Million. What about 2 million . Thats a bit high. Wow. Im a little shocked that its at that level. Thats right. Santa clara county association of realtors data found the median Single Family home price hit 2 million for the first time in april. Were talking the midpoint between the highest home sales price and the lowest. T data shows the top three median prices were in Los Altos Hills at 5. 8 million, monte sereno 4. 5, and saratoga at 4. 2. Only five cities in the south bay are under the median san jose at 1. 7 million, along with san martin, milpitas, morgan hill and gilroy. Scc president Michelle Perry says there are only about 700 homes for sale, and low inventory drives prices up. It has been a problem for many years and now its just out of control. The demand will not go away because the inventory is just too low. So, there needs to be significant amount of homes built in a short period of time, and we just dont see that happening. Real estate expert brad gill says its not just a lack of inventory that brought us to the 2 million price tag, he says real estate prices ebb and flow during peak sales times from the spring to the fall, shown here in Santa Clara County from last may to now. So what can we expect to see in the coming months . If the median home price for the month of may ends up slightly higher than 2 million, thats absolutely a possibility. But im also kind of figuring that i think well actually see it, decelerate a little bit. A possibly of much needed relief for buyers in a community that continues to be among the most expensive in the country, in Santa Clara County. Dustin dawsey, abc seven news in the east bay, the median home price in Alameda County is 1. 4 million. This, according to the California Association of realtors. Berkeley a little higher, 1. 45 million. And right now theres only 37 active listings in the city. That adds up to difficulty in buying a home, especially for first time homeowners. But one City Council Member hopes to build a better bay area by making it cheaper to own a home. Abc seven News Reporter lena howland looks at the plan officials hope will make a difference in a really tough housing market. Buying a home may soon be in closer reach for folks in berkeley. As long as youre okay with living in someone elses backyard, i think that people just need a place where they can start, right . Thats the whole point of a starter home. And this is a great way to be able to do that. This week, berkeleys City Council Unanimously approved the first step of opting in to a new state law, which gives people the ability to buy an adu, or accessory dwelling unit known as a backyard cottage. Sometimes theyre as small as 500ft■ s. They can be as big as 1000ft■ s in the city of berkel, but any size of a backyard cottage is typically smaller than a Single Family home here, so we expect the sale price to be lower as well. According to zillow, the average price of a home in berkeley now sits at around 1. 5 million. Thats why rashi kesarwani, a berkeley City Council Member, spearheaded bringing this proposal to the city council. A lot of times its, you know, existing homeowners who had an opportunity to buy a home when they werent as expensive, you know, so we want to give that opportunity to the next generation. East bay realtor shaniqua badger says it opens the door for more essential workers who cant afford to live where they work. Teachers should be able to buy where they teach. People who are working in the cities and the counties should be able to buy where they where they work. The Northern California land trust, a nonprofit working to provide and support Affordable Housing in the berkeley area, says there standing by to help potential buyers with this process as soon as it gets a green light, having a policy that allows you to be able potentially purchase a small home and be able to grow into that home with multiple families, youre really are seeing a way for folks to be able to have that opportunity at the american dream, kesarwani says. This will head to the citys Planning Department next. She hopes it will come back to city council for final approval within a year. The more cities that do this, the better the bay area is going to be. Off in berkeley. Lena howland abc seven news. And state assemblyman phil ting, who represents San Francisco and a portion of san mateo county, wrote the bill that started this. I spoke with him earlier today on our 3 p. M. Show getting answers. Ive done a number of bills to help streamline the construction of adus, and its one of the few bright spots in terms of housing construction. Since the adoption of many of my bills over the last 4 or 5 years, weve seen tens of thousands of adus being constructed all over the state. Its very exciting to see these homes being built. The idea was because of these small cottage homes. We thought, what if they could be sold separately . Home ownership is how you build wealth, how you build equity in your own life. Its a way that you get into the middle class. Its part of our california dream. Its a very key piece of it. And for some, you know, for many young people, its an elusive part of the dream. Well, other cities, including san jose, are also now considering opting in and allowing the sale of backyard adus. Mortgage rates are slowly going down. The average rate on a 30 year mortgage today fell to 7. 