Latest news with #CaliforniaDepartmentofFinance
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
California Homeowner Slashes Asking Price By Half as Housing Market Struggles
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. A California home which was listed for sale at more than $3.5 million at the height of the pandemic finally sold for half its original asking price, as the country faces dwindling demand due to historically high mortgage rates and rising prices. The property in Sonoma, one of the country's most important wine regions, sold for $1.9 million at the end of last month, according to Zillow, after the buyer apparently succeeded in negotiating a discount from the seller. Why It Matters The U.S. housing market has reached a breaking point, according to experts. Thanks to pent-up demand and lingering low inventory, home prices are still rising—but that is unlikely to go on for much longer. Historically high mortgage rates—which are still hovering around the 7 percent mark—and growing economic uncertainty are discouraging buyers at the same time as more sellers are finally approaching the market, creating a mismatch between the two which experts say will finally cause prices to drop across the country. This imbalance is particularly evident in Sonoma, which has experienced significant population declines since the pandemic—though the loss of residents has slowed down over the past year, according to recent data. Sonoma County's population peaked in 2015 at 141,530 people and declined by 194 in the past year, according to the California Department of Finance. What To Know The property, a single-family home with three bedrooms and four bathrooms sitting on 3,834 square feet of land in Sonoma, California, was built in 1973 and sold in 1994 for only $40,000—or about $10 per square foot. Home values and prices have skyrocketed since then, especially in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, when many Americans moved from bigger, more expensive cities to smaller towns with a better quality of life and more affordable housing. Historically low mortgage rates sparked a homebuying frenzy, but a supply shortage in the U.S. housing market meant that buyers had to fight for a limited number of homes and agree to much higher prices to get the properties they wanted. It is during this time, in April 2022, that the owners of the Sonoma home tried to sell the property for a staggering $3,545,000—a price tag nearly 9,000 percent higher than in 1994. The listing was removed a couple of months later and the property was relisted for a neat $3,500,000. But still it did not sell: the listing was removed and the price changed multiple times between 2022 and 2024, eventually settling for a sum below $2 million. On May 27, according to Zillow, the Sonoma home sold for $1,860,000, or $485 per square foot. Records show that the price was 6.8 percent lower than the one asked originally by the seller in April, at $1,995,000, showing that the buyer managed to negotiate a lower price during the sale. It is not a unique situation in the Sonoma market. According to Redfin, 22.7 percent of homes sold in Sonoma in April had price discounts, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, while none sold above list price—down 16.7 percent from a year earlier. A general view of a home advertised for sale in a residential neighborhood on August 15, 2024, in San Jose, California. A general view of a home advertised for sale in a residential neighborhood on August 15, 2024, in San Jose, nine homes were sold in Sonoma that month, down 25 percent from a year earlier, after spending an average 56 days on the market before going under contract—19 days longer than they did in April 2024. The median sale price of a home in Sonoma, according to Zillow, was $1,434,000 in April, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier. What is happening in Sonoma is happening, with some local variations, all across the U.S. Inventory is growing, but buyers are either too cautious to get in the market or they cannot afford to. According to BruingtonHargreaves, which helps people sell, buy or build homes in Sonoma County, inventory rose by a staggering 55.7 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025 in the county, jumping from 490 to 764 average listings. The increase was more significant in the market for homes under $2 million (64.1 percent) than over $2 million (31.2 percent). Despite these increases, the under $2m Sonoma County market is still in favor of sellers, BruingtonHargreaves said, while the market for over $2m homes is a strong buyers' market based on current demand. What People Are Saying Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan said in a recent press release: "The balance of power in the U.S. housing market has shifted toward buyers, but a lot of sellers have yet to see or accept the writing on the wall. Many are still holding out hope that their home is the exception and will fetch top dollar "But as sellers see their homes sit longer on the market and notice fewer buyers coming through on tour, more of them will realize that the market has adjusted and reset their expectations accordingly." What Happens Next The growth in inventory and the drop in sales reported across the country suggest that prices might come down this year as sellers across the country are forced to offer discounts and adjust their expectations to lure in reluctant buyers. But in order for affordability to significantly improve for buyers, mortgage rates will have to come down—something that experts do not expect to happen before throughout 2025 and 2026.
