Trilingual RN (French, Spanish, English). Runner. I tweet about health, economics, EVs, clean energy, affordable housing, and politics. BYU & Utah Tech grad.
Apr 2, 2024 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
This is a 🧵on the most expensive housing markets in the US right now based on current home price data, interest rates, and the prevailing wage in these states.
Here are the 5 most unaffordable housing markets:
1) California 2) Hawaii 3) Montana 4) Colorado 5) Utah
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The starting point for my analysis came from this CNBC article which itself was a Bankrate analysis of Redfin data.
The shocking headline is that you need to earn over $100k in 23 states to afford a median priced home.
I'm going to discuss Senator Lee's recent proposal to address affordable housing in UT. Senator Lee calls this the "HOUSES" act. He wrote an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune few days ago.
HOUSES Act reduces unnecessary barriers to homeownership in Utah
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sltrib.com/opinion/commen…
Right from the outset, @BasedMikeLee fundamentally misdiagnoses the problem with affordable housing.
"While many factors contribute to this crisis, there’s an elephant in the room that we can no longer ignore: the vast amounts of land owned by the federal government."
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Sep 20, 2023 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
This is my father’s involvement and some personal views of #OUR and #TimBallard. He was an early participant in one of the jumps, but came out against OUR after seeing firsthand the operations. He does not identify as LDS, which puts him as an outlier.
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May 7, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Our nephew is a kindergartener that lives in Lehi, UT. He was telling his grandma (my wife's mom) that his life isn't going well. He's only 7 and is in 1st grade. Grandma concerningly asked, "Why would you say that?"
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He said, "well, my brother is mean to me and kicks me a lot." That is of course concerning. But the next part was heart-wrenching: "And, I peed by pants at school and now all my friends make fun of me." Grandma delicately inquired why he had accidentally peed his pants.
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May 6, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Salt Lake Tribune out this morning with a puff piece on how great $ZION Zionsbank is for the community and why we shouldn't want it to fail. It's. About. The. Rates. Zions deposit rates are WAY below inflation.
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sltrib.com/opinion/editor…
Leaving your money at Zions at this point is willfully giving them your hard earned savings, even if it IS below the $250k FDIC limit.
Zions isn't a charity. They should pay 100-200 bps above inflation for my money. That's just me.
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May 6, 2023 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
What's the matter with New York? It's simple: it's housing costs. It's not crime. It's not taxes. Consider this inconvenient factoid of Texas vs California:
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sltrib.com/opinion/commen…
"The middle 60% of taxpayers in Texas pay 9.4% of their income in state and local taxes. That’s actually higher than the tax rate on middle-income families in California."
Many people (us included) would MUCH prefer to live in a blue state instead of a red state.
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Feb 21, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
I loved this article on the intersection of AI and call centers. I used to manage a “contact” center of 120+ and I have strong opinions on this.
1) companies should get rid of most IVRs are route to a human right away
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apple.news/AOxdC4YtXRlmAX…2) Quality control (where agents listen and score other agents) is really kind of arbitrary and biased. AI will only bed the linguistic/tonal biases further. QA monitoring should be non-scored, and reflective only.
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Jan 26, 2023 • 22 tweets • 6 min read
In light of the passage of HB 215, I think it is important that more people understand just exactly how public education is funded in Utah. A short 🧵:
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There are 3 main sources of funding for UT public schools:
1) UT state income tax: 63.99% 2) Local property taxes: 24.15% 3) Federal funds: 11.86%
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Dec 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Great article on homelessness and women from @Loisco.
I wish she highlighted that Utah law has a provision to break a lease for women subject to domestic abuse
"Man arrested for breaking into Provo temple, claiming he was just cold"
This is a 🧵on homelessness in Utah County (and Utah), the Church of Jesus Christ, and housing affordability
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ksl.com/article/505341…
My cousin and one of my bests friends growing up served an LDS mission in Baltimore, MD. On his mission he had a psychotic episode and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Eventually he became homeless and lived homeless in the Rio Grande area
PragerU is straight-up disinformation. It is chock full of climate denialism and fossil fuel propaganda that has been disproved time and time again. It is a great disservice to be elevating blatantly false information.
In the article, @JacobZHess is allows Dennis Prager to "speak plainly" on the "hardest and most sensitive topics of the day" which apparently are "gender ideology and racial politics, to climate change and the traditional family"
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Dec 5, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Good news, the HOA board for my condo association approved my request to explore putting solar on our condo building. Per UT state law, I need to get the approval of all 4 condo owners in the building we belong to.
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If we get a favorable quote for solar installation and proceed to go forward (we might still sell our place and buy a home and do solar if UT prices correct fast enough), I will need to sign a deed restriction that stipulates that we will be responsible for any
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Aug 11, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Once again, I am reminding you that we do NOT have a water problem in Utah; we have an alfalfa in the desert problem!
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fox13now.com/news/fox-13-in…
TWO-THIRDS of all water diverted in Utah goes to growing HAY! Think of that! Hay is directly in competition to the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake Hay is in direct conflict to winter tourism. Hay production is causing toxic air which will reduce Utahn's lives. 2/
