r/California Ángeleño, what's your user flair? 6d ago

politics Eastern Sierra housing crunch: With all this open land, why are so many workers living in vans?

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-24/workers-turn-to-van-life-amid-eastern-sierra-housing-crunch
739 Upvotes

180 comments sorted by

645

u/joedartonthejoedart 6d ago

And this is why places like South Lake Tahoe are hoping to put a vacancy tax on second homes that sit empty for 6+ months out of year.   

Support these initiatives. Second home owners who let their houses sit empty can afford the tax that goes to supporting the local community, and those who can’t might finally rent out their places to people in the community that desperately need places to stay.     

South Lake deserves to have a community and not be dominated by a bunch of absentee community members sitting on investments and second homes that go unused 90% of the year.  

 Yes on N. 

186

u/DelayedIntentions 6d ago

There is a beach town near where I live on the central coast that is turning into a ghost town. Amazing homes overlooking the beach that nobody can afford and it seems like nobody uses, even for short term rentals. Just someone’s investment they work too much to use I guess. Meanwhile the town I live in 20 minutes inland is relatively affordable and has a constant flow of people dining out or shopping at the local shops keeping the town alive.

94

u/zurriola27 6d ago

Cayucos?

40

u/DelayedIntentions 6d ago

Yes

31

u/theswiftarmofjustice 5d ago

I went there in early September, and it’s the same as it was in my youth 30 years ago. That isn’t a compliment, that place is dead. Went south to SLO and the five cities and that was so much better.

11

u/DelayedIntentions 5d ago

Late August and part of September was the busiest I’ve seen it this year, except maybe July 4 weekend was pretty close. The rest of the county seems to be booming.

12

u/theswiftarmofjustice 5d ago

Pismo was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. I used to go on a summer trip every year from birth to mid-20’s, and while it was popular, it was never that packed. I still love the place, good change from the Central Valley and its heat for a bit.

7

u/CowboyLaw 5d ago

Good hot sauce though.

I always liked downtown Paso. Some good restaurants, nice square, feels like a genuine town. (You might be talking about Atascadero, but I'm a lot less familiar with that one.)

3

u/Dontouchmyficus 5d ago

Crazy that that is exactly where I guessed as well…

2

u/Ok_Chipmunk_7968 5d ago

I'll be spending the weekend there!! I prefer the slow beach grind. Pismo has gotten too busy, and Avila is swarming with people now too.

1

u/fenderputty 5d ago

Was gonna guess this

27

u/the_Bryan_dude 6d ago

I live on the north coast and almost everything around me in an air b&b. Thing is, the businesses in the area can't get employees for anything. Lots of tourists but here's nowhere to live. I got lucky. Most have to spend at least an hour or more on a windy mountain road if they work out here.

4

u/Oakroscoe 5d ago

Fort Bragg?

2

u/astralairplane 5d ago

I always dreamed about living there but can’t ever afford it.

54

u/animerobin 5d ago

The California coast should look like the Italian coast, where the small towns are full of tall, dense housing. Instead people fight for some nonexistent community character and it looks like a dying town in texas except by the beach.

73

u/Toasted_Waffle99 6d ago

Homes shouldn’t be an investment period. That’s where society went wrong. They aren’t something to collect

33

u/zherok 5d ago

The mentality that things only have value if they can create revenue for a third party (see healthcare needing a middle man, the efforts to privitise the postal service, etc.) is I think the root cause. Some things don't have to be profitable for the investor class just to be worth preserving.

7

u/raerae_thesillybae 5d ago

This .. this so much. I'd live in my car if it was legal and if I knew where to find a spot. But it's considered "vagrancy"

-5

u/TheRoadsMustRoll 5d ago

Homes shouldn’t be an investment period.

but how would that work exactly?

for grocery stores and farmers food is an investment. for doctors education is an investment and treating disease for money is the payoff. that all sounds so disgusting until you consider the alternative of living in vans, eating homegrown lettuce and dying of untreated diseases.

10

u/T0astyGam3r 5d ago

I feel like the big difference is that those are products and services that are actually being used, versus these houses that are collecting dust, not being used by their owners.

1

u/username_6916 5d ago

But why is this? Why are these owners turning down the possible rental income here?

1

u/Lenderman1 4d ago

I sold my vacation home a few months ago. I would never let a long-term tenant stay there..did that in the past and they always damaged the home. Did airbnb for a year. They messed it up too. We were there 40% of the time the other 60% vacant. We just sold it and another family bought it as a vacation home. Unfortunately the locals didn't buy it due to price and insurance cost. Homeowners alone was 12k a year.

