Elena Zimina's Real Estate

Source: Business Insider  The value of the nation’s housing stock grew by 6.5 percent to $31.8 trillion this year — with Los Angeles and New York City far outpacing the rest of the country’s top-valued metro markets and Miami landing at No. 4. The Los Angeles market’s $2.7 trillion valuation topped that any other metro across the country after growing 5.7 percent over the past year. That’s a smidgen higher than New York City’s $2.6 trillion valuation, up 7.9 percent from last year. A and NYC were the only two markets worth more than $1 trillion, with Washington ($996.7 billion), Miami ($865.2 billion) and Chicago ($821.3 billion) rounding out the top five. San Jose saw the largest percentage growth — 13.5 percent — of the nation’s top 10 markets, while Columbus, Ohio’s 15.1 percent growth was the highest of the top 35 markets. The nation’s yearly growth is the highest since 2013, according to a Zillow report cited by Bloomberg. The $31.8 billion figure is 1.5 times the nation’s Gross

Rent control, property taxes and taller apartment buildings: California considers major housing bills in 2018 Source: The Mercury News The state’s housing crisis is back on the agenda as California lawmakers return to work after a month-long recess. Proposals floated on the first week of the year would bring major changes to laws governing property taxes, rent control, and local zoning rules. Senate Democrats are also proposing a workaround for the recent GOP tax overhaul, which set a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Making sense of the story Deduction cap: A bill introduced Thursday would allow Californians to instead donate to the state, receiving a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, so they can — in theory — deduct the full amount from their federal taxes. There is no cap on deductions for charitable contributions. Rent control fight: Should California repeal a landmark 1995 law that keeps local rent control ordinances in check? The law, known as Costa Hawkins, block