be rented at first, then sold as individual condominiums, with 12 dedicated as affordable.
In September, Swenson project manager Scott Connelly estimated studios could rent for $2,000 a month, one bedrooms for $2,500 to $3,000 a month, and two bedrooms at $3,700 a month, with some higher-end units.
Rising Rents In Santa Cruz Inspire Rent Control Push
By Ericka Mahoney, KAZU.org
http://kazu.org/post/rising-rents-santa-cruz-inspire-rent-control-push#stream/0
December 5, 2017, SANTA CRUZ >> The majority of people living in Santa Cruz are renters. But high rents are driving some of them out. One homeowner is leading an effort to change that. Josh Brahinsky just became a homeowner. He lives on a tree-lined block in Santa Cruz with his wife, two boys, and their dog. But they also live with a tenant. The family rents out a bedroom. And they plan to bring in more people by converting their garage into an apartment.
“We can’t afford the mortgage if we don’t also share the space, but we also want to create homes for our friends. Like
everybody is getting booted out of town,” says Brahinsky. As a contractor builds the new door frame, Brahinsky says his friends and neighbors are getting priced out. According to the real estate website Zillow, rents are growing at an aggressive rate in Santa Cruz, about twice the national average. The median rent is roughly $3,200 a month. That’s almost as much as San Jose.
Brahinsky says they will keep the rent on their new garage apartment affordable for whoever moves in. But he wants to help even more people. He’s an active member of the local group Movement for Housing Justice, which is affiliated with Tenants Together, a statewide group. Movement for Housing Justice is leading a campaign to establish rent control. Rent control limits how much a landlord can raise the rent. Right now in Santa Cruz, landlords can do whatever they want. “We have hundreds of people signed up already to gather signatures. The minute we said we are doing this, everyone was like how can I help, how can I help?” Brahinsky says.
Fourteen cities in California currently have rent control. Brahinsky hopes Santa Cruz voters pass it next November. The Santa Cruz measure proposes tying the allowable increase to the increase in the cost of living. It also proposes just cause eviction. Meaning a landlord would have to provide a reason when they evict someone. He and other advocates will start collecting signatures in January to get it on the ballot.
Tracy Cone says she will definitely add her name to that list. She rents her home with her boyfriend and children. And she rents her office. Her biggest fear is dramatic increases in both. “I don’t think I could sustain those in terms of my income, my income doesn’t, won’t match that,” Cone says. Cone is a self-employed acupuncturist. “I’m paying more than 50 percent of my income toward rent. And it’s at the point where it’s difficult to save enough money to be able to buy something. You know the hope of doing that is diminishing every month. And so now I’m thinking, like, I don’t know how I’m going to stay here. I may just have to suck it up and go start a practice somewhere else, where I can afford to live,” says Cone.
She says, unfortunately, rent control would not help her. That’s because it doesn’t apply to commercial units for her office and because she lives in a single-family house. A California law called Costa-Hawkins bans rent control on single-family houses, condos, and all homes built after 1995. That means about 77 percent of Santa Cruz’s housing stock would not be eligible for rent control.
But it’s still a problem for landlord Darius Mohsenin. Rent control would affect every unit he owns in Santa Cruz. “Santa Cruz total, 53 units, spread across five buildings,” says Mohsenin. Standing in front of one of those buildings on Broadway, he says rent control would discourage him from doing upgrades. He points to the double-pane vinyl windows he put in a few years ago. It cost him $20,000. “I would go and put my money in places in Salinas or other towns I have properties in, San Leandro, Vacaville. Because I just wouldn’t see a way to recoup my investment under a rent control initiative,” Mohsenin says.
The second reason has to do with Costa-Hawkins, that state law which dictates how cities implement rent control. It gives landlords the right to raise the rent as much as they want in between tenants. “It only benefits one group of people, the current tenant base, that’s it,” Mohsenin says. But Homeowner Josh Brahinsky says rent control is about protecting the people who live in Santa Cruz now.