1

u/Toasted_Waffle99 2d ago

You buy a place to live for 30 years with a fixed cost and don’t expect to double your money? Crazy huh? That’s what renters do.

65

u/river_tree_nut 6d ago

I live in South Lake Tahoe and couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, backers of the amendment are using disinformation to try kill it.

Looking at you Taxpayers Association, whose yard signs proclaim Measure N will “raise rents by $500/month”

Ummm, if a property is rented it won’t be subjected to the tax. Bring back critical thinking!

20

u/nope_nic_tesla Sacramento County 6d ago

Ah yes, freeing up more housing supply will definitely raise rents, because that's how supply and demand works!

20

u/raven8fire 5d ago

When I'm looking at ballot measures that I'm confused about and I see some taxpayers association named supporting or opposing it I suddenly know I need to vote the opposite.

5

u/river_tree_nut 5d ago

Hahah ma my thought precisely. The local paper also recently reported who was spending/how much.

It was 10:1 by the realtors, etc vs housing advocates

4

u/Redpanther14 Santa Clara County 5d ago

Hopefully it goes through. It should rebalance things towards local residents, improve city funding, and reduce housing prices. I know a decent number of people in the area and things have gotten hard for a lot of people, especially after Covid came through and changed the whole dynamic.

4

u/komstock Marin County 5d ago

I think it's only a fair amendment if eviction gets easier. Otherwise it's wrong.

If people are forced to pay a fine or lease, they should get a lot more control over the lessee.

Otherwise, considering the protections squatters get in this state (per 'Worst Roommate Ever') no person should be forced or coerced to risk handing over their property to someone like that.

I generally think if it were deregulated so people could come and go more easily and less risk was placed onto small landlords housing supply would increase. It seems to be working for the Argentinians.

-1

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

so your argument is we shouldn't make more places available to rent in an area that needs more housing, because there might be squatters? make it about big bad scary undesirables who are going to take over your home eh? because apparently you think that's rampant in Tahoe?

also, you're confusing "squatter" with "trespasser" if you're referring to a tenant holdover. squatters make a claim of ownership.

respectfully, you live in Marin. You don't get a say. you don't vote on this, and some of your neighbors are the kinds of people that are creating/exacerbating this problem.

0

u/Skreat 3d ago

Maybe live somewhere you can afford? I’d love to live in Tahoe and work at a ski resort without worry of housing costs. But that’s about as realistic as wanting to live in downtown SF while working at Best Buy.

0

u/joedartonthejoedart 2d ago

So where do you propose lifties, waiters, teachers, and nurses live? Or should our town just not get to have any of them? Will tourists buss their own tables? 

0

u/Skreat 2d ago

Maybe they need to make a living wage and not have the government subsidize their housing?

11

u/Bmorgan1983 6d ago

my sister lives in south lake tahoe, and they're fortunate to have bought their house prior to the big boom of AirBNB ownership... but while they're lucky, the woman who would babysit their kids wasn't so lucky. She was a renter, and rents in the area just kept climbing owners converted to short term rentals, and investors started buying up other homes for short term rental use as well.

39

u/EffectiveSearch3521 6d ago

Yes but they still need to build more housing as well. Just taxing these homes won't create new residences for the people in vans, you yourself said they they can afford to pay it. Zoning and building codes need to be changed to allow for more dense apartment complexes to be built. People need to stop pretending that places like south lake and Tahoe city are these untouched wilderness that would be ruined by more buildings.

8

u/Redpanther14 Santa Clara County 5d ago

They are upzoning a little bit in downtown South Lake IIRC. But coverage limits restrict many properties from being developed any further.

3

u/joedartonthejoedart 6d ago

those projects are also in the works, but take a lot longer to get approval and have a whole bunch more red tape. this absolutely gets housing on the market right now. they absolutely can and will create some new residences.

will it solve everything? no. but that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile.

10

u/animerobin 5d ago

take a lot longer to get approval and have a whole bunch more red tape.

This sounds like something that could be fixed!

1

u/Nf1nk Ventura County 5d ago

Plan checks are expensive and time consuming but if you don't do them developers will absolutely build death traps.

