|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Menlo Park has a strong and bustling residential climate. Along with other Bay Area communities, prices have increased dramatically in the last two years. The strength of our community — with its excellent schools, beautiful recreational facilities and fine people — continues to motivate developers to build here. The trouble, however, is that most developers want to build the wrong kind of housing: apartments.
Developers want to build apartments because it is better for them, both financially and from a liability position. As a result, most new housing being developed in Menlo Park is in the form of apartments, and few condominiums and townhouses are being built. Apartments serve an important purpose, of course, but compared to homeownership they are not as positive for a community.
Our founding fathers knew that property ownership leads to security and general happiness. Owning a home — in whatever form it may be — is the cornerstone of the American Dream, providing families with a sense of emotional and financial stability and, historically, boosting household wealth through equity and appreciation over time.
Homeownership plays a vital role in helping to build strong, stable communities. Owners often get involved in the politics of the community, attending city council meetings and volunteering for groups and organizations, such as neighborhood watches and school boards. They feel a sense of belonging that is often greater than someone who is renting for a short term. Homeowners are also likely to buy more services and goods in their towns, further benefiting local stores.
For many people, owning a home represents the stability, independence, and freedom of reaching adulthood. Real estate offers unique wealth-building opportunities. Buying a home expands options for the future, allowing growing families to move up the real estate ladder.
As the New York Times wrote in 2014: “Homeownership long has been central to Americans’ ability to amass wealth; the net worth of homeowners over time has significantly outpaced that of renters, who tend as a group to accumulate little if any wealth.”
Homeowners do what even the best absentee landlords can’t do: keep money in the communities and remain committed to and active in civic life, activities that are critical to the health and welfare of neighborhoods and cities alike.
In the end, to paraphrase the 2014 Times editorial: Renting can make sense as a lifestyle choice or because of income constraints. For building wealth, however, both individual and community, there is no substitute for homeownership.
Many young people who grew up in Menlo Park and others who would like to live in Menlo Park, even with hard-won down payments and strong incomes, cannot afford to live in the community that they love. As such, they are moving to lower cost options in other communities and, indeed, in other states. If we don’t want to lose this Menlo Park generation who wishes to enjoy the benefits of and make contributions to our city, then it is imperative that new, lower cost home ownership opportunities be created.
More apartments will serve developers well but not our town. As our City Council considers future development projects, especially large ones such as at the Federal U.S. Geological Survey office property, it is imperative that they require that the majority of new housing starts be ones where ownership is possible.
Sloan Citron is a Menlo Park resident.
Research does show that home ownership somewhat encourages civil engagement and stability, things that are especially helpful in poorer communities. But entrenching affluent communities like ours with higher and higher rates of home ownership ceases to provide value while excluding demographics that we need for a healthy and vital community. It’s foolhardy to create a city that for all practical purposes, locks out housing for new graduates, service workers , and our kids, who can’t afford or may not be ready to commit to home ownership.
ps: I’m guessing that renters are not among the demographics of your previous and current magazines either. I enjoy Punch but am a bit digested if you think that represents the hallmarks of energetic and vital community. I would rather have a little more Greenwich Village and a little less Atherton.
It’s all well and good to wish Menlo Park could stay single-family residential as your property values are now approaching $4 million for a fairly typical home. But that’s not the reality. All over the country single-family homes will be sacrificed for apartments because the influx of people will continue to come and it is not realistic to expect all of them to be able to buy a $4 million home. Look what has happened to Redwood City, the effort to get people out of single-family homes is alive and well there and they have now a plethora of apartment buildings. It is an a happy trend but it is a realistic trend but also factoring in the fact that developers love them
I mean, this from the guy who had Gentry Magazine, so it’s unsurprising. He loves to promote events at East Palo Alto’s Four Seasons while otherwise ignoring our city.
Neenee:
I honestly cannot wait for you to find out how much the upcoming “springlne” apartments will be renting for on el camino and the train tracks.