“It’s not a perfect system. It’s not going to make everything great. But it does mean that a substantial number of units will have the rent limit and that’s going to make a big impact on the community because those people will stay here,” says Brahinsky.
Santa Cruz residents could vote on rent control next November. There’s also a statewide effort to repeal Costa-Hawkins, which could go before voters on that same ballot. On Tuesday night, Santa Cruz City Council will be discussing housing issues. The meeting starts at 7:00 at City Hall
Proposed hosted rental regulations worry Santa Cruz County residents
County planners want rooms to go to year-round renters, but homeowners reluctant.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20171201/NEWS/171209956
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
December 1, 2017, Santa Cruz, CA – APTOS >> When Delia Gilligan’s son attended UC Santa Cruz, the cost of that degree
meant taking on a lot of debt. An empty nester since her son moved out, she’s been renting his room for three years on Airbnb.
Cayley Lanctot, 38, a nurse, and her husband Alex, a teacher, have a toddler and hope to have another child. To pay for $20,000 in infertility treatments, they rent out a room in their Aptos home on Airbnb.
Jeanell Martin, 60, emptied her retirement account to replace a unpermitted retaining wall, which she said cost her $340,000. She’s had knee surgery and pays $1,400 a month in health insurance premiums, so renting rooms in her four-bedroom Seacliff home has helped her stay afloat financially.
In March, Santa Cruz County planners proposed a limit of 60 to 75 nights for these “hosted rentals,” overnight accommodations in a private home — less expensive than a typical $245 summer hotel room and made possible by software platforms such as AirBnb. Hosts are pushing back, creating the Hosted Rental Alliance of Santa Cruz County to lobby county supervisors.
ARBITRARY?
The new proposal, emerging after an online survey of 242 hosts and 856 neighbors, calls for a limit of 55 nights in coastal Live Oak, Aptos-Seacliff and Davenport, popular beach areas, and 110 nights in the rest of the unincorporated county — restrictions veteran local land-use planner Kim Tschantz contends are “arbitrary and not based on facts.”
County supervisors have scheduled a public hearing for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at 701 Ocean St. It’s no. 58 on the agenda.
The scrutiny comes in the wake of concerns that vacation rentals — renting entire homes for up to 30 days — are a factor in the housing crisis along with the growth of UCSC enrollment to more than 18,000.
With hosted rentals, one county concern is fewer bedrooms available to year-round renters. Another is rental income boosting home prices and rents. Another is hosted rentals bringing noise, trash and traffic to residential neighborhoods. Yet another involves room taxes — transient occupancy tax funding government services. An agreement with Airbnb in April 2016 brought the county room tax revenue of $1.5 million. Justin Acton, 33, of Boulder Creek, said he’s paid nearly $10,000 in taxes since 2011, but not all hosts pay.
The county’s housing advisory commission, which heard hosts say the income is crucial, declined to make a recommendation. The Planning Commission heard from two dozen people, most objecting on grounds of financial hardship, and voted 3-2 to send the proposal to the supervisors, with a grandfather clause allowing tenant hosts to continue. That would help Evan Lohr, 33, of Santa Cruz, a baker who rents out a room in the house he rents to save up to become a homeowner.
DATA SCRUB
With the “sharing economy” a relatively new development — Airbnb was founded in 2008 — and turnover among hosts depending on personal circumstances, accurate data on hosted rentals has been scarce. Host Compliance, a San Francisco startup, offers monitoring and tax compliance services to regulatory agencies based on the number of hosted rentals.
Hired by the county, Host Compliance found 169 properties in June on Airbnb with private rooms for short-term rent in the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County, down from 180 found in October 2015 by InsideAirBnB.com.
