By Tim Redmond
April 28, 2024
For the first time, unless I have missed something, a court in California has ruled that there’s no demonstrable connection between increased density and housing affordability.
If the appellate courts agree, it could be a profound defeat for the free-market Yimby agenda, which holds that any new housing, anywhere, will eventually bring down prices.
By J.K. Dineen
April 21, 2024
For years, San Francisco politicians and housing advocates have fought for the creation of “missing middle” housing for workers with incomes high enough to be middle class in most markets, but who are often priced out of the famously expensive city.
But developers who have recently built apartments aimed at moderate-income families in San Francisco have discovered a harsh reality: The missing middle seems to have gone missing.
By Kate Talerico
April 21, 2024
In southern Santa Clara County, an orchard could be razed for 320 single-family homes. On a pasture on the northern edge of Benicia, cows could give way to 1,080 houses. On a road cutting through Sonoma County wine country, there could soon be traffic from 514 homes. Homebuilders are proposing these houses — and thousands more — on farmland and grassy hills on the outskirts of the Bay Area. And because of state housing law, local governments may be powerless to stop them
By Lawrence J. McQuillan
April 19, 2024
Against the backdrop of a national shortage of affordable housing, due in large part to government policies, California lawmakers want to restrict corporate investment in single-family rental properties. This would make the Golden State’s housing affordability crisis worse. Since California is often a bellwether for both federal and other states’ policies, renters should hope the flawed idea dies before it spreads.
By Roland Li
April 16, 2024
Parkmerced, one of San Francisco’s biggest apartment complexes, is at risk of defaulting on its nearly $1.8 billion mortgage.
Owner Maximus Real Estate Partners has requested the transfer of the mortgage to special servicing, a move that can lead to foreclosure, according to a report by Morningstar, a financial services firm.
By KATE TALERICO
April 5, 2024
In recent years, California lawmakers have approved a flurry of legislation aimed at increasing the housing supply and addressing the state’s decades-in-the-making housing crisis. Senate Bill 9, passed in 2021, is one such change: it allows single-family homeowners around the state to split their lots in two, and build two homes on each lot. An analysis by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley estimated that the new law could result in 700,000 new homes.