A weekend topic starting with two reports from the Los Angeles Times. "Outreach workers on Friday wrapped up the first — and easiest — phase of the Venice Beach cleanup, persuading dozens of homeless people camped on the boardwalk to move into shelters. Several camp dwellers near the Santa Monica border said they knew about the warning but planned to stay put. 'I’m waiting for July 4 to see,' said Malik Aljubaydi, who lay on a mattress under the shade of his lean-to. 'I don’t want to leave here. I’m an artist.'"

"Among the new booming counties is El Dorado, which has absorbed a flood of Bay Area transplants who, in search of affordable homes, well-rated schools and access to the outdoors, have packed up their U-Hauls and headed northeast. Brian Luke, who once thought it 'crazy' that his co-workers would live more than two hours from their jobs at the Santa Clara County Fire Department and wake up at 3:30 a.m. to commute, suddenly saw the draw. 'We drove up and thought, ‘Holy cow, we wish we knew about this earlier,’ he recalled."

"After losing bids on two homes, the pair moved last fall to their new El Dorado Hills house, about twice the size of their 1920s Livermore home at 3,600 square feet, with an open floor plan, 'massive backyard,' pool and outdoor kitchen. The competition wasn’t as steep as in the Bay, but they paid $110,000 over the home’s $825,000 asking price. 'Our friends who moved here two years ago from San Jose, ‘Oh, you only have to offer $1,000 more [than asking] to show you really want the house,’ Rebecca Luke said."

"The county, population 193,000, is nearly 89% white, census data show. Its median household income is roughly $83,000, lower than the $137,000 median income of El Dorado Hills, where fed-up Bay Area exiles and Sacramentans have flocked.The number of Californians like the Lukes leaving the Bay Area, particularly those from San Francisco, has soared since the pandemic began, a March study found."

"Bill Roby, 67, and his husband James moved to El Dorado County from the Bay Area in 2005, where they settled on six acres in Shingle Springs, a rural part of the county with larger plots and open space. Though he hasn’t experienced animosity, Roby has heard some locals say that they want to maintain their region’s more conservative, underdeveloped aura, and fear that newcomers are changing that character. Some 41% of active voters in El Dorado County are Republicans, while 31% are Democrats. Another 21% are registered with no party preference. 'Out of my three neighbors, two have moved because they felt the county was becoming too liberal,' Roby said."

From Oregon Public Broadcasting. "Downtown Portland residents have seen it all this year — a pandemic, racial justice protests, broken windows and graffitied storefronts. Resident Diane Sussman, 71, is a semi-retired journalist. Five years ago, she bought a small condo downtown near Portland State University. She chose the area because it was centrally located with plenty of public transit. She liked being surrounded by people."

"But she’s since soured on the area. Over the past year, Sussman said she started to feel like 'collateral' damage to the unprecedented unrest occurring downtown. Last summer, tear gas wafted through her windows. It felt like new graffiti objecting to the Portland Police or the mayor appeared on her building daily. She’s considering selling her home and moving to Seattle or maybe Ohio. 'The perception from out-of-towners, I think, is often exaggerated and overblown — yet it really isn’t,' she said. 'It has been hard to live downtown for the last year and a half.'"

"But for some other residents, the period of protests brought a sense of purpose to the area. A frequent attendee of racial justice demonstrations that took place last summer, Monique Jefferson, 47, said she loved being within earshot of the city’s Black Lives Matter revolution. For most of the pandemic, Jefferson rented an apartment just across the street from the Portland Art Museum. 'I was so proud to live downtown,' she said. 'I loved hearing the drums. I loved hearing the music. I loved hearing the chanting.'"

From Boulder Weekly. "It’s the latest in a collection of seven housing justice bills the Colorado state Legislature has passed since the coronavirus pandemic began. Among a suite of changes, the new law, which doesn’t go into effect until October, establishes a cap on landlord-issued late fees, extends the grace period for rental payments and eliminates the bond tenants are currently required to pay to courts when disputing living standards."

"'I don’t know if [SB173] is going to fundamentally change eviction, which is a conflict in power between the tenant and the landlord,' says Ruy Arango, a housing justice advocate in Boulder. 'That being said, this is all good. Colorado tenant’s rights are dogshit, so this is all a step in the right direction. These are very small steps though.'"

"Arango says the fundamental issue of eviction and the housing crisis more generally won’t be solved 'as long as we use a market to distribute housing and determine who gets access to housing and who does not, because the market needs winners and losers, and the need for housing is inelastic — as in your need for water is inelastic. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, the amount of thirst you have is the amount of thirst you have. Everyone needs water, everyone needs housing, and unless we address and change this fundamental contradiction in how we give people access to housing in our country, we are still going to experience eviction. You will still experience housing insecurity.'"

From CNBC on New York. "The price jumps and shrinking inventory suggest the Manhattan real estate rebound continues to gain momentum. 'It’s a sign of the frenzy and intensity of the market,' said Jonathan Miller, CEO of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Brokers say the top of the market is driving much of the growth, since the wealthy have grown even wealthier during the pandemic from rising stock markets and easy monetary policy."

