The Homework: October 8, 2025
Welcome to the October 8, 2025 Main edition of The Homework, the official newsletter of California YIMBY — legislative updates, news clips, housing research and analysis, and the latest writings from the California YIMBY team.
News from Sacramento
All of California YIMBY’s sponsored bills for the 2025 legislative session are now on the Governor’s desk, awaiting action. The Governor has until October 12 to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature; any bills he neither signs nor vetoes will automatically become law.
Advancing our sponsored bills to the Governor’s desk is the final step in the long process of coalition building, education and outreach, lobbying, negotiation, and compromise. This is a major milestone in our work to address California’s housing crisis; we will keep you updated as the Governor makes decisions on these bills:
- SB 79 (Wiener): Will make it faster and easier to build multi-family housing near transit stops, like train and rapid bus lines, by making it legal for more homes to be built in these areas, and streamlining existing permit review processes.
- AB 253 (Ward): Speeds up the approval process for new homes by allowing home builders to hire a licensed and certified third-party reviewer for review of housing permit applications if the local government cannot or does not complete their permit review within 30 business days.
- AB 413 (Fong): Requires the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) to translate key state housing guidelines and handbooks into the non-English languages commonly spoken in California.
- AB 1061 (Quirk-Silva): Makes it easier to increase the number of homes—including duplexes—in single-family neighborhoods by allowing the California HOME Act (SB 9, 2021) to be used in historic districts.
- AB 1154 (Carrillo): Removes owner-occupancy requirements for “junior” ADUs (ADUs built within an existing home) that do not share sanitation facilities with the existing structure.
- SB 9 (Arreguín): Ensures that local laws governing the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) align with state law, and provides a pathway to eliminate unlawful local barriers to ADUs.
- AB 1308 (Hoover): This bill will help bring new homes to market faster by legally requiring a jurisdiction’s building department to perform final inspections for certain projects within ten business days, once the builder notifies the city or county that construction is complete and ready for inspection.
To stay current on what housing bills California YIMBY is sponsoring and supporting, you can now use our Abstract link to track with us.
Be sure to stay tuned for future editions of The Homework (and follow California YIMBY’s Twitter and Bluesky channels), to stay current on housing policy research, news, and legislative updates.
Housing Research & Analysis
Defective Laws, or: Why Your Condo Costs So Much
California’s construction defect liability system (the legal rules that let people sue builders for problems with new buildings) is adding up to $18,300 per unit to the costs of condominiums. What was supposed to protect consumers has become a barrier to them. It’s preventing middle-income families from buying condos and townhomes in California’s expensive cities.
In “The Financial Impacts of Construction Defect Liability on Housing Development in California,” Thomas Gonzales and Jason Moody from Economic & Planning Systems studied how construction defect litigation and insurance costs affect condominium and townhome development across the state.
Key Takeaways:
- Insurance costs are through the roof: Condo projects pay 3-4 times more for liability insurance than rental apartment projects. Developers spend $6,720-$8,400 per condo unit versus only $1,700-$2,650 for similar rental buildings.
- Almost everyone gets sued: One insurance broker estimated that 80-85% of condo and townhome projects from the past 25 years have faced construction defect lawsuits. Insurance companies now price their policies expecting that most projects will be sued within the 10-year window when lawsuits are allowed.
- Total additional costs: Construction defect liability adds $8,100 to $18,300 per unit to building costs. That’s 1.9% to 4.4% of total construction costs. This is due to higher insurance premiums, architect and engineer markups, required quality reviews, and the money developers must set aside for potential lawsuits.
The Undemocratic Streets of America: Stacking the Deck Against Transit
America’s regional planning boards are stacked against urban residents – and transit riders, specifically. While renters make up over 30% of households in typical metropolitan areas, they hold just 3% of seats on regional planning agencies that control billions of dollars in federal transportation funding.
These boards decide whether communities prioritize highways or transit lines. This gap helps explain why American cities continue to prioritize costly highway boondoggles over more-affordable transportation options.
Yonah Freemark and Lydia Lo of the Urban Institute examined the demographic makeup and voting structures of regional planning organizations nationwide. Their research, published in reports titled “Metropolitan Planning Organizations Make Decisions About Transportation Options Nationwide, but They Rarely Represent All Their Constituents” and “In Most Regions, Metropolitan Planning Boards Overrepresent Homeowners and Drivers,” investigated how board composition affects transportation investment priorities.
Key Takeaways:
- Homeowner dominance: Regional planning boards are composed of 97% homeowners, while the median metro areas average 69% homeownership, resulting in a significant underrepresentation of renters, who are often more likely to rely on public transit.
- Driver bias: While 25% of regional commuters use alternatives to driving (such as transit, carpooling, walking, or biking), only 12% of board members use non-driving transportation to attend meetings, creating a representation gap for non-drivers.
- Population imbalance: Some residents receive nearly 9 times more voting power than others, with suburban areas often overrepresented compared to urban centers that generate the most transit ridership.
Houser Headlines
- Are YIMBYs Winning the Housing Debate? | KQED
- SB 79 success means more housing in state
- ‘Historic’ housing bill aims to address California’s affordability crisis
- Almost no one is building new apartments in Los Angeles. Here’s why
- Huge housing costs are stressing out California
- Contributor: Not so NIMBY, Angelenos want more housing in their neighborhoods
- The second-most important education bill of the year was not an education bill at all
- Duplexes are now banned in post-fire Palisades. Here’s why they’re still allowed in Altadena
- California’s Key Environmental Law Is Blocking Its Path to Carbon Neutrality
- California Legislature took aim at speeding up home building. Some wanted more
- California Legislature passes bill to expedite residential building permits
- Stop the permit extortion: How hidden fees make housing unaffordable
YIMBY Social – Top Posts
Share the good word
We welcome your ideas and feedback — send story tips and ideas to Homework@cayimby.org.