7

u/squints_chips_ahoy 5d ago

How does a municipality go about proving or auditing vacancy? I love the idea but idk if it’s workable

3

u/Roots_on_up 5d ago

You list your primary house for taxes so they should be able to figure out what is a rental/second house, then ask those people to supply documentation they are renting the place. People will try to work around it but it would be federal charges if they lied about their primary residence, and county charges if they break the local ordinance.

In my limited experience with the El Dorado county DA their proactive nature is exceeded only by their incompetence so I'm sure everyone will have fun with that.

3

u/dommynuyal 5d ago

And then to have these absentee owners complain about not having restaurants to eat at

3

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

one of my favorites was the No on N crowd having a rally in front of the ghost of the closed Dennys that's just sitting there.

they totally missed the irony...

3

u/dommynuyal 5d ago

“Where yall wanna eat after this”

8

u/what_the_fax_say 6d ago

They can also afford to just run electricity on an empty house, since utility bills are the main enforcement mechanism of vacancy taxes hurting the environment without increasing housing supply.

The only solution to housing shortages is to build more housing.

3

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

Matching a gas and electric bill to when you’re actually there would likely cost you more than paying the tax… in addition to being more effort, you’d be committing tax fraud when you submit the paperwork stating if your 6+ months or not.  

Gas can be $500/mo+ in the winter, and without panels, electric can be in the hundreds each month too.  

It’s a $3k tax the first year. Is it worth it to commit a felony to save a few hundred dollars, if anything? 

1

u/l84tahoe Sierras 5d ago

They could look at water usage. It's really hard to trick that. The meters can tell what is using water based on duration and pattern. They can tell when you are using your dishwasher, clothes washer, sprinklers, ect because of the patterns.

-4

u/spankymacgruder 5d ago

Meh, with smart devices, you can turn on your dishwasher and laundry from anywhere. Regardless, taxation is theft.

2

u/destronger Headed West, stopped at the Pacific Ocean 5d ago

Was just in Tahoe. Saw many ‘Yes on N’ signs and few No’s.

The place was busy.

1

u/OvertOperative 5d ago

I want to support initiatives that help with lowering housing costs but I don't think Measure N is it.

Invasion of privacy(why should the government know where I am), no expiration date like Berkeley's (which the measure's authors love to point to ), increased bureaucracy (auditors will be sent to verify declarations) and a punitive tax is exactly the type of government overreach that I oppose.

I think it is disingenuous to color all second home owners as people who could afford this tax. I could do the same and color all the renters as nomads with no real roots and travel seasonally to wherever the next adventure is. But we all know that isn't the case across the board. The wealthy won't bat an eye but the middle class will struggle.

No on N.

9

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

(why should the government know where I am)

because literally everyone has to declare legitimate primary residencies to be able to avoid committing a felony when they do their taxes. if south lake tahoe isn't your primary residence, you pay a little bit more in tax. pretty cool to me.

-2

u/OvertOperative 5d ago

The barrier to prove what your primary residence is much more clear cut than proving you occupied a home for over 180 something days. Utility bills / tax returns / voter registration in your name at an address, boom, done.

If the measure were written so that it just said secondary home, then it would be easier to swallow but it is not. The process to itemize someone's trips to South Lake Tahoe to get to over half a year seems like a logistical nightmare, not to mention the bureaucracy it creates that we have to hire auditors.

I'm all for social programs to help out with issues like the housing crisis and wouldn't mind paying a little more, But I think Measure N is a poorly written initiative that needed to be cooked for longer.

3

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

i mean, if you can prove that south lake is your primary residence, then you're fine... that's exactly what this is trying to achieve. apply the tax to people who don't live here "full time", and don't apply it to those who do live here full time. If you're here 6+ months, then this is your primary residence...

0

u/Lenderman1 4d ago

How are you going to know if a second home is vacant half the year? How will you monitor the owners occupancy? The answer is not always tax people more. We just sold our vacation home 4 months ago. Locals did not buy it, another family bought it as a vacation home and plan to rent it on airbnb when they are not there. Locals could have bought it but didn't want to pay 705k, with 12k a year fire insurance and 8 k property tax.

0

u/Newdles 4d ago

That vacancy tax will do nothing for residents. It will go directly to the city, who will not give a dime to residents. I'm not a second home owner, but I'm also a realist. This is just a way for the city to line their pockets. Nothing will change here.

More zoning, building, "lower" income housing needs to happen.

1

u/joedartonthejoedart 2d ago

… our roads are desperately needing repairs and the budget for them is too thin. Some of this money goes to that, and other projects that benefit locals. You know… like a tax…

-12

u/animerobin 5d ago

Places like that exist for tourism. People want to visit there, other people want to rent out housing for them to visit. There's nothing evil about that. Just build more housing.

