Many medical nostalgia fans regret the extinction of the doctor’s house call. No one is alive today who remembers actually being on the receiving end of a house call, but they’ve seen recreations on TV and the concept is agreeable.
I’m not certain how doctors who live and work in San Francisco view the house call, but I’m pretty sure many of them wish they had a house period.
The fact is, doctors can afford to buy at least half of the homes on the market in every major city in America, with one exception: San Francisco.
It tells you something about leftists and their housing policy when a doctor who makes an average of $208,000 a year can only afford approximately 42 percent of the homes in the city limits. Trulia.com did a study and found the median home price in San Francisco is $1,249,000, which is beyond the reach of most doctors there.
That median price is the highest in the nation. The second highest, in San Jose, California, is $332,000 behind in valuation.
One might think that if city hall land use policies had priced even doctors out of the market it might be time to have lunch with a few developers. But that just shows one doesn’t understand the mind of the politician.
High home prices aren’t a bug in San Francisco land use policies. High home prices are a feature! Limiting building so that prices skyrocket gives the leftist a chance to show his "concern" using other people’s money.
Right now the usual home in the U.S. runs a bit more than $254,000, which is about the down payment for the average San Francisco house. This mismatch between income and the price of a very limited housing stock means city hall denizens can pledge to fight for more "affordable" housing. This is the equivalent of a burglar becoming a home security consultant.
When leftists fight for "affordable" housing, they don’t make it easier to build houses so more come on the market. Instead they take tax dollars and use the money to build government housing. That gets gratitude and campaign contributions from builders. Or they permit limited new building only if the builders allocate some of the units as below-market "affordable" housing. That doesn’t get gratitude, but it does result in contributions.
Then the politicians decide who qualifies to live in the "affordable" housing, creating more voters who are grateful to the politicians.
No wonder leftists won’t permit the housing market to work: there’s nothing in it for them. While using government power to limit housing is a perpetual meddling and influence-peddling machine.
At this rate San Francisco will be the first city in history where doctors, of all people, qualify for "affordable" housing.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.