02, from 7. 09 last week. A year ago, the rate was 6. 39. The drop follows a five week string of increases that pushed the average rate to its highest level since november 15th year. Fixed rate mortgages also declined slightly to 6. 28. A report out today claims the number of People Living on San Francisco streets has reached the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to the citys 2024 point in time count, conducted back in january. Fewer than 3000 people are living in tents, structures or on the streets. That represents a 13 drop since the last count in 2022, and the lowest since 2015. Officials say the decline matches the quarterly tent count conducted last month that found 41 fewer tents compared to july of 2023. Well, hang on a second here because despite the good news, city Officials Say there has been an increase in both the number of homeless families and people who are living in vehicles. California is now one step closer to apologizing to black californians for slavery and decades of discriminatory policies. In a vote of 62 to 0, the assembly approved the bill, bill 3089. Many republicans abstained from voting. Assembly member Reginald Jones sawyer from los angeles authored the bill and called todays vote historic. Joan sawyer also served on californias Reparations Task force that developed more than 100 proposals for the state to make amends for policies that negatively targeted and excluded black californians. If youre an enslaved person, if fugitive slave law allowed slave owners in the south to come here and capture escaped slaves and bring them back to their plantations in the south, the courts that said that segregation was legal here in okay to perpetrate on African Americans here in the state. The bill now heads to the senate. Several other bills dealing with restitution for racially motivated land taking, creating an agency to oversee reparations, and a Funding Source for reparations. All passed Senate Committees today, and theyll be up for a floor vote next week. Developing news now with a College Campus protests a group of students occupied the chapel at Saint Marys College in moraga last night. Some of them have also started a hunger strike. Until their demands are met, theyre asking for the school to disclose its Financial Investments and divest from any company tied to israels war operation. Propalestinian activists still occupying a building at the anna head complex on the uc Berkeley Campus thats right across the street from peoples park. That building was empty for two years until the protesters moved in this week. Uc berkeley says its treating this as a crime scene, but weve seen no indication that police are going to move in anytime soon to clear out the protesters. The president of Sonoma State University has been suspended after announcing an agreement with protesters on that campus. The csu chancellor says president mike lee issued the message without proper approval, and lee later apologized, saying he marginalized some students in an attempt to end or find agreement with others. The numerous campus protests were the hot topic this morning at the uc regents meeting. Just about every Public Comment was about the propalestinian demonstrations and how the schools have responded. Some pointed to what happened yesterday on the uc irvine campus when police moved in, and then cleared out an encampment. There were several arrests, including some professors. Was the Public Comment lasted about 45 minutes, but as is common practice with these meetings, the regents do not respond. No action was taken before they went into executive session. A new era in Law Enforcement started this week in oakland, with chief Floyd Mitchell taking the helm on monday. Mayor chantel joined us live on abc seven midday today to discuss the new chief. The first line of work for chief mitchell is really a meeting. You know, his rank and file. Hes going to meet his rank and file. You know, he understands the strategy. He fully supports the strategy. And were going to continue to press on that gas pedal because it you know, for us its about saving lives. And its about making sure that people feel safe in oakland, tao says a study showed that the cease fire Crime Fighting strategy has worked in oakland that involves a Community Police partnership and using data to understand who is at higher risk for violence. She says the city has brought the program back and has boosted it happening tomorrow. Highway one leading into big sur, reopening to traffic. This comes more than six weeks after a portion of that road collapsed south of rocky creek bridge. Not only affected residents, but businesses as well. Abc seven News Reporter zach fuentes has been following one of the businesses since the closure began, and is here in studio with their reaction. Zach. Larry. As you can imagine, they are just thrilled. Think about it. Since march 30th, only a twice a day convoy, primarily for residents, have been bringing people in and out of big sur. But now, starting tomorrow at 630 in the morning, the portion of highway one impacted by the collapse is reopening. Heres some video from a few weeks ago from when the road was first closed, and when it reopens tomorrow, its going to be one way traffic with a temporary signal. Governor