They own the majority in both houses of the state Legislature and will for a lifetime.  They are constantly stacking committee membership with like-minded lawmakers who regularly grant permission to pass onto the floor or another committee the bills of their fellow partisans.  Legislatively, they control the agenda in Sacramento and can virtually do anything […]

Recently, California homebuilders delivered to the state Legislature a healthy dose of reality.  At a special hearing of the Assembly’s Select Committee on Housing Affordability (the Committee), representatives of the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) illustrated why housing in the state is so expensive. In fact, CBIA may have made a case at the mid-August […]

A dispute has arisen in San Diego over whether or not developers should be able to offset their contribution to alleged greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.  The contestants include, of course, developers, the County of San Diego and a sampling of California’s most aggressive environmentalists.  And, to settle the argument the latter interests have chosen to sue. […]

If the Habitat for Humanity affordable housing project in Redwood City isn’t an illustration of CEQA abuse, what is? In fact, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is the cause of a 2-year delay in building the project, which matches up nicely with the region’s “smart growth” standards:   six stories and 20-units of lower-income, […]

To the proposition of what’s become a trend in California – the increase in the number of Mom and Pop landlords – I can speak from experience.  I’ve been one – for more than 10 years – and I can say it both humbled and frightened me. I owned two rental properties here in Sacramento […]

Now that the California Democrat Party has heartily endorsed the statewide ballot initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that limits local governments’ ability to impose rent control, property owners should be asking gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom and any Party candidate they are thinking about supporting in November:  will you publicly repudiate the recent action by […]

The best thing we can say about the 10-year-old SB 375, according to a recent report by the University of California, Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, is that it “offers valuable lessons for other states and regions attempting to mitigate climate change through sustainable development.”  That’s it. We’re not able to report that this […]

(This is the second in a two-part series reporting on a recent study by Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies called The State of the Nation’s Housing.  Part 1 appeared yesterday in Fox and Hounds.) Every year about this time the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University publishes its evaluation of the nation’s housing condition.  […]

When it comes to housing as a national matter, there’s good news and bad news.  At a minimum, it can be said that demographic changes – particularly the rise in household formation coming from expanding millennial populations – look like they’re going to save the day.  On the other hand, incomes don’t appear to be […]

When the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) was created in 1975 – Governor Jerry Brown’s first term – its mission was simple:  to help low- and moderate-income families buy their first home.  More than 40 years later, in the midst of huge gaps between incomes and prevailing home prices, that goal is getting harder and harder […]