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Cities with the most expensive homes in the Santa Rosa metro area

in Housing

Purchasing a home is one of the most important investments there is. More than a place to live, homeownership is an asset with the potential to tremendously rise in value. But with home prices reaching record heights, affordability plays a huge role for buyers. High mortgage rates are also making monthly payments more expensive; as of May 4, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 6.39%. The typical home value in the United States increased over the last year by 3% to $334,994.

Although home prices have inflated all across the U.S., there are some cities that command a higher price tag than others. Location, size, age, and condition are all contributing factors to home value.

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Waitlist for housing voucher in Santa Rosa includes nearly 3,000 households. Here’s what to know as lottery opens

in Housing

Individuals in need of local affordable housing can apply to join the Santa Rosa Housing Authority’s waitlist for Section 8 housing vouchers starting next month. The waitlist, however, currently includes almost 3,000 households, officials said.

Heads of households or single applicants over the age of 18 can submit an application, beginning June 1, to be entered into a lottery through the housing authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program. Under Section 8, eligible participants receive a housing voucher that subsidizes a portion of their monthly rent within Santa Rosa city limits.

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Law has streamlined hundreds of affordable housing units in Sonoma County

in Housing

Five hundred and twelve.

That’s how many affordable housing units have been approved in Sonoma County under state Senate Bill 35, a 2017 law that made it easier for developers to get entitlements to build below-market rate, multi-unit housing.

Many say the law — which allows developers to bypass certain steps in the process of getting their approvals — is a powerful means to create sorely needed affordable housing for residents being priced out of the county.

In Santa Rosa, for example, four approved SB 35 projects with a combined 336 units of affordable housing represent about a quarter of the affordable units completed within the past two years, currently under construction or approved and pending construction in the city.

“Overall, SB 35 has been an incredibly effective tool when it comes to streamlining affordable housing development in Sonoma County,” said Calum Weeks, policy director of Generation Housing, a North Bay affordable housing research and advocacy group.

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A Santa Rosa mobile home park for seniors is being converted to all-ages to increase profit

in Community

In mid-March, managers held a meeting at the Carriage Court mobile home park in Santa Rosa to review new park rules and regulations. Only about 26 people from the park’s roughly 75 homes attended the Thursday midmorning meeting.

The new policies shared at the March 16 meeting largely mirrored the old, but there was one glaring difference that immediately got residents’ attention. The contract no longer identified Carriage Court as a “senior adult community” limited to people 55 and older.

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Mobile homes bolster Sonoma’s affordable housing stock

in Housing

When Moon Valley Residential Community lowered the age restrictions for mobile home residents from 55+ in 2009, Robert Caldwell became one of the first of a younger generation to benefit from the affordable home model.

When the Index-Tribune met Caldwell, he was putting away Christmas decorations from his double-wide manufactured home that he bought for $35,000 in 2010. He was jolly talking about the appreciation of his home after his neighbor sold their unit for upward of $100,000.

“For one, it’s cheaper than buying a home, because that’s gotten just ridiculous,” Caldwell said. “I think in the past, if you lived in a mobile park you were considered ‘trailer trash.’ Now, you’re not. A lot of people are buying them now because they’re affordable.”

As the Bay Area grapples with an affordable housing crisis, Sonoma’s young families and low-income residents are finding housing security in mobile homes — otherwise called manufactured homes — as an affordable housing solution thanks to early government protections.

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Planned for two decades, construction begins on Cannery housing project in Santa Rosa

in Housing

After more than two decades in the making and several setbacks, construction on the long-awaited Cannery project near Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square has finally started.

The project, being developed by San Francisco-based the John Stewart Company, will transform the more than century-old former fruit-packing site on West Third Street, just west of the SMART station, into 129 affordable apartments.

Work on the 2-acre property began Oct. 31 and building is expected to start in the summer.

The Cannery project is one of the largest planned or underway developments in Santa Rosa and, along with the 5.4-acre former rail yard adjacent to it, it represents the largest such site in downtown. The rail yard property, previously owned by SMART, was sold in 2018 to Petaluma-based Cornerstone Properties, which plans to build up to 500 apartments.

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Santa Rosa votes to limit rent control in mobile home parks

in Real Estate

Santa Rosa mobile home park residents will get more peace of mind when it comes to rent increases under a new plan tentatively approved by the City Council late Tuesday.

The move to tighten rent controls and make them the strongest in Sonoma County is the culmination of years of grassroots efforts by Santa Rosa mobile home residents that intensified in recent months.

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