↗ 'The least affordable housing market in recent memory': Why now is a great time to rent

🤡 Happy Monday, Salinas!

And happy day off for some...not me, but some.

What did you do this weekend? Send me your pictures and I will post them this week.

Here's one from my weekend, enjoying the 71 degrees! And forcing the kids away from a screen.

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↗ 'The least affordable housing market in recent memory': Why now is a great time to rent

Generations of consumers have embraced homeownership as part of the American dream. Lately, though, it looks more like a pipe dream.

“Housing is becoming a luxury good,” said Christopher Mayer, a Columbia University economist.

The upside? It’s a great time to rent. The spiraling costs of homeownership have turned the perennial rent-vs.-own equation on its head. In most of the nation’s largest cities, renting is now far cheaper.

The median sales price for existing homes rose more than 40% from early 2020 to mid-2022, to a seasonal peak just above $400,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

More news you can use...

🧑🏽‍🎨 Monterey County put a call out to local artists. The @arts4mc Individual Artists Grant program supports both emerging and established artists to keep arts in our communities growing. Grants are open to artists of all disciplines in the county.

To find out if you qualify, visit Arts Council for Monterey County’s online grant, scholarship and nomination portal.

🌳 Residents should use caution when driving in order to stop or avoid a fallen tree. For residents with trees on their properties, county officials recommend inspecting trees. You should look for signs of potential problems, such as cracked wood, sawdust at the tree base, a leaning tree, weak branch junctions, or sudden changes in tree conditions.

🚘 Hyundai is recalling nearly 100,000 Genesis vehicles due to a potentially deadly fire hazard with certain models, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports.

Federal safety regulators published the recall after learning water may enter the starter solenoid and cause an electrical short, which can result in an engine compartment fire while the vehicle is parked or driving.

History in Salinas

Today is Presidents Day. It’s also the 82nd anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066, which led to the removal and incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry, including many who were living in the Central Coast.

Monterey Bay families were confined in two temporary detention camps in Salinas before the U.S. government, during World War II, transferred them to internment camps in remote, desolate areas of the country.

The Salinas Rodeo Grounds was one of the centers. The other, the Salinas Assembly Center, operated for two months. It held 3,608 people from April 27, 1942 to July 4, 1942. Most of the incarcerated residents would be taken to Poston in southwestern Arizona near the California border. A few others would be taken to Tule Lake near the California-Oregon border.

Feb. 19, 1942 is now Day of Remembrance to acknowledge the wrongful imprisonment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans and the trauma and losses the executive order brought on them.

About three years ago, Rudy Tokiwa, who grew up in Salinas and was imprisoned with his family, gave an interview about their detention in the Poston camp and his service with the U.S. Army at the young age of 16.

He recalled registering and being asked whether he would bear arms for the country, according to a digitized excerpt of his interview with the National Japanese American Historical Society.

“I think this is wrong. How can they come and ask us, ‘Are you going to bear arms for this country?’ when they put you behind barbed wire fences?”

Thanks for reading and feel free to send news tips to ewoomer@gannett.