Why I shot this photo
I had been following news reports for several days about powerful waves hitting beachfront homes in Long Beach, California, and the damage seemed to be getting worse. Monday was expected to be one of the last days of the strongest waves generated by the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel, so I decided to go see this for myself.
The waves had been pounding these homes for days, washing away sand and threatening their foundations. I was struck by how little protection seemed to remain between the homes and the ocean.
I totally get that. Historically it did make much more sense, but people are still doing it now despite the heightened probability of those risks.
Less so here in KC, as we did have a catastrophic flood in the 90’s, so the memory of that keeps new developments away from the flood risk and our anti-flood infrastructure here is quite good.
Land titles and taxes, some people are only staying in their current homes because taxes are antiquated and aren’t updated. They wouldn’t be able to afford paying modern taxes, but also, everyone else is stuck paying for shortfall. It’s a shitty system.
It’s a real unfair system when an old million dollar house has $100 a month taxes while a modern $70k condo has $1,200.
Partly the reason why people live in tornado alley, cheap taxes, it’s just worth it to some people.
Poverty definitely plays into it. No doubt.
It’s a vicious circle, they’re paying out the nose in utilities or otherwise wasteful house design (likely). Some can modernize without triggering a tax update, but loopholes will always exist. Do they need the 1 million dollar house? It’s paid off most likely, since its generational, how most of the tax exemptions work. So it’s not even poverty, it’s a choice to live in that type of “means”.
Most of it is just attatchment. I don’t understand it myself, it’s a house, like a car, they’re meant to have specific uses and may need to change as you live your life. Why do I want a 4 bedroom house for just me and my wife? There’s not enough room for my kids families, and they’re gonna want they’re own place.
Moving to a senior home or a condo later in life just makes sense.
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