As housing affordability keeps shrinking, communities can change dramatically

Take a look at today’s Bay Area housing market. Prices are flat, more houses are for sale, and interest rates are near 25-year lows. It’s a buyer’s market.

So why then, according to a research report prepared last year by the California Association of Realtors, can only 12 percent of Bay Area households afford to buy the median-priced home? The answer lies in the growing disparity between home prices and household incomes.

 Q:I own a single-family house that I am renting to a woman. Last week, when doing some requested maintenance, the tenant mentioned that water was overflowing from the roof onto the front porch. This is “the same problem as last year” was her comment.This is the first time she had mentioned this to me. The gutter was plugged and water had been running over the side of the flat roof onto the front porch. This excessive water had caused dry rot to form on the corner of the roof where the downspout is located, so obviously the problem had existed for some time.