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Opinion

Grefe: We have plenty of homes in the West Valley

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In response to the recent Question of the Day: “Is there enough affordable housing in your community”: Yes, since we have a wide range of homes.

What should be done to make housing more accessible?

1. Keep the cost for homes low. In my area, the homes have gone up over 25% in less than a year. The problem is that government wants the home to cost more, since they get more revenue. This could be solved by reassessing your property every five years, and your property can only go up 50% of inflation or cost to rebuild.

Outside of Arizona, residents are buying our homes at a higher price. Price of California homes is double Arizona’s, they can outbid the residents of Arizona. The fix would be a tax on home purchase by nonresident of five years or less. I would make the tax to be 20% of the difference in median price home and decrease each year.

The tax money would only be used for material cost for infrastructure improvements or low cost mortgages for Arizona residents of five years or more.

To keep cost down on new and remodel homes we need to lower cost of fuel. The demand is way too high. We must produce more fuel, this is the backbone. I’m for the pipeline, drilling and more refineries. I’m for electric vehicles, but not with the high inflation.

2. Lower the demand. It seems that office building are in less demand, so convert these building to residential, and the first floor to commercial.

Rezone an area (could be near industrial zone) for very low income/high density and homeless encampments. This zone would have the very basic needs. This would also lower the demand by putting Arizona residents on the same playing field.

Streamline the building process. It seems many of the developments use the same floor plan, so the building permit should be very simply. Also a building could do it’s own inspection, speedup the process. They would have to meet some high standard and insurance’s.

Add more workers. It’s seems that no one wants to work, employers can pay them more, government needs to lower starting minimum wage and quit paying the workers to stay at home.