Miami Herald
28-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Authorium Selected by California for GenAI-Enabled Legislative Analysis
SACRAMENTO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 28, 2025 / Today, Authorium, the cloud-based technology company that delivers its eponymous end-to-end platform for government administrative operations,announced that they have been selected to implement a GenAI-enabled solution to efficiently and accurately develop legislative bill analyses utilizing existing documents and other publicly available information for the California Department of Finance. "GenAI has great potential to enhance our ability to deliver high-quality analysis to California policymakers. We look forward to piloting this technology to enhance our efficiency, accuracy, and capacity," said Christian Beltran, Deputy Director of Legislation at the California Department of Finance. This award supports the State's commitment of Gov. Gavin Newsom's Executive Order N-12-23 which recognizes GenAI's "potential to catalyze innovation and the rapid development of a wide range of benefits for Californians and the California economy." "We are honored to be selected by the California Department of Finance to increase efficiency and effectiveness in critical legislative and policy efforts," said Jay Nath and Kamran Saddique, Co-CEOs of Authorium. "As a public benefit corporation, we remain fully focused on enabling government teams to modernize operational and administrative processes through our no-code platform." Currently, Department of Finance (DOF) team members comb through volumes of legislative material, including over 1,000 legislative bills and proposals annually. Working together with Authorium, DOF aims to significantly reduce the manual workload associated with drafting bill analyses including: summarizing a bill,collecting fiscal information from impacted state entities, andparsing relevant data sets and sources for background and historical information. The California Department of Technology (CDT) will support the use, security, and maintenance of the GenAI tool. They will also provide oversight and guidance throughout the lifecycle of the project to ensure the system is used effectively and responsibly. "California is embracing emerging technologies and innovation to modernize how we serve the public. By exploring the use of Generative AI in legislative workflows, we're laying the foundation for smarter, faster, and more transparent government services," said Liana Bailey-Crimmins, State Chief Information Officer and Director of the California Department of Technology. The Department of Finance intends to scale insights across bill analyses to spotlight shared needs and statewide opportunities for more efficient and effective deployment of the State's budget resources. To expedite delivery and ensure stronger outcomes, Authorium's contract was awarded through a Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI²) solicitation, a procurement vehicle that seeks innovative ideas to solve a well-defined problem statement, then selects a solution provider based on their ability to demonstrate its effectiveness. The RFI² concept was first introduced in 2019 when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that created the new procurement method by asking for solutions to test in response to the wildfire challenges in California. The vision of this methodology is to leverage the innovative vendor, academic, scientific, and entrepreneurial communities to solve the State's most pressing challenges. Beyond the Department of Finance, Authorium's platform enables teams at the California Public Employees' Retirement System, CalRecycle, Department of Social Services and more in the Golden State, as well as agencies across the United States from Washington to Florida - to increase efficiency, effectiveness, visibility, and compliance. A recent study with the U.S. Air Force demonstrated that Authorium's platform was able to cut acquisition timelines by 20%. Authorium is hosted exclusively on AWS GovCloud, the leading regulated industry cloud solution that technology leaders trust to manage sensitive data, and is GovRAMP Authorized, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA compliant, and adheres to stringent federal and DoD security requirements. About AuthoriumAuthorium is a no-code, cloud-based platform exclusively for government administrative operations. Government teams rely on us to support budget and grant administration, contract lifecycle management, HR processes, procurement, and legislative analysis. As a public benefit corporation, we serve the government workers that serve their communities. Learn more at ### Contact Information Authorium Press Marketingmarketing@ SOURCE: Authorium press release
San Francisco Chronicle
08-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
This small city is the fastest-growing in California
Among the almond orchards, grapevines and alfalfa fields alongside State Route 99 is California's fastest growing city with more than 20,000 people: Shafter, California. According to a state report released this week, the population of Shafter, a Central Valley city just north of Bakersfield, grew by 4.7% — about 1,000 people — between Jan. 2024 and Jan. 2025, the most of any city in California with more than 20,000 people whose population gains did not come from college dormitory populations. Shafter's boost was largely driven by an increase in housing, according to John Boyne, a research data specialist with the California Department of Finance, which compiled the report. With 309 new housing units built in 2024, Shafter was also one of the fastest growing cities in the state in terms of housing. All of the added units were single family homes, Boyne said. The majority-Hispanic town is, like many Central Valley cities, an agricultural hub. But it is also home to an industrial park owned by the Wonderful Company (of pistachio and pomegranate juice fame) that houses distribution centers for large companies like Walmart, Target and Amazon — with plans to expand. The city has grown significantly over the last decade and a half, going from about 17,000 people in 2010 to just under 23,500 as of January this year. Shafter's growth was part of an overall growth trend in California's Central Valley and inland areas. Several other cities in the Central Valley saw notable growth, including Lathrop and Patterson. (Merced and Folsom also showed large gains, but Merced's was due to the city annexing the UC Merced, incorporating its on campus students into the city's population, and Folsom's growth was due to increases in the state prison population there.) And of the ten largest cities in California, Bakersfield gained the most population, though the increase was slight at just over 1%. And Fresno and Kern counties were first and second in terms of year-over-year population growth among California counties with more than 500,000 people. But not all of the Central Valley saw gains. Wasco, which is less than 10 miles away from Shafter, lost nearly as many residents as Shafter gained. Boyne described this as 'a tale of two cities.' While Shafter added housing, Wasco lost it, he said — it had a net loss of 163 housing units due to the demolition of 226 multi-family units as a part of a multi-year affordable housing project. On top of that, Wasco's population was also impacted by decreases in the prison population at Wasco State Prison, Boyne said. Some Bay Area cities were among the fastest growing as well. Belmont, American Canyon and Burlingame, which are all around the same size as Shafter in terms of population, were all in the top 10 fastest growing cities by population, and each saw notable increases in housing supply between 2024 and 2025.
