Cause and Effect Essay on Housing Costs in California (Essay Sample)

Cause and Effect Essay on Housing Costs in California Leslie Sarabia ENGLISH 101 Unitek College 05/24/2024 Cause and Effect of Housing Costs in California Within the context of human security, there is a serious case that needs to be addressed in the case of the centrality of housing in not only California, but across the entire United States of America. As a matter of fact, the lack of adequate and affordable housing compromises development while at the same time constituting a serious threat to humanity. The discussion should be based on both the security aspect of housing and the developmental characteristic because they both create a favorable environment for sustainable businesses and communities. California as a state has defied this logic by proving to be struggling with high housing costs that have significantly affected livelihoods negatively. Scores of studies establish that California has long been more expensive as far as housing costs are concerned than any other State within the US. The high cost of housing has been caused by; high local government fees for housing developers, increasing population, high costs of factors of production, population spillover effects from across the globe, and the effects of “Proposition 13” among other causes. As a result, the State has experienced increasing cases of homelessness, increased poverty levels, and poor living conditions which to most people, is an aspect that is against the principles of sustainable living. The causes of the high housing costs in California are many. However, the major causes are related to the regulatory process as well as the economic dynamics that play out in the day-to-day demand and supply features. Firstly, the high local government fees for housing developers through the licensing and approval procedures appears to be a leading cause of the cost influx in California (Chakrabarti & Zhang, 2015). Investors are scared away from venturing in the housing business therefore making it difficult for the demand for homes to be met. It is also evident that the shortage of housing facilities with reference to the population of the day also creates a lot of pressure to the available housing units. This in turn forces homeowners to increase the prices of their house where rental fees or selling fees are involved. Over the years, scholars have also attributed the high cost of housing to the effects of the adoption of Proposition 13 in 1978. It is believed that Proposition 13 has made the development of housing facilities more arduous because it complicated the State’s incentive to initiate projects that endeavour to create more homes. The situation has been made worse by the fact that the process of getting housing development projects approved is difficult, lengthy, and expensive (Monkkonen, 2016). This makes it harder for the process of building houses to match the pace at which the population of the day demands them. All which play out in such an event are the factors of demand and supply hence the skyrocketing housing costs in California. The costs of land, labor, and raw material are high in California. As a result, housing developers figure out the costs they incur in developing houses in the final costs of selling, buying, and selling of houses across the state (Uhler, Sisney & California, 2016). Moreover, being a coastal state, California has experienced population spill over in the recent past. The effects of the spill-over have been felt in the population count whereby the number of people present surpass the state’s ability to offer affordable and adequate housing. It is worth acknowledging that the effects of housing costs in California are felt across the state leading to the questioning of the government’s agenda in making the lives of her citizens better. For instance, many families have difficulties affording housing in California. Consequently, cases of homelessness have increased in California as compared to other states. As a result, the state has experienced increased levels of poverty correspondingly of the high cost of living associated with the housing costs in a broad scale. According to Chakrabarti, and Zhang (2015), many families live i...