So who’s to blame? Homebuilders — in an industry that has fueled California’s economy for more than half a century — are as eager as ever to build the American Dream in the Golden State. But here’s the problem: lawmakers, regulators, local governments and anti-development activists — who already own their own home — won’t […]
Once seen as a human-scale alternative to the crowded cities of the past, California’s cities are targeted by policy makers and planners dreaming of bringing back the “good old days,” circa 1900, when most people in the largest cities lived in small, cramped apartments. This move is being fronted by well-funded YIMBYs (“yes in my […]
That’s the estimated cost of city fees tacked onto each new single-family home in Fremont. The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, compared housing development fees in seven cities: Berkeley, Oakland, Fremont, Los Angeles, Irvine, Sacramento and Roseville. Fremont topped for both single-family homes and for multifamily units at about […]
Land is of course inherently finite, and land in a particular labor market is not only finite but may be scarce. However, that there is only so much land in a metropolitan area does not determine how many people can live on it. A given plot of land can be occupied by a large apartment […]
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa both have said they want developers in California to build a half million homes in a year — something that’s never happened, at least in modern history. And they want builders to do it for seven straight years, resulting in 3.5 million new homes […]
Sacramento County’s median price for resale homes rose by nearly 14 percent in January compared to the same month last year, though the number of sales slumped from December in a typical seasonal pattern, CoreLogic reported Thursday. The double-digit percentage increase in the median price of resale detached homes in the county was partly a […]
The problem is that high-density housing–that is, mid-rise and high-rise housing–costs 50 to 68 percent more, per square foot, to build than low-density housing. If California really wants to build housing that is affordable to low-income people, it needs to build more low-density housing. To build that, it needs to open up land that has […]
For those who are frustrated because they can’t buy their first house and start climbing the homeownership ladder, this housing shortage doesn’t fall under an academic title such as “market imbalance.” It isn’t being shrugged off as some temporary oddity where transactions aren’t working out now but just be patient, everything will be fine later. […]
The key to both housing affordability and an affordable standard of living is a competitive land market that makes it possible to produce housing at production costs, including competitive profit margins. Economists Edward Glaeser of Harvard University and Joseph Gyourko of the University of Pennsylvania, have defined this concept as the minimum profitable production cost […]
Nearly two years after California lawmakers approved a $2-billion bond to help finance new housing for the state’s homeless, not a penny has been spent, and it’s unclear when any of the money will be available. The dollars are tied up in court as a Sacramento attorney challenges the state’s plan to pay off that […]
As the Bay Area scrambles to find housing for its growing population, developers are running into another kind of shortage: There aren’t enough construction workers to build the homes the region needs. Builders throughout the area say they are struggling to recruit skilled laborers. Some bring in employees from Southern California or even Seattle, putting […]
Two years after San Francisco passed a law intended to encourage property owners to add accessory dwelling units to help ease the housing crisis, snags in the approval process Two years after San Francisco passed a law intended to encourage property owners to add accessory dwelling units to help ease the housing crisis, snags in […]
Under current law, national health spending is projected to grow 5.5 percent annually on average in 2017–26 and to represent 19.7 percent of the economy in 2026. Projected national health spending and enrollment growth over the next decade is largely driven by fundamental economic and demographic factors: changes in projected income growth, increases in prices […]
Those who want to blame a California environmental law for the state’s housing problems should instead point their fingers at cities and counties, according to a new report from researchers at UC Berkeley and Columbia University. The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a 1970 state law, requires developers to analyze and eliminate a project’s […]
Mayors representing California’s 11 largest cities want Gov. Jerry Brown to increase state spending to combat homelessness, a deadly crisis they say is worsening across the state. Led by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, the group wants Brown and lawmakers to commit $1.5 billion from the state budget as places like San Diego confront a Hepatitis […]