Lohr was frustrated by outdated listings on Airbnb. When hosts become inactive — empty nesters want to keep the room free for their children to visit — the listings are not removed. Concerned about decisions being based on faulty numbers, he spent 20 hours on a “data scrub” of Airbnb listings, looking for errors and outdated listings. He found 177 hosted rooms in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, with 57 inactive, leaving 118 available. He counted 96 hosts — with 16 hosts renting multiple rooms, stretching the definition of hosted rentals. He found the most hosts, 36 in the Second District, which includes Aptos and Seacliff, 31 in Live Oak and Soquel, and 26 in San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley. He found five homes, cabins and accessory dwellings mistakenly listed as rooms.
The county survey asked if respondents had lost housing due to hosted rentals, and 95 percent said no. Only 15 hosts said the hosted room was previously occupied by a roommate.
EX-INSIDER VIEW
Tschantz, who has spent 38 years in land use planning, managed environmental review for the county before forming his own consulting business in Aptos in 2002. He said he does not have a client on this issue.
In a letter he sent to the supervisors, he contends the regulations proposed for hosted rentals are based on seven faulty assumptions and would hurt property owners rather than provide a social benefit. The idea that property owners would converted a hosted rental to a long-term renter is faulty, he said, citing the county’s survey that found 81 percent of hosts would not convert their guest room to a long-term tenant. “That’s something I did when I was 19,” said Lohr, the number-scrubbing host.
Jeanell Martin, the host in the four-bedroom Seacliff home, said, “Month to month, there’s lots of problems, it’s easy to make mistakes.” She said if she had long-term tenants, there would be parking problems that don’t exist with the irregular schedule of hosted rentals.
Delia Gilligan, the empty nester, pointed out Airbnb has reviews of guests. “You can check if they are a problem guest, you can say, ‘No, not a good fit,’” she said.
COMPARING CODES
Tschantz, the local land-use planner, pointed out the proposed regulations were not driven by citizen complaints and that potential problems were greater with vacation rentals, where an entire home is rented to a large group with the owner absent. He noted county regulations allow small-scale commercial enterprises such as child care, adult residential care, foster homes and home occupations such as yoga studios, music instruction and counseling offices, which he said would generate more activity than a hosted rental.
The county proposed one-year renewal for permits, adding expense when vacation home permits run for five years, he said. As for the maximum on hosted rental nights, Tschantz noted, “No other use including vacation rentals, have this type of limitation … Singling out hosted rentals for this type of treatment is discriminatory.” He contended prohibiting renters from hosting rentals would also be discriminatory.
COMPLAINTS
Elisabeth Henri-Ellsworth, a property owner on Tindall Ranch Road, a private road in Corralitos, wrote county supervisor Zach Friend in May, complaining about outside music, noise and partying at an Airbnb rental where homeowners are not present. She invited Friend to visit to see for himself. Pam Wood and Shaun Keller, also on Tindall Ranch Road, wrote Friend to say code enforcement staff has not been seen. By definition, hosted rentals are supposed to have a host on the premises.
ALTERNATIVES
Lohr, the data-crunching host, said he’s never had complaints, which he attributes to the Airbnb review system for guests and hosts. “It weeds out bad actors,” he said. He contends the county’s own data show hosted rentals are not “exploding,” as was feared by county supervisors in March. He favors regulations matching those for whole home vacation rentals, eliminating the limit on hosting nights, allowing renters as well as property owners to host, allowing two rooms maximum per property to be rented, and “a simple, inexpensive permit process” with permits renewed every five years.
SURVEY RESULTS
Santa Cruz County’s online survey got 1,098 responses, allowing multiple answers.
Not a host: 856
Have hosted: 221
Rent rooms in more than one home: 21
WHY HOST?
173 responded
Income: 149
Sociability: 73
IMPACTS?
698 responded
No impacts: 398
Parking: 209
Noise: 160
Source: Dyett & Bhatia, Sarah Neuse
View original article: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20171201/NEWS/171209956
Santa Cruz Real Estate News 