Voters will decide in November on a proposition that calls for California to be split into three new and separate states.
This column isnt the place to debate the merits of the idea. Nor will I ponder its odds at the ballot box. And Ill leave to other pundits the vast legal, political and operational impacts of such a historic change — and thats only if the breakup ever got all the necessary approvals after a winning vote.
We are here to talk one thing: What might these three new state housing markets look like based on historical trends. Geographically speaking, the plan creates new state borders along county lines.
Theres the retooled “California,” essentially the coastal counties from Los Angeles to Monterey. Theres the oddly named “Southern California” combining Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties up through the interior to Lake Tahoe. And theres “Northern California,” everything else or basically the Bay Area plus everything up to Oregon.
Knowing the new county lineup, I filled my trusty spreadsheet with historical housing data provided by Attom Data Solutions. Looking at stats from 2000 through 2018s first quarter, here are 10 things you should know about the housing markets within each of the new proposed states.
1. Price tags: When you shuffle the counties into three states, what does a sales-weighted median for 2018s first-quarter selling prices for all properties look like? Its no surprise that it would cost the most to buy in Northern California at $580,200. Next was the new coastal California at $571,900. Southern California was most affordable — remember all the cheaper inland properties are in this new state — at $426,000.
2. Best bet: Where was the best performance this century, as measured by growth in median selling prices for all properties, 2000 through this year? Well, seaside property rocks. The Pacific-hugging new Californias 181 percent gain was tops vs. Southern California at 148 percent and Northern Californias 120 percent.
3. Most pain: Split or not, dont forget the pain of housings bubble bursting! What new states housing market would have fared the worst in the 2006-2011 downturn? Northern Californias 46 percent price drop was the largest loss and a shade ahead of Southern Californias fall of 45.6 percent and new Californias 41.4 percent tumble.
4. Top recovery: Where was the post-recession rebound the best, measured by the 2011-2018 selling price upswing? Northern California produced 108 percent in gains in seven years vs. Southern California at 84 percent and new Californias 83 percent.
5. Predictability: Split the state into three, expect the same crazy real estate. Just peek at the nearly uniform best and worst 12-month periods since 2000! New Californias best was up 30 percent vs. its worst of down 35 percent; Southern California ran from up 29 percent to down 37 percent; and Northern California ranged from up 29 percent to down 42 percent.
6. Big sellers: Ponder the size of these markets, in terms of purchase transactions closed in the past 18 years. Most sales activity in 2000-2018 was Southern Californias 3.2 million sales followed by Northern Californias 2.9 million and new Californias 2 million.
7. Sales dips: Homebuying is down since the turn of the century as homeowners choose to move less and ownership is less affordable. New Californias sales pace is down 19 percent since 2000; Northern California is off 10 percent; Southern California is down 4.5 percent.
- SoundThe gallery will resume inseconds
In this June 18, 2018, photo, venture capitalist Tim Draper points to a computer screen at his offices in San Mateo, showing an initiative to split California into three states qualified for the ballot. Opponents of an initiative are asking the state Supreme Court to pull the measure from the ballot. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
Show Caption of Expand
8. Home sweet home: Now lets think about single-family homes under the proposed three-way split. Southern California would have 2.77 million single-family homes worth a combined $1.44 trillion. New California gets 1.84 million single-family homes worth $1.41 trillion. Northern California is home to 2.87 million homes worth $2.18 trillion.
9. Price extremes: Wheres the budget-busting housing in the proposed new states … and where are the bargains? Southern Californias priciest single-family homes are in Orange County at an average value of $871,635 vs. the cheapest county, Kings, at $202,699. New Californias priciest is Santa Barbara County at $804,942 vs. San Benito Countys $541,434 low. Of course, Northern California has an insane gap: the highest prices are in San Mateo County at $1.61 million vs. the cheapest county, Modoc, at $89,158.
10. Tax bite: Ownership equals property taxes. How would that cost for single-family homes slice up among the three proposed states? Southern Californias 2017 tax collections for single-family homes ran $12.13 billion or $4,372 per average taxpayer. Northern California property taxes totaled $15.53 billion or $5,419 per average taxpayer. And the biggest individual tax bills were in the new California where $10.38 billion in collections translates to an average $5,636 per property.
ALSO: In California, its not blue vs. red! Its homeowner vs. renter! (Even when it comes to Trump!)
[contf] [contfnew] 
daily news
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
