Can San Diego Build Its Way Out of Unaffordability?

San Diego County is now rated as the 11th least affordable housing market worldwide, according to Demographia's survey data, and needs to build more than double the amount of homes built in 2016 to sustain its population growth.

San Diego real estate analyst Gary London's poll of developer clients suggests that land, permit approval, and fees are the major driver of cost for builders, The Los Angeles Times reports. While cost of labor and materials in San Diego are on par with the national average, Peter Dennehy of Meyers Research says, “What we put in houses has changed a lot. The materials and our expectations of what goes in a home has evolved to a more fancy base level.”

“If you deny 2,000 high-income families the new housing they want, guess what, they are going to go down the street and outbid your cherished working-class family and take their housing units,” he said. “You can’t win by not building at the high end,” said Chris Thornberg, economist and founding partner of Beacon Economics.

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