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The Palisade and Eton fires represent thousands of personal tragedy, but constitute a mass disaster and add a new housing shortage to California’s already major shortage.
Gov. Gavin Newsom bought a new $9 million home in November, but many of his fellow Californians don’t own the home or find affordable rentals. Under Newsom, the state has attempted reforms designed to improve buildings and affordability, but most of the valuable ones have changed.
Coastal California home prices are nearly 400% above the national average, and across the state, the median home costs are 2.5 times higher than the rest of the country. California has the second lowest homeownership rate in the country, 56% (New York is the lowest, 54%).
As for rentals, the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is about $1,000 more than the national average, according to Apartments.com, which makes him shy at $3,000 a month.
Of course, these statistics are not bad news for anyone. Many California baby boomers who bought their neighborhoods long ago became bandits through escalating home prices. In addition to Gen Xers, they have a home ownership rate similar to that of the rest of the country. However, this rate is half the national level for Californians under the age of 35, and they are the group that robs the West Coast for “cost of living” reasons.
The state’s housing crisis has its roots in excessive construction regulations and litigation targeting developers. For decades, there have been too few residential units. Unfortunately, Cure Sacramento is pushing – policies in favour of dense apartment developments near the state’s largest city’s transportation corridors won’t help.
First of all, the high density “infill” structure of the city – some people call it Yimby (“Yes, yes in my backyard”) development – costly. City land is expensive, materials cost high, “wages become popular”, and the troublesome permit, zoning and planning processes and fees ultimately increase. New multistree apartment buildings packed along Sunset Boulevard and Wilshire corridors could add to LA’s total housing stock, but even if these buildings require affordable rental units , the advantages of trickle down are minimal.
As research from UCLA and London’s Faculty of Economics Professor Michael Storper shows, forced crowding is a “blunt instrument” and provides little way to significantly reduce housing costs.
Rentals and high density living are out of sync with what most people in California want. A recent California Institute of Public Policy found that 70% of state adults prefer single-family homes. Naturally, a poll by former Obama poller David Binder shows that the majority of Californians opposed the law signed by the newspaper in 2021, effectively in most of the state. Zoning of detached houses has been banned. (The law, Senate Bill 9, was overturned in LA County Court last year, and the ruling is currently under appeal.)
Climate goals were a major part of why California’s policies support new urban multi-story, multi-unit construction. The idea is that housing more people in taller buildings is more energy efficient. And encouraging crowded development near transport is supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, new research shows that building sizes aren’t necessarily more correlated with more sustainability, and many Californians are not able to buy homes for longer commutes rather than renting in town. I choose to withstand. Or leave completely. A new study by land use attorney Jennifer L. Hernandez shows climate-based housing rules contribute to the fact that too few homes are being built at too high costs.
What should the state do?
Some may wish to subsidize the expansion of public housing. Projects could be added, such as the ambitious update of Jordan Downs in South Los Angeles, but this is difficult even in states with nearly broken cities and budget issues. It doesn’t match most Californians’ aspirations.
One way out of this crisis is to expand the streamlined permitting and regulatory processes that newspapers and local leaders are quickly tracking for encouragement, rather than punishing townhomes and single-family home construction. That’s what it is. Instead of all laws that normally require high density units (usually rentals), Sacramento should encourage market-driven projects based on consumer preferences.
The development of the area away from the high-cost coast has opened up opportunities for first-time home buyers. States can take advantage of technical trends (e.g., remote work) to allow for more population diversification. Along with local employers, planned communities inland Southern California or Central Valley within Southern California can become part of the solution.
California’s housing problem requires more alternatives, especially for those looking for affordable detached homes with low rents. If the state wants to maintain mobile chops upwards, housing policies need to be revamped.
Joel Cotkin is a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and a senior researcher at the University of Texas Civitas Institute in Austin.
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