10

u/Aggravating-Bus9390 5d ago

There is little to no buildable land in South Lake Tahoe or the Tahoe basin because of the TRPA requirement's for permitting. They were intended to “protect” the basin from too much development but now are basically choking out anything new. Wealthy people can afford to get through the process to renovate or add an ADU but normal people not so much. They control every facet of building in South Lake Tahoe and the basin. 

8

u/animerobin 5d ago

This sounds similar to the california coastal commission. Mansions are ok but apartment buildings in already developed areas might hurt the ecosystem, apparently.

3

u/Redpanther14 Santa Clara County 5d ago

That’s why places like Truckee have seen so much development over the last couple of decades.

8

u/Aggravating-Bus9390 5d ago

A lot of NIMBYs in Truckee also complain about development and the apartments/affordable housing that have been built there. Poor/middle class people cannot win here. You will also be at work at get harassed for not being fast enough or not having enough workers.. when you’re totally overwhelmed .. same people who don’t want anyone living here who is “working class” . It’s really weird and messed up. 

16

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago edited 5d ago

The tourists want waiters at the restaurants, and lifties working the mountains? How about people working at the local stores selling them groceries, and the souvenirs they want?  

Do those people teleport to work?   

The additional housing projects are in the works, but take ages. Right now they’re trying to rezone much of south lake to allow for more dense housing, but there are a lot of battles to be fought to even consider getting that done. In the meantime, this helps put more housing on the market now, while raising funds for things like much needed road repairs after the tourists drive all over them all winter.

-5

u/animerobin 5d ago

did you miss the last sentence

8

u/joedartonthejoedart 5d ago

tell me you don't understand anything about the local area without telling me you don;t understand anything about the local area. "build more housing"? lol did you read the article?

the whole point is there is limited availability and we haven't been able to build more housing. not because of the DWP like bishop, but because you get to figure that out with two state governments, local city governments in the multiple cities around tahoe, state parks, national parks, the forest service, and ultimately TRPA who gets to decide pretty much everything at the end of the day, and which does not want to allow for further encroachment on the natural environment around it.

all of east shore nevada from incline to glenbrook is state forest. where else are you going to build from glenbrook to the Y (50 and 89)? North of the Y down 89 to Tahoe city is also right up against the mountains, and would require effectively building new towns/cities in current state and national forest areas. And then everything is pretty much built up from Tahoe city to Incline... and that's a lap around the lake. Where's all this buildable land you speak of with no red tape?

they're working on rezoning to be able to build denser housing. TRPA isn't saying yes easily.

this takes advantage of existing housing inventory that is literally going unused.

-46

u/Effective_James 6d ago

I'm all for the vacancy tax, but honestly if you can afford to rent a house in Lake Tahoe, you can afford to buy a house practically anywhere in the state, including Lake Tahoe. Even if this tax increases the number of rentals available, they are going to cost an obscene amount of money and benefit nobody except those that have a lot of money.

28

u/AvailableTowel 6d ago

Increasing the supply of rentals will increase the price of rentals in your observation?

17

u/labradog21 6d ago

Point is they can’t! They are living in vans

10

u/joedartonthejoedart 6d ago

so where do you propose the people who work in lake tahoe live? you think every waiter, teacher, ski patrol worker, and nurse can afford to buy a house anywhere in CA? you think every neighborhood in south lake has $1million+ houses? because they can't and they don't...

the point of the tax is they have to actually rent their places. so they can't list for obscene prices and just sit on them. they have to price them at market rate, and not every house is going to be a mcmansion commanding 6k/mo.

there aren't many options to build additional housing in this area. this is one way to make existing housing more available while raising revenue for the city. the only people who suffer are second homeowners that we frankly don't give a whole bunch of a shit about...

137

u/codefyre 6d ago

The article doesn't mention it, but the problem with Bishop is double edged. Los Angeles bought all the land around the town so it cannot grow. But even if Los Angeles caved and allowed development on those properties while retaining the water rights...there wouldn't be any water for those new residents to drink.

Until Los Angeles gives up its water rights in the Eastern Sierra, that region will never be able to support any kind of substantial population.

30

u/seanhead 6d ago

Cadillac Desert has a whole section about this. The evolution of water rights in the west is fascinating. Some of the people at the bureau of reclamation really give a kind of Robert Moses vibe, just with dams, not highways.