"Still, the inventory of luxury apartments remains high — at 13 months, according to Miller Samuel. And since many new development buildings aren’t officially listing all their empty units, for fear of oversaturating the market, the real number is far higher, Miller said. 'You have to account for the ‘inventory management,’ he said."

The Globe and Mail. "The effects of rising home prices in Canada are reducing the affordability of almost every housing segment, including a part of the market that has long been under-appreciated: trailer parks. 'It’s a more recent trend than in multifamily housing, but it’s not so different than the firms that are consolidating ownership in single-family homes as rentals – it’s just a different type of single-family home,' said Martine August, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning and an expert in the financialization of housing."

"'In every sort of sub-asset class of real estate, the financial firms are just trickling in to try to access everything: self-storage, student housing, seniors housing, land-lease, whatever. They are going everywhere. They are moving across the spectrum from very low-cost options to luxury housing and extracting a value from everyone. Everybody needs a place to live, so it’s got strong fundamentals, to use their language.'"

"Joe Accardi, chief executive of a real estate development fund that has in the past focused on commercial properties in the Hamilton area – recently announced he had acquired three land-lease sites in Ontario with more to come. In his view, people priced out of the cottage market, which has seen price jumps of 70 per cent since 2019, will increasingly turn to cheaper options. 'A lot of people see that for the next generation it’s unattainable. We are a very good option for a lot of people, at fifth or a tenth of the cost,' Mr. Accardi said."

"'We’ve definitely seen a spike in interest through the pandemic,' said Lachlan MacLean, the senior vice-president property operations with Parkbridge Lifestyle Communities Inc., the largest operator in CanadaT. 'The bet is this asset class is not going to depreciate.'"

From China Daily. "New home prices in China grew at a steady pace in May, with pre-owned houses reporting marginal gains in sale prices, as measures to curb speculation and stabilize the market continued to take effect, experts said. Yan Yuejin, director of the Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution, said the NBS data indicate that home price growth is losing steam. 'This is good news. It shows that the various policies have been effective and will arrest the growth in property prices,' said Yan."

"The tightening measures have also had an effect on the pre-owned home market, with Shenzhen, a leader in the existing home price rises, reporting its first price drop since July 2019, said Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property Agency Ltd. According to Zhang, 17 cities reported price drops on a monthly basis in May, the biggest since the beginning of the year."

"Ding Zuyu, CEO of E-House (China) Enterprise Holdings Ltd, expects the property market to continue playing its role as an economic stabilizer, and both real estate investment and property sales to grow at double digits. 'Stabilizing home prices would continue to be a high priority on the work agenda, especially as the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China is approaching,' said Yan."

From New Geography. "What California is creating can be best described as oligarchic socialism, a form of collectivism that combines hierarchy with 'equity,' regulation with oligopoly, and progressive intentions with feudal results. Like so much else, the pandemic has accelerated this trend, vastly enriching the tech elite, while turning much of the working and middle classes dependent on what Marx called 'the proletarian alms bag.'"

"In contemporary California, traditional notions of economic development and upward mobility have been replaced by subsidized housing, a state bailout for renters in default emergency aid to small businesses and enhanced unemployment payments. Once all the state’s new commitments are met California’s much ballyhooed $75 billion surplus, Chapman economist Jim Doti estimates, shrinks to a still considerable $25 billion."

"But work and upward mobility for the middle and working classes are no longer a prime concern in the Golden State. 'The culture for much of California, driven by state politics, is one of benefits (and now guaranteed income), not a jobs strategy or expectation,' suggests Michael Bernick, a former director of the state’s Employment Development Department."

"Bernick notes that this approach—as opposed to boosting employment—is also popular both with the tech oligarchs and bureaucrats who together dominate the state. The synergy between Silicon Valley wealth and the expansive welfare state is clear: with seemingly unlimited capital gains and income receipts, the state can fund ever more dysfunctional schools at a high level, pay enormous pensions, and generally expand the role of a state government."

"This faith in government seems odd given its record of incompetence, from the high speed rail fiasco to forcing a bailout of the marijuana industry. The state has also mishandled unemployment claims, with more than a million Californians awaiting unemployment checks that were delayed or frozen. Worse yet, the state last year gave payments of $11 billion to various scammers, including people in jail and criminals from Nigeria and Russia."

"Politics, not competence, notes Lucy Dunn, head of the Orange County Business Council, plays the leading role here, particularly with Governor Newsom’s recall. 'His budget seems more focused on the welfare state with an eye toward surviving recall and preparing for elections in 2022,' she observes. 'Business organizations throughout the state have begged him to stop making it easier for folks to stay on the dole and get back to work.'"

"Some progressive ideologues hail the state as the ultimate avatar of a green capitalism that we can 'believe in.' Some, such as a writer at Bloomberg, claim the state has 'the best economy' in the world, pointing to the bloated stock prices of the major tech firms and the enormous growth of wealth of a relative handful."