The Star
02-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
California's population rises to over 39.5 million
LOS ANGELES, May 2 (Xinhua) -- California's population grew by 108,000 people in 2024, reaching 39,529,000 as of Jan. 1 this year, according to new data released by the California Department of Finance. The increase marks the second consecutive year of population growth for the most populous U.S. state, following a period of decline during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth was largely driven by a natural increase - the number of births minus deaths - which contributed 114,805 people to the overall population gain. Additionally, from 2021 to 2024, California saw 277,468 legal immigrants settle in the state, further bolstering its population. "As the fourth largest economy in the world - from the Inland Empire to the Bay Area - regions throughout California are growing, strengthening local communities and boosting our state's future. We'll continue to cut tape, invest in people, and seek real results from government to ensure we build on this momentum - all of which are at risk with the extreme and uncertain tariffs," said California Governor Gavin Newsom. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California has experienced only brief periods of population loss in its 174-year history. The most significant decline occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, when the state's population decreased by 379,544 people.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California's big cities are slowly bouncing back, new population data show
California's population increased for the second consecutive year, with much of the growth coming to the state's biggest cities, according to new data from the California Department of Finance released Thursday. The latest numbers for calendar year 2024 confirm the end of the so-called California Exodus that saw the Golden State's population shrink for the first time in decades. Seven of the state's 10 largest cities recorded population growth as they bounced back from the pandemic-era shrinking, which hit hardest in most of the state's urban centers. By the end of 2024, the state's population nearly eclipsed its pre-pandemic peak, but was still around 9,000 people short of the previous high-water mark from April 2020, reflecting slow growth in the years since then. From April 2020 to January 2022, the state lost some 360,000 residents, according to data from the California Department of Finance. California added about 108,000 people in 2024 after adding nearly 200,000 in 2023. If growth continues, the state should eclipse its pre-pandemic population figure in 2025. 'People from across the nation and the globe are coming to the Golden State to pursue the California Dream, where rights are protected and people are respected," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "As the fourth largest economy in the world — from the Inland Empire to the Bay Area — regions throughout California are growing, strengthening local communities and boosting our state's future." "We'll continue to cut tape, invest in people, and seek real results from government to ensure we build on this momentum — all of which are at risk with the extreme and uncertain tariffs,' Newsom said. The biggest population winners were Bakersfield, which grew by 1.2% in 2024, and San Diego, which grew by 1%. Los Angeles grew by 0.4%. Read more: How major demographic changes of Asian and Latino immigrants are transforming California In the Bay Area, San Jose and San Francisco saw their populations contract slightly — each by less than half a percentage point. Natural increase, or the difference between births and deaths, was responsible for a gain of 114,805 people in 2024, but the state's population increased by only 108,000 overall. The difference is explained by net migration out of California of around 7,000 people. Over the past few years, California has recorded more people leaving for other states like Texas and Arizona than it gains from internal migration. International immigrants, who now mostly come from Asia, bolster the state's population against loss from those who leave for other states. On the housing front, the state's slow growth continued: Housing grew at 0.84% in 2024, a similar figure to 2023, which lagged many other states. One in five new homes built in 2024 within California were Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
