The Recovery Continues–And So Do California’s Housing Challenges

Despite the recovery, California is still experiencing the aftereffects of the most recent housing bust, and the long-term challenges of housing California’s population haven’t gone away. The housing bubble, which popped in 2008, left the state with a foreclosure problem and large losses of construction jobs. About 652,000 California homeowners remain “underwater”—their mortgages are higher than the market value of their homes (CoreLogic, 2014 second quarter). Paradoxically, a housing recovery for some is a housing problem for others, as high rents and increasing prices place housing out of reach for many Californians.