newsoms office announced that news this week, saying that the reopening is eight days ahead of the initial scheduled reopening for memorial day. In the weeks since the road slip out, big sur businesses say the economic hit has been substantial. They tell me that the timing of this reopening one weekend before memorial day weekend could not have been better. But the biggest benefit to us is it gives us the time as well as our hospitality neighbors, to get on social media, call and email our guests and try and get the word out as far and as wide as possible that all of big sur is open before memorial day weekend, and that everyone can come down and kick off their summer in big sur. Now, it is important to note that while most of us here coming from big sur north can get through further south, highway one is still closed at paul slide, so you still cannot take highway one through big sur to get to places like san luis obispo, Santa Barbara and la. But of course, theres still plenty to see in big sur. As for the now stabilized portion of highway one south of rocky creek, the Governors Office says that a project to construct a permanent repair is in the design phase. The goal is for that to be finished in spring of 2025. All right, zach, thank you so much. A major change in cannabis policy. 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It works with your asthma medicine to help improve lung function. Thats pretty good dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. Its proven to help prevent asthma attacks. It can reduce or even eliminate oral steroids. And doesnt that make things better . Dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. Tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. Tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection. Dont change or stop asthma medicines including steroids, without talking to your doctor. When you can get more out of your lungs, you can du more with less asthma. And isnt that better . Ask your doctor about dupixent, the most prescribed biologic in asthma. Entitled from Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience, the governor addressing how the changing climate is affecting californias landscapes and natural disasters, the polluted heart of the Climate Crisis are these fossil fuel companies that have been lying to us. They have been deceiving us. Theyve known the science. Theyve denied the science. Theyve delayed the summit hosted by the Pontifical Academy of sciences and social sciences, brought in experts from around the world recognized by the catholic church, one of the meetings objectives produce a draft protocol on Climate Resilience that will be submitted to the un. Governor newsom today also talking about the biden administrations decision to reclassify marijuana, writing on x this critical action will ease restrictions, reduce barriers and bolster californias efforts to strengthen our burgeoning regulated industry. President biden announced the policy change today. Today, my administration took a major step to reclassify marijuana from a schedule one drug to a schedule three drug. Its an important move toward reversing the long standing inequities. Look, folks, no one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana. Period. Abc seven News Reporter suzanne fan has a look at what the change means here in the bay area. Julian cervantes is a military veteran who depends on cannabis. Ive used cannabis for uh for treating my ptsd, and its helped out, like immensely. Reporter we showed him president bidens announcement on twitter. Bidens administration took a major step to reclassifying marijuana from a schedule one drug, which includes heroin and ecstasy, to a schedule three drug, which includes tylenol with codeine. The president says its an important step to, quote, reversing longstanding inequities and keeping people out of jail for having cannabis. I was really excited about it, i think its something that definitely needs to be done. Cervantes knows people who did jail time for possessing marijuana. It looks like two years in jail. I think it sparked dispensary in San Francisco. The dispensary manager explained the impact of this next step to reclassify marijuana less incarceration, maybe less penalties, criminal penalties. No one should be in jail for cannabis. Congresswoman barbara lee released this Statement Today saying, quote, this is a step in the right direction. But to be clear, cannabis must be fully descheduled in order to end the war on drugs and repair harm to communities of color. This move is progress for businesses, but we cant let it undermine comprehensive reform. But not everyone agrees with this push to reclassify marijuana. Jonathan keller is president of California Family council, a christian Public Policy organization based in sacramento. This is kind of a technical issue on the federal side of things. Our organization is much more concerned about what weve seen societally, both through californias efforts to decriminalize this and now through president bidens administration. Anytime you see these types of changes, you do see usage grow up. The Drug Enforcement administration will next take Public Comment on this proposal, and it may be a potentially lengthy process. In San Francisco, suzanne phan, abc seven news. It was just a drill, but