Affordable housing is seen as one of the key challenges in keeping the Bay Area economy competitive with other international business regions.

Bay Area residents must allocate a significantly higher portion of their income to housing than elsewhere in the United States (26 percent vs. 19 percent) and the multiple of home price to income (10:1) is twice as high as the national average (5:1) according to the biannual Bay Area Economic Profile.

The report also says that the education of schoolchildren from kindergarten through high school lags behind other international locations.

Another factor soon to impact the Bay Area economy and local housing is retiring boomers in the next 15 years. A significant percentage of the population will be retiring and if things don’t change with housing, many of these retirees won’t be able to downsize within the region due to tax consequences and the high price of new housing. Many residents feel trapped in their home of 30 years where the mortgage is paid off and property taxes so low they don’t require and extra income to afford them.

Affordable housing, which is already a concern for first-time buyers and people relocating from outside the Bay Area, is going to increase in political significance.

In Spite of these Concerns… East Bay Communities continue to thrive…

Fortune Small Business magazine says Danville is in the top 100 places to live and launch a small business. The town's "many small companies" and "wealthy and well-educated population" earned it the No. 69 spot on a first-time 100 Best Places list compiled by the magazine for its April issue.

The article also cited Danville's growing number of home-based businesses and its close proximity to Chevron and other large corporate offices in neighboring San Ramon.

And in the continuing saga of the government doing too little too late…

The Housing Relief Bill passed the Senate today, but hold your applause. It appears that the final draft has economists in agreement that it does too little for the homeowners in trouble and are skeptical that it do much to ease the wrenching crisis in the housing market and the wave of foreclosures spreading across the country.

While supporters said the measure would boost demand for housing, help people refinance adjustable-rate mortgages and help communities beset with abandoned homes, many economists cautioned that the measure's benefits would be modest — and would help banks and homebuilders while doing hardly anything for people facing foreclosure.

"Basically, you're giving money to builders that overbuilt and banks that issued bad loans," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It's giving money to the villains in this story."