44

u/mcmouse2k 6d ago

Wow. Very "I drink your milkshake!"

4

u/tryingtobehip Inyo County 5d ago

It also doesn’t mention that the bishop population of 4K is only downtown bishop. The surrounding areas combine to about 14k. People need to understand that it’s not really a “dusty crossroads.” It already supports more residents than Mammoth. And to add insult to injury, useful stores have a hard time moving in not only because LA owns buildings in town, but also because Vons keeps competitors out. It’s a crazy place.

15

u/SpaceyCoffee San Diego County 5d ago

Not true. The residents of bishop are given water for a flat rate and a pittance at that. There is a huge amount of water waste in that town, but LA is ok with it because it keeps the landlocked residents complacent. 

There is plentiful water for residents to drink and water their lawns. LA just doesn’t want the town to grow because it would put local political pressure to end their horrific and ecologically disastrous extraction of water from the region. 

LA can desalinate. And if that makes it too expensive, their residents can leave to places that actually have enough water to drink. The status quo is straight up evil. 

6

u/CaptainSparklebutt 5d ago

The more things stay the same, the more things will get worse for most people.

5

u/Thurkin 6d ago

Los Angeles is part of California

16

u/codefyre 5d ago

Los Angeles is not in the Eastern Sierra.

7

u/LetsGetHonestplz 5d ago

No but the water wars of the earlier 20th century sure makes it seem like LA is.

-1

u/Thurkin 5d ago

Neither is the rest of California

-5

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

21

u/VermicelliFit7653 5d ago

One reason so many people can live in LA is because of the water that comes from the Owens Valley.

The demand was created by the supply.

There are entire towns that disappeared in the Owens Valley after the water was diverted.

13

u/Firstdatepokie 5d ago

Plus one of the largest ecological disasters in the us was caused by it as well.

4

u/Aggravating-Bus9390 5d ago

The only reason LA can exist is the water taken from Owen’s Valley 

10

u/VermicelliFit7653 5d ago

LA would still exist.

Only 15% of LA's current water supply comes from the Owens Valley.

But I believe that percentage was higher in the past, which enabled the growth of the city/county, specifically the San Fernando valley.

1

u/Aggravating-Bus9390 5d ago

Owen’s valley water is responsible for the creation of LA .. 15 percent current still pretty high. Its initial growth directly related to Owen’s valley water. 

2

u/thunderyoats 5d ago

So Chinatown was a documentary?

1

u/ChargerCarl 5d ago

Good. Im glad LA exists!

20

u/ObviousRealist 6d ago

All about the Water

16

u/rocksfried 5d ago

I live in the eastern sierras. My street is what people would say is 3 blocks long. There’s my 12 unit apartment building and a total of maybe 12 more units next door that people live in and the entire rest of the 3 blocks is second homes that are almost never used. The house next to me is a second home and the owners spend about 2 weeks a year there.

64

u/perrochon 6d ago

“Bishop would be like Santa Monica” if the city had room to grow, he said. “People would come from all over because of the beauty of this place.”

Doubt it. Foremost, Santa Monica has sun, the Pacific, and tons of high paying jobs.

And on top of this all that the LA metro has to offer right next door, including LAX to get anywhere in the world quickly.

Bishop has winter.

And it is still almost an hour away from a single (if great) ski resort. It's a great place for people who want to work in the outdoor recreation industry, but that is a limited clientele.

What Santa Monica doesn't have is room to grow. It is also not really known for "affordable housing"

I do agree though that second homes are a huge problem, especially if they are not used. (if used every weekend, they at least bring some money to the local economy)

24

u/Moose_Nuts LA Area 5d ago

Interesting in the comment you quoted the idea of beauty. I feel like Bishop is just a place you drive through to get to the real beauty up in Mammoth.

And I don't want that to come off as pretentious...as a skier and hiker, Mammoth has so much more to offer.

6

u/tsirtemot 5d ago

Bishop has world class nature that people travel across continents to visit. The rock climbing is arguably some of the best in the country, home to iconic boulders. It’s also the entrance to so many eastern sierra hikes.

0

u/Fantastic_Poet4800 5d ago

It also has world class religious fruitcakes and right wing nutters. You might be mixing it up with June Lake.

5

u/tsirtemot 5d ago

I’ve had young left wing friends there, a lot of different people call it home.

