The “good” news for the South Coast’s excruciatingly tight housing market is that the median price for a single-family home dropped to $1.85 million this year compared to $2.2 million a year before. But in the same time, the median rent for an apartment jumped from $2,390 to $2,519, and the percentage of households living within the federal poverty level increased from 4.9 percent throughout the South Coast to 5.5 percent. These numbers come courtesy of an economic dashboard presented by South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
With numbers like this, it’s little wonder that United Way dispensed no less than $36 million in rent relief to about 3,700 households throughout Santa Barbara County during the three years of COVID. The average check written was $10,000. This factoid came courtesy of the county supervisors when honoring United Way this Tuesday for its decades-long tradition of community service.
