When the year began, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom had just two must-do jobs – pass a state budget and do something meaningful about the state’s chronic and corrosive shortage of housing. The budget is a slam-dunk, thanks to the state’s fat treasury. Housing, however, is a smellier kettle of political fish. Midway through […]
Austin Yi said he couldn’t take it anymore. Noise from the tents along Shatto Place rose to his third-floor Koreatown apartment at night: yelling, screaming, the clanging of tools as people repaired bikes. When he couldn’t drown out the racket with white noise, the 27-year-old and his wife would drag blankets into the hallway to […]
In January, two of the biggest adversaries in California housing politics appeared on the verge of detente. California developers and the construction unions that build their homes were reportedly near a deal that both sides hoped would unleash a bounty of homebuilding across the state. Developers would agree to employ more unionized carpenters, plumbers and […]
California’s homeless population is going up despite billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded efforts, according to recently released data and officials. Homelessness jumped 12% and 16% from a year ago in the county and city of Los Angeles, respectively, according to figures released this week based on a count conducted in January. The tally showed 58,936 […]
Frustrated with a growing housing and jobs imbalance, two Menlo Park council members are proposing a citywide moratorium on all non-residential developments. If approved by a majority of council members, the moratorium could disrupt Facebook’s massive redevelopment plan, which is expected to add more than 6,000 employees to its Bayfront Expressway campus. City staff is […]
California lawmakers appear increasingly willing to advance every response to the housing shortage that does not entail building housing. The latest example is legislation by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, to cap rent increases across the state, which the Assembly took the remarkable step of passing Wednesday. The bill, AB1482, would limit annual rent increases […]
The Bay Area housing market turned noticeably sluggish during April, according to a report released Thursday that sketched a picture of flat prices and tumbling sales. The median price in the Bay Area of a previously owned home remained unchanged in April at $900,000, compared with the same month in 2018, according to a report […]
The numbers in California tell a dire story these days: In 2018, despite low unemployment and high wages, the state’s population grew at its slowest rate in history. Fewer people are coming and more people are leaving because it’s very hard to find a place to live. In the past two years, homelessness is up […]
The sluggish Southern California housing market showed signs of perking up in April, as prices ticked up one month after they fell for the first time since 2012. In a report released Wednesday, real estate firm CoreLogic said the six-county median sales price climbed 1.4% from a year earlier to $527,500. Sales, meanwhile, were up […]
An effort to temporarily protect California tenants from steep rent hikes cleared a major hurdle in the Legislature on Wednesday, even as other measures meant to insulate renters from the state’s rising housing costs continue to fall short at the Capitol. A bill to cap annual rent hikes statewide at 7% plus inflation cleared the […]
The state Department of Finance reported this month that California, which has a stubborn and growing shortage of housing, added just 77,000 houses, apartments and condos in 2018. Actually, private and public housing developers drew permits for well over 100,000 units, and about that many were constructed. But a whopping 23,700 existing homes were burned […]
New-home sales in the U.S. declined in April, posting the largest monthly drop since the end of last year, but there are signs the market for new homes is brightening. Purchases of newly built single-family homes—a relatively narrow slice of all U.S. home sales—declined 6.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 673,000 in April, […]
Southern California’s best year for housing creation since the Great Recession left the region trailing the national growth pace and a local hiring spree. Fresh Census Bureau statistics detail the slow pace of new housing added to the region. The number of housing units — owned or rented — in the four counties covered by […]
The highest-profile bill moving through the California Legislature aimed at addressing the state’s housing crisis has effectively been killed for the rest of the year. Proposed by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, Senate Bill 50 would have rewritten zoning laws and forced local governments to allow taller apartment buildings and other multi-family complex near […]
Earlier this spring, residents of a San Francisco waterfront neighborhood put up a plea on GoFundMe, seeking to raise $100,000 to file a lawsuit under one of California’s landmark environmental laws. The fundraiser, which surpassed its goal, wasn’t intended to fight a toxic waste facility or industrial warehouse. Instead, residents plan to sue to stop […]