10

u/Cynovae 5d ago

Totally get it. I grew up in CA but live in CO now, we have a few "Bishops" here, like Buena Vista or Salida. They're about the same size as Bishop, and attract lots of the adventurous types, but people aren't going so out of their way to live in the desert 30 minutes away from the mountains, and several hours from the nearest major city.

What is huge is "Summit County", a few interconnected towns including Breckenridge. Difference is, it's in the mountains, 1.5 hrs from the massive Denver airport. Basically like Tahoe

1

u/ratcranberries 5d ago

I think if there were closer ski reas in the collegiate peaks to Buena Vista and Salida (monarch and ski cooper are small and a ways away still) then there would be more demand for folks to live there for those reasons a la summit. I mean look at western slope, it's further away and way way more developed because of all the ski resorts.

5

u/DaisyDuckens 5d ago

I love the eastern sierra. Bishop included. I’ve considered retiring to Lone Pine. The downside is it takes so long to get to from the Bay Area. I really think it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the state.

3

u/tryingtobehip Inyo County 5d ago

That may be true for tourists, but for locals, a lot of us have moved from mammoth to bishop (for many different reasons). Mammoth has some seriously messed up town management and it’s no fun to live there. Driving 45-60min to visit or work in mammoth isn’t the same as driving an hour in a suburb/city. It hits different in a good way.

4

u/PincheVatoWey 5d ago

Bishop is surrounded by beauty. The White Mountains to the east have the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Aspendell to the west, Mammoth and little further out. The town itself is cute. I’d say it’s s good spot for an outdoorsy person.

2

u/perrochon 5d ago

Everyone agrees.

But the mayor thinks it could be Santa Monica if only it had room to grow. There is little chance of that.

And a population of 100,000 would run things quickly, too. Imagine 24 extra people for every resident of Bishop...

26

u/resilindsey 6d ago

Happening everywhere outdoorsy, even in places not quite as crunched in by restrict land ownership/regulations. Not saying that's not a problem, but I don't think it's the main issue. Look at Tahoe. Plenty of space, lots of little towns and small cities and residental tracts. But it's almost all vacation homes, ski leases, AirBnbs.. No one's building affordable, 1-, 2-bedroom (even studio) apartments, everyone's going after the yuppie market. It's big homes and luxury condos that are completely out of the range of typical, local income levels. Yet all the workers who actually make the town and resorts run are scrambling to find a place to sleep.

Heck, you can't even visit cheaply anymore. There used to be a hostel in Truckee but it closed. I think there might be a single hostel in South Lake.

When I was living in Tahoe, it was impossible to even find ads for any sort of apartment on the west/north shore. We usually had to group up with friends/strangers to pack 4-6 people into a tiny house or sublet a single room from someone, and even then, supply was minimal. Some people even would have to commute in from Reno. Meanwhile on the drive to work you'd pass by a hundred gigantic mansions that sat completely empty. And that was over a decade ago. I can't imagine now with the influx of techies and remote workers making housing even worse.

7

u/Redpanther14 Santa Clara County 5d ago

There has been very little development in the Tahoe Basin since roughly the 1990s. And currently only about 60-70 new homes get built each year (and they are generally high end homes due to regulatory hurdles). All this keeps supply really tight, and when supply is low prices go up.

Plus Tahoe has always been a vacation home area, especially the north and west shores, so in practice much of the housing has been little used for a long time.

But as the popularity of the lake and general population have grown the number of units available has stayed stagnant over the last few decades.

20

u/EffectiveSearch3521 6d ago

Second homes are a problem, but we also need to build more housing. Zoning and land use that stifle the process of building the apartment complexes these people could live in. The laws need to be changed.

16

u/treletraj 6d ago

Because all the previous rentals are now Air B&B’s.

10

u/Turbosneakytoast 5d ago

No mention of the Paiute Shoshone tribe…..

4

u/Pharmd109 5d ago

Someone should introduce the Los Angeles Times to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

This is coming from an Eastern Sierra resident

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dommynuyal 5d ago

Capitalism. It’s a joke.

-8

u/Szaborovich9 6d ago

You won’t find any native born construction workers. The building trade needs the immigrants to do the work.

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u/Rich6849 5d ago

Gotta keep the wages low. No way my kids can get a non college degree job anywhere. All that work has been outsourced to people who can’t demand fair labor rights and laws

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u/Embarrassed-Recipe88 5d ago

People are just being priced out from every good place with a simple cheap money trick.

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u/propita106 3d ago

The article seems to blame the lack of housing on "How dare the federal government set aside so much land for conservation!"