HOUSING CRISIS BIGGEST THREAT TO CALIFORNIA.

Byline: William R. Paxton Local View

FORGET the earthquakes, the power shortage, Valley secession, mass transit issues, offshore drilling, water shortages and all of the other crises that are most often associated with living in California.

They pale in comparison to a dark cloud that is hovering over this state, an ominous near future that all Californians are facing and will suffer its repercussions for decades to come. That issue is home affordability.

I've thought about this issue for some time now, mainly because my wife and I are trying to buy our first house (timing is everything, isn't it?). However, there is a lot more to the issue, and it really hit home for me recently at, of all places, my son's school.

My wife and I were attending my son's sixth-grade culmination for his local Los Angeles elementary school. Up on stage were 189 neatly dressed, smiling sixth-graders, proudly finishing up their elementary school careers and ready to move on to middle school. The audience was packed full of proud parents and relatives.

It was a really enjoyable, heartfelt ceremony, and I felt excited for these children and their prospects as they begin their move into young adulthood.

However, something nagged at me from the moment I left that culmination, and it is still eating at me right now.

It's a percentage that may or may not strike a responsive chord with you: 27 percent. That is the percentage of households in California that can afford the $321,950 median price for a home in our state (Daily News, June 7).

Let's look at that percentage another way: 73 percent of the households in our state cannot afford the median price. Call it three out of four.

Now take that 3-out-of-4 ratio and apply it to my son's sixth-grade class of 189 students. Assuming the ratio remains constant, 142 of those students will not be able to afford to own their own homes while a scant 47 lucky students will realize what used to be an attainable American dream.

Did that hit you hard in the gut like it did me?

Here's another item for you to consider, a quote from Armen Avedian, a broker associate with Dilbeck Realtors in Glendale: ``Ten years ago, the first-time buyer could get something for $200,000. Now, that's up another $100,000. A blue-collar worker earning $10 an hour will never be able to get a house, not even a piddly little condo, at these rates,'' (Daily News, June 7).

I might add your basic white-collar worker to that equation as well.

So, essentially, the next generation of Californians, those children whom we all take such pride in - our future - will not be able to afford to purchase their own homes.

You're probably thinking that our state legislators are well aware of the housing affordability problem and are vigorously searching out solutions, right?

Well, um, I'm afraid that's not the case. Gov. Gray Davis has a very impressive Web site up for his re-election bid, with a dynamic picture of him with Martin Sheen (``I'm not the president, but I play one on TV'').

Lots of really ``relevant'' stuff on the site, but the only mention of housing is that the governor ``backs affordable housing plans.'' As opposed to being against them I would imagine?

The governor does support one small piece of legislation, that being the earmarking of $25 million from a November ballot bond measure to match money raised by housing trusts. A pitifully small drop in the bucket given the size of California's population.

A check of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's and Sen. Barbara Boxer's Web sites yielded similar results. There are issues like offshore oil drilling and the creation of Indian heritage Web pages, photo galleries and even a Kids Corner, but nothing about housing.

Locally, in my hometown of Los Angeles, Mayor James K. Hahn and the City Council seem more concerned about secession, Ahmanson Ranch and creating a dynamic pothole-filling program.

It just doesn't seem that anyone in government really gives a darn where we are all going to live in the future as long as they get our votes. But, hey, at least maybe the streets will be smooth.

Government isn't the only part of the housing affordability issue that needs to shoulder some of the blame.

The business community in our state has sadly shirked its responsibility in this area as well. C'mon, business leaders, you guys all need workers, right? Well, where are you going to get good workers when they can't afford to live here?

Last but not least, those of us who call ourselves citizens of California need to shoulder the major responsibility for this crisis reaching its current state.

Our legislators report to us and the businesses depend on us. As owners, sellers and potential buyers, we have all collectively shot ourselves in the foot and sabotaged both the housing market and our children's futures.

Those of you who own your own home and have made a killing, good for you. Even great for you. But what about your kids, your grandchildren, your friends and neighbors? Just where are they going to find a home to live in? Same goes for you sellers and some of you Realtors.

I can tell you from personal experience that the prices some of you are asking for your homes are beyond outrageous. I know, if someone is dumb enough to pay a ridiculous price, then why not, right? Tell that to the sixth-graders when your greed drives the affordability percentage down below 20 percent.

Speaking of those dumb enough to pay those exorbitant prices, don't forget the buyers out there (and I'm trying to become one of them). Houses have become the equivalent of the Cabbage Patch dolls when they first came out, or any other ``gotta-have'' item. Better get one before they are all gone, no matter what the price.

When you have 15 people bidding $45,000 more than the asking price of $310,000 to get a three-bedroom, one-bath fixer, then buyers have lost their sanity.

The same is true of new homes. I spoke with a new home development hostess in Valencia lately who likened buyer behavior to sharks in a feeding frenzy. She sounded pretty weary and remarked that she wasn't handling the ``buyer pressure'' very well.

How do we fix this problem before it's too late? We need creative thought and sensible problem-solving regarding affordable housing in California, and we need it now.

Legislators at all levels of government need to draft realistic, practical legislation to aid first-time home buyers and home builders.

Grants, tax breaks, subsidies to businesses that assist their workers in housing purchases are just a few ideas to explore. Businesses need to begin to offer housing incentives to their employees, perhaps much in the same way that they now offer tuition assistance.

And the citizens of California have the largest responsibility: We all need to make sure that affordable housing exists in our state, now and in the future.

It will require taking a collective breath and calming down so that the real estate market can return to some sort of normalcy. Then each and every one of us needs to remind one another, as well as our government and business leaders, of how vitally important it is to ensure that the American dream of home ownership is one that deserves to be reachable for our future generations.

To not address this issue now is to virtually guarantee the social and economic ruin of our state in the years to come.

The reality will be that our children and grandchildren will be moving away in droves, seeking jobs in other areas of the country that offer an affordable place to live. For that we will all suffer.

Try looking those 189 sixth-graders at my son's school in the eye and sharing that vision of their future with them.