Robert Steuteville looks at a recent report on the Golden State's supply and demand imbalance in the housing market. It's not what the The Wall Street Journal has led you to believe.
Despite recent pieces in The Wall Street Journal decrying the efforts of California's public officials and planners to implement smart growth initiatives throughout the state, Steuteville looks to the findings of a recent study written by University of Utah researcher Arthur C. Nelson, and published by the Urban Land Institute, and argues that the state's biggest housing challenges are exactly the opposite of the crisis described by Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox.
Nelson's study, titled "The New California Dream: How Demographic and Economic Changes May Shape the Housing Market", reports that demographic and market changes are producing a growing imbalance between the supply and demand for suburban style single-family and transit-accessible housing. However, contrary to the picture painted by the Journal, the unmet demand is on the transit-accessible side, and the over-supply is in conventional lot single-family homes.
According to Steuteville, "California could build nothing more than transit-oriented development in the next quarter century and still not meet demand. 'The bottom line is that as many as 9 million households would like the option to live in locations served by public transit, but today only about 1.2 million California households can claim to have it,'" the report explains.
Steuteville continues, "Another major finding focuses on the supply of conventional-lot single family housing...Even if no new suburban-style single-family housing is built, there will still be an oversupply of more than two million of these kinds of units in California in 2035...In California's four largest metropolitan planning areas (MPOs), which include a majority of the state's population, current supply is 84 percent higher than projected demand for conventional single houses in 2035, 23 years from now."
FULL STORY: A Golden opportunity

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie