Real Estate Round-Up: A tale of two cities

My husband Chris and I traveled to Dallas last weekend. What a town! We always stay near the centrally located Arts District so we can walk everywhere. The Arts District is like Balboa Park, with both visual and performing arts sharing the 68 acres and 19 contiguous blocks.

The Dallas Arts District unifies culture and commerce with integrated and exemplary artistic, residential, cultural, educational, recreational, religious and commercial life. The art in public places unite the theme of art and life, enhanced by the aromas of food and coffee houses, and shops full of unique items that beautify your life.

On our second day, we walked to the farmers market which is both an open and closed shopping experience and sells a variety of handmade items from quilts, jewelry and clothing to produce, honey and baked goods. A recently developed residential area, with blocks of townhomes and community parks, embraces the market.

A few blocks away is Deep Ellum, a hot music area that features bars with craft beers, wine and spirits, diverse restaurants and specialty shops that cater to this client. Both areas invite local residents to walk in from their homes just a few blocks away.

We ventured to the other side of town for a concert at the American Airlines Center. Earlier that day we spent time at the park that resides directly over the freeway. This park was created to span the freeway for about three blocks and features a grassy area, small boutique stands and a row of food trucks. The park was overflowing with families and dogs.

So why am I sharing all of this with you? No, I’m not going to start writing a travel blog. This trip was an eye opener for me as a contrast on the city metros of Dallas and San Diego.

Dallas has a population of 1.3 million. San Diego has a population of 1.4 million. Dallas is 385.8 square miles. San Diego is 372.4 square miles. The median age in Dallas is 33.3 years. The median age in San Diego is 35.4 years. The median income in Dallas is $52,210. The median income in San Diego is $79,646.

I was shocked at how similar the two cities are, and then I looked at the cost of housing in both metros.

Dallas’ median property value is $209,700. San Diego’s median property value is $654,700. The reason I bring all this data up is because the one thing we did notice, as we walked all those miles during our visit, was a lack of homeless people and graffiti.

I can honestly say that we saw no tent cities anywhere, no “overpass or underpass” neighborhoods, no community park cities, no cities along the feeder roads to the highways. We saw none.

One day we took the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) as we traveled to visit friends outside of the metro area, and again, we saw no encampments anywhere along that route.

Why do I care? Why should you care? Because the homeless problem in California is touching every community in the state and clearly California has created extreme laws that protect the homeless over the rights of the tax paying residents. I don’t know about you, but for me, this approach is wrong and is hurting all of us.

Recently a client sent me a post from KPBS.org that said seven sites had been identified in Fallbrook for potential homeless/support housing. After reaching out to Supervisor Desmond and others, the clarification was made that these sites were only identified as potential, but that none will be chosen without first going before the Fallbrook Community Planning Group for their approval.

Fallbrook has approximately 60 homeless people. Our numbers have grown over the past year, due to the inability of law enforcement to remove them from public spaces. Continued growth of the homeless population in Fallbrook will affect the desirability of our town, and ultimately our property values.

As the county proceeds down the road of searching for solutions to the growing homeless problem, I urge you to get involved with this issue. If the voice for this small but growing population of homeless dominates the conversations and decisions, the voice for the people that live here, pay taxes here, purchase goods and services here, will be diminished.

We will find ourselves living in a community that we don’t recognize. Supervisor Desmond, and county staff will be presiding over the Fallbrook Revite meeting, March 17, at 10 a.m. It will be held at the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s office located at 990 E. Mission Road

I hope to see you there!

Kim Murphy can be reached at [email protected] or (760) 415-9292 or at 130 N Main Avenue, in Fallbrook. Her broker license is #01229921, and she is on the board of directors for the California Association of Realtors.