With California on track in 2008 to have the lowest number of housing permits (79,000) issued since statewide records have been kept (1954), and while California continues to grow by nearly a half-million new residents per year, the housing affordability crisis in California will continue to worsen.
Yes, we know that home prices are down as much as 20-30% in many parts of the state, but that will be short-lived. Why, you ask?
Well, there is an alignment of many unfortunate factors. Even though some land ready for development in the fastest growing parts of the state is virtually worthless today, there is not enough land identified for housing to really meet our growth needs, so in the not-too-distant future that land will again be producing $200,000 building lots.