Right Column
Press Release
For Immediate Release - May 22, 2000
Contact: Alana Golden (916) 445-4775
Statewide Housing Plan Updated With New Reports
“The report highlights the housing needed to accommodate 45 million Californians by 2020”
SACRAMENTO - Releasing a groundbreaking new report, the Davis Administration today highlighted the State's growing housing needs. Raising the Roof, California Housing Development Projections and Constraints 1997 - 2020 updates the Statewide Housing Plan.
The report highlights the housing needed to accommodate 45 million Californians by 2020. It features new research on housing supply shortfalls, and local government land use regulation and residential permit processing in California. The State's changing demographic characteristics, land availability, and the need for housing capital are addressed by the report.
“This important report is a significant tool to help develop, design and interpret the challenges of meeting the housing needs of California's diverse population,” said Maria Contreras-Sweet, Secretary for the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.
The report says that despite an economic boom, the State's housing sector has not fully rebounded since the recession of the 1990's to meet the needs of an increasing population.
For its part, the Davis Administration recognizes the importance of the State's role in addressing California's housing crisis. In his May Budget Revise, the Governor announced a $500 million housing proposal to promote the supply and affordability of an array of housing options. This is the largest commitment of the General Fund to housing programs in the State's history.
The newly released report was prepared for the California Department of Housing and Community Development by the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD), with support from the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.
Key projections or findings of the report are that 13 counties are projected to add 100,000 or more new households from 1997-2020; most of the population growth is projected to be driven by births rather than migration; and, the rate of household growth is expected to out-pace the rate of population growth.
California chronically under-produces housing, particularly in coastal markets. As of 1990, statewide demand exceeded supply by more than 660,000 units. Between 1980 and 1990, and since 1995, housing prices and rents have risen more and faster in supply-constrained markets.
Analysis of land supply in 35 urban counties reveals that California has more than enough raw land, while allowing for wetland, farmland, hillside, and floodplain protection to accommodate projected housing growth through the year 2020 and beyond.
Developable land supply, however, will be limited within several of the most high-growth counties with the imposition of particular development constraints, according to the report. For example, careless adoption of even moderately-limiting urban growth boundaries by high-growth counties in the Bay Area and Central Valley would further constrain land supplies below the levels required to meet future housing production needs.
The Raising the Roof report is available here.