Here’s a puzzle: Since 2009, over 55 percent of San Franciscans have been renters, yet on that city’s 11 member Board of Supervisors, at least nine are homeowners. In Los Angeles, 63 percent of homes were occupied by renters in…
The Embarcadero Institute’s Double-Counting Report is Wrong
As cities around California contend with their latest Regional Housing Needs Assessments — a periodic assignment of housing targets mandated by state law which compels local jurisdictions to legalize the housing needed to accommodate new residents — the anti-housing activists…
California Progressivism is Just Getting Started
Anyone unfortunate enough to spend time watching Fox News will come to discover that Berkeley, Calif. is the right-wing’s favorite toponym for progressivism. It’s nothing new; for decades Berkeley has been a favorite epithet for Republicans looking to tar some…
The Housing Crisis Primed California’s COVID19 Tragedy
When COVID-19 began surging in California in late November, the pandemic was attacking an already sick patient. Despite the state being an early adopter of mask-mandates and social distancing rules, California is the center of America’s COVID-19 tragedy. Between mid-December…
Institutional Investors in California Housing Markets
TL;DR: Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, large institutional investors, such as the private equity firm Blackstone, purchased foreclosed homes in distressed neighborhoods throughout the country. Many of these neighborhoods were the same historically Black and Latino neighborhoods that…
Did Displacement Play a Role in California’s COVID-19 Surge?
For the past two months, Southern California was America’s COVID-19 epicenter. Throughout the month of January, someone in Los Angeles County died every six minutes from COVID-19 related complications. The pandemic ravaged the Los Angeles area to such a degree that air-quality…
How Many New Homes Should California Build?
With each passing year, California’s housing crisis has grown worse. Past decisions by our state’s cities and counties to reduce the number of homes it is legal to build have caused high rents, low affordability, and an exodus of middle-income…