We doubt that we will have much to agree on with newly instated California Gov. Gavin Newsom, but his unveiled state budget has ruffled all the right feathers. That’s thanks to his radical approach to fixing California’s housing crisis.
The Golden State suffers from a homelessness crisis, an emerging luxury housing bubble, and a vast lack of housing for its working and middle class. Although California’s population grew by over 300,000 residents in 2017, just 85,000 new housing units were added. The median home price has surpassed half a million dollars in Los Angeles and more than a million in San Francisco and San Jose. And it’s not just in the cities: The median home value across the state has increased by nearly 80 percent in the past eight years. The state requires a 20 percent increase in housing supply to slash prices by a mere 10 percent. Only one state has a lower ratio of housing units per resident: Utah.
